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Free iMac (kinda)

heywoodja

heywoodja

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 14, 2005
61
0
Milpitas, Ca USA
Here is a feel good story for you,
Let me start by saying I have been a Mac faithful since the Apple II+. We bought my son an 24" iMac for school mid 2008 (no Apple Care). All was well until around 2010 when the video card failed. He spent over $400.00 to get it repaired. Within the 90 day repair warranty it failed again, same problem and Apple fixed it for free. Then it failed a third time and Apple fixed it again. At that point he was tired of this happening so we helped him buy a MacBook Pro and gave my son $400.00 (the amount he paid for the original repair). Well all was well again, then the computer took another $#!t and this time I brought it down to the Apple store. All I was asking was for Apple to apply the original cost of the repair to the purchase of a new iMac and I would be happy. Let me say that I was very surprised when the Genius dude walked out with a brand new 27" iMac and told me it would be free (all I can say is thank you lemon law) So now I have a bigger monitor, more memory, larger hard drive and now an SD card slot..Needless to say, my son was pissed that he didn't stick it out one more repair attempt..Oh well, my younger son and daughter loves their new computer..BTW I bought the apple care this time. peace:D :D :)
 
I had a similar experience - Apple ended up replacing my 17" macbook pro about a year out of warranty with the latest and greatest. Very impressed with their attitude to customer service.
 
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Awesome story! The 27" iMac is a great computer. Glad it all worked out.
 
heywoodja said:
Here is a feel good story for you,
Let me start by saying I have been a Mac faithful since the Apple II+. We bought my son an 24" iMac for school mid 2008 (no Apple Care). All was well until around 2010 when the video card failed. He spent over $400.00 to get it repaired. Within the 90 day repair warranty it failed again, same problem and Apple fixed it for free. Then it failed a third time and Apple fixed it again. At that point he was tired of this happening so we helped him buy a MacBook Pro and gave my son $400.00 (the amount he paid for the original repair). Well all was well again, then the computer took another $#!t and this time I brought it down to the Apple store. All I was asking was for Apple to apply the original cost of the repair to the purchase of a new iMac and I would be happy. Let me say that I was very surprised when the Genius dude walked out with a brand new 27" iMac and told me it would be free (all I can say is thank you lemon law) So now I have a bigger monitor, more memory, larger hard drive and now an SD card slot..Needless to say, my son was pissed that he didn't stick it out one more repair attempt..Oh well, my younger son and daughter loves their new computer..BTW I bought the apple care this time. peace:D :D :)
Click to expand...

I have had this same problem with the video card going on my late 2008 iMac. Im going to speak to the genius bar on monday so hopefully i will have the same outcome. Wish me luck :p
 
Trowa said:
I have had this same problem with the video card going on my late 2008 iMac. Im going to speak to the genius bar on monday so hopefully i will have the same outcome. Wish me luck :p
Click to expand...

I got the same result! 27 inch iMac is on the way :)
 
I have the exact same issue. iMac8,1 (Early 2008) with the Nvidia 8800 GS. However, I do not live within 200 miles of an Apple Store. :( No Genius Bar for me.

I took mine to an AASP (Apple Authorized Service Provider) and they explained that they can repair the machine (replace the graphics card with an identical one, like you all had done), but that they cannot ever authorize a replacement iMac. However, their repairs are logged and tracked by Apple, so they suggested calling Apple direct after repeated failures and did tell me that the "unspoken" policy is 3 repair attempts.

With all these failures I'd think Apple would realize what's going to happen and go ahead and just give me a free computer instead of having me bring it in 2 more times and spend time/labor/parts fixing something that seems doomed to fail.

Anyway, I'll be sure to keep you all updated in case someone else is in the same situation & is without an Apple store nearby.
 
This is one of the ancillary benefits of buying from Apple. Because their hardware's over-priced and carries such a healthy profit margin, they can throw a little cash around to keep their customers happy.

Remember when the 'yellow screen' fiasco hit the early 2010 iMacs? I know several people who were given free iPods after having to return their second machine - and they didn't even ask for them.

And then there's the educational discount. I got 12% off my iMac, and I'm told that the discount's as high as 14% on the laptops. They can only afford to be so generous to the student demographic because they're making so much money out of everybody else.


Steve Jobs. Computing's Robin Hood...?!

... okay. Maybe that's going too far.
 
glad you're happy, im not. A genius dropped my iphone 4 when i first bought it and cracked the glass, he went on to tell his superior that I DROPPED THE PHONE! and refused to replace it. Obviously there were witnesses and everyone(except the employees) helped me make my case and they finally replaced it after an hour-and-a-half.
 
filfortugno said:
glad you're happy, im not. A genius dropped my iphone 4 when i first bought it and cracked the glass, he went on to tell his superior that I DROPPED THE PHONE! and refused to replace it. Obviously there were witnesses and everyone(except the employees) helped me make my case and they finally replaced it after an hour-and-a-half.
Click to expand...

