We have heard, “Wow, I did not know you repaired Mac’s here” countless times by Staff, Faculty and Students alike! We would like to introduce our Apple Authorized Tech to you, Ark Lemal, pictured above at his work station in the College Bookstore. He is a local self-employed Apple Licensed Technician who works through our Middlebury Apple Campus Store directly in the store at the Apple Desk area Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s in the afternoon providing immediate on-site repairs for 5 years now. He has 20 years of experience working with Mac’s repairing them and he knows the ins and outs of the Apple World by keeping on top of all Apple Service training and Mac updates.
On-site repairs mean that he works on them right here in the Bookstore with an average of about 3 to 4 days turn around time for diagnosing the problem, getting the parts in and installing/replacing, then fixing the Mac. If you were to call or contact Apple regarding any problem, they would either suggest you go to the nearest “Genius Bar” which is in Albany, NY or send the machine to them. This requires waiting for them to send the shipping box to you, you sending your Mac far away to be diagnosed and fixed before it is finally sent back, possibly with an empty Hard Drive (there goes all your work, photos, programs and saved data) to arrive back with a week or a two-week turn around time.
As you can imagine, having the Apple Authorized Tech right here on Campus in the College Bookstore is much less stressful for Faculty, Staff and Students. The time frame alone is better since most people cannot live without their computer for more than a few days. Having to deal with an empty Mac after all that wait would send most individuals over the edge then, from loosing all their saved data.
Ark always asks the Mac owner up front if they have backed up their computer, making sure they do not loose any of their data before doing anything that would require loosing it. He offers suggestions and generally tries to save money for the owner in any way he can.
So the next time you have an issue with your Mac, go to the Apple Desk in the College Bookstore.