My tragic newbie Mac experience *sniff*

[woodchucky]

hihi all,

i'm a lifetime Windows user and know very little about OS X. a Mac virgin. a Mac dummy. a Mac n00b as it were.

but thanks to this forum, many questions and concerns i had were answered and i was able to come to a decision.

Jan 6: i place the following order:

including taxes, the damage came to $3000 Cdn. Yep you read that right. the Canadian $ is worth nothing now so it's $3000 up here for the lowest model 27" iMac (albeit with upgraded 2TB Fusion drive, and extended Apple care warranty). so yeah, kind of a big deal... especially when considering what $3000 can get in the PC world (anyway, let's not start on this.. i made this point to give context as to where i'm coming from).

Jan 14, i finally receive a shipping confirmation from Apple and it says final delivery will be made on the following Monday, Jan 18. --Yay!

Jan 18, all day, i am waiting with much anticipation at home for the delivery, but it never comes. i look at the UPS tracking information and there seems to be some problem with the shipping.

i call Apple, they don't know what's going on, but said they will contact UPS and give me a shipping update within 24hrs.

well, fast-forward 5 days later and this is what happens:

my iMac shipment is bounced back and forth between Canada and California. a fragile computer in a box, being tossed and handled as you can imagine from cargo plane, to trucks, to warehouses.

today, Jan 23, around noon, i pick up my iMac shipment from the UPS store. at 4pm i open the shipment and unpack my iMac. wow, the packaging was beautiful and brilliant. i carefully put away the packaging and place the iMac on the new computer desk i had purchased for it. plug in the power cord, and press the power button and.... wait for it... .... wait for it.... .... .... wait... ... ... wait... .. .. ...um... ... ... ... .. .. i hear computer sounds... ... but how come the screen isn't ON?..

screen is black. no flicker of light at all. nothing. i hear a whirring sound and then look to see it's the fan noise and after minutes, still black display. the fan is pretty loud and blowing lots of air out the back, but why? the screen is black, nothing is happening.

time to call Apple tech support. and after 30 minutes on the phone and trying different things like unplugging power cord and wait for a while, and holding down various combination of keys right after powering on, the display is still dead black.

poor Apple techie, his embarrassment at such an unfortunate and awkward situation comes through the phone as he does his best to segue into the Apple Store appointment for me on Monday Jan 25. (mind you, i was not at all angry, just disappointed)

my very first Mac ever, arrives 5 days late, and then doesn't work. **punch line rim shot drum sound**

not a great start, and i hope it's not a portent of things to come, lol.

welcome to the Mac world i guess.

-w

p.s. on the bright side, it was a cinch to pack the iMac back into it's box. i do like the box.

 

[Cape Dave]

Not iMac related. That amount of shipping will kill anything

 

[phrehdd]

You have no Apple retailers in your area or Apple Store?

Yeah, shipping can be crazy at times as I have had other items (non Apple) go through similar and some with disastrous results as well.

 

[Pclaesen]

Omg all that waiting and then... I hope they can fix the issue for you quickly.

Off topic:
We had some issues with UPS at work too. We're a Belgian based company and we sent a thermal camera to the US for repair in November 2014. Package got delivered. Nine months later, we received several invoices for re-addressing the parcel, delivery to UPS warehouses etc.
After calling and email for over 3hours, it seemed the label with our barcode (and the entire box) was re-used...

 

[woodchucky]

Not iMac related. That amount of shipping will kill anything

not a direct iMac issue per se. but part of my Apple purchasing experience, nonetheless.

the iMac was shipped in a big brown box.

that box didn't have any labels indicating which side was up or that it was fragile. nothing at all to indicate that this box should be handled with care.

to the many UPS hands that it passed through, it was yet another 33 lb. box to toss around.

in hindsight, the package should have been handled as if it were a large pane of glass!

a couple of 5 cent "Fragile" stickers could have saved a $3000 computer.
[doublepost=1453619006][/doublepost]

You have no Apple retailers in your area or Apple Store?

