Just returned my 3rd defective MBA

[Denny Crane]

I had 7.....yes 7 macbook Air units! I ended up giving up on the idea of an Air. I'm sure i posted on here about my experiances.
All bar one unit had bad backlight bleed and there were a variety of build/QC issues including scratches....pitting....curved space bar.....poor lid fit.....wonky feet and weird patches (penny sized) of discoloration on the screen on solid colors. These units are produced by Foxconn for apple and all I can say is the QC there is pretty low. Apple design a desirable product at a premium price and then it all falls flat because they dont seem to have decent QC in place. Having had to return several ipod touches and iMac (20" white core2due) 2 macbooks 3 macbook pro's and now 6 24" iMacs I have to say I am stunned by what poor quality some people are willing to accept. We are not talking about cheapola Acer stuff here but products that are aimed at the top end of the consumer market. Don't get me wrong, I love apple's os and industrial product design but always dred opening a new product as most of the time I quickly find some sort of fault with it and have to return it. Sorry to go on but there seems to be a whole lot of bad apples out there.

Good Grief. I would have given up and bought a Dell after all of that.

 

[muldul]

That is super bad luck, i know may people with airs, and none of them have had any problems

 

[Sound Evolution]

Good Grief. I would have given up and bought a Dell after all of that.

I was really almost on the point to buy the new Envy or a Vaio Z and totally give up on Apple products. But then I can't live with Vista so in that way I have no choice..

I love Apple as I did for more then 10 years. But the QC is really an issue. It should not happen at all that a product with scratches or marks ever get into the box and get shipped to the customer. You pay for a new product and you expect an as good as new looking product. Not a product with scratches, scuffs or other imperfections.

I'm afraid to send back my 3rd MBA since you never know if the replacement going to be worser or better.

I think the chance on a perfect machine without any scuffs, Display issues, rotten trackbar, perfect aligned display hinge is only 50% but this is pure speculation of course. I think most people don't see or don't care about the scratches or imperfections.

Sometimes I feel like I am a winer and I expect to much. But then thinking again, You should expect at least a good build quality and no single mark or scuff on a almost $3000 premium brand product. I'm very satisfied by Apple customer support but I am disappointed in Apple lately. This going to be my 4rd macbook air...

I can't imaging Steve Jobs as perfectionist really accept those issues.

I don't put those message here to bash Apple or to make sensation. I do it out of hope that Apple pick up the signals and do something about it!

Here my mba issues

the first mba:
Stucked red pixel, Bended chassis, marks on teh front of the case (however the best display I've ever seen!)

the second mba:
Airport problems, A deep dent on the front corner of the case, curved display bezel on the bottom, Extreme fast core shutdown, bleeded backlight

the Third mba: No magnetic latch, Trackbar not always responsive, wrong aligned display hinge makes the display higher on the left side and leave a gap of 2mm. between the grey rubber and the case and therefor the magnetic latch don't work decent. slightly Miss formed case makes the usb door get stick out, Dent on the USB door, bleeding backlight. However the best MBA in core shutdown. Never had the core shutdown problems anymore and this unit is very silent!

What should I do send the last one back or keep it?

With kind regards,
Bas

 

[dibara2003]

well, i've been through 2 macbook airs and now i'm on a macbook pro because i couldn't stand all of the issues.

 

[Sound Evolution]

well, i've been through 2 macbook airs and now i'm on a macbook pro because i couldn't stand all of the issues.

only technical issues or also mechanical?

With kind regards,
Bas

 

[mhnajjar]

Originally Posted by dantay
I had 7.....yes 7 macbook Air units! I ended up giving up on the idea of an Air. I'm sure i posted on here about my experiances.
All bar one unit had bad backlight bleed and there were a variety of build/QC issues including scratches....pitting....curved space bar.....poor lid fit.....wonky feet and weird patches (penny sized) of discoloration on the screen on solid colors. These units are produced by Foxconn for apple and all I can say is the QC there is pretty low. Apple design a desirable product at a premium price and then it all falls flat because they dont seem to have decent QC in place. Having had to return several ipod touches and iMac (20" white core2due) 2 macbooks 3 macbook pro's and now 6 24" iMacs I have to say I am stunned by what poor quality some people are willing to accept. We are not talking about cheapola Acer stuff here but products that are aimed at the top end of the consumer market. Don't get me wrong, I love apple's os and industrial product design but always dred opening a new product as most of the time I quickly find some sort of fault with it and have to return it. Sorry to go on but there seems to be a whole lot of bad apples out there..

