Since I became a Mac user about two years ago, I’ve had basically zero problems with my Macbook Pro. It just works.

However, when I was on vacation in Oahu last week, I installed an update to the OS (via the automatic software update feature) and the machine quit booting and started complaining of a crash in Spotlight. Basically, it wouldn’t boot up and it was unusable.

I tried a bunch of stuff on my own based on articles that I could find on the Apple support site and elsewhere. I also ran Disk Warrior to try to correct the problem myself. Nothing was working - and I was “without laptop.” Yikes!

I was returning to Boulder from Oahu yesterday, so before I left to catch my flight I made an appointment at the Apple store in Boulder at the Genius Bar for 8pm last night (Friday). I had no idea what to expect, but figured I’d try it out. So far, so good - it was nice that I could get an appointment for the next day, even at night when it was very convenient.

I got there a few minutes early, and they called me right on time at 8pm. I explained what had happened, and the guy got right to work on my Macbook Pro. He had the ability to easily do a network boot from my machine, and that included all sorts of diagnostic tools he could use. Within 3 minutes, he was rerunning the cumulative O/S updates for Leopard. This took about 10 minutes to complete, and my machine started working just fine again. I left the Apple store by 8:30 - no charge.

This is great customer service.

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