Yeah, shipping can be crazy at times as I have had other items (non Apple) go through similar and some with disastrous results as well.

yeah, there's one about a 20 minute drive from me. i will be returning my DOA iMac there this Monday.
[doublepost=1453619554][/doublepost]

Omg all that waiting and then... I hope they can fix the issue for you quickly.

Off topic:
We had some issues with UPS at work too. We're a Belgian based company and we sent a thermal camera to the US for repair in November 2014. Package got delivered. Nine months later, we received several invoices for re-addressing the parcel, delivery to UPS warehouses etc.
After calling and email for over 3hours, it seemed the label with our barcode (and the entire box) was re-used...

thanks, me too!

wow that is straight up internal fraud. i avoid UPS like the plague if i can. they charge ridiculous "broker" fees at the border and their service is horrible. i was home all day waiting for my iMac delivery, yet the UPS guy didn't knock or ring my door bell. he just came and put the UPS shipping notice sticker on my door and left. -_-

 

[scaramoosh]

Trust me you don't want fragile stickers on anything, I've worked at warehouses when I was younger and they're excuses for people to throw the box around more. The warehouses I've worked at for these delivery companies were shockingly bad, the people working there just don't care, it's a **** job with minimal pay. On top of that you're forced to work long hours with hardly any break, you're not guarantied work either, the more hours you're willing to do, the more they'll want to keep you. So everyone is in a bad mood, you're treated like ****, barely any breaks and so you take it out on the packages. All the time whenever you saw a Fragile sticker, you'd get people kicking it around.

Maybe things have improved now, but I constantly get boxes that are badly damaged, I know exactly why. A lot of the time if your package has been "lost", it's just another term for it being too badly damaged.

That isn't even going into the delivery drivers, how they don't get paid unless they make a delivery and they cannot get home until they make them all. I've had external HDDs just thrown over my fence so they can make the delivery...


These are low paying jobs, most people there are super dumb, whenever they had big groups of people to hire over Christmas, you'd have so many retards. Like people who cannot even count or read, you'd have people taking hours just picking up a few things. They wouldn't last long, but these aren't jobs for the smart...

 

[maflynn]

OP, while I can definitely feel for your pain, but that's not an apple issue, but the shipping company, and for some reason it kept getting bounced back and forth. Hopefully your replacement will come a lot faster and damage free

Trust me you don't want fragile stickers on anything, I've worked at warehouses when I was younger and they're excuses for people to throw the box around more.

Well then you work at a really crappy company because I have friends and family that work at UPS and FedEx and both have a high degree of professionalism and pride in their work. I'm not saying nothing goes wrong there, or there isn't any bad eggs, but from my own personal experience and from my friends and family. If it says fragile, it usually means it will be handled with the appropriate care.

 

[cardfan]

I sometimes thing it's magic when I order stuff on the web and it comes along in 2 days or less. That's still pretty incredible. There's that occasional damaged box but most often they're fine.

That's an unfortunate experience for the OP. Hope they get it right. Perhaps Apple will do something to make you less disgruntled about it.

 

[santaliqueur]

In November, I configured a maxed out 5k iMac, and had it shipped to my house. The screen was completely dead, all I got was the OS X startup chime and then nothing. Took it to an Apple Store, they couldn't do anything because they don't stock machines with SSDs. Had to ship it back and get a new one, took about 2 weeks. It sucked, but the computer that sits before me is glorious. Best of luck.

 

[roadkill401]

OP, while I can definitely feel for your pain, but that's not an apple issue, but the shipping company, and for some reason it kept getting bounced back and forth. Hopefully your replacement will come a lot faster and damage free

Actually you are wrong. You have contracted Apple to deliver you a working computer. They hired UPS and they are the sole people who can register a complaint with UPS. if Apple didn't give themselves any coverage insurance then that is their fault. You as the customer have ZERO responsibility for the shipping.

 

[Ludatyk]

In November, I configured a maxed out 5k iMac, and had it shipped to my house. The screen was completely dead, all I got was the OS X startup chime and then nothing. Took it to an Apple Store, they couldn't do anything because they don't stock machines with SSDs. Had to ship it back and get a new one, took about 2 weeks. It sucked, but the computer that sits before me is glorious. Best of luck.

