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Typical Apple. This is why they make so much money and can charge a premium for their products. 9 times out of 10 the service is great, but the one time it isn't, there'll be someone in the company willing to make things right.
Cheers Apple, and good job to Jordan for handling the situation professionally. That's half of the results right there.
I too went through a very similar process, I'm very happy to say.
I bought a 1st gen BlackBook the day they were released in the summer of 2006, and I had issues the first week I got it. I had the processor failure, where a power wire casing to the CPU would heat up as the computer was used and then as the casing expanded from said heat would cause a momentary short and the computer would crash. Sent it in to repair the issue in week one, and it WASN'T FIXED. Sent it in again, after a long phone conversation, and it was eventually replaced.
Went through the EXACT same process with my optical drive, two send ins for a problem clearly labeled before sending it off. Needless to say, very frustrating.
I also had to send it in over the next few months for issues like a faulty battery, and several other issues I cannot remember. When all was said and done and my original 1-year manufacturer's warranty was up, I had sent my computer in SEVEN times.
The last day of my warranty, I called Apple and asked to speak to someone in quality control, or something. Apparently there are three tiers of AppleCare, and I was immediately routed to tier two, who routed me to tier three.
The tier three agent told me that he would be my contact, collected my info so he could call me back, and asked me what the problem was. I told him that I simply wanted to file a complaint about the hardware. I loved the operating system, but told them my hardware horror story.
A week or so later he called me back and told me they would be sending me the newer computer with the Core 2 Duo processor and doubling my RAM and HDD! Needless to say, every computer I purchase from here on out will be an Apple.
After 2-3 iPods, 1 iPhone, 2 iMacs and a MacBook Pro purchased over a 10 year period, I've only had to return to the store for service 3-4 times. More often than not, the store has replaced or repaired at no charge to me even after the warranty was expired. Just be polite, be specific about the concerns and ask them what they think your best option is for the issue (and wearing your Apple t-shirt seems to help too).
My last issue was with my MacBook battery that had warped and stopped working (leaving it on for extended periods downloading files probably didn't help) and I knew it was not under warranty any longer so I was expecing to purchase a new battery but I took it with me and just see what might happen if I asked. I asked if there was anything Apple could do even if I was out of warranty. The Apple genius suggested it was a safety hazard and under that condition, he was allowed to replace it for free.
Happy customer!
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Wow, I have most of those problems on my pcs, and it's considered normal
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@Mr_Human:
Yeah, I was thinking about trying an Apple, but are these problems with laptops in general? I don't know...the Toshiba I have is my first one.
I've been having issues with my Toshiba laptop's CD/DVD burner. It plays stuff; it just won't burn. I just put whatever it is on my flash drive and walk it to my desktop, where the CD/DVD burner still works just fine. Of course, the laptop has Vista vs the desktop's XP, and the Windows Media Player is also an older version, and I'm wondering if that's not part of the problem.
Can I get an external one and plug it into the laptop? Just curious.
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Yep, after reading about this little trick on this site I emailed Steve myself after my still-under-warranty ibook kept slipping in to a coma after three major part repairs. I was sent to a store where they hooked me up with:
-brand new macbook with harddrive, ram and dvd drive upgrades
-applecare for the macbook
-procare card
-one on one card
-.mac account
-a new sleeve to round it all out
They take care of their business, no doubt about it. I can tell after relaying my story that I must have stepped in some CS shit after noting that once at one store in the course of this month long meltdown, I was told that they couldn't replicate the problem and therefore it was ready to go home. Wut.
Anyway the moral of the story is get the extended warranty on any computer you buy. I bought my ibook for $859 almost four years ago and I now have a brand new macbook and all the trimmings for nothing. It's stuff like this that makes you a customer for life.
Why does this guy love Apple so much if he found their service to be \"troublesome\"?
Yeah, I love getting kicked in the ass too, but only if you're wearing Manolos...
I don't understand why people complain/decline buying the extended warranty-esp the one with accidental damage on laptops. I would say most laptops have some sort of issue within 3 years-but I have seen 6 year old laptops merrily chugging away. Nothing is worse than when someone brings back the laptop you sold them, offered them the accidental damage warranty-they decline smirking. Then I see them later-months, weeks, and someone dropped the laptop and its broken! Then they wonder why we won't fix it.
