It really doesn’t matter whether you are using a computer with fruit on it or not – there will be a moment when your computer will refuse to cooperate. Sometimes it happens early on, sometimes after long years of dutiful service. It can be software or hardware problems causing these issues, but as a matter of fact, it happens to all of us.

So once the realization has sunk in — it usually leads to nervous breakdowns, spontaneous hair loss, tourette’s and hysterical laughing fits amongst other symptoms that are not really the point of this post.

So, after picking yourself up you realize that you have bought some sort of extended warranty. (You have, do you?) Phew! So you go on and take it to the next store, not before making a reservation though. There you will be greeted by slightly overworked but nice personnel which will take note of your machine’s statu. “It is not working… at all.” and ship it in for repairs.

You also get to sign a nice little death waiver. Death what? Ah. Whatever – I sheepishly filled in my name, telephone number and my favorite pet’s name, amongst other things.
Then, four days later, you get a package expedited – containing your repaired machine. Looks like new, smells like new, too. Except for the ugly crack at the bottom, which they didn’t mind to fix. Well, let’s put it on the desk, plug it in and start it up. It boots up to—

…reveal the “Setup Assistant”. That’s the program that runs the first time you purchase a new machine to ask for your name, address and other details. But – this machine is not new – there’s still the crack at the bottom!?

[...]

Slowly the realization came to me. They wiped the drive. Boom. Just like Steve goes at his keynote. “Boom.” They did this to help the fact that the machine was not turning on, something that was obviously a hardware fault. And I had waived any right of complaint by signing the above mentioned “Death waiver”. Except that, when bringing it in, they had failed to notify me of this little detail.

Speaking of details: I also put my telephone number and mail address on there. Would it have been hard to give me a ring, or shoot an email my way? “Mr. van Dyck – we’d like to erase your harddrive as a last ditch effort to get your machine back into working order. Is that OK?”
To which I would have replied: “No, thanks, just fix the hardware. I know how to reinstall OS X myself. Thanks!”

But I guess, they would rather have the Apple Care operation going smoothly. I mean, like the name implies – they care for the Apple — not you.
Fair call, then.