I am not going to say that Apple totally lost me, but I wasn’t the happiest customer for a little while.  I love, love, love my MacBook Pro, but the day after my one year warranty expired so did my battery.  When I called about it, I was told that my warranty had indeed expired and I would have to buy my own battery.    That was when I wasn’t the happiest customer anymore.

Fast forward a year of being attached to a power cord.  Batteries don’t come cheap and they are not high on the priority list in our , since there are three children to take care of first and we are mostly a one income family. Things like batteries for laptops don’t make it to the grocery list.

Today, after waiting a year to once again be truly wireless (and not have to get to the coffee shop at opening for the one spot with an outlet) I headed downtown to the Apple Store.  I made sure I brought my laptop with me because the last time I was there, I left without a battery because one of the salesmen didn’t believe me that he was trying to sell me the wrong one (it was too small for my laptop).

I explained my tale of woe about the battery dying the day after my warranty ran out to the clerk and could he find me one that fit since there weren’t any on the shelf.  He said he figured he could do one better and ran some diagnostics on my computer (Ok, so the first clerk passed me on to a young guy with an iPod touch who passed me along to the clerk at the counter, but it was seamless and fast).  It would seem that my battery died prematurely, it died before half of it’s life had been used. Of course, when I asked what did that mean for me? I knew by the smile on the clerks face that it meant I didn’t have to pay for another battery.  And indeed I was right.  It would seem that I had a faulty battery and that Apple does love me and wants me to keep buying their product.  It only took a year for me to get things fixed up, but honestly  I had only tried twice.

So here I sit with my newly wireless computer once again.  I am very thankful for the amazing customer service I got today.  Apple was redeemed once again for me and now I have a little something extra in my pocket because I didn’t have to spend it on a battery.

And because Apple was so nice to me I have decided to do a little Pay it Forward.  No, I am not going to give away a battery what good would that do?  But, I am going to give away a $25 gift certificate to one of my readers.

The winner will get to choose from one of three stores. iTunes (in honour of Apple), Starbucks (because I love them) or Amazon .ca or .com (because who couldn’t use a new book to read?).

All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me what you use, Mac or PC?  Be sure to leave a valid email address in your comment so I can contact you if you are the winner.

Contest closes Friday, January 8th, 2010 at midnight (EST).  I will randomly draw a winner on Saturday morning.