I am glad Jordan was able to get his laptop fixed and had got the warranty. It sucks that he had trouble but it paid for itself in the end!
@gaya2081: Apple's extended warranties do not cover accidental damage. It's an extension of the regular manufacturer's warranty and phone support.
Dude what the hell did you do to your MBP??? Drop it? I've never seen a Mac with so many problems. One, two? Sure. But problems with every single port and device? REALLY???
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Awesome.
Same thing happened to me. I had an iBook G3 that had a logic board issue and it had gone in 3 times.
I was beside myself because I was working on a final paper for my Master's program when it bit the dust.
Walked out with a new MacBook and they were able to pull my data off for me. Thank God.
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@shorty63136: I too am an Apple cultist, dedicated to the worship and propagation of all things Mac. However, ALL hard drives are prone to failure sooner or later - it's merely a matter of when, not if. So I recommend always keeping a backup no matter what platform you use.
The new Time Machine thing is amazing, it makes hourly, weekly, and monthly backups in the background on a separate disk or partition.
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This is a great story; I noticed that it never hurts to be honest and up front with electronic companies. I had an i-River 40GB black and white MP3 player when it first came out, during the warranty time it broke and was replaced; the replacement came back just before the warranty ran out and had another failure.
I contacted i-River and told them that I loved this MP3 player, have told many people about it and persuaded them to purchase an iRiver over an iPod for a number of reasons.
I was contacted shortly after where I was told to send my unit back and, and sure enough no more than a week later they had replaced my antiquated black and white model with a full color screen 40GB MP3 player unit; not only was I jumping for joy but I still have that MP3 player and it still works to this day. (Mind you I originally bought my iRiver somewhere around 2001 and replaced within a year/two years with a the newer model).
Just so people know, Apple Care isn't an extended warranty. Warranties are agreements in which the terms can not be changed by the retailer.
Apple holds the right to change the terms of their Apple Care whenever they want, thus making it a \"protection plan.\"
It's still the number one service product from any computer manufacturer though.
I'm really quite surprised though that this guy had to go to the top in order to get this resolved. If it was in my Apple store, not only would he have had a brand new computer, we'd have thrown in some free stuff just to make sure we didn't lose his patronage.
I know this cause it happened to me with my 20\" Aluminum iMac. The Lemon Law is very helpful.
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What happens to your old hard disk drive when you get a replacement computer?
Did he take the old drive out? Do they destroy it in front of you?
@wesrubix: It is part of the original unit, so in a full-unit swap, you surrender the previous drive.
If your data is important to you, then you need to back it up before swapping your machine, and perform a zero-ing, or a 35-pass zero-ing if you prefer.
This is not surprising. I'm on my sixth Apple. Most of the time, they run great. A few times, I did have to go the service route. Most of the time, service was EXCELLENT. Twice, though, I had 'nightmare' problems. Eventually, both those 'nightmares' wound up in new laptops at my door.
Apple truly rocks in the service dept.
Ugh, whine whine... half his problem are the same one, that is, bad USB. Any tech will deduce the same thing from his list of problems, and repeating himself endlessly just wastes everyone's time and effort.
You know what? My friend had multiple problems with his MacBook Pro as well, several major repairs in one year. Do you know what he did? He called APPLECARE, and THEY replaced his computer with a brand new unibody sexy MBP. Steve isn't the only person to contact at apple to get a replacement computer. In fact, he is not the fastest, or most reliable person to contact by any means.
@ludwigk:
Agreed. Applecare's standard policy is that after 3 hardware repairs you qualify for a replacement. Just call up Applecare and ask for Tier 2 (They're the ones who can authorize a replacement).
The store should have been able to handle this too. It sounds like that store has a problem with their staffing. Whenever I needed a repair or replacement, I've had no problem with the stores.
My Dell's working fine. :)
@MooseOfReason: Lucky you. My Dell has had 3 hard drive replacements, two video card replacements, and a motherboard replacements, and the AC port broke almost as soon as my warranty ran out.
Lemons are not exclusive to Apple.
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I've actually been having a lot of issues with this Macbook that happened simultaneously and I wasn't sure how the support would take it if I called and said, \"The HD is having slow read/write times, the Wi-Fi card is making my internet as slow as dial-up and now the monitor is flickering.\" Even though I have the three year warranty, that's a lot of problems at once.
