Betrayed by the One You Love
December 18th, 2006 by Chief NutI love my 17 inch Mac Laptop with it’s big, bright, vivid screen. Alas, not all things are perfect. A couple of weeks ago the Power Adapter started throwing off large, loud sparks. So, I’m thinking to myself “this CAN’T be good.” Once it was plugged in and didn’t move around, it seemed to be fine, so I made sure I plugged it in before sticking the plug into the computer. That didn’t last. It eventually died (thank God, with no damage to the computer). Sigh.
A quick trip to the online Apple store (type “Extra portable power adapter 65W” into the search box and click on the… first product) showed the part costs freakin’ $79.00! Deep breath, deep breath. For cryin’ out loud, this thing is just a plastic box, a plug and a wire. How could Apple possibly charge that much for it?! Justifying the situation, I convinced myself that it was because of the high quality and specialized components used in its manufacturing. Ummmm … nope.
Click on the link above and quickly scan through the 1348 reviews on this piece of doo doo! What amazes me is that Apple endures this kind of bad press but does NOTHING (apparently, over the course of almost two years) to change the design. They now have thousands of irate customers when the whole situation could have been salvaged if someone was paying attention.
Relegated to chucking the broken adapter and buying a new one, I tore the old one apart. I pried off the plastic cover of the small part the prongs stick out of and used a pair of needle nose pliers to re-shape the poorly designed copper strips (which were, by now, damaged from the previously mentioned electrical arching). I glued the cover back on and VOILA! … the adapter works like a champ! No sparking … and the prongs are more secure than when the computer was new.
I didn’t write this to share my stories of woe. I’m pointing out that even a company like Apple, who spends hundreds of millions on development, uniqueness in product design and being a thought leader can sometimes “blow it” because somebody didn’t figure out that a piece of copper was the wrong shape. It’s ALLLLL in the details.
