My apple really turned sour..

If you followed my posts, I've been having unlucky encounters with Apple.

Now though, it's gotten worse. In addition to delivering two days late with two dead pixels in the middle of the screen, now I'm being asked to wait two more weeks in addition to the 7 business days I waited, for a replacement.

I talked with a nice lady, who placed me on hold for 25 minutes, talked with a second level technician, who said they were keeping the notebook to examine why it was failing. It was a dead pixel for god's sake!

The people I talked to were very apologetic, and I told him it wasn't their fault. But all in all, my experience with Apple has turned into an equivalent of showering in dirty toilet water.

The technician said there was no way to expedite the shipment as MBPs were on backorder. A customer who's been asked a month for a product should take SOME priority in the whole scheme of shipping my computer out.

Not happy.

 

eww Sorry for the trouble. I thought Compaq had bad technicians!
J/K

 

I want to ask for store credit, but I can't decide how much I'm "entitled" to.

People who had their orders shipped one date late had -$50 and free upgrade to expedited shipping. I wonder what I can get for a defective system that I'm waiting three weeks for.

 

You are not entitled to anything, Apple gave concessions for late shipping only because they were generous. You can try but don't be surprised if you get nothing.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles with Apple, sharpsees. As for the store credit, I guess asking for $100 store credit isn't bad, considering the MBP is a $2000+ investment, and Apple did screw up with your order.

 

Just called the Apple CSR..

They said they don't have the notebook, so I'll have to talk with AppleCare. AppleCare says the refund and all that is CSR's ball to start rolling, blah blah.

I'm hating this.

 

Have to assume you're not within easy driving range of an Apple Store? Visiting a Genius bar and speaking in person with a live body usually ends up with superb service from Apple. Not trying in any way to diminish what's going on - sounds lousy to me - but if it were possible to visit a store, I'm confident that your experience with and opinion of Apple would change drastically. In any case, I hope this matter sorts itself out to your satisfaction. Good luck.

 

That sucks, I understand their problem (as such) but find it rather crap that they keep your machine now.
I would definitely ask for store credit.

 

I got mine from Apple Store online, because it had -200 student discount, the free printer and nano rebate deal. I don't think I could've taken it to a genius bar?

Ordered September 9th, shipped September 21st, received the 24th, returned the 25th, will ship by the 19th but probably 21st, like the last time.. and receive the 24th?

Who knows, maybe they'll release Leopard before that!

 

Not quite sure I understand the highlighted comment. If you mean you're not sure you could have gotten the same deal from a local store, neither am I. But you can take your Mac in for a Genius to check out for you whether you bought online or not.

 

Yes, you could have gotten the same deal from the physical Apple Store. The student discount, the nano rebate and the free printer are all available in store (or were at least; the nano rebate at least has expired).

But you can also take a machine you bought from the online Apple Store to the genius bar of your local store.

I'm not quite following though, I'm not sure why you're so upset with Apple. I'd think it is pretty good they are accepting a replacement for only 2 dead pixels; it isn't necessarily standard policy, and manu manufacturers would say "tough luck" to only 2 dead pixels.

-Zadillo

 

@Zadillo, it's kinda annoying to fork out for an expensive item only to find it's faulty, and then having to wait weeks, without the item you have already paid for and received, especially if it's a tool you need to use right now (which is often the reason for ppl buying a computer when they buy it, they wait until just before they NEED it).

Apple doesn't seem to be soing anything wrong, they could however either let him use his faulty machine or give hime a loaner and offer a data transfer over to the new machine when it arrives.
Many GOOD pc retailers would be likely to offer that in such a case. I'm obviously not referring to unnamed large chains with questionable custmor service. (I was store manager at a small computer store which rather liked its customers and didn't just consider them pests, unlike some stores I won't be shopping at again)

And use the genius bar, they don't care where you bought it, as long as it's not "from the back of a truck". You can go to an Apple store anywhere in the world and get genius help, that's the whole point.

 

I meant the latter..

I keep getting transferred between departments, and I'm not good at raising my voice..

Next time I call, I'll ask them to hang on the line with me..

Edit:

That's something pretty ignorant to say.. I know you wouldn't be happy if you paid 20 grand for a car that has a chimney hole on its roof.

Anyway, I talked to an Apple Rep, then a supervisor.. she wanted to articulate the point that anything Apple could do was out of a good will, not compensation.

She offered me to pick any $50 product off the Apple Store, then call her directly.

Then she said, she could chat with a sales rep about the whole ordeal, but I had to decide that moment, if I wanted to risk her offer of a $50 product, or try my luck on getting money back on the credit card.

We talked about why I had to decide right that moment, then she backed off and placed me on hold to talk with a sales rep.

