Who Thinks of Time in “Business Days?”

I think someone slipped a red pill in my cheerios…

I don’t know about you, but the unit of time “business days” has as much meaning as if you said to me, “I will have that ready for you in about 67hdHysuR%dsa87s*jkL days.

I took my dead iBook to the Apple Store for repair on September 9. The “genius” told me it would be ready in “5-7 business days”.. something a interpreted in “about a week”.

I let 9 days go by (I really need it back without a recent enough Quicken back up). I went to the Apple support site and followed the link for “check my repair status”. This looked reasonable as I had a repair number on my receipt. The instructions read:

A case number or dispatch id is required in addition to your zip/postal code or Serial Number. If you provided your full (5+4) zip when you set up your repair dispatch, you must use the full zip code when searching as well. Canadian postal codes must be seven characters (three space three).

I believe this is written in some far flung dialect of English. I have no dispatch number or case number, and my repair number n my receipt goes no where. So it falls back to phone call. Finally I talk to someone who punches it up on the computer; they tell me it is still being repaired, and I should call back Sept 20 if I have not been contacted. “Why cannot I use the web form?” Apparently anything brought into a store is not in the same system, so there is no web service. I must phone call again for a status check.

Tuesday night passes. I call today.

it’s still at the repair. It should be sent back “maybe Monday”. I said, that is almost 17 days from when I took it in, not “5-7 days.”

“Oh those are business days, weekends do not count, and your computer arrived on Thursday, Sept 15”.

So when someone says it will be ready in “5-7 business days” it really has no connection to the customer’s time frame, it is all the business’s.

IN these net enabled, 24-7, get it delivered from one-click order own Amazon in 2 days, this old school approaches to time… well, it bites. “Business days” have no frame of reference, so tell me n real units of time how long it will take.

I took 5 red pills. Mmmmmmmmm