(slightly off topic): In early June, I finally broke down and decided to join the masses at the San Francisco coffee shops with their brightly glowing uber-sleek Apple laptops. I've never been happy with the Win operating systems, but sometime after college (circa 1995), I was persuaded to switch to it (from Mac) b/c all of the software I needed to run only ran on Win.
But the tides are changing. All of the cool kids are back on Mac. And to boot, it now runs all Win software.
Having run very low on cash over the last year, due to writing the book for very little $$, I decided to lease. So I made an inquiry to PowerMax and also to Apple directly. I never heard anything back from Apple. A few days later, PowerMax connected me to an Apple leasing specialist.
I filled out more paperwork. I sent them copies of my IRS Form Schedule C for the past 2 years. I sent about 5 followup emails. Over 30 days later, I still have no shiny new Mac. I still have not been approved (although my credit rating is near 800). They cannot find my Schedule C!!
I'm turning to trusty Craigslist instead. Very frustrating. Is it b/c Apple is the only company that sells the Mac that this service is so poor?
As a point of comparison, I also applied for a lease to Dell (for a new monitor). I was approved for up to $5000 immediately online.
Apple's products may be beautiful, but their sales system is sub-par.