It's unfortunate to be in that position, but if I had a situation where I had to order a new iMac after the first one was screwed up... I would had gotten it next day shipping and have Apple front the bill.

Apple pride itself in having a great customer experience... That shouldn't have happened although unfortunate situation arise time to time, but Apple could resolve it.

 

[woodchucky]

Trust me you don't want fragile stickers on anything, I've worked at warehouses when I was younger and they're excuses for people to throw the box around more. The warehouses I've worked at for these delivery companies were shockingly bad, the people working there just don't care, it's a **** job with minimal pay. On top of that you're forced to work long hours with hardly any break, you're not guarantied work either, the more hours you're willing to do, the more they'll want to keep you. So everyone is in a bad mood, you're treated like ****, barely any breaks and so you take it out on the packages. All the time whenever you saw a Fragile sticker, you'd get people kicking it around.

Maybe things have improved now, but I constantly get boxes that are badly damaged, I know exactly why. A lot of the time if your package has been "lost", it's just another term for it being too badly damaged.

That isn't even going into the delivery drivers, how they don't get paid unless they make a delivery and they cannot get home until they make them all. I've had external HDDs just thrown over my fence so they can make the delivery...


These are low paying jobs, most people there are super dumb, whenever they had big groups of people to hire over Christmas, you'd have so many retards. Like people who cannot even count or read, you'd have people taking hours just picking up a few things. They wouldn't last long, but these aren't jobs for the smart...

good points. i had no idea it could be that bad. another harsh reality of life, sadly. -_-
[doublepost=1453648442][/doublepost]

OP, while I can definitely feel for your pain, but that's not an apple issue, but the shipping company, and for some reason it kept getting bounced back and forth. Hopefully your replacement will come a lot faster and damage free

i opted to take it in to an Apple Store since they said it was the faster solution.

but i also don't know what to expect. do they really have brand new iMacs that is configured identical to mine sitting around?

i really hope they don't give me a refurbished iMac because i paid for a new iMac, not a refurbished one. i don't even want them to repair it, because i haven't even been able to use it yet. i won't be happy unless i get a brand new one.
[doublepost=1453648739][/doublepost]

I sometimes thing it's magic when I order stuff on the web and it comes along in 2 days or less. That's still pretty incredible. There's that occasional damaged box but most often they're fine.

That's an unfortunate experience for the OP. Hope they get it right. Perhaps Apple will do something to make you less disgruntled about it.

thanks, i hope so too. we'll see what happens, lol.

i'm not disgruntled or angry. stuff happens. i'm just a bit disappointed, that's all.

**cue alanis morissette ironic**
[doublepost=1453648915][/doublepost]

In November, I configured a maxed out 5k iMac, and had it shipped to my house. The screen was completely dead, all I got was the OS X startup chime and then nothing. Took it to an Apple Store, they couldn't do anything because they don't stock machines with SSDs. Had to ship it back and get a new one, took about 2 weeks. It sucked, but the computer that sits before me is glorious. Best of luck.

thanks. this is **EXACTLY** what i'm experiencing. i hear the OS X startup chime and then nothing.

 

[phrehdd]

Just a suggestion - go to an Apple store. Order your choice Mac. If they don't have it in stock, then have them BTO and give you a delivery day when to get it from them. When you come back to pick it up, have them open it up and test it with you present. Let them know your experience with home door service from UPS.

 

[ScorpionT16]

Oh boy, at least your kept your cool! I'm a mac virgin too, and a fellow Canadian in the GTA. ordered my first iMac Late 2015 5K last October.

The Canadian dollar is sad, if you can order it through the Apple education store online, they don't check student ID, I saved $200 of my Mid-range 5K, configured with a SSD and M390 and a core i7 (Without Apple care) I paid $3.2k with all taxes in, $2.9k without taxes. So if you do return, that may be a better route than paying $3k for a base model. Just food for thought.

Once you do get it, you won't have any regrets, it's an awesome machine, I scraped together the funds for it and it is a lot of dough, but well, well worth it!

