PSA-MobileMe Problems

OK-
If you are unlucky enough to be a current mac.com member, you have received the countless emails hyping MobileMe.

I have the answer to the problem you are going to have if you try and renew your account through MobileMe's website. When you try to give Apple money, guess what? They won't take it. OK- enough drama.

I needed to renew my subscription to continue my mac.com email and website access. I logged into MobileMe which is now the carrier for mac.com subscribers. I entered in my credit card number and got the spinning wheel of death. The card never went through. I tried a second card, it didn't go through, either. I tried logging into my account on my PC, I tried using FireFox instead of Safari. No joy.

As I am trying all these different avenues, I'm getting emails from MobileMe saying my account has been de-activated and I need to renew. Duh.

I went to the Apple store at Aspen Grove and talked with an associate there who explained that lots of people are having problems with renewing accounts with MobileMe. He wasn't quite positive about what exactly was happening with MobileMe, but in true salesman fashion, he sold me something. While in the store, we logged into my account and tried again, unsuccessfully to renew my account. He suggested purchasing another activation key at $99 and try it right there in the store. We did. It didn't work. He refunded my money and told me to contact MobileMe support chatline. I was told to be prepared to wait a little when I get into the LiveChat.

How about 3 hours?

Waiting.

Waiting with their little minute counter that counts down how many minutes you have left to wait with the ratio of posted minutes equally about 3.5 minutes to every 1 of theirs. My count the FIRST time I entered LiveChat? Fifty-three minutes. Total time waiting? Three hours.

Did the technician help me? Yes and no. We were online trying different things to make the system take my payment (Imagine, having a hard time giving a multi-million dollar company money. Something's wrong with that picture).
I wasn't able to get the payment through, but she did tell me that the auto-renew feature built into Macs was the problem, and if she de-activated the feature it should take my payment. In 24 hours.

I tried again this morning, and still luck. Back online again, this time is was 3.5 hours of waiting. This technician told me that the problem was the auto-renew feature and since it was de-activated, I need to go back to Aspen Grove and purchase another activation key and try again. Back to Aspen Grove.

The associate who sold me my new activation key suggested I try to renew there at the store, and this time it worked. Done deal.

Here's the skinny. If you are unlucky enough to need to renew, check out the FAQ on the MobileMe page. There is a lot of interesting information on there. They are extending customer's accounts at no charge, even though the emails say something else. Ignore the emails. Pay attention to the FAQ. Unfortunately, the last time that page was updated was July 16, 2008, so good luck. This is the information age, right?

You will have to go into LiveChat and ask them to de-activate the auto-renew. You will have to go buy a new activation key in person, online won't work. At least the associate gave me MobileMe for $69 instead of $99, but I had to do some complaining to get that to happen.

Apple realizes that MobileMe is a pig's ear that'll never be a silk purse. We've come to expect a better product from Apple so disappointment is even more bitter.

Dealing with this felt like what most PC users experience when dealing with Windows Vista every single day. Ugh.