The best way to get help with logic

Question

I was posting in a thread on support for logic which appears to have been deleted. anyway, what I was going to say I think is useful info for people, so I'm going to post it anyway. to the mods - it doesn't contain any speculation about policies or anything like that. just an explanation of my views on the best way to deal with issues people have with logic, which I think is a valuable contribution to this forum.
I think there's a need for perspective. when you buy an apple product you get 90 days of free phone support to get everything working nice and neat. you can call them whenever, and you could actually keep them on the phone all day if you wanted, making them explain to you how to copy a file, install microsoft office, or any number of little questions no matter how simple - what is that red button thingy in my window for?.. on top of that, you've got a 14 day dead on arrival period (or 10 days I can't remember) in which if your machine has any kind of hardware fault whatsoever it's exchanged for a totally new one, no questions asked. a lot of people complain that applecare is overpriced.. and if you think of it just as an extended warranty, then it is a little pricey. but if you are someone that could use a lot of phone support, then it's actually potentially a total bargain. the fact that 2 or more years after you bought a computer, you could still be calling them every single day, asking for any kind of advice on how to use anything on the machine, is quite something. many people on this forum have had problems when they made the mistake of upgrading to 10.4.9 without first creating a system clone or checking first with their 3rd party plug in vendors to make sure it was ok. so, with apple care, you could call them and keep a technician on the phone _all day_ talking you through step-by-step how to back up all of your user data, how to go through and preserve your preferences and any other specific settings you might not want to lose, and then how to rollback to an earlier OS version.. they'll hold your hand through the whole thing if you need them to.
as for applecare support for pro apps like logic, I'd be the first person to agree that it's not great for anyone except beginners and first time users. if you look at what it takes to get even the highest level of logic certification, it's all pretty basic stuff. and logic doesn't exist in a vacuum, there is an entire universe of 3rd party software and hardware, as well as studio culture and advanced user techniques that are going to be totally invisible to some poor phone support guy at apple that did a logic 101. but it's not hard to see that apple are trying to promote a different kind of support culture, it's up to you to decide whether you want to buy into it or not.
the idea is that they are able to provide basic setup support for new users, including troubleshooting. because it's a simpler level of support, at least they can do this well. so there's no reason why any new user with say a new imac and logic can't get up and running with the 90 days of phone support they get for free.
but the thing is, for extremely high end pro users it's a different matter altogether. pro use of logic within the context of say, a studio or a film composition scenario is a very different world. it's almost a nonsense to imagine that apple could even hire people capable of giving useful support for this end of the spectrum, over the phone. there are so many variables, and so many things that require a very experienced studio person or in-work composer to even begin to understand the setup, let alone troubleshoot it. and it's a constantly evolving world, you actually have to be working in it and aware of developments on 3rd party fronts as well as changes in hardware.. not to mention even changes in the culture of studio production and the changed expectations that come from that. there's no way some poor little guy sitting at a help desk at apple can even hope to be privy to that kind of knowledge. it's already good enough that they don't outsource their support staff to india, let alone go out to studios and hire the very people with the skills that should be staying in the studio! not answering phones for apple.
so, given this reality.. companies have two choices. they can either offer an email based support ticket system, which others do. but in my opinion.. this can just be frustrating and only a half-solution. sure you 'feel' like you are getting a response from the people that make the software and therefore must know it.. but it's not really the case due to what I said above. DAWs don't exist in a vacuum, and so much of what you need to understand to help people requires an intimate knowledge of the music industry in which they are working. you still won't get that from steinberg, even if they sort of answer your emails. the other problem is that this kind of system can mean sporadic answers, a lot of tail-chasing, and quite often you won't get an answer that helps you in the end anyway.
the other model is to foster a strong user support culture. some people react in the wrong way to this idea.. they just think it's a big brush off from the manufacturer, saying we don't care, go sort it out yourselves.. but this isn't true. apple has a classification for pro resellers called 'apple solutions expert - audio'. what this means is that these dealers are recognised as audio specialists and they can receive extra support and training from apple for this. but more importantly than this.. most of them are music stores, or pro gear dealerships that are also mac and logic dealers. they already employ people that have worked or do work in the music industry, and are constantly on top of all of this stuff. apple encourages these dealers to run workshops, and to provide expert sales advice in the very niche area that logic is in, which they can do far better than some generic apple store ever could. but most importantly, they are encouraged to offer their own expert after-sales support and whatever other value-adding expertise they can, to get sales. because margins in computer gear are so tight nowadays, discounting is not really a viable option for these dealers to guarantee getting musicians to buy computers and logic setups from them. the only companies that can entice people with a lower price a big online wholesalers or big chain stores. so the best idea for these niche expert stores to get sales is to offer you their own experts to help with configuration, ongoing support and to generally make it a better idea that you bought your system from them rather than from some anonymous online store. I can see the wisdom of this.. it puts the support back out there on the ground where it's needed, and also where it can work best. apple could never hope to offer the same level of expertise in helping a film composer work through some issues with a specific interface or some highly specific issue they have with getting a task done. no big software manufacturer could do this anywhere near as well as people out there that have worked in studios or currently do work in studios. so in my opinion it's a far better model to foster this kind of support culture, along with training courses, books and training video support. also user forums like this one are possibly one of the most valuable ports of call anyone could ask for. apple couldn't replicate this with their own staff, even if they tried. and even if they made a system where some of the people close to logic development were able to answer emails, it would still be nowhere near as useful, as rapid or as capable of being up to speed with logic use out in the real world with 3rd pary gear, as any of these other methods are.
the only thing I think they could do better would be to publish a list of known bugs which are officially recognised. this would help everyone and put an end to a lot of wasted time and speculation on if something is a bug totally to do with logic, or if it's a specific issue raised by a particular configuration.
but really, in my view, a 3rd party support and training culture through a combination of specialist dealers, consultants that literally run a business setting up computers for pro-users and helping them keep it all working, online user-to-user forums and published materials really are the way forward.

