Consumer Advice - Bad Apple

[Natwee]

Years ago I had a white plastic macbook that got an 8 inch crack in the plastic after 4 months. they told me they dont cover cosmetic damage and thats what it what it was.

Argued with them for 2 weeks about it, then half the keys on the keyboard stopped working. they replaced it and gave me a free ipod classic.

my ex had problems with apple over his macbook and they just ignored the complaint so he sued them. they then gave him a brand new MBP, and told him to choose anything off the apple store up to £250 to "restore his faith in the apple brand"

So thnk they just make it up as they go along!

 

[Domo]

I had mine replaced for creaking too much (though not as loud as yours it sounds), and then for a casing defect, and then got money back on the 3rd because it still wasn't right.

Here's a post I put in the Apple section a while ago

..The first one had a badly machined and badly fitted lower panel, this was rough round the edges and meant every time the MBP was picked up / moved it would creak and click like some cheap little HP plastic special...

Inconsistency from Apple again - this is EXACTLY what I'm experiencing and yet I'm locked in this battle. My brother in law sent me a link to a forum which had others claiming Apple had replace their MBPs with the same issue.

The thing is I've got to a point where the retailer is saying I should contact Apple online to escalate it (since I purchased it there), and Apple online are just not interested - I've got nowhere in over 4 weeks of trying.

 

[SkodaMart]

Click on your Mapple menu and hit the compassion tab.

 

[JayMax]

You've paid twice the price for the hardware at purchase point, their business model operates on this. Demand a new replacement - you've already paid for two of them anyways.

 

[Kenai]

I know a couple of people with these sort of issues.

Given the premiums involved, I would say their build quality of late has been downright shoddy.

 

[Sagalout]

Must admit their build quality and customer service is quite random. We purchased an i5 imac from the refurb store. 18 months later the screen developed a fault (pink line). It was a common problem which at first the apple store we took it back to said would be covered free of charge, then the phoned back and said this was a slightly different pink line problem(!) and would have to be charged at £250 for a new screen.

As it was out of warranty I couldn't do much, so got it fixed, but within a couple if weeks the new screen developed several dead pixels and started coming away from the case. Rang the apple store again and had to leave several messages before anyone called back.

At this point I was seriously annoyed, but the manager arranged for a courier at their expense to pick it up, then within a couple of days rang back to say there was a manufacturing fault it, and that they would replace it with a brand new i7 model, which all in all wasn't a bad result.

In several phone calls though I had to deal with a complete range of service, from shockingly poor to surprisingly excellent.

 

[Domo]

For those of you who posted in this thread and might be interested, I have finally got somewhere.
After a one hour phone call yesterday, and my demand to see a copy of the document which details their tolerance and variance thresholds, Apple have decided to replace my laptop for a new one.

Fair play to the chap at Apple. If you ever get someone called David at Customer Services in Cork - be thankful. He's achieved more in 24 hours than all his colleagues collectively in the last 2 months. As much as I like to complain, I also give credit where appropriate

 

[bloodiedathame]

£2k on a laptop *chuckle* But good result

 

[doofer]

I'm surprised they haven't patented the creak and tried to charge you extra for the feature.

 

[LordSplodge]

I just went actually to check the apple prices from the store and i feel sick.

So what? They're not cheap. A pro laptop with a five million pixel screen isn't going to cost £800.

Apparently this is normal too. It's the laptop shielding static from the logic board. When I asked for it in writing, an email came though stating they couldn't find the information I was looking for. Got a case number for that one.

Overall it's been a terrible experience.


Should have gone to OCUK. They've always replaced components quickly and trouble free. You live and learn..

You've been unlucky so far. Call AppleCare direct. I've had two repairs done months out of warranty for free with Apple. One of them replacing the screen on my 27" iMac (a £400 repair normally) a whole six months out of warranty.

By the way if you use the shorter plug (the one that goes direct into the charger) you can sometimes feel a tingle. It's annoying but the plug has a different earth setup. Use the longer lead and you won't get this.

As for going to OCUK, I didn't realise they sold rMBP, didn't realise they had better support than Apple either!

lol apple...

It's always "normal and within tolerance" or "water damage"

You pay a premium for the product as well which makes the experience they provide dreadful.

