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How many times did you call Applecare within first few months of purchase?

M

Mars2010

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 19, 2010
42
0
I bought my first Mac in July (27" iMac) and I've called three times. Once because of shut down issues, another because it would wake up randomly from sleep, and today because it would not boot up properly (no startup chime and it would loop from white screen with apple to just black). Anyway, it eventually started up, but the Applecare person told me to take it in to get checked out since it was clearly a hardware issue.

This is starting to concern me. We have two PCs which may be crappy now, but when they were new, we had zero problems for at least the first couple of years. When I called Applecare, I certainly wasn't expecting to have to take this computer in so soon after purchase. I am buying a new laptop in the next couple of weeks and was planning on a MBP...now, I'm not so sure.

Has anyone else had these problems, and is it normal for Macs to have these type of glitches? There are no other issues, ie yellow tint, hard drive noise, etc...
 
Zero. I haven't had any major problems and I can troubleshoot most of the issues by myself or with a little help from fellow members. Sometimes there are issues but generally they are just fine.
 
Week old 27" i7 iMac - 4 times in the last 3 days over random shut down issues.
 
I've had zero issues after having my iMac a few weeks now. I've had very, very few issues with all the various Macs I've had for the last 15 years, so your problem I think is a very unusual one for a Mac. I wouldn't let it discourage you from buying a Macbook Pro.

You might have just got a Lemon, you could ask to have it exchanged maybe.
 
No, and it isn't normal for iMacs to have loads of problems all the time; if there is, you need it looked at.
 
You can call AppleCare for any question whatsoever, so people could've called even if they just had a general question, such as how to connect their printer to their Mac over a network.. That's why AppleCare is awesome, they'll help you with anything like that ;)
 
TheBritishBloke said:
You can call AppleCare for any question whatsoever, so people could've called even if they just had a general question, such as how to connect their printer to their Mac over a network.. That's why AppleCare is awesome, they'll help you with anything like that ;)
Click to expand...

He's hit the nail right on the head, I call AppleCare whenever I have a general question I can't figure out. Believe it or not almost all of my questions have been answered faster and more accurately with AppleCare than on help forums. In short it's a very smart thing to buy.
 
rkaufmann87 said:
He's hit the nail right on the head, I call AppleCare whenever I have a general question I can't figure out. Believe it or not almost all of my questions have been answered faster and more accurately with AppleCare than on help forums. In short it's a very smart thing to buy.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I think the OP's threat title is too ambiguous and should be reworded.
A better thread title in the case would've been:

How many times did you call Applecare for problems within first few months of purchase?
 
Once, and I've bought 11 Macs for my family and myself since 2004. So that's less than 0.1 times per Mac.
 
I have called three times in 13 months with my iMac. First time was because of the wired mouse trackball getting stuck. They offered an easy suggestion to fix but I had already decided to get wireless mighty mouse.
Once I purchased it a few months later the bluetooth on the unit wasn't always being recognized so I called again but no suggestions given. So I exchanged the mouse and got the Magic Mouse. No problems anymore except for eating batteries.

Third call was when I recently upgraded to Snow Leopard and couldn't get iTunes to recognize all my music. They helped wonderfully and explained how the system worked. All three times really had nothing to do with the actual machine having any problems. I have found it beneficial. I had to get used to the idea that I could not just send an email in to a company and wait for a response. I don't always want to talk to somebody but I have found the process beneficial.

I have only had the iMac get stuck in the grey startup screen once when the Apple never came up but a quick internet search yielded instructions on safe boot and never had the problem again.

Apple is still a computer company and there will still be issues. I love that there have been so few issues since switching from various manufacturers of PC. If they suggest to take it in, then do so. If anything you might learn more about how it works or get the problem solved.:apple:
 
Hellhammer said:
Zero. I haven't had any major problems and I can troubleshoot most of the issues by myself or with a little help from fellow members. Sometimes there are issues but generally they are just fine.
Click to expand...

Same here. I have 4 Macs starting in 2005, all are still working and never needed to call AppleCare or even the Genius bar. I do my own troubleshooting or search the forums here.
 
I think I got a dud Applecare technician. I called the recommended repair place to check the length of the queue before me. I was able to talk to the actual repair specialist and he talked me through some possible fixes....AND managed to get the system sorted out. He thought it was strange that the Applecare guy didn't go through any diagnostic scenarios with me before telling me to take it in. We repaired something on the hard disk, so I don't know whether it will happen again...who knows, this could be a temporary fix.

Of the three calls that were made, one tech was exceptional with his help and the other two...not so much.
 
I've never called AppleCare, ever.

Never needed to.

Been a Mac user since 1987.
 
Too many! I should have made a list of questions because by the time I would hang up I'd already have another question. I should mention I was making the transition from pc to Mac.
 
Applecare

I can honestly say that I've always bought Applecare for my computers, but have never had the occasion to call. I get most of my answers from the Apple forum and from this forum. I've never had to replace anything or have anything repaired. :)
 
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