One month ago I purchased a new 15″ MacBook Pro from MacAuthority. I then promptly dropped about $300 at crucial.com to bump my RAM to 8GB, and (more importantly) upgrade to an SSD. And yesterday I find out that the new MacBook Pro with Retina display is released.
If I had waited one month, then I could have spent the same amount of money to have a MacBook Pro with a better CPU, 512MB more VRAM, and the Retina display.
So I talk to the MacAuthority guys who tell me that Apple is my best bet for recourse. Apple tells me that maybe they would have made an exception for me, but since I didn’t purchase the MacBook through Apple, they won’t consider the possibility. I go back to MacAuthority and relay this information, my main argument being: if Apple is willing to work with me in situations like this while you are not, why would I ever purchase from you again?
I managed to go up the MacAuthority management chain a little bit and they made me the following offer: Nothing.
I understand from a business perspective of course. If MacAuthority accommodates me in some way, then they are left potentially needing to accommodate everyone they sold a Mac to in the past X months. The trick with getting your way in customer service is to explain that you are an exception and should be treated differently. MacAuthority decided not to treat me as an exception, which is certainly reasonable. The only downside for them is that I know a lot of programmers/techies who are Apple fans. I will do what I can to make sure that they never shop at MacAuthority.
If you are considering a purchase from MacAuthority, do NOT buy from them – this is coming from a person with many years of education and experience in IT. Never purchase anything from MacAuthority. Ever.