really Bad experience with apple accessibility While Erasing and Reinstalling OS X

By techluver, 4 January, 2016

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hello,
So I just called apple accessibility, and after working on some things they suggested that i do a complete reinstall of my mac. Of course, we were able to erase the mac ok. So my Mac HD is completely empty. They had me go into the recovery partition, and try to install the OS. It was getting hung up on the "Signing into app store" part of the process. After about 15 minutes of discussion, we figured out that it was because I'm on a web authenticated network. Well then we tried over and over and over to get back into the recov partition, but they must have screwed something up in there while they were erasing the mac HD, and so now I have no recov partition, no OS, and a dead mac. I hope not, but I may have to buy an entire new mac ($1000) because of their ineptness. If they had asked me if I was on a web authenticated network at the beginning I could have told them. Now I have a broken mac, with no Mac HD, and no way to install it. They suggested me going to an apple store, and they didn't seem to get it when I explained about transportation issues. They wouldn't give me any other solutions. They said internet recov wouldn't work because of the authenticated network. All in all, their mistake now leads me to have to spend a ton of money that I don't even have right now on a new mac, although this one is still good on hardware and only 2 years old. I, of course, am extremely not pleased with them.

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Comments

By Missy Hoppe on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 23:46

Hi! It sounds like you had a really bad experience there, but on the other hand, I can't imagine how you'd find yourself in this situation. I have an external hard-drive that boots me into OSX snow leopard. It's not the latest and greatest, but would be enough to get up and running. I think I also have a back-up drive with mountain lion on it; again, I could boot from that drive if need be. Hopefully you can find a solution to your problem; replacing the computer seems rather extreme under the circumstances. There's got to be a way to fix things, but I would respectfully suggest that in the future, you get a cheap little external drive to back up OSX, just in case. It wouldn't have to be anything fancy; just something to boot from, and maybe restore the operating system.

By Darrell Hilliker on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 23:46

It seems Apple has procedures for providing support when an Apple Store is not available. They should be able to utilize those procedures to provide support. If your computer is under warranty or Apple Care, then you are entitled to support.

Remember, if you are not satisfied:
1. Ask for a supervisor.
2. Escalate, escalate, escalate!

It is important to remember that, from the technician's point of view, the goal is to follow procedures and get you off that phone as quickly as possible in order to move on to the next call. If you make accomplishing those goals contingent upon helping you properly, you may have a good chance of getting a better outcome.

Let us know what happens.

By Michael Hansen on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 23:46

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hi Techluver,

Here are some ideas, in no particular order:

1. Do you have access to another Mac--from friends, family, work/school colleagues, etc.? If so, you might consider trying to download a copy of El Capitan and make a bootable recovery disc.
2. Have you given any consideration to sending your computer to Apple for repairs, if getting to an Apple Store isn't an option? If that wasn't offered to you as an option by the Apple Accessibility representative you spoke with, perhaps try calling back and politely ask that your issue please be escalated so that such a repair could be made possible?
3. Is it at all possible for you to get to a location with a non web authenticated network, so you could use the internet recovery?

Above all, I definitely think it won't be necessary for you to buy a whole new Mac just because of this issue. Apple's customer service is usually very good, so here's hoping they can help you find a workable solution.

By KE7ZUM on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 23:46

I'm quite surprised you didn't make a bootable recovery drive. I have had nothing but good experiences with apple accessibility. You probably chose the wrong drive when recovering. There is a bug where it will read two drives, both with the same name. You had to choose the bottom one not the top one. This bug has been around since probably yosemite or so. I should know as I compiled a set of autio tutorials on the OS and found the bug in the middle of the recording.

The next time you are near a mac running El Capitan follow this guide and you should be good to go. Also to authoneicate from the recovery disk, once you are booted in to there, hit vo m twice. If they fixed the crash bug you should be able to put in your user name and password.

Good luck.

By Justin on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 23:46

Hi,
Yeah, I'm also surprised you don't have a bootable backup. I have a seagate external 1TB drive that I use to clone my internal drive with super duper. Personally I love cloning as, let's say the internal drive fails for whatever reason, then I can install a new drive. Then restore the old drive, including software, to the new drive and it's good to go!

By KE7ZUM on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 23:46

I started doing that with CCC. Just bought the app last month and love it. I have my Olympus flash card and internal Memory as well as my mac's drive being backed up. It rocks. I also have a time machine partition although I'm thinking of abandoning it as it works, but is not to my liking.

Well, as soon as you get your mac up, I would suggest CCC. It's easy to use and the dev wants to hear feedback about the app as he knows there are some issues. He knows voiceover quite well actually.

hope that helps a bit.

By techluver on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 23:46

OK.
So I didn't know i needed a bootable recovery drive or anything. all I had was a time machine backup.
In the end someone face timed me, and the problem was that there was a choose the network screen getting in my way. once i did that and authenticated i was able to use internet recovery.
But that's not the point; the point is that apple techs should have these sorts of situations coverred. Noone told me to make a bootable drive, noone told me to do any of this.

By KE7ZUM on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 23:46

The choose network screen can be accessed with vo f2 twice, You probably need to hit fn to access this.

As for recovery drives, I just googled on how to do it and followed directions, this when I was a novice mac user. I also practiced reinstalling the os a few times as well. The reason no one told you to do this is it's expected. When I was learning windows in 2002 for the first time I was looking for back up solutions, and I didn't even know how to turn on why computer let alone do what I needed to do. And if if you read the license agreements, it plainly says they are not responsible for any data loss, it is your responsibility to back up, to make a bootable disk, etc. I've read and written contracts like that. Sucks but you have to cover yourself and indemnify those responsible.

Good luck

By Chelsea on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 23:46

For future reference, CCC can make bootable disks for you. I've been grabbing blank flash drives and doing that since around Mountain Lion or so. Not to sound unsympathetic to your situation, but the previous poster is right. That's one of the many reasons I love my Mac; painless backups and install disks, both of which I carry with my laptop. If you are really paranoid or have been burned by getting devices stolen, I'd recommend an online backup solution as well.