Open letter to Steven Jobs, Apple Computer

Dear Mr. Jobs,

I recently dropped my 4-month-old Apple PowerBook G4 while going through airport security. The case was dented and the DELETE key broke off.

I visited an Apple retail store this evening and one of your "geniuses” fixed it. ("Genius" not being sarcastic at all in this case.) But funny thing, they swore me to secrecy about doing so. So the store location and employee will remain unnamed.

Apple policy, I was told, is to not reshape a dinged metal case or replace a single key. They were supposed to make be buy a new case  and an entirely new keyboard. Instead, I have a straightened case (unnoticeable) and a slightly mismatched, but fully functioning delete key –  done at no charge.

It was the Greeks, if I remember correctly, who believed that gods often wandered the earth in mortal disguise. By being either kind or cruel to a stranger, one might possibly please or offend a deity. You just never knew. Well, I am certainly no god (as my lovely wife will readily attest), but what your technicians this evening could not know is that my signature goes on over $500,000 worth of purchase orders for computer equipment and services each year (much of it to Apple). I do about two dozen presentations at computer and library events a year and in them make no secret that I like Apple computers. I recommend Apple products to friends, relatives and parents. I am probably the sort of person Apple wants to please and doesn't want to offend.

My appreciation for Apple went up about three notches tonight because the tech bent your rules. He, as your advertising wonks might put it, ‘thought different.”

Maybe “Bending the rules out of kindness” might make a good corporate policy for any company in a highly competitive market (including my own – education.)

Thank you. This PowerBook is still the best computer I’ve ever used.

Sincerely,

Doug

Comments

[Sara Kelly Johns]

I do hope that Steve Jobs actually gets this letter--Sara