Typical MacBookPro horror story

It is unfortunate because many look to Apple for their high build quality. It seems with the bevy of problems that has faced their new MacBook that they have let their quality standards slip sharply.

http://mobilitytoday.com/news/006856/apple_executive_relations_poor

Dear Mr Jobs,

I am writing you a formal complaint dealing with your Executive Relations and a defective MacBookPro problem that Apple will not admit. I purchased my MacBookPro back in March of 2006 in which I was experiencing continuous whining noises.. Not only was I experiencing whining noises this MacBookPro also was getting EXTREMELY hot, in excess of 135 F. So I sent it in for repair and received the MacBookPro back with the same exact problem. So I immediately sent it back in for repair and called Apple Executive Relations and spoke with Robin Roberts. Ms Roberts was very concerned about my problem and checked daily the status of the repair. Unfortunately when I received the MacBookPro back from service it had the same exact problems.

At this time Ms Roberts offered me two options:

Replace the MacBookPro with a new one
Full refund
Since I really liked the MacBook I decided to swap it out for a new one.. I was informed to bring it back to the Menlo Park, NJ store for the exchange. I have to compliment the manager of this store since he was extremely helpful and sat with me the entire time while they backed up my information.

Since each Apple store is very noisy it was very hard for me to determine if the noise was not on this unit.

When I got home I noticed the noise but felt I would deal with it and used a plugin to force the sound to go away called MagicWhineKiller. This made the whine go away but after three weeks I was experiencing a loud "MOOOOO" sound? So I once again called Ms Roberts and she immediately asked me to return it back the the Apple Store for another exchange.

Since May 2006, I have gone through two new MacBookPro's, 2 repairs and here is the kicker.

In the past 4 months I have noticed the Magsafe connector fraying from heat? I immediately drove to the Menlo Park, NJ store and replaced the Magsafe power cord. Now Apple says this new "MAGNETIC" design is supposed to stop it from fraying. But what they didnt realize is that it doesn't stop the glue that holds the shield from melting. Last month once again I made a trip to my local Apple store because of the Magsafe connector was fraying again! So again I drove back to my local Apple store to replace my defective Magsafe power cord.

This month I noticed my MacBookPro's battery was part of the recall of defective batteries in the MacBookPro's. So i filled out the paperwork and had a new battery sent to me.

Last week I am now noticing severe warping all around the edges of the unit along with a battery slot that has completely warped causing the battery to wiggle. Not only is the entire laptop warping I am now getting flaking

So what am I to do?

I figured let me calll Ms Roberts and see if Apple would either swap out another NEW MacBookPro or refund my money.. Unfortunately Ms Roberts was out and I received a call from Alan Rose who worked for Apple Executive Relations also. I explained my issue with Mr Roberts and he stated, "Mr Ciccone you can take it back to the store and have them fix it" .. I explained to him that I went through this problem 6 times so far and quite honestly this is why I called Steve Jobs office. He responded "This office doesnt have to do anything for you quite honestly sir" .. "It's to our discretion if we want to replace it and this is not an option for you!" After hearing this I was totally amazed by the rudeness of Mr Rose and prompted him with the question, "What value does Mr Jobs office provide for a customer who has had 6 issues within a 5 month perion?" His answer was "This office doesn't have to provide anything to you!"

Needless to say Mr Rose after an hour argument offered me nothing more than a telephone call to the Menlo Park, NJ store. I personally will NEVER buy another Apple product and quite honestly will inform as many people as i possibly can about this terrible experience!

Mr Jobs I have been a long time Apple customer and I like this computer, but the problems that I have experienced with it, along with the abusive behaviour from Mr. Rose have really caused me to re-evaluate my desire to purchase or use your products. I would like to stay your customer, but for now it seems that you are making every effort to drive me away. I hope that there can be a resolution to my numerous complaints about your products and staff that will return a level of comfort to me about buying from Apple. Right now though, your office, through the actions of Mr. Rose is just driving me away.

I will kindly wait for your response


Thank You,
David Ciccone

 

return the notebook...if they don't then challenge the credit card charges

 

I read this, it's hard to generalize one persons experience to the whole crowd of MacBook owners. Apple does have loyal customers but also very discrimnating so you'd expect some of this. Every manufacturer is going to have horror stories with support issues, unfortunately for Apple one of those customers happens to run a fairly large website in which he can draw attention. Nonetheless, Steve Jobs has more time consuming things than to be responding to some dude with a website though.

