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Absolutely disgusted
- Thread starter gimmeiphone
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Amazing that we have all these horror stories, but Apple is sitting on $40 billion cash pile. Funny, no? Also they are the 2nd most liked company in America after some insurance company? Obviously 10s of millions of satisfied customers. How many horror stories from Gateway, Dell, HP, Compaq, eMachines, build-yourself, etc..? I bet several orders of magnitude greater.
Yeah Gateway out of business and Dell soon to be.
Yeah Gateway out of business and Dell soon to be.
i am satisfied too with my macs (see sig) the g3 and g4 even could be considered as bargains , and the old ones seem to last forever ,offer all i need from a computer , and to keep it that way i started piling spare parts ..i guess i have parts that will keep them alive and in good condition to 2050
as i did not need to replace anything , they just work ,
but the newer imacs once they are beyond apple care seem to self destruct , stripes on screens , not working screens ,not booting any longer and all sorts of faults
It's also possible that quality has gone down on newer product lines due to Apple's inability to scale quality control up to millions of units. Remember earlier in the decade, QC just had to deal in the 100s of 1000s. Much different when you up an order of magnitude. That's not an excuse. But Apple has enough built-in goodwill to overcome that problem if they address it in the coming 2-3 years. Just like the stuck gas-pedal incident won't do in Toyota, but they need to look after it.
I would suspect that the 3rd party builders of the machines need to build 'down' to a price to satisfy Apple's desire for a 40%+ profit margin is also a factor
But yet quality is apparently good enough for 90% of Apple customers, no? How many bad iMacs have been reported so far? A few thousand out of 500K shipped? That's not bad.
maybe, but I think anecdotally it's probably a much greater percentage, a thought enhanced by Apple actually coming out and acknowledging the issue publicly.
if it was just a few thousand, Apple would still be silent.
hmm thats not quiet what i was thinking , i didn't mean the quality issues on the new iMacs i meant that more generally ,
if you look up ebay you find loads of fully working macs build even before year 2000 , but you find loads of not proper working (just sold as faulty with numerous faults most times screens or still the bad cap issue on the g5 ) imac g5 and intel imacs ,
so in theory when the newer imacs come down to a price everybody could afford them (means after apple care ends ,so they are 4 years old )you are lucky if they still work for a couple month before you need to dump them on a landfill site, because the replacement screens for them cost far more then another used one
and there is a difference , at least for me if i pick up a imac g3 for example
for £50 and the screen would fail after a year ,or if i buy a used imac g5 for still around £300-400 and the screen fails after a year which is even more likely to happen then on the crt's
and to be fair thats not a apple only issue its general , nothing is build any more to enjoy for long
and its not a computer only thing
if you look up ebay you find loads of fully working macs build even before year 2000 , but you find loads of not proper working (just sold as faulty with numerous faults most times screens or still the bad cap issue on the g5 ) imac g5 and intel imacs ,
so in theory when the newer imacs come down to a price everybody could afford them (means after apple care ends ,so they are 4 years old )you are lucky if they still work for a couple month before you need to dump them on a landfill site, because the replacement screens for them cost far more then another used one
and there is a difference , at least for me if i pick up a imac g3 for example
for £50 and the screen would fail after a year ,or if i buy a used imac g5 for still around £300-400 and the screen fails after a year which is even more likely to happen then on the crt's
and to be fair thats not a apple only issue its general , nothing is build any more to enjoy for long
and its not a computer only thing
For some people, they WILL NEVER be happy with anything. As I have said earlier, I feel for anyone who's so distraught over the issue that they are actually suffering emotional/physical stress. This is never good and some people can't help it easily, I myself am very anal-retentive, so I know the feeling.
That said, OBSESSING over the issue is illogical and counter-productive and isn't going to help you. Not trying to be mean about it, just saying, all of us have much more important matters in life to tend to. All of us forget WE ARE LUCKY to own them.