 

[squidward]

I also had a sour experience with getting my late 2015 iMac. First one was DOA (Stuck pixels). The replacement was issued on Jan 7th and didn't ship until the 22nd. I asked them to overnight it and should have it tomorrow. Between the 7th-20th I called them 4 times, each time they assured it would ship out tomorrow but it did not become resolved until the person on the 4th call figured out what happened (internal issue). They promised to overnight it as well but the order status showed standard shipping. I had to call 2 more times to make sure that it was correct but it wasn't. They eventually changed the shipping to overnight.

Need the machine for the business. It was a bit frustrating but I just hope this one isn't DOA.

I've ordered many machines from Apple before and never once had an issue until recently.

Definitely see if Apple can replace your machine, issue you a return label and have them expedite the replacement. Sorry you had that experience with your new Mac but that isn't the norm.

 

[woodchucky]

Just a suggestion - go to an Apple store. Order your choice Mac. If they don't have it in stock, then have them BTO and give you a delivery day when to get it from them. When you come back to pick it up, have them open it up and test it with you present. Let them know your experience with home door service from UPS.

not quite sure what you mean. but they booked an appointment for me to bring in my DOA iMac on Monday. so when i go there i guess they will do what you said, order me another new iMac with same configuration and then let me know when i can go there to pick it up (or deliver it to me?). since i don't think they will have any new iMacs with same configuration waiting for me.

when i spoke to Apple yesterday i did inform them about the horrible UPS shipping. not sure what the guy did with this information (if anything).
[doublepost=1453660885][/doublepost]

Oh boy, at least your kept your cool! I'm a mac virgin too, and a fellow Canadian in the GTA. ordered my first iMac Late 2015 5K last October.

The Canadian dollar is sad, if you can order it through the Apple education store online, they don't check student ID, I saved $200 of my Mid-range 5K, configured with a SSD and M390 and a core i7 (Without Apple care) I paid $3.2k with all taxes in, $2.9k without taxes. So if you do return, that may be a better route than paying $3k for a base model. Just food for thought.

Once you do get it, you won't have any regrets, it's an awesome machine, I scraped together the funds for it and it is a lot of dough, but well, well worth it!

thanks for advice! yes, that's what i did. i ordered it via education store online. even with lowest model it came to $3000 taxes-in with the 2TB fusion drive and extended Apple care.

i actually wanted to get it from BestBuy because their website said they offer no-interest financing for up to 36 months. but when i went there, i found out it was only 12 months and there was a fee of $200 for the financing. so that's why i ended up buying online.
[doublepost=1453662002][/doublepost]

I also had a sour experience with getting my late 2015 iMac. First one was DOA (Stuck pixels). The replacement was issued on Jan 7th and didn't ship until the 22nd. I asked them to overnight it and should have it tomorrow. Between the 7th-20th I called them 4 times, each time they assured it would ship out tomorrow but it did not become resolved until the person on the 4th call figured out what happened (internal issue). They promised to overnight it as well but the order status showed standard shipping. I had to call 2 more times to make sure that it was correct but it wasn't. They eventually changed the shipping to overnight.

Need the machine for the business. It was a bit frustrating but I just hope this one isn't DOA.

I've ordered many machines from Apple before and never once had an issue until recently.

Definitely see if Apple can replace your machine, issue you a return label and have them expedite the replacement. Sorry you had that experience with your new Mac but that isn't the norm.

thanks. yeah, i realize stuff happens so i'm not irate about it. at this point i just want this to be resolved properly.

they will need time to build a new iMac for me, then ship it out again. so i'm not expecting any miracles in terms of the timing.

the weirdest part in all of this is, my brother ordered an iMac too, just 2 days before i placed my order. his arrived Jan 14 (took 10 days) safely and it was delivered by FedEx to his door. Apple shipped his iMac out from California using UPS as well, but when it arrived at the Canada-US border, FedEx took over and completed the remainder of the shipping to his door.

i don't know why this didn't happen with my order. my shipping got screwed up from the beginning, bounced back and forth between Canada and USA, and then UPS didn't hand it off to FedEx at the border.

my bad luck i guess. -_-

hope you get your iMac safely tomorrow!

