MacBook Pro With Vega Pro 20 and My Apple Store Experience

When life gives you lemons the Apple Store gives you Vega Pro 20 graphic cards

A few months ago I was one of the suckers who saw Apple’s new MacBook Pro release as an awesome upgrade with the 32GB of RAM. What I and so many others didn’t like was that the MBP was still supporting old GPU’s With Apple putting 32GB of RAM in their powerhouse pro laptop no one really expected them to be doing anything else major for a year or so after.

Boy, was everyone wrong on that. Some called it a cash grab by Apple saying that Apple knew that in just three months time they would be releasing a major update to the just-released major update. Now the 2.9 i9 MacBook Pro with 32GB of RAM could be configured with Vega Pro 16 and 20 graphics cards.

To me and others that I have seen talk about this on Twitter, it was a slap in the face. The press release after the iPad Pro announcement had listed that Apple would be dropping the new Vega Cards and it was pretty deep in the release. It was almost as if Apple was trying to hide the news by planting it deep in the press release.

Never the less as I read comments from others in the tech industry about how upset they were about dropping huge chunks of cash on a machine that was going to be basically put out to pasture by Apple three months later I could agree as I felt the same way.

I love Apple and support the company. If it wasn’t for Apple I would not be where I am today. Their computers made it possible for me to be more creative. I have helped defend Apple many times on things I think that other media had blown out of hand, but for me, I could not find a way to feel ok about this.

Even now after my Apple Store swapped out my MacBook Pro that I paid $4100 for to the new MacBook Pro with the Vega Pro 20 card, I can’t help but feel what they did three months ago at the time of writing this was a straight-up cash grab.

Thanks to the Apple Store I call my home away from home, their wonderful team decided to work with me and heard the sound of disappointment in my voice and decided to do everything in their power to make things better.

I called Apple once I saw that the new MacBook Pro with the Vega Pro 20 was only going to cost $350 more and explained to them that if I had known I would have never bought the machine I had three months prior. I explained that I do lots of pro tasks and that the GPU was a super big deal to me. Never did I get loud or rude to anyone as Apple employees have always been super friendly and no one ever needs such tones. I say that part to remind anyone who calls don’t be hateful.

The rep on the phone placed me on hold and contacted my Apple Store. The closest one to me is two hours away so it was going to be a big drive just to walk in and talk with them. Once she got the manager on the phone he explained to me that he understood my dilemma and even though I was outside my 14-day return policy he would help me out. Because I have a business he suggested that he turn me over to the business team as they could get a bit more done and that I would have a direct contact. I spoke with a great gentleman from the business team a few minutes later and he explained to me I had two choices. One we could order the new machine but I would have to pay for it with my credit card and get reimbursed once I returned my current MBP or I could just wait until they got one in the store. Because I could not afford to drop $5000 more on a credit card even with it getting reimbursed six days later I told him I guess I would just have to wait until the store got one in stock.

The problem with this is that the MacBook Pro I was seeking was going to be a specialty order item. Meaning it would never just end up in store. Sometimes Apple will get a semi specked out computers in store in case someone or business needed one right away. But hardly ever did they have one of this caliber in stock.

I thought about that and I guess the employees at my Apple Store did as well. I decided to call back and ask if I was to make the drive to Louisville and bring my MacBook Pro back in advance would I be able to just use the money from it as an Apple store gift card and purchase the machine with the almighty Vega Pro 20. The Apple Store employee from the business department told me that they had thought about that and the manager placed the order for this specific computer for me. He said once it arrived they would call me. I got off the phone with him and not even two minutes later he called me back to let me know that the machine was already in the store. Apple pretty much overnighted the computer. I was jumping with joy while on the phone.

The next day I made the two hour trip to Apple and not only did they replace the computer with what I really wanted but they also helped me with the price by adjusting the total cost. I saved a fist full with this compared to what I would have had to pay if I would have bought it now without all of this happening. It really was an excellent day.

I said this today on Twitter and I will say it here. No other company cares for its customers the way Apple does. Yes products from Apple are expensive, yes they are made well, and yes they are built to last but it’s the customer service from both the phone support to the in-store support you get at the Apple Store that makes Apple a family. You don’t walk inside a JC Penney’s and feel like the person on the other end is going to truly care if you got the wrong size. They aren’t going to go out of their way to do much of anything for you. No other computer manufacturer would even blink twice at you once they saw you were past your 14-day return policy. Heck, I can’t get people at Best Buy to even smile half the time when talking to them. Apple on the other end went above and beyond while losing money to make sure one customer was going to be happy with his purchase. That’s incredible and it’s not a one-time thing. I have seen Apple do some amazing things over the years for customers.