I'm a break it down for you Mac people who need to know where to go to get your fix on. Everyone in the Mac world here in Korea knows these guys are the shiznit. And since I'm somewhat familiar with the fixit scene (because I'm hard on my computers and I had this bad habit of dropping my 4G iPod on the bus when I fell asleep on the long rides), please take my words as someone who knows where to take his broken Apple products. Here's the link to an English-language list of the appropriate service centers for your products and the contact info for them. And here's my personal roundup of where's good and not.
Top Notch!!!
JR Mac Center in Chongno, downtown central Seoul. Right next to the YMCA building (ask to go to the Chongno YMCA by taxi, or get out Chonggak station (look for the YMCA building on the subway area map, or just as a passersby "YMCA?" and they'll tell you. Then, after you walk back into the alleyway a bit is a building called the "Jeil Building" (제일 or 第一). Basically, ask your way around once you go into the alleyway and look around on your right. Just plan to ask someone. Note that the "Je-il" is written in oh-so-easy-to-read Chinese characters, so make a note of what they look like here:
第一
It's written right up on the building. Once you find the top floor (8th, I believe), you're headed for Mac Nirvana. Their number is (02) 733-9631. I'm making it sound harder than it is to actually find, because it's actually very easy to find and remember once you go. It's just that asking along the way the first time 'round will help.
Top Notch!!!
The Yongsan service center. They're good, but busy and curt, and hidden away in one of the dark caverns of the Yongsan Electronics Market building (Etland). I can't even begin to describe how to find them off the top of my head, so I'll make this a destination point on my Yongsan podcast. But you might want to give them a call at Daehwa Computer (02) 717-4088.
Pretty Good
The old big Apple store – the one with the big sign – was the former location of C&B System, which was the actual name of that store, which has since moved to a nearby building in an office that's now nearly impossible to find. I actually found it once, but then promptly forgot where it was the next time. And I know Chungmuro well, people. But they're worth going to if you can track them down. Their old location was a destination in my old Chungmuro podcast, which is now defunct in terms of this store's location. Give them a call – their number has been updated and is the correct one: C&B System (02) 2279-9133.
Avoid Like a Sick Chicken in an Avian Bird Flu-Infested Southern Chinese Province
Dugotech (02) 2273-7820. Let me count the ways I would gladly napalm this most recent (around one-year-old) service center, also in Chungmuro and more prominently placed than C&B. But don't let that tempt you. If you want to be given one of the coldest treatments ever given to a customer, by a Receptionatrix whose irritation with having to deal with you – or even take customers – is readily apparent, and who answers every question with "fill out the form," then be my guest, masochist. If you're into the Korean female dominatrix, she definitely worth a visit. Fake a Mac problem and try to ask her a question about it (she'll just scowl at you for even trying), then when she tells you to fill out a form, ask to see a tech guy in person. She might just pull out a whip and go at you from there – or she might just as well scowl again, give a loud, affected sigh, and begrudgingly yell, "Oppa!" and return to clicking away at what is probably MSN Messenger on her computer.
Even though she's like 27 or so, she's sorta like Roz in Monsters, Inc., but with less charm, if you can imagine that. I can't even tell you how mean this woman is, and Suddenly Susan agrees with me, because she had a totally similar, horrible experience with her. During my recent repair, I actually asked the JR Mac Center tech guy – Mac Jesus – about her, and he smiled and simply said, "She's nice to people she already knows."
OK – I'm glad Receptionatrix is working the front counter. And the tech guys were not on the ball, either. They're slow – and I'm not just saying this in the pick-up-your-step kinda slow, if you know whaddhamean. The one time I went in there to make a set time to take my computer in to have repaired early in the morning, it was a disaster. I showed up at 9 the next morning, as promised, and the tech had not shown up yet. The other guy said it was the rain and he was held up. From the look of the worker's surprised expression, it seemed more like the other tech had just forgotten. I gave up on that one and went to Chongno, stuck with them ever since. But, since I'm a glutton for punishment, I went there when I need a replacement power adaptor (thought they might have it on hand somewhere, since they are also a retail outlet). Receptionatrix said, "You have to fill out the form." Grrr. Whippppp! Ooh! Yes, ma'am, may I have another?
Anyway, they're in the second alleyway if you walk straight out from exit #5, where you'll turn right and walk in a bit. But honestly, I'd rather be picked apart by a pack of crazed woodpeckers on meth than ever visit that place again. And they didn't even finish Suddenly Susan's Mac wasn't even repaired properly! She had to take it to Yongsan to get it properly fixed...In any case, do avoid DugoTech like the bubonic plague. Unless that pack of methed-up woodpeckers and whips are your thing, of course.