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Please help?! Black screen on new iMac, Apple support unhelpful!

P

Pepsicles

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
8
0
North Wales, UK
Hi, I'm hoping someone can offer me some advice/tips etc! I have a 27" intel based iMac bought on the 14th oct. About a week ago when I booted it, it made the usual chimes etc and fan noise, but screen remained black. I tried the online support suggestions, resetting PRAM etc, but to no avail. I called apple and spent half an hour on the phone to them. The support guy couldn't understand me, I couldn't understand him. After much repeating on both sides, he tried to sell me an apple care plan about FIVE times, even going so far as saying he shouldn't even be giving me phone support as my warranty was about to expire! After again pointing out it was less than 3 months old, he said I would have to take it to a genius in my nearest Apple store. my nearest store is an hour & a half away! I asked whether they could send an engineer out under the circumstances, to which he replied that they don't offer that service. I said I would have to leave it then and he quickly said he would see if they could make an exception in this case and would speak to his senior manager. He came back and said no, they couldn't make an exception!

After calling them again and another half hour call, again with a few attempts to sell me an Apple care plan they told me to go back to the retailer. I called the retailer who advise they won't touch apple products for repair and it is up to apple to pick it up from me. So now I'm stuck! There's no way I'm travelling a total of 3 hours to take it for repair on my one day off and if they can't fix it there and then, I will have to do another 3 hour journey to pick it back up!!! Under UK law, the sale of goods act states that faults within 6 months of purchase should be repaired without causing significant inconvenience. Surely a quite possible 6 hours driving, never mind the extortionate cost of petrol here is 'significant inconvenience'?!
I just don't know what to do now and wondered if anyone had similar experience and knew what works/anything else I can try to remedy the fault myself?
I've got a £1200 iMac that's now just 3 months old that I can't use and I am seriously disappointed with Apple's response!

Any advice very gratefully received! Thank you!
 
Do you live anywhere near an Apple Store?

Sounds like you've had a disappointing experience so far, Apple support is usually excellent.
 
Saying they won't pick it up is complete and utter Bullpoo. I've had my Mac Pro collected and fixed twice. From Cornwall to London and back again all within a week.

If the nearest Apple Store to you is more than 50/60 miles they should arrange a pick up.

The company that Apple generally get to fix things in these situations is Amsys.

Give them a call on 020 8660 9999. They'll probably give you a better answer than the person you spoke to on the phone.

I seriously doubt the person you spoke to even came close to speaking to a senior manager.
 
Thank you both for your replies- really fast and really helpful! Phew, I'll try that number and see what they say and also look at the link for other repairers that are closer too!
Yes definite advantage living so near Trafford centre! That's my 'nearest' store too..... Should be called 'not so near, in fact really quite far' :)

Thanks again!

Anything else I can try to repair it myself that I've not tried that anyone knows of too please?!
 
i guess the 90 days phone support is the reason.....

thats why he was offering apple care

Every Mac and Apple display comes with a one-year limited warranty and up to 90 days of complimentary telephone technical support.
Extend your coverage to three years from your hardware product’s original purchase date with the AppleCare Protection Plan. You get direct, one-stop access to Apple’s award-winning telephone technical support for questions about Apple hardware, Mac OS X, and Apple applications such as iLife and iWork. And you get global repair coverage for your Mac and Apple display through convenient service options.


apple care is great and worth every penny if you want a full warranty and not only a limited one, and gives a higher resell value within the 3 years


but as you dont want apple care ,so if i would be you , i would just take the inconvenient option and bring it to a geniusbar or a apple authorised repair center ,have it repaired and fine
 
Last edited:
MacHamster68 said:
apple care is great and worth every penny if you want a full warranty and not only a limited one, and gives a higher resell value within the 3 years
Click to expand...
Actually, AppleCare is absolutely a limited warranty. For starters, it won't cover accidental damage or cosmetic defects. A full warranty would cover literally everything.
 
kfscoll said:
Actually, AppleCare is absolutely a limited warranty. For starters, it won't cover accidental damage or cosmetic defects. A full warranty would cover literally everything.
Click to expand...

yes ok its limited to internal parts really , and no to cover accidental damage it would not be a warranty it would need to be a insurance , but with apple care you just get a far better and longer service,
and cosmetic defects are covered to a certain extend ,but if the "cosmetic" defect is not avoidable during the production process you might be out of luck

but like it says in the explanation from apple about the 1 year limited warranty
only up to 90 days telephone support , it does not even say you get 90 days, its only saying up to , so theoretically apple could refuse the support after already 60 days and i have heard that happening before that apples phone support insisted on offering apple care if you want any service over the phone even on 30 day old iMac's here in the UK ,
with the normal 1 year warranty its of to the apple stores genius if you want something tested, repaired.. explained.
a mate in germany too got picked his iMac up and repaired after calling the phone support and that was 6 month after he bought it , so well beyond the 90 days ,
but its a thing of who you speak to and how ,and some here in the UK are hard to understand if they are from india or from london or from somewhere else on this planet and are just in the process of learning to articulate in english , so dont get louder when he or you didn't understand it the first time , make them believe they are in charge and important , if it helps cry a bit , its always good if the chap on the other end of the phone feels sorry for you

but generally its saving money by not taking apple care is not recommended , better take a lower spec Mac with apple care, rather then a higher spec one without
 
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