This story was yet another good tale of good customer service and success on Apple's part.
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My milage was different. In 1993 or so, I decided that I had sent Bill Gates enough of my money, and purchased a MacBook Wallstreet with OS8.5, a full suite of Office apps, and a new printer (of course, Apple couldn't be bothered to use a standard Centronics printer interface). The hardware was beautiful - a real piece of ergonomic artistry. The computer crashed more often than the Wright Bros., however. Right in the middle of writing something, it would freeze up and leave you with a carat on the screen. That's all. There was (and is) no Apple store anywhere near rural Texas where I lived. No Genius Bars. No local retailer. After several months of this, I kissed my $2500 goodbye and went back to Windows 98. Too bad; it was a nice looking computer. But I won't ever bet 2 grand on someone else's fanboi opinions again.
sorry, that computer was purchased in 2003.
sounds like a bad memory issue to me. Perhaps that is a known problem within the company, and that's why they replacing them.
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I'm starting to wonder if Senor Jobs actually gets any work done around Cupertino if all he's doing is responding to these emails...
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first the thing with final cut pro, now this.
dear mr. jobs,
may I please have a quarter of your wages every year? i love apple products! i have 15 ipods, 2 iphones, an 8 core mac pro and 5 macbook pros. but i feel like i paid too much.
I emailed sjobs@apple.com a few weeks ago because my mac has been falling apart steadily since the warranty expired. I didn't even get a response.
@David in Brasil,unless you purchased a powerbook g3 (codenamed wallstreet) in 2003 for $2500 from ebay or craigslist (yikes!), a lot of history in your post is incorrect.
The Powerbook G3 came out in 1998. The lowest OS that could run was indeed a minimum of 8.1 and the highest was 10.2.8. Perhaps not the most stable of the classic OS, but upgradable to 9.2.2 which was one of the more stable in the classic period. Though, the appleworks suite of \"office programs\" were not very good back then, I'll admit. The cost of this computer in 1998 was $2299. Later that year, the 233 MHz was initially sold for $2,799, the 266 MHz model for $3,499, and the 300 MHz model for $3,999.
If you purchased new in 2003 it's more than likely you bought an Ibook G4 or Powerbook G4. Both of which came with a minimum OS of 10.2.3 (Jaguar) and a maximum of 10.5.6 (Leopard). The iBook cost much less than $2500, but the Powerbook started at $1999 early and then a higher end one cost around $2599 later in the year.
It's unfortunate that AppleCare wasn't helpful though. But if you did purchase a G3 Wallstreet (black case) for $2500 in 2003, it was more than likely way out of warranty (by about 3 years) and in no way at all coverable as AppleCare originally would have expired in 2001. If you purchased an ibook (white case) or a powerbook G4 (silver case), it should have been an easier fix... most likely by upgrading to system 9.
windows 98? ouch... at least in 1998, it was only 3 years until XP. But again, why if this was in 2003 did you go back to 98? XP was fully functional and very capable by that time.
Anyway, I am just curious about your story...
Thanks!
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At the end of the list of issues, he should have said \"But other than that, it's great\".
But seriously, it's good to hear that Apple appears to care. Although I find their policy of having to set up an appointment at the \"Genius\" Bar for any tiny little problem to be a bit annoying.
@MeSoHornsby: I've found that if you ask for help with the smallest of problems to a regular salesperson, you'll get help, but reluctantly. This is my policy for keys that break off.
@MeSoHornsby: Eh, suck it up. Before there were appointments, there were 2-3 hour waits on evenings and weekends at my local Apple store. I love the appointments. Especially since I've never, ever had to leave a machine at a store overnight for repair.
I find the people who saunter in and expect that thier tiny little problem shouldn't mean they have to wait behind the dozen or so people who are already in queue for help more than a bit annoying.
@MeSoHornsby: You don't have to setup an appointment. You can call a regular 800 number just like any other computer manufacturer if you REALLY like that instead. They'll send you a box, and you mail it off.
Personally? I'd rather SHOW someone my problems, face-to-face, then try to explain it, and have them read a script to do trivial procedures for 90 minutes before they finally agree to send me a box.
@MeSoHornsby:
He should of listed what was actually working, since that would of been shorter.