Mac: Dealing with Apple Support
In my last post I shared tips I had learned from others and I got a new comment from Devburke telling me about the Dictionary Lookup Shortcut - Control-Command-D. Sounded terrific! Unfortunately it didn't work on my MacBook. I tried a couple of different things, including changing the shortcut key but had no luck.I did what any techie does when confronted with a problem - Google it up. I found a couple of articles, at Apple and MacKB where people experienced the same thing. It appears to be a function of newer MacBooks. Since no one on the Interwebs seemed to have an answer I figured I'd try calling Apple Support. If nothing else I wanted to see if the support experience was the same as the computing experience I've had so far.
All times are EDT:
9:04am: Called and listened to an automated attendant, the kind you speak commands to. Those always worry me.
9:07am: I navigate the menus and speak with Kim. She's very nice, asks me the usual questions and we walk through the process of trying to replicate it.
9:10am: Kim puts me on hold, telling me she's going to try a different machine.
9:20am: New voice picks up, asking me what my issue is. Um, I already explained that to Kim. Oh, well, let's start over. Kyle is now handling my call. He's more thorough and tries a bunch of different steps.
9:28am: Kyle asks me to hold as he can't reproduce it.
9:33am: Kyle's back. Friendly guy, always updating me on what he's doing. Told me it appears to be a bug. We try a couple more things.
9:38am: He puts me on hold, telling me that a product specialist will need to get involved. He warns me that this could take a while.
9:57am: Kyle - he checks in occasionally to assure me someone is coming - finally transfers me to Dell. I love the irony that I am calling Apple support and speaking to someone named Dell about a Mac. Dell starts in on more detailed troubleshooting.
10:14am: Dell and I have done everything that can be done and it does not resolve the problem. He tell me that he will be in touch within a week to see how the next level of product folks plan to resolve the issue. He explains that they need to identify which Macs have the issue and how they will resolve it, if at all.
So there you have it - 69 minutes after the call the issue is reported to Apple and hopefully on it's way to being resolved. I am a very patient person and was nice to the support people I spoke to. They were in turn very nice back, though the fumble by Kim wasn't too cool.
Overall though I was pleased with the response. Having run a technology business before I know how hard it is to provide friendly technical support, especially when you are dealing with a problem that is not easily reproduced.
I am looking forward to having Dell call me about my Mac. I still find that funny for some reason.
Comments
I have the exact same problem and can't find a solution for it. I'll be waiting for your update on this.
Apple in Brazil doesn't like my MacBook :(
Regards,
Ingo
The one time I had to go in was when my HD had apparently stopped working completely. The genius looked at it and recognized that I was going to need a new HD (which I was covered for by Apple Care), so she popped in a new one, and then was able to connect my old HD to one of their MBPs and use some utility (Disk Warrior maybe?) to get access to my data, although we had to wait a long time for it to rebuild. Then she asked what what data I wanted to save, seeing as my HD was going downhill so we probably only had access to it for a limited time. She was supposed to charge me $50 if they did any data recovery, but since she was able to do it right in front of me, she let me have it free.
Overall, from my experience and their reputation, I'd say in-store at least, they have great service. I think the biggest impression was that a) they didn't treat me like an idiot, which you get with a lot of tech support, and b) I could tell they actually knew what they were doing, a feeling you should get from tech support but usually don't
I like your tip and it works for me.
jeff bellamy
The Dictionary lookup with [CTRL]-[CMD]-D is a "hovering inspector". It is invoked by holding [CTRL]+[CMD], then pressing D and after that continuing to hold [CTRL]+[CMD]. As long as you keep those two keys pressed you can hover over any word in the active window and the inspector will follow the mouse pointer and show the definition of the word it's hovering over. Release either of the keys and the inspection mode is abandoned.
It only works in Cocoa applications, so you're out of luck with some of the older ones.
It's an unusual feature, so maybe there was a misunderstanding about how it's being used.
It is not something I really plan to use as I'm quite comfortable with the right click look up, so it's not a rush. I will update the blog to reflect Apple's response too.
If you can get this to work, it's a lot nicer than the right-click option, because it doesn't have to actually launch Dictionary, but instead is only a little hovering window. Aside from the principle of not wanting to launch a new app, sometimes if Dictionary is set to look up something in All (Dictionary, Thesaurus, Wikipedia, and Apple), it hangs for awhile on opening since it's retrieving the Wikipedia entry. The hovering window is very speedy.
They both work though.
I just "discovered" this on your blog. It's a cool feature and works fine here (PM G5)
And BTW, I really enjoy your blog
Fred
System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts
If on, turn it off and on again.
Also, you must hover the mouse cursor over the word to look up in a Cocoa app, eg. TextEdit / Safari. Then press Ctrl+Command+D
System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts
Indeed... but David already checked that if I understood him correctly.
Also, you must hover the mouse cursor over the word to look up in a Cocoa app, eg. TextEdit / Safari. Then press Ctrl+Command+D
No, that's actually not necessary. It does not matter at all where the mouse pointer is when you're invoking it - it does not even need to be within the active window. As long as you keep [CMD]+[ALT] pressed the inspection mode will still work as soon as you move the cursor back into the window.
@Ping: Thanks ;-)
BTW - I didn't realize that's how it actually will work (when I hopefully get it working). What you describe sounds pretty cool. Damn, now I want it to work!
(I've been following the blog ever since and has been very helpful - keep up the good work!)
Daniel
http://www.palluxo.com