Do yourself a favour and do some research. Apple aren't perfect but they're constantly rated the best or amongst the best for customer support. My experience (see above) agrees with this.

Some people get bad support. Happens with all companies.

 

[Lew]

Glad you it sorted. Are you going back to the store to inform the manager who was obviously (I'm being sarcastic ) so helpful that you got it resolved?

 

[LordSplodge]

£2k on a laptop *chuckle*

That joke is hilarious. Now please tell me where I can get an equivalent laptop for less money? (Hint: Only one company sells laptops with 5 & 4 million pixel display laptops)

I'm surprised they haven't patented the creak and tried to charge you extra for the feature.

Please don't give Apple any ideas. Please...

 

[ChocolateStarfishRammer]

email [email protected] goes straight to senior customer services and they get **** done

Have to agree.

Having worked for Apple, the amount of times this happens is unreal.

And the outcome?

It gets replaced. Straight away. Full stop.

 

[LordSplodge]

Fair play to the chap at Apple. If you ever get someone called David at Customer Services in Cork - be thankful. He's achieved more in 24 hours than all his colleagues collectively in the last 2 months. As much as I like to complain, I also give credit where appropriate

Nst time just call AppleCare, eh? Glad to see you got it sorted. It hurts when you spend that much and it's not perfect.

 

[bloodiedathame]

That joke is hilarious. Now please tell me where I can get an equivalent laptop for less money? (Hint: Only one company sells laptops with 5 & 4 million pixel display laptops)

A gimmick display with no real world implications?

PS Boxx and Workstation specialists do some very fast machines without a stupid display.

 

[Theophany]

A gimmick display with no real world implications?

You're right. 640x480 was just fine! And who needed more than 256 colours anyway, right?

 

[Sankari]

Since then it's got creaky and the case feels loose.

...

What they failed to do was screw it back together so the screws were flush - and they didn't make any difference to the creaking.

...

The manager takes a look. He says "That's not right"

...

He tells me that even though the creaking is the worst he has seen (none of the display models do it - I checked!) - it falls within their tolerance of what is satisfactory.

...

He finished by saying it's not a defect.

Welcome to Apple, where defects are features and you pay more for them!

 

[LordSplodge]

A gimmick display with no real world implications?

PS Boxx and Workstation specialists do some very fast machines without a stupid display.

Yeah pointless. Being able to edit native resolution 1080p content* inside your video editor or work on massive images at native resolution inside a photgraph editor is pointless. No self respecting professional would want that.

Cristal clear text** across the whole OS is pointless too.

* The OS is clever enough to not pixel double these so they are displayed at native resolution for editing.

** Pixel doubling leads to very sharp text.

Like you said. Pointless. A little like your post.

 

[bloodiedathame]

I won't argue, you're wrong and trying to validate your purchase.

What do you do for a living LordSplodge?

 

[Raikiri]

Customer service down here has always been spot on, but that doesn't sound good.

I know it's too late now, but I would have gone for this off OcUK for a high-end laptop if I had 2k spare. Granted, it doesn't have the resolution of the Retina Macbooks, but it's still full-HD. 2 SSDs in RAID for the OS, separate S-ATA drive, enough specs to eat BF3 for breakfast. Plus, the RAM and battery isn't removable in those Macbooks. 2 year's warranty as well, where 1 year is the norm for laptops without an extended warranty. It's a non-brainer for me.

Except that's twice the size, twice the weight, half the battery life and a worse screen

They aren't the same type of laptop at all.

A gimmick display with no real world implications?

PS Boxx and Workstation specialists do some very fast machines without a stupid display.

Boxx? I just specced a laptop with the only advantage being a faster GPU and it came to $5,304 compared to the rMBP which was $3249.

Boxx -
17.3" 1080p (probably TN based)
3740QM
16Gb DDR3
675m
480gb SSD
16.22"(W) x 10.87"(D) x 1.69"~1.79" (H) 8.60 lbs with Battery

MBP -
15.4" 2880x1800 IPS
3820QM (marginally faster cpu)
16Gb DDR3
650m (slower gpu
512Gb (more storage)
14.13" (W) x 9.732 (D) x 0.71" (H)
Weight: 4.46 pounds (half the weight, half the size)