Mactivate

Look, it’s lovely that Mactivate can operate on my Mac with the full blessing of Cupertino HQ, but there’s drawbacks in having just one main authorised repair centre in Ireland.
Part of the problem is a lack of customer service. I’ve sent my own machines as well as office iMacs over to their Industrial Park location in Blanch and had to argue and cajole more often than just had the darn things fixed.
I give a lot of leeway to tech support professionals, but I’ve yet to have a smooth (or quick) transaction with them. In the case of my own machine as well as the office Mac I’ve had to ring up and remind them I was still waiting to get the computer back!
Until Apple opens an official store here in Ireland it’s slim pickings as far as getting your computer serviced. For being the only game in town, I give Mactivate three stars. For knowing the position they’re in, I’m holding back the last two.
**An interesting note for Apple product holders: even if the company’s 1-​year warranty has expired, your item is still covered under Ireland’s 2 year warranty law.

I have mixed feelings about mactivate. They’re located in a far off industrial park in Blanchardstown, but they do offer a courier service for € 15 each way for Dublin and € 20 each way for the rest of the country. If you do take advantage of the courier service you are at the mercy of the service and it’s impossible to do same day pick up normally unless you ring the office as soon as it opens. After waiting a long time for my computer to be returned and numerous phone calls on my part asking what progress had been made I was finally informed that my computer was fixed, but alas the courier had already left and I wouldn’t be able to get my computer for another 4 days as it was a bank holiday weekend. I decided I’d waited long enough to get my computer and decided to take a taxi and ended up spending € 50 on the return trip, as it was really in the middle of nowhere.
That said I’ve also dealt with them on other occasions and the service was much quicker and in one case they even brought me a new power cord within the same 24 hour period. They fix all kinds of apple products including ipods and if you ring the Apple service line it’s always the first company they recommend as a authorised service provider, and thus everything is covered under your warranty at no cost to you.