Tag: service

Macintosh Sales, Service, & Repair in Ecuador: Quito is a Mac Friendly Screenwriting Town

Posted by J Roland Kelly – February 1, 2009

old_apple_logo

I’m still in Quito, and recently my MacBook Pro failed to recharge. The problem was the Magsafe power adaptor, which by all accounts is the weak link in the Apple’s notebook line.

I read online that Magsafe Power Adaptors are so prone to failure that Apple is now replacing them free of charge at the genius bar in Apple stores.

Quito. Sh!t. The closest genius bar is in Miami. What’s a poor expat screenwriter to do?

Apple doesn’t even officially sell notebooks in South America. No hope. And yet… Enter Act III.

I remember seeing a pseudo Mac store at a Yuppie mall here by a movie theater called Cinemark. You’ll find it, just get in a taxi and say “Cinemark.” The official address:

MundoMac

Plaza de las Americas Local 6 exterior

Av. America Y NNUU

Tel: 3318472-3318490

www.mundomac.com.ec

Really over priced. The owner imports everything himself with tremendous mark up and then with the IVA tax here it pretty much is double the price.

The $75 dollar adaptor would have been $150. My Mac is under warranty so a guy at the store (Patricio) pointed me to a certified Apple repair place in Quito at:

AppTek

Republica 189 Y Diego de Almagro

Edificio El Triangulo Local 116

Quito – Ecuador

Tel:  593-2 290 9082 

I went there late on a Wednesday afternoon. The guy took some information from my computer and said come back Friday morning.

In 36 hours I had a new, completely free 85w Magsafe power adaptor.

Props to Apple’s worldwide warranty; jeers to Apple for selling an inferior and faulty product. Most of the computers I see tourists carrying around are now Macbooks.

As Apple fills more and more niche markets worldwide with notebooks they need to step it up.

Otherwise plan B for me was to take the broken power adapter to the broken TV store on my street and make hand signs for soldering iron.

F that.

-J Roland Kelly

  • Share/Bookmark

Awesome Traveling Service Provided by the South American Explorers

Posted by J Roland Kelly – June 26, 2008

 

I found this thing called the South American Explorers. Sure, I joined. I don’t know what I think about the name, and definitely their website is from another time. And that time was not a simpler time, but hey, they offer a totally worthwhile service.  

They will store your sh*t. No sh*t! Backpack. Mail. Whatever.

So, get this. If you are relocating to South America you can mail yourself a package and it will be there in South America when you arrive.

I’m going to use this service to mail myself a crate of books (screenwriting, etc.) and maybe my guitar. I don’t want any hassles on the plane, books are heavy, and I don’t want go looking for a place to stay the first night with 40 pounds of printed matter.

The basic fee to join is $50 bucks. They maintain “clubhouses” in Quito, Cusco, Lima, and Buenos Aires with the main headquarters in Ithaca, New York.

Their clubhouses have wireless Internet. Boo-yeah. Apparently members are welcome to hangout at the clubhouse all day everyday until they close.

They offer travelers information on useful topics and try to create “greater awareness of this continent through the diffusion of information and cross cultural interaction,” all that good stuff… but man, I hope they can store some sh*t.

Totally worth the fifty bucks right there.

The South American Explorers Clubhouse in Quito, Ecuador.

The clubhouses look pretty cool, like old colonial. Like you might go in and someone might be smoking a sugary sweet tobacco out of a cherrywood pipe, and you might hear them say “it’s good to own land, Stevens, I tell you it’s good to own land.”

I’ll be there using the high-speed Internet, away from all the kids playing Doom 57 in the Internet cafes.

Yes, sir. And they give d*scounts to bloggers who blog about them.

-J Roland Kelly

 

  • Share/Bookmark

© 2007-2010 J ROLAND KELLY All Rights Reserved