# Who are the best Apple resellers in Canada?



## Sandy McMurray (Jan 10, 2003)

This is a loaded question, I know, but I'm interested to hear what people think.

*Who are the best (retail) Apple resellers in Canada? Why?*

I would like to hear about people's _good_ experiences with Apple resellers. I would prefer _NOT_ to hear why you think so-and-so is a _bad_ reseller (unless you feel obliged to contradict someone else's gushing anecdote).

Recent experiences (i.e. within 3 years) will probably be most helpful, but feel free to share older stories as well.

Some factors (in no particular order) you may wish to consider:
- customer service
- excellent tech support
- house calls?
- selection of software
- best prices on new stuff
- best value on trade-in
- skilled, friendly salespeople (not condescending)
- opportunities for hands-on experimenting
- clear, unbiased buying advice
- good (and/or free) training sessions
- publications (like TekServe's troubleshooting book)
- other (I'm sure I've missed lots of factors)

From the _resellers'_ perspective, I'd like to know who is good to deal with as a colleague or partner? Why?

If you prefer to send information by e-mail (sandy at techstuff.ca), that's fine. Information given in confidence will remain private.

Who, in your experience, is a great Apple reseller and why?

P.S. If you think I've missed something important in my list of possible factors, let me know what criteria _you_ think should be used to determine who is and who isn't a good Apple reseller.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

When I retired in 2001, my company gave me my laptop, purchased new in June of 1999. It is a Lombard Powerbook, 400 Mhz with a 6 G drive and a CD/DVD drive. I would estimate I had only used the laptop about a hundred hours or so. When I started my consulting business, I purchased a new eMac for home and gave the Lombard to my daughter who is a teacher.

Shortly after she started using it in the fall of 2001, one day it began to emit smoke from the keyboard and quit. I took it in to the Apple dealer in Edmonton who examined it and pronounced it DOA. Since I did not have Applecare, it would cost more to fix it than to buy a new iBook, which I did. They advised me that it was not worth wasting my time contacting Apple since in their view, Apple would do nothing about my problem.

It bothered me that a machine that had cost over $5000 expired so quickly. I had originally purchased the machine from a supplier our company used in Grande Prairie, Alberta. Since I knew the owner and his right hand man personally, I took the problem to them and asked if anything could be done.

They took the problem to Apple and made an appeal on my behalf and about a week later, I received a phone call from an Apple representative based in Calgary. He stated he was made aware of my failed Powerbook by the Grande Prairie firm who convinced him Apple did indeed have some responsibility in the matter. I was asked to bring my laptop in to the very dealer in Edmonton who had pronounced it unfixable. I dropped it off at their repair department and got a call from them to come and pick it up about a week later.

They asked me to sign the repair bill, which was being sent directly to Apple. I did so with pleasure. The bill was just a few dollars short of $3,000.

That laptop is still running fine today and I am grateful to that firm for defending me and my purchase from them with Apple Canada. I am also grateful to Apple for accepting responsibility for the problem.

Since my retirement, they have continued to respond to any request I have with as much concern as they had when I was COO of a company who spent hundreds of thousands with them while I was in that position. I recently bought a new Powerbook 12.1" - 1 Ghz G4 with Superdrive and traded in my iBook on it. When I tried to purchase it from these guys, they told me they couldn't match the trade-in I had been offered by the Edmonton firm who repaired my Lombard, and advised me to buy the Powerbook in Edmonton. Their "customer first" attitude is a rare commodity indeed in today's business world.

The firm was HiTech Business Systems and MicroAge Computer at 10115 - 100 Avenue in Grande Prairie, AB T8V 0V4. Phone 780-538-4128.

The owner is Kevin Szakacs and his right hand man is John MacLennan.

They certainly get my vote as one of the premier Apple retailers in the country.

Cheers


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## james_squared (May 3, 2002)

Hello,

I would like to nominate First Avenue Information Systems in Waterloo, Ontario. When I was first looking into getting a Macintosh, I drove there from Guelph, and the customer service agent was very knowledgeable and 'into' discussing Macs. We continued discussing Macs for about 15 or 20 minutes _after_ closing time.

I ordered an iBook and when it was finally in, an upgrade had happened the day before. It was not a problem for me to change my order and I received a top-of-the-line iBook a short while later. In fact, it's the one I'm using now.

James


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