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Two days ago I noticed an iMac G5 sitting in our tech holding area in the lock-up room. I inquired about it, since we don't normally service Macs, and our CSL (former electronics lead) had agreed to take it in an upgrade it to MacOS 10.5 Leopard. He only agreed to this because the customer had a disc supplied by Apple, and he knew the upgrade should be easy to do (so easy the customer should have been able to handle it herself, but we'll take the money is she really wants us to).
Now, I'm NOT a technician, but I've been a Mac guy all my life, and know how to handle a Leopard upgrade. So, since our regular technician wasn't in, and because the customer and already called once to inquire about the machine's status, I volunteered to tackle the upgrade. And immediately encountered 3 problems.
1) Although no password was on the PC intake paperwork, every single user account on the machine had a password. Now I know our CSL née Electronics Lead, and I know he knows to ask for passwords. Therefore, I know the customer either said there was no password or refused to provide it.
2) I tried calling the customer to get the password for the Admin account, only to be rebuffed by the guy who answered the phone, saying I had the wrong number. A quick glance down at my phone's display confirmed I had NOT dialed the wrong number. So the number the customer provided was wrong. Again, this is HER fault, because we ask them to confirm all information before it's submitted, AND they are given a copy of the paperwork, so she would have seen if we had a wrong number listed.
3) Undeterred, I put in the Leopard DVD (a non-retail version provided to the customer by AppleCare) and booted up the machine from it. I wasn't certain, but I thought you could do a non-destructive upgrade without the admin password. I just didn't remember because I'd done more clean installs of Leopard than upgrades, but it didnt' hurt to check. If I could do it great, otherwise we'd have to wait for the customer to contact us agin and explain the situation to her.
The machine immediately experienced a kernel panic.
It didn't even begin to load the Leopard Installer, it just went straight to a kernel panic. Now to the best of my knowledge (and I called a fellow CSer who is also a Mac guy to confirm this) the only reason why a MacOS X Install disc would trigger an immediate kernel panic would be if it contained the wrong version of MacOS X for the computer you were using. In this case, it likely meant that they'd sent her a disc containing the Intel version of Leopard, when she had an iMac G5 (a PowerPC machine).
There's no way around that issue, and even if I'm wrong, if the disc wont' boot there's nothing we can do about it. If I'm right, then Apple screwed up and sent her the wrong disc. A pretty stupid mistake, since the invoice with the disc had all the right machine info, but I can see someone at Apple grabbing the wrong disc off the shelf by mistake. I chalked it up to one of those "shit happens" moments.
So, being unable to do anything else, I left a detailed note for our technician and explained everything to the GM and the CSL.
Well, this woman has been on the phone SCREAMING at the CSL no less than FOUR times since then about this, claiming it's our fault and demanding to know what WE are going to do about the problem. She also demanded that WE contact Apple to obtain the correct disc, which is impossible since we aren't an Apple Authorized Service Provider, nor an Apple Authorized Reseller. We have NO relationship with Apple and therefore can't get service parts or software from them, at all. However, she DID have AppleCare, and THEY are the ones screwed up, so if she called them herself, they'd send out the right disc.
Our CSL patiently explain all of the above to her, but she refused to believe any of it and claimed it was OUR fault, and repeated her demand to know what we'd do about it. She also didn't understand why she wasn't contacted immediately, and refused to admit to giving us the wrong phone number.
Finally, he lost his patience with her and told her to come and pick the machine up and he'd refund the OS installation charge, but no more than that.
Now, I'm NOT a technician, but I've been a Mac guy all my life, and know how to handle a Leopard upgrade. So, since our regular technician wasn't in, and because the customer and already called once to inquire about the machine's status, I volunteered to tackle the upgrade. And immediately encountered 3 problems.
1) Although no password was on the PC intake paperwork, every single user account on the machine had a password. Now I know our CSL née Electronics Lead, and I know he knows to ask for passwords. Therefore, I know the customer either said there was no password or refused to provide it.
2) I tried calling the customer to get the password for the Admin account, only to be rebuffed by the guy who answered the phone, saying I had the wrong number. A quick glance down at my phone's display confirmed I had NOT dialed the wrong number. So the number the customer provided was wrong. Again, this is HER fault, because we ask them to confirm all information before it's submitted, AND they are given a copy of the paperwork, so she would have seen if we had a wrong number listed.
3) Undeterred, I put in the Leopard DVD (a non-retail version provided to the customer by AppleCare) and booted up the machine from it. I wasn't certain, but I thought you could do a non-destructive upgrade without the admin password. I just didn't remember because I'd done more clean installs of Leopard than upgrades, but it didnt' hurt to check. If I could do it great, otherwise we'd have to wait for the customer to contact us agin and explain the situation to her.
The machine immediately experienced a kernel panic.
It didn't even begin to load the Leopard Installer, it just went straight to a kernel panic. Now to the best of my knowledge (and I called a fellow CSer who is also a Mac guy to confirm this) the only reason why a MacOS X Install disc would trigger an immediate kernel panic would be if it contained the wrong version of MacOS X for the computer you were using. In this case, it likely meant that they'd sent her a disc containing the Intel version of Leopard, when she had an iMac G5 (a PowerPC machine).
There's no way around that issue, and even if I'm wrong, if the disc wont' boot there's nothing we can do about it. If I'm right, then Apple screwed up and sent her the wrong disc. A pretty stupid mistake, since the invoice with the disc had all the right machine info, but I can see someone at Apple grabbing the wrong disc off the shelf by mistake. I chalked it up to one of those "shit happens" moments.
So, being unable to do anything else, I left a detailed note for our technician and explained everything to the GM and the CSL.
Well, this woman has been on the phone SCREAMING at the CSL no less than FOUR times since then about this, claiming it's our fault and demanding to know what WE are going to do about the problem. She also demanded that WE contact Apple to obtain the correct disc, which is impossible since we aren't an Apple Authorized Service Provider, nor an Apple Authorized Reseller. We have NO relationship with Apple and therefore can't get service parts or software from them, at all. However, she DID have AppleCare, and THEY are the ones screwed up, so if she called them herself, they'd send out the right disc.
Our CSL patiently explain all of the above to her, but she refused to believe any of it and claimed it was OUR fault, and repeated her demand to know what we'd do about it. She also didn't understand why she wasn't contacted immediately, and refused to admit to giving us the wrong phone number.
Finally, he lost his patience with her and told her to come and pick the machine up and he'd refund the OS installation charge, but no more than that.
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