I bought an iMac i5 4850 last year, a month or so before the refresh. I bought it refurbished upon many recommendations (basically the whole internet) at how great Apple refurbs were.
About 6 months in, I would boot OSX up to a blue screen. The screen would last about 5 minutes, and then OSX would finally come around. A minor annoyance, but still--- I paid for a fully-functioning computer, right? So I took it in to Apple.
They ended up needing to replace the Logic Board, based on their testing. They replaced the Logic Board, which took about a week.
I got it home and all was well--- for two days. I was transferring songs to my iPod when suddenly the system just shutoff, all the way. And it wouldn't turn on.
I waited overnight and tried turning it back on. It did come back on--- for 5 seconds. And then died again. Back to the Apple store.
I'm not sure of all that needed repairing, all I know is that it wasn't just the power supply. They fixed that and something else, and got it back to me in 6 days.
I got it home (again) and all was well (again), for two weeks. However, I wasn't using it very heavily during that time. It was working, thought, and I was again happy. However, yesterday, as I was transferring photos to my iPod Touch, it shut down about 30 minutes in. Just like last time. However, this time, it turned right back on and so I thought it might be a fluke--- but upon transferring photos again, it died again.
I downloaded a couple of programs to monitor the temperatures--- it said my CPU was running at 100*C. Uhh... yeah, that's the boiling point. I downloaded a fan-controller program, and turns out the CPU fan wasn't spinning at all; looks like it was blown. Yep--- back to the Apple store.
This time I wasn't very happy. This is three times in a span of less than two months, contributing to significant downtime. I told the guy straight that I didn't blame him or Apple but I was sick of it breaking and I needed a computer that worked--- one that wasn't a lemon. He told me he would see what he could do and went into the back for about ten minutes.
When he emerged, I could see he had a brand new iMac in his hands. He told me that they usually never do this and that they won't do it again, but that he was going to give me a brand new computer.
Not only that--- it was a current-model i5. So, I paid $1699 for my computer 8 months ago, refurbished, and due to my troubles Apple gave me an updated, brand new $1999 model. On top of that, he said not to worry about the magic mouse and keyboard--- I could keep them as extras. So I have two of each.
Nobody--- and I mean NOBODY--- has customer service like this anymore. Apple gets a bad rap for being a company that wants to make money, but with customer service like this, I can't ever see myself buying a computer anywhere else.
Props to Apple.
About 6 months in, I would boot OSX up to a blue screen. The screen would last about 5 minutes, and then OSX would finally come around. A minor annoyance, but still--- I paid for a fully-functioning computer, right? So I took it in to Apple.
They ended up needing to replace the Logic Board, based on their testing. They replaced the Logic Board, which took about a week.
I got it home and all was well--- for two days. I was transferring songs to my iPod when suddenly the system just shutoff, all the way. And it wouldn't turn on.
I waited overnight and tried turning it back on. It did come back on--- for 5 seconds. And then died again. Back to the Apple store.
I'm not sure of all that needed repairing, all I know is that it wasn't just the power supply. They fixed that and something else, and got it back to me in 6 days.
I got it home (again) and all was well (again), for two weeks. However, I wasn't using it very heavily during that time. It was working, thought, and I was again happy. However, yesterday, as I was transferring photos to my iPod Touch, it shut down about 30 minutes in. Just like last time. However, this time, it turned right back on and so I thought it might be a fluke--- but upon transferring photos again, it died again.
I downloaded a couple of programs to monitor the temperatures--- it said my CPU was running at 100*C. Uhh... yeah, that's the boiling point. I downloaded a fan-controller program, and turns out the CPU fan wasn't spinning at all; looks like it was blown. Yep--- back to the Apple store.
This time I wasn't very happy. This is three times in a span of less than two months, contributing to significant downtime. I told the guy straight that I didn't blame him or Apple but I was sick of it breaking and I needed a computer that worked--- one that wasn't a lemon. He told me he would see what he could do and went into the back for about ten minutes.
When he emerged, I could see he had a brand new iMac in his hands. He told me that they usually never do this and that they won't do it again, but that he was going to give me a brand new computer.
Not only that--- it was a current-model i5. So, I paid $1699 for my computer 8 months ago, refurbished, and due to my troubles Apple gave me an updated, brand new $1999 model. On top of that, he said not to worry about the magic mouse and keyboard--- I could keep them as extras. So I have two of each.
Nobody--- and I mean NOBODY--- has customer service like this anymore. Apple gets a bad rap for being a company that wants to make money, but with customer service like this, I can't ever see myself buying a computer anywhere else.
Props to Apple.
.