Printer woes continue… Unitek Computer Stores, Inc. was actively unhelpful

30 January 2008 | Culture, Marketing, Personal | Comments

I’d like to dedicate this post to Jeff Jarvis and his epic battle with Dell.

A few days ago I mentioned that I was having trouble with my ancient workhorse of a printer, an Apple LaserWriter Select 360 from 1993.  A few folks reached out with advice, one of whom suggested–quite practically–that I reach out to my local authorized Apple service shop.  This seemed like a GREAT idea, and a few minutes later I found an address for Unitek Computer Stores at 16027 Ventura Blvd., Encino, CA  91436.

I walked in and politely asked if they could help me, whereupon the said no.  When I asked who might be able to help, they sent me down the street to another computer repair shop.  I went to the other shop only to learn that they don’t do anything with Apple, that they’ve never done anything with Apple, and then they suggested… wait for it… that I go back to Unitek.  “They’re the ones who sent me here,” I said, at which point the man at the second store looked taken aback.

Unitek deliberately sent me on a wild goose chase just to get rid of me.

So I called Apple.  It took about 30 minutes on the phone and I got bounced from a man named Gerald to a woman named Ley — both of whom cold dumped me rather than a warm handoff — and finally to a helpful young man named Anthony in Apple Customer Relations (a.k.a. “send the angry people here”) who actually listened to what I was saying, figured out that I needed to contact the “Apple Legacy Group,” that they’d be able to help me and gave me their phone number. It took too long to get there, but at least I got somewhere.

Wouldn’t you think that Unitek, an authorized Apple service and repair unit, would have heard of this group and saved me both gas and time? What terrible customer service Unitek demonstrated.