One very lucky Apple customer! (or unlucky)

[clearyjp]

Back in April this year, I purchased a base C2D 27' iMac from the Apple store in Sydney. It had the high pitched whistle, so it was exchanged for another, which had the yellowish screen and scratches on the base. This was exchanged for a third iMac, which exhibited the same yellow tinged screen.
At this point, I was understandably frustrated, so I contacted the store manager, who was very understanding and sympathetic, and suggested I try an i5 17" MacBook Pro. I had to pay a little extra, but I received a heavy discount on top of my student discount, given my troubles. I happily used that for 4 months, it was trouble free and I couldn't fault it.
On Saturday, it froze about 10 times in the space of 2 hours, and eventually refused to boot properly. I made an appointment with a Genius at the Sydney store, who diagnosed it with a dead logic board. I explained to him that this was the fourth computer I had returned to the store, and he agreed that I had been extremely unlucky.
He said he wanted me to leave happy, and returned 5 minutes later after speaking with a manager, and offered me an i7 iMac, and AppleCare for free. Given that an iMac was what I had originally wanted, I immediately accepted. I was so pleased (Quad core iMac, sweet!!!) and the Genius insisted that this was the least they could do.
I must say, I'm very impressed with Apple's level of customer service. It's good to see companies genuinely interested in their customers happiness. My new iMac is pretty much perfect, the screen does have a slight yellow tinge along the bottom, but it's not as bad as the previous ones, so I'm not sure if I'll bother, and I feel like I'd be pushing my luck. All in all, very happy

 

[4492874]

Whatever you say about them, you can't fault their customer service - now if only other companies can follow suit!

 

[aliensporebomb]

Wow.

i7 mac and free applecare? That store provides excellent service!

Enjoy your new machine!

 

[Bryan Bowler]

That's an awesome story! Apple really goes out of their way to take care of their customers...

Congrats!
Bryan

 

[DannyBres]

I have been to an Apple Store in Sydney! Cool story! Enjoy your iMac! 13 days to go for me!

 

[IndustrialSpace]

So you bought an expensive new iMac and out-of-the-box it was defective. You then exchange this for a new expensive laptop and it too is defective, out-of-the-box.

This anecdote along with the numerous consumers who had to have their iMacs returned multiple times until they recevied not a new, but "acceptable" iMac to keep is truly unbelieveable.

How can you continue to patronize a company with such poor quality control?

 

[endi78]

So you bought an expensive new iMac and out-of-the-box it was defective. You then exchange this for a new expensive laptop and it too is defective, out-of-the-box.

This anecdote along with the numerous consumers who had to have their iMacs returned multiple times until they recevied not a new, but "acceptable" iMac to keep is truly unbelieveable.

How can you continue to patronize a company with such poor quality control?

Answer: by offering a good assistance service and/or by replacing machines.
Another question could be "is it worth for them?"
But apparently we know the answer...

 

[Bryan Bowler]

So you bought an expensive new iMac and out-of-the-box it was defective. You then exchange this for a new expensive laptop and it too is defective, out-of-the-box.

This anecdote along with the numerous consumers who had to have their iMacs returned multiple times until they recevied not a new, but "acceptable" iMac to keep is truly unbelieveable.

How can you continue to patronize a company with such poor quality control?

Because unlike most other companies, Apple stands behind the products they sell and they are adamant about making sure the customer is satisfied. Try to get that with Dell, Compaq, or HP and they will laugh at you.

And Apple's quality control is far from poor. As a matter of fact, it's better than most other companies out there. And if you think this forum gives a true representation of Apple's products, well, all I have to say is that you need to get out of the house more...

Bryan

 

[IndustrialSpace]

Because unlike most other companies, Apple stands behind the products they sell and they are adamant about making sure the customer is satisfied. Try to get that with Dell, Compaq, or HP and they will laugh at you.

And Apple's quality control is far from poor. As a matter of fact, it's better than most other companies out there. And if you think this forum gives a true representation of Apple's products, well, all I have to say is that you need to get out of the house more...

Bryan

Yes, they have good customer service. They replace your computer with another defective computer. This cycle goes on until the consumer can no longer take the hassle and ends up keeping one unit which is "acceptable." It's a merry-go-round.

Perhaps Apple could ensure their products have better quality before leaving the factory. There have been many many consumers who have had to return an iMac 5-7 times and each replacement had a problem. This is what you deem good QC?

This forum is only a small representation of Apples problems. There are many complaints on Apples own website, which get censored often. Ive seen posts just disappear which Apple "didn't like."

 

[Bryan Bowler]

IndustrialSpace,

For every complaint on here, there are hundreds, if not thousands of people that have no problems whatsoever with their Mac. The problem with some of the posters here is that they are looking for 'perfection' which practically doesn't exist with any product in the world. These kind of expectations are completely unrealistic. I'm not talking about severe yellowing of screens -- I'm referring to the people on here that are freaking out about a piece of dust or a fingerprint. They want to make a big deal out of it and demand a return, when all they have to do is wipe it off. It's completely absurd.

