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New Intel iMac to easyli scrathed?

T

TestMe.dk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 29, 2004
14
0
Copenhagen DK
Hi,

I just brought back my third Intel iMac due to poor assembly and scrathes on the cabinet. (all three where costumbuild with 256MBVRAM/500Gig/2G RAM)

I spent over an hour talkin to Apple Costumer service, and actually got them to admit the iMac's do get scrathes really easy, ex when you wipe off normal dust with a soft damp cloth!
Almost as easy as the 5. generation iPod's and Nano's?!?! :mad:
And they said they had more and more complients about it every day now.

Does anyone else experience the same problem?? I really wanted an iMac, and actually sold a perfect functioning G4 Powerbook because of that.

Now I'm kinda in a standstill without a computer at all.. :eek:

Should I try a fourth iMac, or just go with the "problem filled" Macbook 2Ghz instead? Atleast the Macbook doesn't suffer from scrathes!

(PS. Sorry for any bad english, it's not my first language :cool: )
 
That's strange. What do you mean poor assembly? As for the scratches, well, this is probably very bad luck. I can't see any difference between the previous imac and the intel one, and I don't think it would be possible to scratch the case just by wiping with a cloth (unless you mean the screen?). If apple will replace your imac, I think you should probably stick with it.
 
Hmmm... My iMac shows a few fine scratches ONLY when I put a bright light pointing towards it from 5cm away, and it's not all the time I go "Hey, look at all the scratches I see when I do this!" And besides, it still functions, although you said "poor assembly" so maybe you could elaborate on that.

EDIT: To clarify I have about 3 tiny tiny tiny scratches on the white "chin".
 
CanadaRAM said:
Just don't put it in your pocket along with your keys.
Click to expand...

Hahaha, maybe invisible shield will make an iMac version. Or he can try brasso? :p :D
 
Poor assembly

Regarding the poor assembly, the first one had really bad scrathes on the cabinet also small "chips" on the edges, and small black spots underneath the clear plastic.

The second one had isolating-tinfoil hanging out from the bottom at the memory slot's and just above it, where the front and back cabinet slides together.

The last one "just" suffered from scrathes, I actually "test" wiped a clean damp cloth on it and it did show small new scrathes on the cabinet afterwards. The scrathes offcourse only shows in the bright light.

I have recieved my money back, and am now considering what to buy.

Looking forward to getting a "thoughskin" to wrap around the iMac's :D
 
I have an Intel iMac and I don't think it scratches much. I previously returned an iPod Nano because that did scratch... the iMac definitely isn't as bad as that was.

However, I do agree that build quality at Apple has really degraded in the last year or two. Since October I've had to return 3 G5 iMacs, 1 PowerBook, 1 iPod Nano and 2 MacBooks. I wrote about my recent MacBook problems here.
 
I had similar problems, here.
The iMac is on its way to a service location for repair or exchange (don't know how they would repair the scratches though..).
It had too many scrathes/marks for my liking, screw for the memory grille that was the wrong size, vibrations I've never heard from any 7200rpm drive before... So it was not a pleasant buy and poor assembly is one thing you might call it.
 
Kingsly said:
As for the iMac I am not sure what you mean by "poor assembly"
Click to expand...

He quite clearly posted before...

TestMe.dk said:
Regarding the poor assembly, the first one had really bad scrathes on the cabinet also small "chips" on the edges, and small black spots underneath the clear plastic.

The second one had isolating-tinfoil hanging out from the bottom at the memory slot's and just above it, where the front and back cabinet slides together.

The last one "just" suffered from scrathes, I actually "test" wiped a clean damp cloth on it and it did show small new scrathes on the cabinet afterwards. The scrathes offcourse only shows in the bright light.
Click to expand...
 
maverick808 said:
However, I do agree that build quality at Apple has really degraded in the last year or two. Since October I've had to return 3 G5 iMacs, 1 PowerBook, 1 iPod Nano and 2 MacBooks. I wrote about my recent MacBook problems here.
Click to expand...


That **** right there would make me not buy apple/mac again. :eek: :mad:
 
Mine was slightly guffed when I first opened it too.. :( kind of takes the joy out of opening your new hardware..
 
maverick808 said:
I have an Intel iMac and I don't think it scratches much. I previously returned an iPod Nano because that did scratch... the iMac definitely isn't as bad as that was.

However, I do agree that build quality at Apple has really degraded in the last year or two. Since October I've had to return 3 G5 iMacs, 1 PowerBook, 1 iPod Nano and 2 MacBooks. I wrote about my recent MacBook problems here.
Click to expand...