 

[rbrian]

These are low paying jobs, most people there are super dumb, whenever they had big groups of people to hire over Christmas, you'd have so many retards. Like people who cannot even count or read, you'd have people taking hours just picking up a few things. They wouldn't last long, but these aren't jobs for the smart...

I keep getting mail for the wrong address. One time last week, I was actually at home when the post came. I told the postman he had it wrong, pointed to the address on the letter, and the road sign 10ft away, and he still couldn't tell the difference between Whitehills Lane and Langdykes Road. Do they even look similar? Different postcodes too, the only similarity is the house number. There aren't many streets without a number 3! To cap it all, I got a payslip, from the Royal Mail, with my address but somebody else's name. They employ staff who don't even know where they live! To be fair, I can confirm that the pay is terrible, at least for Christmas casuals. (I only opened the 3rd one, having sent one back return to sender, and gave the second one back to the postman).

Oddly, Yodel, who have a terrible reputation, have been much better recently.

 

[laudern]

I keep getting mail for the wrong address. One time last week, I was actually at home when the post came. I told the postman he had it wrong, pointed to the address on the letter, and the road sign 10ft away, and he still couldn't tell the difference between Whitehills Lane and Langdykes Road. Do they even look similar? Different postcodes too, the only similarity is the house number. There aren't many streets without a number 3! To cap it all, I got a payslip, from the Royal Mail, with my address but somebody else's name. They employ staff who don't even know where they live! To be fair, I can confirm that the pay is terrible, at least for Christmas casuals. (I only opened the 3rd one, having sent one back return to sender, and gave the second one back to the postman).

Oddly, Yodel, who have a terrible reputation, have been much better recently.

I too love opening wrongly addressed mail. An offence? For sure. But the thrill of the unknown!!!

 

[interstella]

Seems like a lot of effort to get a computer delivered. I've given up on home deliveries wherever possible. A lot of UK retailers will deliver to my local post office, corner shop or village store and I'll drive 5 or 10 minutes to pick it up. Saves a lot of hassle and means I don't have to wait in all day.

 

[santaliqueur]

It's unfortunate to be in that position, but if I had a situation where I had to order a new iMac after the first one was screwed up... I would had gotten it next day shipping and have Apple front the bill.

Except Apple did not do that, they just handled it like any other company would have. I returned the dead machine and they started working on building my replacement. When I asked if there was anything they could do, they offered to refund my overnight shipping, and refunded an additional $110 (total of $150).

I was completely underwhelmed by how they handled it.

 

[woodchucky]

hi all,

i just wanted to update on what happened just an hour ago.

brought my DOA iMac to the Apple Store. checked-in and then waited 20 mins for someone to be free to help me.

the guy unpacked the iMac and plugged it in to test, and same thing happened. power on, but screen dead. i ask if this is a common defect, and the guy said it's the second time he's seen this problem since the late 2015 iMacs were introduced.

so they check stock and of course, there is no exact configuration available.

my options were:
- downgrade to available 1TB model (price difference refunded)
- upgrade to the 'middle' model which has faster CPU and newer gfx card (pay additional price difference)
- receive full refund

well, i don't want to pay more at all since i am already on the fence about $3000 for essentially getting a laptop specs computer (but paying high-end desktop prices). and i don't want the 1TB Fusion drive since it comes with a smaller SSD.

i ended up opting for the full refund. (they recommended this option if i wanted to have the same BTO iMac; to go online and place a new order again)

so now, it seems i have a second chance at this, admittedly, guilt laden purchase decision. i need to think about it some more. (maybe a Mac is just not in the cards for me....)

thanks to everyone for their input and support!

best regards,
-w

 

[ScorpionT16]

hi all,

i just wanted to update on what happened just an hour ago.

brought my DOA iMac to the Apple Store. checked-in and then waited 20 mins for someone to be free to help me.

the guy unpacked the iMac and plugged it in to test, and same thing happened. power on, but screen dead. i ask if this is a common defect, and the guy said it's the second time he's seen this problem since the late 2015 iMacs were introduced.

so they check stock and of course, there is no exact configuration available.

