Alas my iMac is throwing a bit of a wobbly. Horrible kernel panics, beeps, “Invalid pmap”, “Invalid Memory address” and all sorts of other errors, chiming and beeps rendering this computer ‘fscked‘ as us Unix geeks like to say. Having removed the extra 1Gb of RAM, it continued (got worse even), and led me to the conclusion this was one sick puppy.
So thankfully I have Apple Care, and got on to the phone call, and managed to persuade the tech support chap (somewhere way east of here) that it was rather fatal. I didn’t have the time, or inclination, to run through more tests when I couldn’t boot up the recovery CD at all. They put me in touch with a company way up in Clydebank, rather than Scotsys, who I’ve used before. Got a bit of a surly response to my phone call, so decided to check with Scotsys directly. Sure enough, they take Apple kit under warranty, so popped along this lunch time to drop it off at their Great Western Road branch.
Ahead of me in the queue was a woman who’s iPod screen was cracked. She was insistent it had happened on its own, in the dock. Or somesuch. Patient tech guy explained that wasn’t likely, and the sort of damage could only happen with pressure to the screen. Perhaps a non-standard dock? She didn’t sound convinced, and was off to phone up Apple directly (again) to push her version of events. So on to me, after I’d spent a horribly boring 5 minutes of trying not to look at the pretty apple-y things in the Scotsys shop.
So, iMac has been dropped off, and hopefully a simple repair or replacement of the faulty component(s) over the next week or so. Of course, it’d be marvellous if they decided they couldn’t repair it, and just gave me a new intel based iMac. Thankfully I do backups, so it wouldn’t be the end of the world(!). A geek can dream, right? At least until I give in and get a Mac Pro…
Update 16th November: I called to check on progress and am rather taken aback (pissed off is more accurate I suppose) to discover they haven’t even looked at the machine yet. I was told “5-7 working days”, and 5 working days later they’re yet to even inspect it. That’s before there are any delays on part delivery of course. “The workshop’s been extremely busy” is their justification. Well, I’m not impressed, as I’m stuck with my laptop at the moment, which is proving a little constraining day to day.
Update 1st March, 2007: If you’re coming here via a Google search, you might be interested to note that Scotsys are reaching out to hear comments from customers, and providing a route for feedback/comment below. Full credit to Jamie for making the effort to address concerns, and hopefully that’ll mean a few negative comments here won’t be taken as the final word on them as a company. Remember, it’s always easier to complain than compliment!
Entries (RSS)
November 20th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Totally agree with you. Absolutley fuming at the time it’s taken to get my powerbook repaired by Scotsys – 17 days and counting!!! It is not the customers problem that they are “very busy”. GET IT SORTED!!
That’s on top of Apple wiping my hard drive – it went in with a Superdrive problem – and replacing the UJ845E with a shitty UJ835 that didn’t work anyway!!
My official complaint will be winging it’s way to the Ombudsman very shortly…
November 30th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
Well, my iMac is supposedly ready for collection after three weeks. A bit miffed I’ve had to do all the chasing, and even today I was told to expect a call from their Glasgow shop to say it was ready for collection, but so far no word. So I’m going in first thing tomorrow to collect it.
All a lot more frustrating than it should have been. If it happens again, I’m not sure I’ll bother: Apple had recommended another site up here in Scotland, and clearly for good reason! I’ll also be rethinking my Mac Pro purchase which I had been thinking I’d get from Scotsys, but see little purpose to doing to be honest
January 11th, 2007 at 7:28 am
Came across this randomly while trying to find the site of said company in Clydebank, so while I’m here…
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRUST SCOTSYS WITH YOUR MACINTOSH. DO NOT BELIEVE THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD THAT SAYS ‘MAYBE THIS TIME WILL BE BETTER’ – IT N-E-V-E-R H-A-P-P-E-N-S! THEY ARE LAZY ASS INCOMPETENTS.
This was what I told myself after MY last time using them for a straightforward powerbook HD upgrade that I was told would take 7-10 working days and I only got it on the 10th day after clling them up every day at the end to check on it and the guy in the shop was surprised it was back “so quickly”!!
I’m sorry I have to pause and regulate my breathing here, breathe
THEY STINK. Always have in my experience of using them for almost 10 years. I have PRAYED that another reseller would come to our aid and S3 Interactive have thank God!
I don’t know what happened when you called them but I used them recently for a dead iPod Nano and they got back to me with a brand new unit under warranty within a week. A friend of mine put his laptop in for a HD replacement and got it back WITHIN 24 HOURS! These people, unlike Scotsys twitches, obviously understand that people NEED their computers everyday now, it’s not the 90s anymore. I highly recommend them, I mean it would be hard for anyone ot be worse than Scotsys really so it’s a no-brainer.
