Completely Outraged...

I recently had a pretty bad experience at the Apple Retail Store, and I carefully documented it over here. For those looking to buy a Mac in the future, I think you may be interested in reading about this.

 

two macbooks that had the same problem? this is starting to sound like the dell screen fiasco.

but it just goes to show you need to know exactly what you want or you end up with something that someone wanted to get rid of instead.

 

looking extremely unhappy and asking for the manager also helps

 

Unbelievable! I've never been treated that way at any apple stores. Sucks! But hey, at least now you have a working laptop. And when leopard comes out, you can just get one of your friends to get it for you. boom.

 

Never heard of any other Macbooks with this issue, so it's a bit early to liken it to the "Dell screen fiasco" as you call it.

 

I bought a macbook pro at compusa and a three weeks after i bought it, the genius bar replaced with with a brand new macbook pro, no questions asked, and it was upgrade, just talk to the manager and you should be fine, never had that problem before.

If anything just talk to them nicely, show them how much business you do with them and they might just let you return it, if you are not interested, there is nothing wrong with just waiting until your sister is comfortable with the laptop.

 

There are always bad apples (no pun intended) anywhere you go. I would have probably lost my patience well before you did. It's good that you persisted and it appears things worked out.

I would have to say that while you had a legitimate complaint with the MB I wouldn't call it a defect. Unfortunately, some HDD manufacturers produce HDDs that vibrate. It is truly luck of the draw which HDD you receive. In some notebooks the vibration isn't so noticeable, but in Apple machines (the MBP in particular) vibration is isn't quenched well due to the minimal design.

As a side note I had to return a MBP due to some issue I was having with it. It was a marginal issue but still an issue (the trackpad button was temperamental). They gave me a replacement but I was also told that I couldn't return the replacement if there was an issue. I just smiled and thought "yeah right"...I can smell BS a mile away. The replacement machine actually died a few days later and I was back at the AS. Nothing was said about not returning the machine, etc. They gave me a third MBP which turned out to be fine. Morale of the story is that some people are full of sh!t, just don't get caught up believing their crap.

 

it's kinda sad to hear about this being that a company with a great reputation is getting stained because of a couple bad apples in the workforce. I hope everything goes a ok for you. I work in the Retail world myself and I see this as a wrong doing.....but give it time because if they're not just doing it to you they might do it to others that will make it a trend and that will enough may warrant an investigation if there are more complaints about the same store.

 

Wow, that kind of treatment is just horrible. I'm really sorry you had such a bad experience - luckily, you handled it pretty much perfectly. I'm glad it got solved for you in the end - though it would be nice if you got some sort of notice of what they'd done to the employees who'd mistreated you and formal letters of apology.

The only thing I might've done differently (and it might not have had any real impact) is turned down the ~$200 offer from the manager, and just said that all you want (and the only thing that will fully remedy the situation) is a formal apology. It might be viewed that accepting their offer was a sort of "apology" on their end that you accepted as an end to the situation. But still, the manager should really have followed through more on his end to make sure you knew the employees were being dealt with. I know if I were a manager, I'd hate having employees that gave my store such a bad name.

 

I think that you absolutely have the right to exchange one. Well, apply stores are not that nice.!!!!
Maybe Steve Jobs can take care of this problem, god knows what he thinks.

 

I seriously doubt that Steve Jobs will even hear of this issue.. or anyone in the upper chain of command for that matter. I doubt anyone even reads the mail at that email address - it's probably just set up specifically to filter out all the people who try to email Steve so he doesn't have to deal with as much "junk mail"

Sad to say, but that store probably treats its customers badly because it knows it can get away with it with total impunity.

You might get their attention with considerable expense on your own part though - i.e. advertising the situation on the internet, a lawsuit perhaps, or some other means that might directly impact them where it matters ($$)..

 

My goal of going back to the store wasn't to "get stuff", it was simply to get a working macbook. Out of all the macbooks I've seen (and to this day I've seen quite a few), only some of them vibrated - so at the price we paid for the machine, I expect one that doesn't vibrate.

The part about me being "banned" was completely ridiculous. The manager of the store got forwarded my letters to SJ and knows I called corporate and he sent me a few e-mails and called me a few times but I have yet to answer. I was waiting from an "official" response from the e-mail I sent but they haven't e-mailed me/called me back as of yet....we'll see what happens.

 

It sounds like Apple is trying to remedy the situation. Your sister got a non-vibrating MacBook with a $200 discount, right? So all you're waiting for is an apology? What did the manager's emails say?

I'm not trying to belittle your frustrations. I just think that your persistence paid off. Though, none of this should have ever happened in the first place.

Peace.

 

If I skipped the part of you being un-banned then never mind, but if the offer is still standing from the manager to have you call him to resolve the issue, my only issue would be to be unbanned. That would be the last thing to leave a bad taste in my mouth and have me feel it should be rectified, especially since for some reason they allow you to buy Macbook Pro's, which are more expensive to replace if one vibrates excessively. That is an out flat looney decision on the manager's part...totally illogical to me... I have yet to figure that one out, but it is in line with the self superior attitude you have described in the staff there.
Reminds me of the saleslady at my Apple store who refused to acknowledge Bootcamp was better at playing games, perhaps because she wanted me to buy Parallels software, which costs money.

 

The manager wanted me to call him/go see him - but I figured I would wait for a response from "Apple" - it seems that they merely forwarded my e-mails to the store manager. I'm still kind of undecided about what to do, actually. It's not in my character though to demand more "stuff" - I was pleased to receive the discount, but not more so than I am angry and frustrated with this incident.

What should have happened is this:
I buy macbook, macbook is vibrating, go back to the Apple store, genius acknowledges problem, swaps macbook. Macbook #2 vibrates, same thing, replace it, exchange for mb #3. Mb #3 is perfect, end of story.

 

You should just call the manager and talk to him. If you tell him that all you want is an apology you might be surprised and get one. You really need to end this now. You'll feel better with it out of the way.

 

Interesting story. For a change, a negative story seems to have been told by someone who is unbiased, calm and fair. Kudos! These thing happen from time to time and it's unfortunate. I'm glad you kept a level head and finally got your non-defective macbook for your sister. I would wager a guess that even if you DON'T get a response from sjobs, this will be filed against the store in question. The manager, maybe even the regional manager will see this mark in the monthly store ratings. Corporate companies often take their satisfaction reports seriously, especially when that's all they do is satisfy customers. No doubt, that's why the real manager was quick to comply and satisfy, because his higher-up will take it out of his butt.

 

I'm happy that you got a happy ending!

If you told me the names and the location of the store though, we can bring in some vigilante action.

 

I think that it is a good idea to talk with the manager. it is also good to state your position clearly that you are not looking for touble for them, all you want is a working machine and that is all.
Just be nice to them and I think that things will work out.
God bless you.

 

im glad you got it replaced, and props to you for staying so calm, i know that i would've absolutely lost it. but now i wouldnt be suprised if you noticed yourself becoming extremely impatient with customer service type situations. i was also a generally calm person until i got stuck in an elevator, and the person on the other end of the line of the "emergency" phone was of no help. but thats a whole nother story, and tell you sister we hope she likes her new MB and were here to help with any other problems she has.

 

Good to hear things turned out okay, queshy.