I have sat and stared at my screen for an hour, I believe I can see just a slight bit of what's being reported, but I'm not sure. Even if I do have the issue, I'm NOT going to waste my time and effort to replace a perfectly good 27" iMac over something this petty. I realize for some there is a distinct problem that is REMARKABLE and the ISSUE ISN'T PETTY; these people should be reciprocated by Apple. How many of us really have this issue to a point where the issue causes a significant level of distraction?
I realize it's principle for most folks, just consider this. You may get another one only to get a worse one. You may get another only to get a slightly better one. You may get lucky and resolve your issue but I'm betting it will be the exception and not the rule.
The problem when looking for these things is that once noticed, the mind cannot undue what it has discovered.
You can either:
A) Return your iMac.
B) Exchange your iMac.
C) Buy another computer from another manufacture.
D) Live with it.
E) Live with it and be happy.
F) Live with it, be happy, be grateful.
I truly wish you all the best of luck.
I'm happy to say I'm a very happy 27" iMac owner, just a beautiful computer.
That said, OBSESSING over the issue is illogical and counter-productive and isn't going to help you. Not trying to be mean about it, just saying, all of us have much more important matters in life to tend to. All of us forget WE ARE LUCKY to own them.
I have sat and stared at my screen for an hour, I believe I can see just a slight bit of what's being reported, but I'm not sure. Even if I do have the issue, I'm NOT going to waste my time and effort to replace a perfectly good 27" iMac over something this petty. I realize for some there is a distinct problem that is REMARKABLE and the ISSUE ISN'T PETTY; these people should be reciprocated by Apple. How many of us really have this issue to a point where the issue causes a significant level of distraction?
I realize it's principle for most folks, just consider this. You may get another one only to get a worse one. You may get another only to get a slightly better one. You may get lucky and resolve your issue but I'm betting it will be the exception and not the rule.
The problem when looking for these things is that once noticed, the mind cannot undue what it has discovered.
You can either:
A) Return your iMac.
B) Exchange your iMac.
C) Buy another computer from another manufacture.
D) Live with it.
E) Live with it and be happy.
F) Live with it, be happy, be grateful.
I truly wish you all the best of luck.
I'm happy to say I'm a very happy 27" iMac owner, just a beautiful computer.
i dont know why are all so focused on the yellow tint , its the least obvious if you set the contrast and brightness a bit lower and the native whitepoint a bit higher ..or was it lower ...nevermind , you can make it nearly invisible for the untrained eye ,
the failing seagate drives or the failing graphic cards or failing psu ....all problems happening on these new imacs , and despite the fact i do not like big screens at all ,these little problems for example would concern me more ,and because non of these things are directly made by apple , its still apples responsibility to get things checked when the imacs come of the line , or maybe if they do they should set the tolerances lower , just like this thing with the deal pixels on lcd screens (and thats not a apple alone problem ) 7 dead pixels are fully acceptable , simple thing a dead pixel is a defect
who the hell are these people to tell what is acceptable for the customer , its like if toyota or any other car manufacturer would say you have to accept 7 dents in your car as its unavoidable when they get of the production line
the failing seagate drives or the failing graphic cards or failing psu ....all problems happening on these new imacs , and despite the fact i do not like big screens at all ,these little problems for example would concern me more ,and because non of these things are directly made by apple , its still apples responsibility to get things checked when the imacs come of the line , or maybe if they do they should set the tolerances lower , just like this thing with the deal pixels on lcd screens (and thats not a apple alone problem ) 7 dead pixels are fully acceptable , simple thing a dead pixel is a defect
who the hell are these people to tell what is acceptable for the customer , its like if toyota or any other car manufacturer would say you have to accept 7 dents in your car as its unavoidable when they get of the production line
All I can say is, if you don't like the policy or the reputation, don't buy the products. Don't give them your $2000 (or whatever amount you gave them).
the following statement is not a fact so... w/e
"so ok, I say I buy a Dell monitor, now going into it I know for a fact that the screen itself is produced by LG. So knowing this I should go yell at Dell because they should have triple checked each individual monitor times eleventy billion of them before it gets packaged and shipped?"