Answer 1

In all honesty this is currently the 3rd "logicboard" (motherboard)
in my powerbook due to a design flaw regarding the 2nd memory slot....
Yep. Mine failed five weeks after I bought it. However, I bought it for work and couldn't afford being without it for four weeks while they fixed it, so I had to live with it. My serial number did not entitle me to a replacement either, post Applecare.
My firewire ports have burnt out from a third-party defective device (no hot-plugging involved)
My screen is blotchy (my PW serial number did not entitle me to a replacement).
My battery serial number did not entitle me to a replacement, and is not that good these days.
My guaranteed Powerbook-compatible RAM is actually not, causing RAM related problems, most notably these days meaning that as soon as I switch to battery power, the laptop crashes, so I can only use mains power. The company I bought it from stopped taking my calls and wouldn't replace it after they replaced it once, so I'm stuck with it. And of course, only one ram slot is working, so I can't even use my original stick in the first slot, which would shift the dodgy stuff away from the lower system area.
My power supply failed at the weak spot and caught fire. I managed to break apart the power supply and recable it so I didn't have to buy a new power supply, although the connection at the laptop end is loose (all the more fun that as soon as power is lost, the laptop crashes - see above). The power supply is held together with gaffa tape. Silver gaffer tape though, so it's still kind of 'Appley"...
My internal hard drive is dying - four or five times now it clicks and won't power up, causing the laptop to die.
One foot has fallen off (but glued back on).
The lid is warped.
The hinge is loosish.
The S-Video adaptor cable is intermittent.
But aside from all that, I have looked after it well, and I love it to death. Just as well, because it doesn't look like it will be that long...
But it still "just works". Apart from the battery power obviously. And the ram slot. And the ram. And the screen. And the hard drive. And the firewire ports. And the feet.
But everything apart from the main board, the screen, the case, the hard drive and the power supply works fine. So thats... er..
Hmm.