They credited me $50 back to the credit card. I apologize for her troubles, and tell her I just want to cancel the system. 17 business days = 3 weeks, and 3 weeks = leopard! She understood, and I was in another long hold.

40 minutes later, she's not finished. I tell her I had to go pick somebody up, and she said we could continue this on Tuesday, since I won't be around tomorrow.

I'll put in another order when Leopard comes out. As for getting through university without a computer, I'll have to stick to the computer labs.

The funny thought I gained form all this, is that Apple needed to send out my repaired MBP back to me, so I could send it back. They'd provide me with labels, charge no restocking fee, and I obviously had waived all my rebates.

What a waste of time for both of us, but it seemed like the nice lady pulled through at least a little bit for me.

I know if it were Dell who had this trouble, they'd just attach an upgrade to my system. Then again, both companies have completely different ways of earning money.

 

Well, that is obviously not within spec. But 2 dead pixels on a notebook screen is not that off spec. Its obvious you're frustrated; the MBP is a $2000+ investment, yes, but screens are never perfect...2 dead/stuck pixels rarely ever warrant a replacement. Even ASUS' Zero Dead Pixel guarantee only applies to a few notebooks in its huge lineup.

Once again, I'm not defending Apple in saying dead pixels are okay...but its the way the industry is, and Apple actually went beyond what it needed to do to satisfy you. They weren't obligated to replace the screen for you; if I remember correctly you need at least 5 dead pixels to warrant a replacement according to Apple's rules.

 

Yeah, I'm sorry, but seriously. Dead pixels are annoyances, to be sure, but to consider a machine defective because of them seems like a stretch (and comparing a machine with a couple of dead pixels to a car with a hole in the roof seems pretty far out there too).

I guess I don't understand why the reaction is "Apple is screwing me over" even though they are allowing a replacement of a machine that does not have a significant number of dead pixels - dead pixel policies are all over the map for many manufacturers, but generally speaking, 2 dead pixels in and of themselves would not be enough for an automatic replacement

-Zadillo

 

Frankly speaking, I don't care about the industry standards, or whatever treatment you veteran laptop users are used to. However much I spend, whatever I buy new - I want, and expect it to be flawless.

It's ridiculous to compare Apple only with other computer manufacturers. It's an unwritten rule that whatever you buy new, it's flawless. You won't settle for a camera that has its lenses scratched, iPod loaded with pornography, car with a chimney, chilli with a finger, but you're obedient to some whack money-saving policy setup by companies with incompetent quality control?

Edit:

I read this article: http://lowendmac.com/misc/2k0323.html

It's dated seven years ago.

In either way, it's a shame.

 

Unfortunately, for what you're asking for, prices would have to be MUCH higher.

If a computer manufacturer were to ensure that every machine they shipped out had 0 dead pixels, or even to have a universal 0 dead pixels/stuck pixels policy (even Asus' policy isn't universal, and as I recall is a stuck pixel policy only, which is why it is "Zero Bright Dot"), they would have to throw out every LCD panel that had even one dead pixel.

This would dramatically increase the individual cost of each machine.

I agree that many people expect a certain standard from Apple (and may I point out again, Apple isn't fighting you on this - it sounds like they agreed to do the replacement even thought the number of dead pixels is below their normal thresshold), but as it is, people complain about Apple machines being too expensive.

For Apple to do what you're asking, you'd easily be adding an additional $500-800 at least probably to the cost of each MBP.

LCD technology is not perfect yet; no manufacturer has control over that. They do the best they can, and they try and set standard dead pixel threshholds that offer a balance between keeping prices reasonable while still being realistic.

I just don't see why you're making this an Apple thing. Apple is hardly the only high-end laptop manufacturer out there; Asus, Sony, and a variety of other companies also make laptops in the same $2000-3000 price range as Apple and all of them would have the same general issues and policies.

It isn't ridiculous to compare Apple to other manufacturers when it comes to industry-wide issues like dead pixels.

-Zadillo

 

It was never just an Apple thing for me.

I was saying, new flawless things are expected when you buy things new, but it seems the technology field has settled on something less.

 

Well, again, there isn't too much choice.

Do you feel like paying $3000-$4000 for your laptops?

To actually ensure that every laptop was flawless, for example, you would have to throw out every laptop with even the smallest imperfection ("dead pixel? in the trash!").

The costs of manufacturing would skyrocket, and it would be very difficult to maintain current prices.

It's fine to expect something to be flawless, and it's fine to say you're going to return something if it isn't. And generally speaking, many companies will allow returns/exchanges for any product defects/etc.

In your case, Apple is even allowing an exchange for something that isn't officially within their spec for defects.

This is all a company can really do.

The expectation that is reasonable perhaps is for a company to try and make it right if you get a machine with any sort of imperfection that bothers you.

But the expectation that the machine you receive would be completely free from any imperfection or defect as a rule is unreasonable.