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iMac, How many returns?

E

easepease

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 9, 2010
119
0
Colorado
Hey just was wondering if anyone is as unlucky as I am. I turned on my machine which is now the 6th iMac 27 inch i7 I have used and what do you know? Grey smudges all over the right side. I have gone to the apple store 9 times now over the last few months, I have had iMacs work for up to 35 days but no longer than that. I'd say on average I have gotten 2 weeks before some issue shows up.. my list includes blown speakers, yellow (really bad...), grey smudges 4 times, and one time I had both a blown speaker and the dog whistle as the same time...

Anyway I think we all know issues are overblown here but really... 7 imacs? Anyone else have worse luck?

Ill end with saying despite the hassle of carrying the huge box through the mall apple has made this quite painless and have been very helpful! But this is starting to test my patience...

This is the first mac of 6 others, mainly laptops, i have owned that has ever had an issue...
 
I only got through 4 before giving up. All with yellow screens. I dont know how anyone can put up with it. I wont be buying an iMac ever again.

For me, the experience was not painless. I had to argue with the Apple store over 2 days before they agreed to give me a refund on the 4th iMac. It was less than 24 hours old when i took it into the store. I was polite and was happy for them to try a new screen, which was wors than the other previous 4. I ended up having to phone Apple care infront of the 2 store managers to get my money back.

But on the bright side I ended up getting a 2009 Mac Pro.
 
sorry to hear that , a mate got more luck with his iMac number 6 which was flawless (still is )
thats why i recommend to anybody buying a iMac to get apple care , as all these little flaws (like blown speakers, dog whistle ,yellow tint ,...) may come later on iMac's who had been flawless when bought too and that could get really expensive , my mate did say he would not need apple care when he initially bought his iMac , because they are high quality products ,but after number 5 got returned and he got number 6 he bought apple care straight away

and yes its only a minority with problems , but for the people with the problems it doesn't help to know that they are just unlucky , as for them its a huge disappointment when they discover a problem on their pride and joy and have to drag it to the apple store to get a new one every couple weeks
ok its easy done by apple,still one of the best customer services out there , but i guess after 5 or so returns most people
don't believe any more if you tell them "sorry mate you just been unlucky"


so to the op , hope you got more luck with the next one
 
hoangcong said:
does it apply to the mid 2010 iMac as well?
Click to expand...

Ive heard less cases with the 2010 iMacs but of the 13 I have seen at work they all have the yellow tint issue.

My 2 cheap HP screens are far better than the iMac screens.
 
I bought mine 31 August this year. As with aliensporebomb, I set it up and, so far, I've experienced no problems. Probably because I haven't looked for them.
 
I feel sorry for you guys. It seems like you get hit with the bug and it stays.

For me, I bought a mid 2010 i7 2.93 on August 18th, 2010, plugged it in and have been doing fine since. Is mine "perfect"? I personally think so, I do not see any of the issues always posted here but I would suppose if you have been hit once or twice that you start to scrutinize everything and problems are found.

I knock on wood as I type this as this is a business machine for me in my own small business. I suppose if it went down I would run right to the Apple Store and "hope" it could be fixed on the spot. Every hour down is money out of my pocket.

troutspinner
 
Ordered my i5 on Black Friday 2009 and it's been perfect ever since (knock on wood).


(Coincidentally, it seems that the more recently a person has joined MacRumors forums, the more problems they experience with their Apple products.)
 
bobob said:
Ordered my i5 on Black Friday 2009 and it's been perfect ever since (knock on wood).


(Coincidentally, it seems that the more recently a person has joined MacRumors forums, the more problems they experience with their Apple products.)
Click to expand...

Maybe this is because after experiencing all the problems they google it and find a forum to discuss the issue......
 
mjsmke said:
Maybe this is because after experiencing all the problems they google it and find a forum to discuss the issue......
Click to expand...

Thus my use of italics on the word coincidentally (though I can think of other reasons in addition to the one you mentioned ;) ).
 
easepease said:
Anyway I think we all know issues are overblown here but really... 7 imacs? Anyone else have worse luck?
Click to expand...
That doesn't even being to come close to the issues iGary's had with Apple products over the years. You're def. not the only one defying the odds around here!
 
thanks ya im not really complaining. Just wanted to see what the consensus is. I guess it would be nice to be done with these issues, you think its worth a shot to ask if i can exchange for a different type of machine even after this one i have had I have had for over 30 days? I dont want to be rude, so if you guys think its a stupid thing to ask I wont waste the apple store peoples time.

Also ive always exchanged for a new imac... anyone had a repair? Did a screen repair work out alright? I wish i could ask them to throw an ssd in for me while they are replacing the screen ;) cause thats the only thing that this mac is missing!
 
Just received my iMac last month, no issues so far...and I tax the GPU & CPU quite heavily with my photo business needs. The computer itself stays on 24/7 specifically for iTunes and Mail app (it's quicker than my BlackBerry).

Oh, and it was a refurbished model. I had no problems buying refurb due to the fact that it's still got the 1yr warranty, and I know many colleagues that use iMacs (24" versions) day in and day out with no failures for many years.

Keep in mind that many "happy" customers rarely post...because there is no reason to, whereas the unhappy customers do post. The squeaky wheel get's the attention, you know?
 
