Apple Support Is Terrible

Well, today I decided to call Apple support for some help with my Bluetooth mouse. As it turns out, my 90 days of complimentary support have run out, or so they say. I should have had one more day, but they wouldn't budge. Nevermind I have never called them, not even once, for anything. All she would say is that I could look on the support site online. Well, I have done that over and over, and found nothing.

The good news is though that I did solve my mysterious Bluetooth mouse problem, and I am going to post the solution here for all the world to know, in spite of Apple's reluctance to tell me. And after you read the solution, you will be just as amazed as I was that the support person would not tell me to check this one thing.

So, by now, you are definitely wondering what I did to solve this problem with my Bluetooth mouse. But first, for the unknowing, here's a quick recap of what happened prior to it not working:

I purchased my Mac, complete with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and happily used them for about 3 months.. Maybe a little less. Tiger OS X 10.4.2 update comes out. I update. After which, my batteries die. The update finishes, and I reboot. I replace my dead batteries with new ones. The mouse syncs up, but now it doesn't track. Only the button clicks are acknowledged.

So, that brings us back to tonight. I started thinking. Could it be the batteries? Nah, I just recharged them. The Bluetooth status shows they have plenty of juice. But on a whim, I try another set of rechargeables. This time, something odd happens. The mouse syncs up with the computer, and like before, only the click is recognized, but this time, the optical led light is no longer flashing. Hmm... that's odd. So, let me try something radical. Let me pull 2 batteries from my Bluetooth keyboard. They are, afterall, much more used. They are still the same ones that it came with over 3 months ago. I put them in, turn on the mouse, and...... IT WORKS!!!

OK, so what gives? It turns out, as the astute electrician will note, rechargeable batteries only have 1.2V each, while the alkaline batteries it came with have 1.5V each. So, apparently, I cannot use rechargeable batteries in my mouse, and I am going to assume I cannot use them in the keyboard either.

So, for the past few weeks I have been suffering with a wired USB mouse when I could have been enjoying the Bluetooth mouse.

Now, what I want to know is this: Why couldn't Apple support tell me, make sure you have 1.5V batteries. That doesn't seem like a big deal. Surely they could have told me that. I mean, they did give me the website for online support. Doesn't seem like a far stretch to at least give the end user that bit of info to try, and it not cost them for a support call.

Just for the record, this information cannot be found on Apple's support site. You read it here first! And it didn't cost you anything. On second thought, that'll be $150. ***smiles***