Apple India: not ready for business

Apple is not ready for enterprise business.

Many of my colleagues are moving to Apple hardware, even though our IT department doesn't support them. It's entirely a self-service model, which is actually a pretty good story in terms of cost-savings. As long as you're self-supportable, that is.

Which is where this comes in: Apple hardware support.

I live in Bangalore, India, home of 8 million people and a place that doesn't have an Apple store per se, but does have some authorized resellers and 7 authorized repair centers.

My macbook refused to boot this past week. I removed it from an external monitor and that was then end of it. I get a DVD drive noise, but no video or other movement.

I took it to the repair center closest to me. He "pushed the button" a few times, and agreed that it was broken. Then he said "I'll get back to you after some time". If you know India you know what that means.

24 hours later the expected outcome: "Needs a new logic board". For PC users, this is the motherboard.

Now the big one: it will take 4 days to arrive.

I asked why and was told that he has to get approval from Apple.

Approval to purchase a replacement part?

I called around and spoke with 4 or 5 other repair centers and was told the same thing. One place even said 10 days was more likely. In each case they pointed to the "process" at Apple.

I said: "I have cash and I want the part today, where do I go?" and they all said it wasn't possible even though the Apple parts are physically located in Bangalore already.

Apple, to be even remotely considered for enterprise use, you have to get serious about the inefficiencies in your supply chain. This is ridiculous.