Sick of iMac issues.. what are my options?

[someguy]

Wow just realized I never activated my Apple Care so off to find the papers so I can call.

OK, "noob" question here:

I just bought a new iMac Core Duo with AppleCare. Was I supposed to activate my AppleCare somehow? I bought it at an Apple Store in MI and they never mentioned anything about having to activate it.

 

[paperinacup]

take it to an apple certified repair shop. if you have apple care then apple should cover this. that way you will have your computer in a shop...not some lame "bar" and they can run it for a few days. take it to a few different shops. make sure there all working under the "apple care" warranty repair program. i wouldnt even waste my time at the apple store. it seems very poor quality customer service for them to send you away with the pathetic line "we cant send it in to apple until we can duplicate the problem." they KNOW that computer problems are too random to recreate in 15 minutes?

telll me this...how long did they spend with your computer?

i would do two things:

1.call apple back, tell them you went to the apple store and talked with a genius. tell them the genius looked at the computer for (what im guessing was 15 minutes) and declared nothing to be wrong. go on to say that this is negligent against their promises of a warranty and you need someone to seriously test your system. for the apple customer service line to tell you to bring it to a genius at the apple store THEN the genius tells you they cant send it in until they can duplicate the problem but only tries to duplicate the problem for fifteen minutes from a cold boot? are you kidding me? they need to let it run and perform tasks while the computer has been running and the processors actually being used...you cant just look for a problem on a cooled newly booted machine. you have to also look for the problem one thats been heated up and running for four hours. this is why its negligent for them to pass you on like this. they know better.

2.i would see if your apple care is still in affect and i would call apple to see where the nearest apple authorized technician is....besides their so called geniuses at the apple store.

they spent abbout 15 minutes with it. about half of it was listening to me tell him the problems.the computer is almost 4 months old so im past the 90 phone support thats why i need to activate the apple care i have laying around here somewhere.

 

[paperinacup]

OK, "noob" question here:

I just bought a new iMac Core Duo with AppleCare. Was I supposed to activate my AppleCare somehow? I bought it at an Apple Store in MI and they never mentioned anything about having to activate it.

My receipt said auto-activation or something to that affect. BUT when I look up my serial number on the support site it just shows it as the standard 365 days. As soon as I find the info I'm going to register or call or whatever I need to do.

 

[beatle888]

My receipt said auto-activation or something to that affect. BUT when I look up my serial number on the support site it just shows it as the standard 365 days. As soon as I find the info I'm going to register or call or whatever I need to do.

just make sure you explain to apple that their little run around between them and the apple store has got to stop. their using it to dodge the issue. this is obvious because they know they cant diagnose all problems in 15 minutes yet thats all the time their giving you before sending you on your way. dont let them get away with this. and i strongly suggest taking it to a computer repair shop thats apple authorized to get their opinion. tell them to make sure to test the computer after its been running and hopefully they will even push the system a bit. ask them to push the system, making the hardware work a bit before testing it.

 

[ddrueckhammer]

After buying a new router it connects to my network fine it just wont stay connected. i do have 4 uniden 5.8ghz cordless phones, a microwave. its just some other networks it doesnt connect with. And actually I do hav ea wireless printer but it is functioning perfectly.

Are you losing your wireless connection or is it showing connected and the internet just won't connect?

If the airport card is not staying connected it could be that you are getting interference. Do you live in an apartment? You have to consider interference from your neighbors as well if this is the case. I wouldn't think that the phones would make a difference but the microwave definitely with boot you. Some of the lower GHz phones will too though.

I would go into the preferences for your printer by typing the IP address into your browser for that printer and make sure that it isn't using an address that is within your DHCP range. It could be booting your connection.

Finally, I would call your internet provider and make sure that there isn't something wrong with your Cable/DSL modem or with them no assigning a new IP address. It could be very well that the problem is on their end.

If all of these fail then it could be your Airport Card in your Mac. However, since you are getting a connection, I doubt that it is.

I'm surprised that you are having this much trouble with your local Apple Store. I have always gotten top notch service there. As suggested above, I would call customer care and make them send you a box to ship it. Take pictures of the condition of your Mac before you send it just in case. Be warned that you might be Macless for a while if they can't duplicate the problems that you are experiencing. Once their customer care has it, just call a couple times a week and make sure that you document who you speak with and what they say on the calls. Also, if they try to send you back your Mac without any repairs, refuse to accept that and tell them that you don't want it back until all of the issues that you describe are corrected. Most of all be polite and calm, and you will get farther with customer support people. I know this probably goes without saying but you would be surprised how people treat customer service reps... I got my girlfriend's dented case on her Powerbook fixed this way even though it is against Apple policy to fix cosmetic issues...

Goodluck
Dustin