Wow, just read your blog, I have to agree on the quality problems! Every never apple product I've been in contact with has small "problems" that'd be cosmetic or hardware. It's to bad, because after switching from PC more than two years ago now, I can't stand the thought off going back to that path, but I must admit that the thought have crossed my mind several times in between my 3 Intel iMacs.

What concerns me the most is that the Apple costumerservice guy actually admittet there being a problem, but knowing nothing about how/when their gonna start fixing it! :mad:

Do hope it gets better with the quality soon!
 
jope76 said:
I had similar problems, here.
The iMac is on its way to a service location for repair or exchange (don't know how they would repair the scratches though..).
It had too many scrathes/marks for my liking, screw for the memory grille that was the wrong size, vibrations I've never heard from any 7200rpm drive before... So it was not a pleasant buy and poor assembly is one thing you might call it.
Click to expand...

Just return the damn thing, and get your money back! :mad:

That's what I did.. I guess we'll have to wait for them to get it right or live with scrathes on a brandnew 1700 $ machine.. :(
 
MacRumorUser said:
Mine was slightly guffed when I first opened it too.. :( kind of takes the joy out of opening your new hardware..
Click to expand...

Yeah excactly, normally with the fine wrapping and all you don't expect that from Apple!

I always like a child at christmas when unpacking Apple products but this isn't worth it :(
 
TestMe.dk said:
Wow, just read your blog, I have to agree on the quality problems! Every never apple product I've been in contact with has small "problems" that'd be cosmetic or hardware. It's to bad, because after switching from PC more than two years ago now, I can't stand the thought off going back to that path, but I must admit that the thought have crossed my mind several times in between my 3 Intel iMacs.

What concerns me the most is that the Apple costumerservice guy actually admittet there being a problem, but knowing nothing about how/when their gonna start fixing it! :mad:

Do hope it gets better with the quality soon!
Click to expand...

I won't go into detail with the problems I had with the other machines but in brief they have been a mixture of noisy fans, products arriving with severe marks or scratches, screen defects (dead pixels, leaking backlights and anomalies such as flickering or random lines appearing) and broken USB sockets.

Like you, I've considered switching back to PCs. Not back to Windows but to Linux. Certainly, if Apple permitted and released updates for a version of OS X which ran on PCs I would stop buying Apple hardware and just run OS X on standard PCs.

What I don't understand is why Apple hasn't responded by improving their quality control and testing procedures yet. Surely they must be losing money. With me I returned 3 iMacs before I got one that wasn't defective. Isn't that a big loss to Apple? 3 dud iMacs must cost them quite a bit as well as the shipping and collection of each.

Similarly now with my MacBook they have shipped and collected 2 defective units. What is all that costing them? Wouldn't they make more money if they spent a little more on their quality control so that they didn't have to keep sending out replacements or carrying out repairs?
 
Jay42 said:
Do you have pictures? How serious are the scratches?
Click to expand...

Sorry no pics, didn't think of taking any.. :eek:

The scrathes was pretty severe! and all around the cabinets blank plastic "coat" like small sandpaper scratches.
 
I have a G5 iMac and I wipe it down with paper towels all the time without creating any scratches at all. So it's either just an Intel iMac thing or you're just unlucky.
 
admanimal said:
I have a G5 iMac and I wipe it down with paper towels all the time without creating any scratches at all. So it's either just an Intel iMac thing or you're just unlucky.
Click to expand...

I guess it's just an Intel Mac issue, that was also what I was told by the Apple Consumer helpdesk guy. :mad:
 
My Intel iMac doesn't have any scratches on it yet (knocks on wood) even with cleaning it two times a week. When I was in the Apple store it was a mix of good looking ones to slightly scratched units. The outer coating does feel different than my Rev.B but I'm not sure just how :cool:
 
I think you should be less anal, seriously. Put away the magnifying glass and just enjoy your computer. I don't know how a scratch can bother you so much, yet your atrocious spelling does not. You need to really rethink the areas which you demand perfection.
 
I've had my share of QC issues with my iMac as well. All three iMacs I went through had misaligned LCDs. My first one, in addition, had a scratch on the inside of case below the clear plastic.

Apple customer relations and tech support were very responsive and helpful in every case. They were going to send me a 4th unit but I decided to get a refund since my order history was getting so long and was afraid it would complicate matters if the 4th one wasn't a charm!

I'm hoping too that they're reviewing the return units and making improvements to their assembly process.
 
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