In September I bought a used one that was originally purchased in June of this year, 2010. I haven't had any issues or complaints.
 
easepease said:
thanks ya im not really complaining. Just wanted to see what the consensus is. I guess it would be nice to be done with these issues, you think its worth a shot to ask if i can exchange for a different type of machine even after this one i have had I have had for over 30 days? I dont want to be rude, so if you guys think its a stupid thing to ask I wont waste the apple store peoples time.

Also ive always exchanged for a new imac... anyone had a repair? Did a screen repair work out alright? I wish i could ask them to throw an ssd in for me while they are replacing the screen ;) cause thats the only thing that this mac is missing!
Click to expand...

I dont think its a stupid thing at all. If you ask apple care and explain the issues you have had they mmight be able to do something. There is nothing stopping them refuning your machine or giving you a new one.

I had 2 repairs and 2 exchanges. Chose to have the repair because it was quicker. The Apple store quoted me 3 weeks for the repair so i complained untill they said they would do it in 4 days.
 
I am on my 2nd (London, UK applestore bought) - mid 2010 i3.

First one had the loud screen buzz/noise and it went back in 24 hours.

The current one also has issues but I am keeping it for now. It has dead pixels (5-6 of them or more) but they are on the bottom of the screen. HD is not silent but not too loud either. Yellow tinge is there but it is not severe so I am living with it...
 
so no there had not really been one Mac that did not have issues , only some issues had been minor other a bit more major , but if you had apple care and you've been lucky your Mac developed the fault within apple care and apple did sort you out quickly , sometimes they even offered repair extension scheme's , but then you had to ask about the scheme's as they avoided telling everybody about it to keep costs down, so people dont come up and did get their parts for example changed out of precaution , and then they stop the scheme when they think its getting to expensive now

iMacs problems started with the bad capacitors on the G5's, then stripey displays on the G5 and intels , failing PSU's , failing graphic cards , failing logicboards (not caused by bad cap's ) , but apple was always good to sort the problems out if they appeared under warranty or apple care

ok, i always did buy used Mac's but i now only buy Mac's which had developed the known faults under apple care and got the known faults already repaired by apple ! as buying a used iMac which had not developed the fault yet is a gamble and risky no matter if its a old g5 iMac or a newer intel iMac
as i once bought a iMac g5 which had been refurbished by 3rd party but not all bad caps only a few replaced obvious the ones who didn't get replaced started leaking

the iMac core duo i bought afterwards had the logicboard replaced , the display replaced , the psu replaced ,harddrive replaced , optical drive replaced all within the last couple month of apple care ,so basically brandnew inside and no doubt that it will work for the next two years now
 
I have trouble believing this crap. I have owned 3 iMac and all worked perfectly. I think it is these forums that cause most of this, no wonder Apple charges so much as anyone that goes through that many iMac needs to be told to look elsewhere and banned from the store.:mad:
 
All of these issues are kind of scaring me a bit. I know that people tend to find these forums when they have issues so the posts tend to be skewed towards problems at times, but it does have me a bit nervous. I have an iMac on the way and I really don't want to hassle with shipping replacements back and forth. I will mainly be using it for photo editing so yellow tints would be a big deal to me. Here's to praying I get a good iMac...
 
Stealthipad said:
I have trouble believing this crap. I have owned 3 iMac and all worked perfectly. I think it is these forums that cause most of this, no wonder Apple charges so much as anyone that goes through that many iMac needs to be told to look elsewhere and banned from the store.:mad:
Click to expand...


Well I've owned many macs for many years this is the first time I've ever had an issue... I had an ipod malfunction once but everything else from apple has been perfect... im just getting bad luck i guess

I saw another comment of someone who is worried about getting their new iMac. I wouldn't worry. The issues I am having seem to be out of the norm which is why i started the thread... I mean 7 imacs is crazy, but everytime the genius guys just say i must have bad luck... i mean i have always opted to exchange my imac in store cause i can leave with a brand new machine each time. I think now I will get this one repaired since its beyond 30 days old and then maybe I will be problem free.

Im not wanting to go through so many iMacs, its not like I enjoy lugging that big box through the mall... Im just happy apple is so helpful and have great service towards me even after all this... Also I tend to buy something new everytime i walk in with my imac... so they are getting money there at least :)
 
richpjr said:
All of these issues are kind of scaring me a bit. I know that people tend to find these forums when they have issues so the posts tend to be skewed towards problems at times, but it does have me a bit nervous. I have an iMac on the way and I really don't want to hassle with shipping replacements back and forth. I will mainly be using it for photo editing so yellow tints would be a big deal to me. Here's to praying I get a good iMac...
Click to expand...

Don't worry about it! :)

Obviously, bearing in mind how many iMacs that are sold worldwide, there are sure to be a few "rogue" machines. However, Fora such as this one are a magnet for people with horror stories - some of which I personally find hard to believe. As far as the so-called "yellowing" problem is concerned, judging from some of the screen shots used as illustrations, I wonder if the complainers eyesight is mainly at fault!! Don't forget you can always adjust the colour temperature of your screen.

I use my iMac for photo editing too and I'm sure you'll find the screen on the latest iMacs truly amazing for this purpose.

Just enjoy your new machine and don't believe everything you read!! :)
 
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