i'm in japan, and i can't find anyone to call in japan for support in english. i bought an imac g5 rev. b in june which has noisy fans, and recently dark lines have appeared on the screen as though the frame holding the screen up is pushing on it or otherwise distorting and darkening it. i've tried emailing support@apple.co.jp, support@apple.com, and even steve@apple.com. i never received a human response from any of them, but i did receive one automated response asking me to check apple.com/support. i did that, and it mentions several DIY repair parts, but has NO WAY to get them. everything keeps redirecting me to this stupid troubleshooting assistant which has nothing relevent to my problems, when i click "other issue" it directs me to a web chat, but when i enter my serial number i'm told i don't qualify for support anymore (but the mac is still under warranty).

this is very frustrating. can't email? can't use apple.com/support? no english support in japan... can i call apple in australia and ask them where to take the mac to have the screen replaced, or order DIY replacement parts?

i can't believe apple doesn't respond to support emails, only offers this lame troubleshooting page, and charges you money to do a web chat if your problem isn't in their simple list of issues.

you can see the screen issue here, but it's not very clear.

http://mrmachine.net/crypt/other/ima...distortion.png

sometimes there is a second line below the first one, and i think i noticed one near the bottom of the screen, as well.

When I lived in Japan and my pbook dvd drive broke, I rung apple japan.. got english speaking support dude who told me what to do...

in my case I had the computer couriered to apple they fixed it and couriered it back.

all too easy.

they only time I spoke japanese was when I said "domo" to the courier.


EDIT - Spelling & Typos

Kuma can no doubt help me with this one, but if you get a purely Japanese speaking operator, the line
"Gomen nasai, Nihongo wakaranai" will help you out. This translates to "I'm sorry, but I can't speak Japanese". I'm trying to think of the phrase to ask if there is anybody there who speaks English...

Nope, but "eigo o wakarimasuka" will ask your operator if they speak English, however. God, I've been out of school for 10 months and I've forgotten my years of Japanese. I think I should take a refresher course next semester.

Yep - I just hit em with the old "I don't speak japanese, do you speak english?" (as exocet above pointed out).
If they don't they will find somebody who will.

Your other option.. and I recommend you do this regardless of your computer.... is go to the Applestore in the Ginza.. (assuming you live near Tokyo).

That place rocks.

I realise lugging an iMac around is a bitch... but if you live close you can take it their plonk it down at the service section and somebody will fix it... or organise to fix it.. and there are some ppl in there who speak english.

Overall I find having a Mac in Japan is best.. because of the English Support (not to mention cmd space to rotate my languages.

cmd space does rock. but windows lets you type english temporarily if you hold shift for the first letter i'll try calling apple to get an english speaker, shouldn't be too hard. i also managed to order a fan kit from depot.info.apple.com, but i had to use firefox 1.5rc1 to do it! their form is broken in safari. weird.