iMac freezing during boot

[Muttley1900]

I cannot be without my computer for very long, so I will be complaining to Apple re. not fit for purpose, how should I approach this?

The way I would do it is -

1) contact the store and ask to speak to a senior manager - I would then tell them that you are not happy that a product you bought from them, which is x time old and cost y is obviously not "fit for purpose" and that it is 'it is not of satisfactory quality' and as your rights under the "Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended)" you want them to

a) either repair the imac at no cost to you (i would also suggest that they should give you a "loan" machine if it will take sometime to repair) or

b) Give you a refund*

* point about refunds is that they have the right to deduct a % of the price of the goods according to how long you have had it - so I would suggest that the imac should last 6 years, you have had it for two years so they should give you 2/3rds (66%) of the original price as a refund (minimum) - don't suggest this to them, let them work it out or offer you a full refund.

2) If you have no luck with the "local store" then you need to write to head office (ask the store for the address) and I would suggest that this will need to be recorded delivery.

3) To help you with what to write etc I suggest you contact Consumer Direct - Practical Consumer Advice http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/. There is a phone number on their site and they will help you with the letter contents etc.

Hope this helps, and keep us posted on the results.

J.

 

[Jamsen]

I went into the store last Wednesday to pick up my machine and have a chat with a manager. The sales assistant I spoke to first seemed shocked at my predicament of having to pay £660 to get my 2 year old iMac repaired, he was more then happy to get the manager for me.

Once the manager came out I explained my disappointment with the product and the quote to fix it without a written diagnosis. They wanted to preform a single component isolation test in the first place so I asked why they couldn't swap out the logic board and test with a known working one to properly diagnose the problem. He said they couldn't just try a £400 part in my machine to see if it worked incase it didn't because then they couldn't resell the part... I'm a little confused with this as if I gave the OK for the repair and they did the swap and it didn't work they are in the same predicament, why should I be expected to cover the cost?

I ended up just saying i'll take my home in it's current state and asked for the customer services contact details, he replied "there isn't on, each store acts as an individual outlet".

So I'm no further with my problem, where can I write to, does anyone have an address for the UK Apple HQ?

Thanks

 

[BobbyCat]

... having to pay £660 to get my 2 year old iMac repaired ...

Absolutely shocking story, I've never seen a Mac going so bad after such a short period of time. Usually this could happen after, say, 5 or 6 years, and then again, it's very rare.

I'd be quite upset if I were in your shoes, and somebody at Apple should help you out somehow, but you definitely don't want to spend so much to fix this iMac. How about asking if you can buy another one, used or refurb, with a substantial rebate? Providing you have some cash in reserve of course.

Then you could try to call Apple Store by phone and tell them your story, explaining you need a good deal to compensate for this nightmare. If the guy doesn't help, wait 10 minutes and call back, see if you get another salesman who's more willing to help.

One thing for sure: this is NOT standard lifetime for a Mac.

 

[iStudentUK]

I ended up just saying i'll take my home in it's current state and asked for the customer services contact details, he replied "there isn't on, each store acts as an individual outlet".

So I'm no further with my problem, where can I write to, does anyone have an address for the UK Apple HQ?

Thanks

You can write an email, gives you written evidence. On the right of the page half way down (http://www.apple.com/uk/contact/) there is contactus.uk@euro.apple.com.

If you get no luck being polite send them I would send a "notice before action" which warns them they have 7 days to offer a solution or you start proceedings. After 7 days file a small claims on moneyclaim.co.uk, there is a small deposit which you get back if you win (~£50).

It is NOT difficult or scary, it is NOT normally in a court- you sit in a room with a judge (and not one of the big scary wig ones!) and give a short and honest summary of what has happened, then he decides. If nobody from Apple shows up 90% chance you win by default anyway. Can take just 5 minutes!

To be clear- you have a 2 year old iMac, Apple sell 3 year Applecare so 3 years is a reasonable amount of time to expect it to last. All you have to do is convince the judge that you didn't cause the damage, eg take lots of photos of how good the iMac still looks and say you haven't done anything silly with it. In other words you are trying to say Apple is in breach of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) s.14(2).

I'm not a lawyer, so check for yourself, but the UK has very good consumer protection laws. Use them!

 

[Muttley1900]

So I'm no further with my problem, where can I write to, does anyone have an address for the UK Apple HQ?

Well looks like you've been given a hell of a lot of great advice on how to progress this and who to contact and what websites to visit etc etc (only short of offering to go in the shop with you).

So are you any closer to getting this sorted out, considering you said you can't be without you imac for long?

 

[Jamsen]

So are you any closer to getting this sorted out, considering you said you can't be without you imac for long?

Thanks for your follow up. I have been in contact with consumer direct and I will be writing a letter to Apple's Uxbridge address. I'll keep this thread updated on any correspondence I get back from Apple.

Also I have got a loan machine from work for the time being.

 

[panzer06]

Apologies in my haste, its a 24" 3.06GHz and well out of its 1year warranty!

Does this iMac have the nvidia 8800GS? There have been numerous reports of failures in these systems most likely related to the nvidia GPU problems.

Your case is stronger if it's the 8800GS. Even though Apple hasn't officially acknowledged the issue in iMacs, anecdotal evidence suggests they too are failing.

Cheers,

 

[Jamsen]

Does this iMac have the nvidia 8800GS?

Yes it does. How is my case stronger? is Apple more likely to agree to a repair?

I though the problem may be the GPU as I was seeing a lot of video corruption.

 

[panzer06]

Yes it does. How is my case stronger? is Apple more likely to agree to a repair?

I though the problem may be the GPU as I was seeing a lot of video corruption.

If you search the threads here I know I've seen people get these replaced out of warranty. Also, there's a nvidia settlement in the states, don't know about UK but these are known defective products. Might help you with the UK regulators as well.

Cheers,

 

[Muttley1900]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_6; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.19.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.3 Safari/533.19.4)

So are you any closer to getting this sorted out, considering you said you can't be without you imac for long?

Thanks for your follow up. I have been in contact with consumer direct and I will be writing a letter to Apple's Uxbridge address. I'll keep this thread updated on any correspondence I get back from Apple.

Also I have got a loan machine from work for the time being.

Any update with this? I'm shocked that Apple haven't sorted this out yet! Terrible behaviour from them.

J.

 

[panzer06]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_6; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.19.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.3 Safari/533.19.4)



Any update with this? I'm shocked that Apple haven't sorted this out yet! Terrible behaviour from them.

J.

This is especially annoying considering all the issues related to the 8800GS. These are just a few recent threads regarding the problems.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1076509/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/934814/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/970649/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1071318/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1085213/

Cheers,

 

[Jamsen]

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Any update with this? I'm shocked that Apple haven't sorted this out yet! Terrible behaviour from them.

J.

I have just received a letter this morning from Apple apologising about the delay (2-3 months). They have stated that this matter has been summarised into a case number and that I have to call Apple Customer Relations as "This (my) letter concerns an issue that we (they) feel would be better handled in a phone conversation"

I am going to call them this weekend, any ideas what they might say, or anything I should prepare for?

Andrew