/rant
)
January 11th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Hi Colin, Thanks for your comments.
When I was dropping my iMac in the shop, I got chatting with the assistant (as he battled with remote desktop to some windows system he needed to use). “You must be over the moon about the new Apple Store that’s proposed for Buchanan Street” I said (more here).
“Not really”, came the reply. “We’ve got lots of loyal customers, and deal with many businesses and schools”.
Hmmm. I’m not exactly enamoured with Scotsys after my iMac took so much longer than implied, and I had zero feedback about it unless I pestered (and even then it was minimal stuff). If they are busy, with s3 sounding much better than I gave them credit for, and Apple likely to take most of the impulse consumer business, they may start to suffer more than the shop assistant suspected.
February 3rd, 2007 at 12:43 am
Yeah, I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with a sidesalad of bad experiences, smothered in bad experience sauce and sauted bad experiences. Scotsys are POOP! Seriously, even Glasgow Caledonian Uni, who I work for, have dropped them as suppliers… they never have anything in stock anyway… I don’t know how they manage to keep in business…
March 1st, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Hi All
I am from Scotsys and interested to hear your views. I have already contacted those of you who have e-mail addresses in your posts to invite you to meet up.
We know we are far from perfect and we have made and are making many changes in our systems to make your experience with us more enjoyable and efficient.
I would love to hear more details of your expereinces with any of our departments and I will personally act upon each comment and keep you up to date with our progress.
Hoping to hear from you soon.
Best regards
Jamie
E-mail: jamie (AT) scotsys (DOT) co (DOT) uk
August 14th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Hey all
I’ve not had the best experiences with Scotsys in the past and I’m still not…
Back in the day when Performas were all the rage, a 6200 of mine broke for some odd reason (as they did) Scotsys replaced the Logic Board a few times, the problem was never really solved apparently and we were given the computer back with screws missing and all!
A friend of mine sent in his iBook G4 to get the logic board and HD replaced. When the iBook was returned, the latch on the iBook would not work and it could not be closed! Thus possibly defeating the purpose of a laptop if it cannot be closed and carried around!
I’m in the process of sending my iMac Intel back to Scotsys to get repaired after they fixed/replaced the logic board but failed to put the computer back together properly and even damaged it when taking it apart. There’s a scratch on the screen from where the front of display was probably wedged up by a sharp object. The airport aerial has been put back incorrectly (at least I think it has) because the airport reception is definitely not what it used to be. The top of the casing has not been put back properly as it is now loose and slides forward and backwards. The iSight camera only works intermittently depending on how far the top of the case cover is on (The light comes on randomly!). The serial number of the computer has not been flashed onto the new logic board, so under serial number it says: “SystemSeumb” How interesting! Then again my logic board now works and the iMac recognises the 2 sticks of RAM and not just one. I should probably just be happy for that!
I’m in the process of getting this sorted out and am planning on making an official complaint to Apple as this really is hardly acceptable, considering Scotsys is an Apple Authorised Repair Centre!
April 14th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
My iMac went down with the ‘white screen of death’ 2 weeks ago, nothing would revive it. Took it into John Lewis who booked it in for a guarantee repair through Scotsys.
What a joke! Just found out today that it only got picked up this morning by Scotsys. Not only have they not picked up any repairs for TWO WEEKS, they haven’t even bothered to tell anyone at JL that the company (Edinburgh) has been taken over. Since Scotsys never seem to get round to looking at anything within a week it’s looking at I would guess 4 weeks in total before I see anything back.
If anyone is viewing this post from Scotsys…. start providing a real service. This is the second time I have dealt with them through JL and they are just not doing a good job whatsoever. Not acceptable!
April 16th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
@Neil – You should have just taken your iMac to the Apple Store in Glasgow, although they did screw up my fan, the work they do is miles better. I had a screen replaced in just over a day! The AppleCare person (on the phone) that was handling my case even gave me an iPod as repayment for the travel costs to Glasgow and back.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Well now Scotsys want to charge me £30 + VAT as they cant find anything wrong with it. Because the White Screen Of Death appeared which could have been a ‘periph’ problem, although I had restarted without any attached, and would not get passed this. Scotsys somehow managed to get it working.
It’s under g’tee from John Lewis so I ain’t paying anyone.
How was I supposed to troubleshoot when I can’t get on the ‘net, also Apple wouldn’t help because the machine was away.
If I could have taken it into an Apple store that day my problem would have been solved.
Scotsys….. Scotp**h
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Guess what! My iMac will not start up Apple support charged me £30 to follow instructions apbout seetting PRAM etc… I already knew this. Some problem with video card. Anyway it’s back to a repair shop, thanks Scotsys for not finding the fault!