Toyota should have also walked outside and drove every single vehicle for at least 500 miles in city and highway conditions and maybe there wouldn't be recalls.
Personally I believe every once in a while chit happens, either deal with it and have faith your company is going to fix it or **** and go buy something else.
Simple, get your money back, learn from your "mistake" and go somewhere else.
"so ok, I say I buy a Dell monitor, now going into it I know for a fact that the screen itself is produced by LG. So knowing this I should go yell at Dell because they should have triple checked each individual monitor times eleventy billion of them before it gets packaged and shipped?"
Toyota should have also walked outside and drove every single vehicle for at least 500 miles in city and highway conditions and maybe there wouldn't be recalls.
Personally I believe every once in a while chit happens, either deal with it and have faith your company is going to fix it or **** and go buy something else.
Simple, get your money back, learn from your "mistake" and go somewhere else.
hm isn't checking each unit a part of quality control ? or better each part ?
sorry i worked in a quality control department of a company 20 years ago ,who made parts for VDO and some others (they still do) only little PCB's but each little board got checked and and got a little stamp on it, so we could follow up when the board was made and which shift and who checked it , ok due to the efford checking every unit we did not create huge profits on every unit made , but we had satisfied customers , and we had been proud to deliver the highest possible quality to our customers
i also worked at rolls royce doing quality control at the end of the production line before the cars got handed over to the customers , ok that might be one reason why i am so picky and expect high standards
and a company has two options to achieve this , either with raising the price per unit or lower the profit margin on each unit
and again it is not only apple that fails to deliver that kind of standard nowadays
its widespread , near every company today just delivers acceptable quality , the problem is not
the quality standard in the company's , its what they think should be acceptable quality for the customer ,
and the goal for every company should not be to satisfy the people who just accept everything because they like the product , the goal should be to satisfy even the most picky ones ,as that defines high quality products
ok i make a simple example of what i mean in case you did not understand that
say you build at home a product ,
you sell 10 units 3 customers are unhappy because the product is not perfect .
so now its your choice either to improve your quality and try to achieve that 10 out of 10 customers are satisfied
or you say 7 out of 10 satisfied customers is a high standard for me and i can live with 3 unsatisfied customers
sorry i worked in a quality control department of a company 20 years ago ,who made parts for VDO and some others (they still do) only little PCB's but each little board got checked and and got a little stamp on it, so we could follow up when the board was made and which shift and who checked it , ok due to the efford checking every unit we did not create huge profits on every unit made , but we had satisfied customers , and we had been proud to deliver the highest possible quality to our customers
i also worked at rolls royce doing quality control at the end of the production line before the cars got handed over to the customers , ok that might be one reason why i am so picky and expect high standards
and a company has two options to achieve this , either with raising the price per unit or lower the profit margin on each unit
and again it is not only apple that fails to deliver that kind of standard nowadays
its widespread , near every company today just delivers acceptable quality , the problem is not
the quality standard in the company's , its what they think should be acceptable quality for the customer ,
and the goal for every company should not be to satisfy the people who just accept everything because they like the product , the goal should be to satisfy even the most picky ones ,as that defines high quality products
ok i make a simple example of what i mean in case you did not understand that
say you build at home a product ,
you sell 10 units 3 customers are unhappy because the product is not perfect .
so now its your choice either to improve your quality and try to achieve that 10 out of 10 customers are satisfied
or you say 7 out of 10 satisfied customers is a high standard for me and i can live with 3 unsatisfied customers
the problem came with:
1. the shift to intel
2. the expansion of product lines
ironically, point 2 is exactly what steve argued against when he re-took over at apple in the late 90's. then, he trimmed the lines down to 4 things: consumer laptop and desktop, pro laptop and desktop.
13 years later we have both of those things, plus minis, loads of ipods, iphones and ipads.
Just of interest, in the uk, when you go through to applecare, the options on the phone are in this order:
press one for iphone
press two for ipod
press three for mac
This I think shows more than anything else where apple are putting most of their effort
I can't seem to find much of anything on these additional problems. Can you send me a link to something? I would much appreciate it. The PSU issue concerns me.