Then there are the threads that have everyone paranoid about yellow screens. Yes, there have been some screens that definitively need to be replaced, but the paranoia has rubbed off to the point of people staring at their screens until they 'think' they see something when there really isn't a problem at all. Again, completely absurd.

Unless I'm misunderstanding you, I get the impression that you think that every machine that comes from Apple is defective. I have a perfect mid-2009 27" iMac and I have a second iMac on the way...a mid-2010 i7 arriving in 3 days. I'm confident that it will be perfect too, but in the off-chance that something is truly wrong with it, I know that Apple will make it right.

Apple is not putting out defective machines. Like any mass-produced product, there are going to be a small percentage that have flaws. And I'm willing to bet that number is somewhere in the 3-5% range...

Bryan

 

[cocky jeremy]

That's awesome! But.. if you had to pay more when you got the MacBook Pro, wouldn't you be paying more than you would for the iMac? So it wasn't free. Or am i missing something?

 

[clearyjp]

That's awesome! But.. if you had to pay more when you got the MacBook Pro, wouldn't you be paying more than you would for the iMac? So it wasn't free. Or am i missing something?

The original iMacs, with my student discount were $2000. The MacBook Pro was $2600 after the student discount, but I paid $200 for it (on top of the original $2000). An i7 iMac with AppleCare and student discount is almost $3000.
This situation certainly isn't ideal. I've spent a lot of time and money going back and forth, and no amount of "upgrading me to a better model" can make this whole sage go away. However, I'm satisfied knowing that the employees at the store have done everything they could do to make this right.
My computer isn't perfect, the screen has some yellowing at the bottom, and I have seen perfect screens, so I know they do exist, I just haven't been lucky enough. I also noticed yesterday some kind of paint defect on my keyboard. *Sigh

 

[Charlie03]

That is great to heat that they did something to at least try to make you happy. I had a 24" imac from 2007 after the first year the logic board went out took it in and had it replaced no issues. A month ago the same thing happened the logic board and hard drive went out. Took it to the apple store in the mall here in Dallas where I live. Took them about 10 days longer than usual to return it, so when i was in the store looking it over noticed tons of scratches on the aluminum stand and nicks on the sides. Complained to the store manager and she acted like "oh well" about it but finally after complaining non stop to her she agreed to have the entire case replaced which was another 5-7 days. I took it home in the mean time while they ordered the parts for it. I did not get a call in over 2 weeks saying the parts were in so in the mean time the graphics card started going out on it. Made an appointment to have this serviced dropped it off on a Sunday morning and also was told my parts for replacing the case on the imac were in store and all of it would be replaced. After two weeks of no contact from them on picking up my iMac I received a call from the Genius manager who told me they were not going to fix my iMac and to come pick up a brand new 27" i3 3.20 GHz iMac. He apologized for all the problems and it was the least he could do for me. So technically I used my original iMac 24" for 3 years and then received a brand new machine so they made me very happy after a couple times of being really frustrated.

 

[IndustrialSpace]

That is great to heat that they did something to at least try to make you happy. I had a 24" imac from 2007 after the first year the logic board went out took it in and had it replaced no issues. A month ago the same thing happened the logic board and hard drive went out. Took it to the apple store in the mall here in Dallas where I live. Took them about 10 days longer than usual to return it, so when i was in the store looking it over noticed tons of scratches on the aluminum stand and nicks on the sides. Complained to the store manager and she acted like "oh well" about it but finally after complaining non stop to her she agreed to have the entire case replaced which was another 5-7 days. I took it home in the mean time while they ordered the parts for it. I did not get a call in over 2 weeks saying the parts were in so in the mean time the graphics card started going out on it. Made an appointment to have this serviced dropped it off on a Sunday morning and also was told my parts for replacing the case on the imac were in store and all of it would be replaced. After two weeks of no contact from them on picking up my iMac I received a call from the Genius manager who told me they were not going to fix my iMac and to come pick up a brand new 27" i3 3.20 GHz iMac. He apologized for all the problems and it was the least he could do for me. So technically I used my original iMac 24" for 3 years and then received a brand new machine so they made me very happy after a couple times of being really frustrated.

Sounds like a great hussle. Complain about a broken old computer and get a new repalcement!

what a hoot!

 

[Charlie03]

Sounds like a great hussle. Complain about a broken old computer and get a new repalcement!

what a hoot!

Well I never thought that they would replace it. I was happy with my outdated and slower 24" iMac but it was getting frustrating having to go and have small things fixed often. So yes, it sounds like a great thing but I doubt they replace machines with newer ones just to shut people up. But the publicity from word of mouth is good for them.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Yes, they have good customer service. They replace your computer with another defective computer. This cycle goes on until the consumer can no longer take the hassle and ends up keeping one unit which is "acceptable." It's a merry-go-round.

Perhaps Apple could ensure their products have better quality before leaving the factory. There have been many many consumers who have had to return an iMac 5-7 times and each replacement had a problem. This is what you deem good QC?

This forum is only a small representation of Apples problems. There are many complaints on Apples own website, which get censored often. Ive seen posts just disappear which Apple "didn't like."

I just had that bastard Carolyn Samit over on Apple support delete one of my post for an ongoing software problem. Real nice of them/her.