MACHEADS

I had a "crisis" situation w/my Macbook (water spill). Immediately I called Mac care, and they sent me to Macheads as the closest authorized dealer in the area. I was really, really disappointed with their service and technical expertise -- I was advised that they would transfer any data on my hard drive for $80 to $120 depending on how long it took, and that my computer would need to be sent out for repairs -- which would cost from $900 up. I'm not a suspicious person, but I do believe a little caveat emptor can be a good thing, so I decided to do the trek down to the mall for a second opinion. Boy, am I glad I did! They transferred my data and put it on a nice, 80 gig external hard drive for fifty bucks, and they told me to leave the ram shield off and let my laptop dry for a couple days. They also said if that didn't work after that the could fix it for $750, although they wouldn't recommend that route because a rebuilt Macbook would never be 100% reliable. (Since I use my laptop for work stuff, after the anxiety I had just been through worrying about months and months of work down the drain, there was no way I could go that route -- and to think, I nearly paid 900+ bucks to Macheads for a computer that would be less than perfect!) Anyway, in the end homeowner's insurance replaced my Macbook, and I bought it in wonderful tax-free Delaware (with the freebie Ipod and printer/scanner thrown in)! I'm so glad something told me to get a second opinion, and I would never go back to Macheads. Based on my experience, that's my two cents.

Luckily for us Macintosh users in Lancaster, the only Apple Store is a good one. When you walk in, the store is clean and neatly organized, there is a relatively good stock of accessories and cords you may need, and both George and Dan were helpful and updated on what's going on in the store and the Mac world. Both times I went in to service my MacBook, they were helpful, knowledgeable, and took responsibility for the situation. It was also great to walk into an electronics store and not be bombarded by pushy salesmen!