Right, just to say this is a vent and to gauge the opinion of you guys on here. It is also worth bearing in mind that I am in the UK where consumer retail protection seems to be better than in the US. As well as the obligatory 12 mth guarantee, a defective item is considered to have been faulty at point of purchase if the fault develops within the first 6 mths.
I don't have Applecare, again under UK law there can be up to 6 years remediation for faulty products.
so...
I have a 20" Alu iMac, it is the current latest version. The superdrive has always been temperamental. 6 or so times since I had it the system profiler will show 'no burning device' a reboot has always fixed it. Anyway last Tuesday night the superdrive stopped working altogether, no noise, sounds like no power, nothing.
reset PRAM, SMC, run the hardware test from an external drive. No change, the hardware test said no problems.
the following morning I rang apple telephony support and explained my problem, the guy put me on hold for 8 minutes and then cut me off.
rang back and got a lady who advised me that I would have to take it back to the Apple store, but that she couldn't book me a appt. at my nearest one (Sheffield) as they were closing in a week for a refurb. She said I could walk in, wait and hope, but that they wouldn't pick the computer from me as I didn't have applecare.
So I drove to Sheffield (30 miles) waited and was seen by Will. He confirmed the borked drive, but couldn't take it for repair as they were 'stacked out with warranty work' (not a surprise) his only option for me was to drive another 50 miles to the Manchester store and book it in there. When I asked why I was having to drive about with a £1000 4mth old computer when the fault wasn't my problem he couldn't or didn't answer.
so, I drove home and rang Apple Customer Care in Ireland. Initially there was a wait time 'in excess of 15 minutes' (not a surprise) and so I called back later when the wait was only 6 minutes!
Spoke to Dave, he was sympathetic but explained there was very little he could do. In the end he offered to pick the computer up from me and so I gave him all my details. That was last wednesday.....
I've yet to hear anything from anyone...
I don't understand how Apple can offer service that is so bad...
So, when the computer gets fixed, I'll flog it, and the iPhone. I've already cancelled the order I placed for 4 computers for my business, and as my MobileMe is up for renewal in 3 weeks.... guess what!
so, to anyone else with issues I say good luck. The store was rammed with unhappy customers bringing stuff back.
is my experience normal?
I don't have Applecare, again under UK law there can be up to 6 years remediation for faulty products.
so...
I have a 20" Alu iMac, it is the current latest version. The superdrive has always been temperamental. 6 or so times since I had it the system profiler will show 'no burning device' a reboot has always fixed it. Anyway last Tuesday night the superdrive stopped working altogether, no noise, sounds like no power, nothing.
reset PRAM, SMC, run the hardware test from an external drive. No change, the hardware test said no problems.
the following morning I rang apple telephony support and explained my problem, the guy put me on hold for 8 minutes and then cut me off.
rang back and got a lady who advised me that I would have to take it back to the Apple store, but that she couldn't book me a appt. at my nearest one (Sheffield) as they were closing in a week for a refurb. She said I could walk in, wait and hope, but that they wouldn't pick the computer from me as I didn't have applecare.
So I drove to Sheffield (30 miles) waited and was seen by Will. He confirmed the borked drive, but couldn't take it for repair as they were 'stacked out with warranty work' (not a surprise) his only option for me was to drive another 50 miles to the Manchester store and book it in there. When I asked why I was having to drive about with a £1000 4mth old computer when the fault wasn't my problem he couldn't or didn't answer.
so, I drove home and rang Apple Customer Care in Ireland. Initially there was a wait time 'in excess of 15 minutes' (not a surprise) and so I called back later when the wait was only 6 minutes!
Spoke to Dave, he was sympathetic but explained there was very little he could do. In the end he offered to pick the computer up from me and so I gave him all my details. That was last wednesday.....
I've yet to hear anything from anyone...
I don't understand how Apple can offer service that is so bad...
So, when the computer gets fixed, I'll flog it, and the iPhone. I've already cancelled the order I placed for 4 computers for my business, and as my MobileMe is up for renewal in 3 weeks.... guess what!
so, to anyone else with issues I say good luck. The store was rammed with unhappy customers bringing stuff back.
is my experience normal?