That surprises me. Although I don't always care for the dress-code, and I once had an employee sell me a Mini by exaggerating its capabilities ("oh yes, sir... it can do that... and that..." - it couldn't), I tend to find the Apple Store folk a very pleasant bunch. I've been to five outlets, and it's been consistently the case.
 
On february 6th, I bought a new 27" iMac. Three weeks later, I'm having problems with kernel panics. Took it to genius bar, said it was the third party RAM, went home, powered on, same thing. Packed it back up, went a second time. Escalated the problem to "an engineer." went home and erased HD and reinstalled OS X. same errors. Brought it back a third time and the genius suggested it could be a hardware problem. Left it with them, waiting to hear back. I'm plenty capable to troubleshoot, but on a 20 day iMac? I don't think so..

Anyway, my question to you guys, do i need to "raise hell" to get some sort of hookup? Speak to a manager and voice my concern or will it be obvious that this is a bunk situation for an iMac so young? Really, I just want the thing to work, but hookups would be nice.

I'll post update when i get some news..
 
Last edited:
jabbawockee said:
On february 6th, I bought a new 27" iMac. Three weeks later, I'm having problems with kernel panics. Took it to genius bar, said it was the third party RAM, went home, powered on, same thing. Packed it back up, went a second time. Escalated the problem to "an engineer." went home and erased HD and reinstalled OS X. same errors. Brought it back a third time and the genius suggested it could be a hardware problem. Left it with them, waiting to hear back. I'm plenty capable to troubleshoot, but on a 20 day iMac? I don't think so..

Anyway, my question to you guys, do i need to "raise hell" to get some sort of hookup? Speak to a manager and voice my concern or will it be obvious that this is a bunk situation for an iMac so young? Really, I just want the thing to work, but hookups would be nice.

I'll post update when i get some news..
Click to expand...

Nahhhh, even when you have the right to raise hell, don't. All you need is one quick talk with the store manager, and your problems will be solved. They'll most likely replace the machine, but if they dont, explain the them how an expensive premium computer keeps failing within 20 days, and it shouldn't be.
 
I agree flipster, I won't come in and raise hell. I'm really not even mad, just disappointed. I'll post when I get some news. Thanks
 
You are a great father. That would be the best gift my dad ever gave me! At least he still has the MacBook Pro at the end of the day.
 
jabbawockee said:
On february 6th, I bought a new 27" iMac. Three weeks later, I'm having problems with kernel panics. Took it to genius bar, said it was the third party RAM, went home, powered on, same thing. Packed it back up, went a second time. Escalated the problem to "an engineer." went home and erased HD and reinstalled OS X. same errors. Brought it back a third time and the genius suggested it could be a hardware problem. Left it with them, waiting to hear back. I'm plenty capable to troubleshoot, but on a 20 day iMac? I don't think so..

Anyway, my question to you guys, do i need to "raise hell" to get some sort of hookup? Speak to a manager and voice my concern or will it be obvious that this is a bunk situation for an iMac so young? Really, I just want the thing to work, but hookups would be nice.

I'll post update when i get some news..
Click to expand...



I hate it when the "Genius" folks out there blame us customers for our hardware failing !!

Why i buy a Mac? Because it's a unity of HARDWARE and SOFTWARE. They sold it as ONE .. now when something fail or not right, they just blame the hardware because it was made by third party company .. etc .. etc

What kind of reason is that? If i'm going to blame 3rd party company, I'd buy custom build PC rather than Mac

If something is wrong with your Mac, tell Genius out there .. as a Genius you should know Mac is a piece of hardware along with the software. They built as ONE and don't blame it because certain hardware was built by other company .. That sound like bunch of $#!T to me :mad:
 
Got a call from apple store last night. They thought it was the oem memory, it was not. He said it was the logic board. Picking up brand new replacement after work, I'll let you know if any "gifts" are added.
 
This story just shows how great and helpful Apple customer service is, glad everything went ok.

Except from that iphone 4 story, what an arse.
 
Good story! Had the same thing with my 4 year old Macbook; it was replaced with a brand new unibody Macbook :) I was very happy!

I have a problem though..

I purchased an 21.5" iMac about 6 months ago. 1 month ago, the upper left corner began showing severe grey spots and banding. Of course, i will have this repaired/replaced but i'll wait 'til the new generation comes out; at least before the end of my 1 year warranty period. I'll then try to arrange myself a brand new next gen imac :)

Check the spots:

content
 
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