Thanks much.
just search here in macrumors plenty to find on all these issues
on one of the imac a mate got, one had a psu which just did not work he got it after returning a yellow tint one and after plugging in nothing happend.... doa
You are absolutely right.
I don't know about the OP, but I can assure you there is A LOT of people keep switching iMac or iPhone just because "someone on a forum told that it is faulty"
Kinda makes you wonder whether or not Apple are going to be able to maintain their current customer service policies as they continue to expand; they may need to start clamping down on spurious returns by advising people that they'll be expected to pay a restocking fee if there's deemed to be no/an insufficient defect.
Certainly, as an Apple customer, I wouldn't be wildly happy about Apple goods and services increasing in price to absorb the expense of these returns. Which is a very likely consequence.
Certainly, as an Apple customer, I wouldn't be wildly happy about Apple goods and services increasing in price to absorb the expense of these returns. Which is a very likely consequence.
in other words you think apple customers will in the near future have to pay more for the products and apple care ,
because of apples incompetence in quality control
i dont think that would be a good idea to get more customers ,but on the other hand i guess its partly the customers fault , because if you look around in the forums , the customers expect from apple a brandnew product every couple month , leaving no time for development or testing or improving existing products , as developing and testing a new computer is not done over night ...and not within month if you want to rule out any problems
what apple should do, and what other company's have done before , split their business in two parts
one for the gadget market like iphones ,ipods and ipads ,they could maybe call it apple igadgets
and one for the computer market like macpro,mini,macbook,imac ,they could call that part apple computers ,
then each part could independently focus on their products to improve them, this way it would give each branch of apple more time to get things right, and i bet everybody would be happy to wait a couple month longer if he gets a well tested products , yes i know you cant prepare for every possible fault as some take years to occur , but that way apple could keep the faults on a very low level
Haha that sounds kinda like me. But I really don't like my touch and they haven't had that many great new features which is why I haven't bought a new one and I think that Apple is releasing inferior mobile devices. iPhone 3gS now with a video camera..... really. And the the 8gb iPod touch 2nd rebaged as 3rd gen without any changes. Other than that Apple has great products (other than the mighty mouse and bad caps in some older models) their products are awesome. Especially the aluminum keyboard with numberpad (their best product).
That wasn't what I was getting at; although, now that you mention it, I agree with that also.
What I mean is that I've read on this forum of some customers returning as many as five or six iMacs; now, I'm not one of the customers in question, and I suppose it's possible that a person could be so unfortunate as to receive five or six defective computers in a row... but it's so, so, so unlikely. It's like winning the sh*t-sandwich lottery.
I believe, as has been suggested by others, that there's (for some people, not all...) a degree of preciousness going on here. I think some people are returning products that are functioning within reasonable limits. And I forget who it was who made the point earlier, but it's an excellent one so I'll repeat it; if you need to run a contrived technical diagostic to discover that there's something wrong with your screen then, for all practical purposes, there isn't anything wrong with it.
Because Apple pride themselves on being so customer-considerate, these people are being told, "certainly sir! Return it, and we'll give you a new one". I'd like it if Apple said, "certainly sir! Return it, and we'll have a look at it. If we can confirm the error, we'll give you a new one... but if we can't, you'll have to pay the P&P in both directions, or a restocking fee if you want a refund".
Otherwise, it's money out of Apple's pockets. And Apple is a business. It'll recover that money through another avenue; the most obvious of which is by putting up prices. Might only be £5 on every new Mac, or 50p on Apple Care, but it's still more. And we all pay plenty for our Apple products and services, as it is.
EDIT: By the way... if you're someone who has had five or six extremely, blatantly, unmistakably yellow and/or flickery screens, I feel for you and absolutely support your right to demand better from Apple. You're not one of the people I'm talking about, so please don't fly off the handle at me. The people I'm talking about will know who they are.