How did they allow you to return all of those machines?

The last time I tried to return my MBA, I had to wait for around 30 minutes after which the store manager came along with a return history blog and told me that I cannot return it without paying the restocking fees because I have already returned 5 machines .

I tried to explain to him how bad luck I have and that I did not even touch two of those machines which were unboxed and returned by the other store manager due to EXTREME body defects that shocked everyone in the staff and yet he was bitchin about it.

I had to have a friend return it .. unfortunately, Apple has bad QC and no respect for the consumer on that regard.

 

[NC MacGuy]

Luckily my first one was about as good as one could get. Not perfect, but acceptable. No problems as bad as the OP had though.

 

[queshy]

I had 7.....yes 7 macbook Air units! I ended up giving up on the idea of an Air. I'm sure i posted on here about my experiances.
All bar one unit had bad backlight bleed and there were a variety of build/QC issues including scratches....pitting....curved space bar.....poor lid fit.....wonky feet and weird patches (penny sized) of discoloration on the screen on solid colors. These units are produced by Foxconn for apple and all I can say is the QC there is pretty low. Apple design a desirable product at a premium price and then it all falls flat because they dont seem to have decent QC in place. Having had to return several ipod touches and iMac (20" white core2due) 2 macbooks 3 macbook pro's and now 6 24" iMacs I have to say I am stunned by what poor quality some people are willing to accept. We are not talking about cheapola Acer stuff here but products that are aimed at the top end of the consumer market. Don't get me wrong, I love apple's os and industrial product design but always dred opening a new product as most of the time I quickly find some sort of fault with it and have to return it. Sorry to go on but there seems to be a whole lot of bad apples out there.

Wow, I completely 10000% agree with you. +1!!

I find it's like a lottery...there seems to be ALWAYS something preventing the device from being 100% perfect. However, all my other PCs have usually been 100% perfect on the first try (except the OS...hah).
I think the problem stems from the cool designs Apple uses. They cram so much stuff into a tiny space and so you're bound to have some defects. it is undoubtedly harder to make a MacBook Air than a Dell Inspiron.

 

[Scott6666]

My conjecture is that Foxconn must eat the costs of the bad MBA's, not Apple.

If Apple had the financial burden of so many bad MBA's (i) we'd hear a lot more about it from Apple and (ii) QC would be a lot better by now.

As long as Foxconn eats the costs, Apple can just shrug and give out another one.

BTW, there are a lot of quality complaints about the iPhone 3G as well which is also made by Foxconn.

Who makes the MacBook Pro?

 

[Sound Evolution]

Luckily my first one was about as good as one could get. Not perfect, but acceptable. No problems as bad as the OP had though.

What is not perfect? Tell me the imperfections? You should not accept anything less then 100% perfect in construction and chassis for a premium product

With kind regards,
Bas

 

[NC MacGuy]

What is not perfect? Tell me the imperfections? You should not accept anything less then 100% perfect in construction and chassis for a premium product

With kind regards,
Bas

Small imperfections on the finish of top and left of keyboard and didn't lay perfectly flat. That was the extent of it and I fixed the small wobble and put an invisible shield on it so not a big deal. Got some dents now so the finish flaws seem pretty insignificant. Operation-wise, it's run as good as one would expect.

 

[Sound Evolution]

Small imperfections on the finish of top and left of keyboard and didn't lay perfectly flat. That was the extent of it and I fixed the small wobble and put an invisible shield on it so not a big deal. Got some dents now so the finish flaws seem pretty insignificant. Operation-wise, it's run as good as one would expect.

Why you didn't return it? Wasn't you surprised to see this from an brand new Apple product?

With kind regards,
Bas