my options were:
- downgrade to available 1TB model (price difference refunded)
- upgrade to the 'middle' model which has faster CPU and newer gfx card (pay additional price difference)
- receive full refund

well, i don't want to pay more at all since i am already on the fence about $3000 for essentially getting a laptop specs computer (but paying high-end desktop prices). and i don't want the 1TB Fusion drive since it comes with a smaller SSD.

i ended up opting for the full refund. (they recommended this option if i wanted to have the same BTO iMac; to go online and place a new order again)

so now, it seems i have a second chance at this, admittedly, guilt laden purchase decision. i need to think about it some more. (maybe a Mac is just not in the cards for me....)

thanks to everyone for their input and support!

best regards,
-w

Off course if you always feel guilty of spending the cash, you'll never enjoy it.

However, you made a good choice, as the iTB fusion isn't worth it. The mid-range iMac is though, simply because of the M390 GPU, which is a lot better than the M380. If you have another go, I would consider this route. And forget the apple care for now, spend that on getting a better spec, than before the 365-day care is up and you've saved some cash, get the apple care.

Depending what you want to do with the iMac, the 5K screen alone is well worth the $3k CDN, as any equivalent PC 5k screen (Dell), with a similar spec Desktop unit will cost you well over 3K. Not to mention the resale value, which gets over looked. Divide the Total you spend, by them amount of time you will spend on any machine, then the 3K is manageable.

This is my first Apple computer, i'm a recent graduate (dead broke), and still scraped together funds from work (even more broke now lol). With many doubts initially, and no regrets now, from gaming, to photography, to basic browsing, Im yet to use something i'm happier with.

Do what works best for you, now and in the long run. Don't let this first bad experience ruin it though.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

hi all,

i just wanted to update on what happened just an hour ago.

brought my DOA iMac to the Apple Store. checked-in and then waited 20 mins for someone to be free to help me.

the guy unpacked the iMac and plugged it in to test, and same thing happened. power on, but screen dead. i ask if this is a common defect, and the guy said it's the second time he's seen this problem since the late 2015 iMacs were introduced.

so they check stock and of course, there is no exact configuration available.

my options were:
- downgrade to available 1TB model (price difference refunded)
- upgrade to the 'middle' model which has faster CPU and newer gfx card (pay additional price difference)
- receive full refund

well, i don't want to pay more at all since i am already on the fence about $3000 for essentially getting a laptop specs computer (but paying high-end desktop prices). and i don't want the 1TB Fusion drive since it comes with a smaller SSD.

i ended up opting for the full refund. (they recommended this option if i wanted to have the same BTO iMac; to go online and place a new order again)

so now, it seems i have a second chance at this, admittedly, guilt laden purchase decision. i need to think about it some more. (maybe a Mac is just not in the cards for me....)

thanks to everyone for their input and support!

best regards,
-w

It is in no way a laptop specced desktop it has a full desktop GPU the 5k screen on its own would cost you $1600 minimum on sale, the only laptop component is the dGPU and that is still a fairly powerful little graphics card.

You have had a problem with delivery and transit not with the computer you haven't even tried it out yet it will probably be brilliant for your use but if you don't give it another try you'll never know....

 

[maflynn]

well, i don't want to pay more at all since i am already on the fence about $3000 for essentially getting a laptop specs computer

Two points, sounds like you already are incurring buyers remorse and so I'm guessing that you'll be better off getting your money back.

Secondly. the iMac is not a laptop in a desktop enclosure, the chipset used by apple is a desktop based skylake chipset. True there are mobile components, but its a desktop computer that can and does run faster then the Mac Pro on a number of tasks.

bottom line is that if you're having second thoughts over this, then perhaps the best move is to step back and reevaluate your wants, needs and requirements to determine what best works for you, i.e., get a refund.

 

[woodchucky]

apologies all, i didn't mean to make a blanket statement about the iMac being a laptop in desktop enclosure. it would be more accurate to say that it's a hybrid, since it has both desktop and laptop components.

anyhow...

i re-ordered the iMac. and thanks to @ScorpionT16, this time i upgraded my order to the middle model with the significantly better M390 gpu.

stay tuned for my next update! lol