 

Maybe this was posted elsewhere and if it was I apologize for the redundancy. This survey details the reliability of MB/MBP using 2,800 MB/MBP notebooks. It is very interesting especially to a potential MB consumer.

If you view the link I included you would notice that ‘problems’ inflicting the MB/MBP vary from model to model. They are not isolated though by any means though. Isolated should never amount to more than 5%. The 15.4 MBP incurs a 24% repair ratio and that is a quarter of all 15.4MP, a staggering number. What is troubling is the chain of problems the affects many MB/MBP. Okay so they are being solved one by one, but personally I wouldn’t even bother with a MBP. I will most likely go with the Black MB because I’ll take the 7.7% repair ratio which technically should be even lower given that the mooing and heat problems have been solved.

I think we can agree that public complaints such as this and yesterdays ZDnet article are troubling to Apple and potential customers. I mean I might be a potential 'fanboy' but i am not one yet and my $$ is still in my pocket and the more issues publicly arise the better the alernative seems.

http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/macbooks.html

Edit: forgot to include link

 

I have to say his story sounds kind of odd. Most customers who do have problems with the MB or MBP go through normal AppleCare; why is this guy complaining to the executives and the office of Steve Jobs?

Undoubtedly he has experienced some problems with his MBP, but it seems like he is trying to get attention by complaining to executives (instead of working through AppleCare like a normal customer) and then getting upset that they can't handle his issue.

Also PHiZ, what exactly is your purpose? It seems like you are making a habit of posting every Apple horror story here. We know about them, we get it. Why are you focusing on Apple? Every company has it's share of customers who could tell stories like this.

-Zadillo

 

Again, I don't think anyone doubts that there have been a large share of problems here, but it seems a bit hard to gather too much from these numbers, since you're basically lumping everything that required a "repair" into a total number. There are definitely different degrees.

Frankly I'm not sure how unique this is to Apple anyway; just from my time as a Sony Vaio owner, I remember tons of complaints about all sorts of aspects of the S and SZ series (keyboard problems, loose batteries, etc.). Although I recall a lot more "DIY" fixing, and less actually trying to get Sony to fix the problems.

Either way, I think the conclusion to that Macintouch report is pretty telling, much more than just looking at the raw numbers:

-Zadillo

 

I agree with you Zadillo and I am still on course to buy a black MB, I can’t stand scratches and I refuse to laminate anything with an InvisiIsheild. As it might bring about memories of sofas sets covered in plastic .. Hahaha.

So why is Apple receiving so much bad publicity compared to say other manufactures. The bombardment of complaints make it seem like it is a lemon, including NBR very own cashmonee.

I take chances but anything more than 5% is very risky and what’s worse is that for those MBPs that are affected many seem to have secondary issues as well. If I didn’t travel as much as I do, I wouldn’t care, but I do, so statistics mean just a little bit more to me.

 

Well, again, even though macintouch did address this in their commentary, I would really wonder what the overall numbers are. I think there's a difference between a survey like what macintouch did and what the total numbers actually are. As it is, I don't actually think the overall repair numbers are such a high percentage of every MacBook and MacBook Pro sold.

To some degree I think this still largely boils down to the fact that you're going to hear a lot more from the people who are having problems than you are from the people who aren't. This is true of just about any laptop manufacturer though; you go to the Dell or HP or Sony or Toshiba forums and you're not going to find as many "Hey, I just got my laptop and there's NOTHING wrong with it!" kinds of posts.

I would still probably break those stats down based on what specific repairs were required. I mean, for example, a large number of required repairs for the MacBook were based on the white discoloration issue. Certainly a notable issue, but one which was fairly simple to resolve.

At the same time, I'd probably want to know how many of those required repairs were still issues today, and how many of them have been resolved since the original launches of the MB and MBP. That is, would we still see the same percentages if you did a similar survey starting with people buying MB's and MBP's now, or would it be closer to the standard 5%?

Again, there's no question that some people have had issues, and some have had especially bad luck with multiple problems (like cashmonee's experiences).

But I am just not totally convinced that Apple's problems are so much worse than many other manufacturers, and I at least would take some comfort in knowing that for the most part, Apple has been doing a pretty good job of taking care of affected customers and making improvements to deal with the most serious issues (i.e. using newer logic boards in more recent MBP's, firmware updates for the MB's, etc.).

-Zadillo

 

Hey phiz i sorta understand what you are going through. i have had 3 macbook pros swapped due to cosmetic/hardware defects. I have experienced a high pitch buzz/hiss noise near the magsafe, and not sure if that is the whine people keep talking about

It was a shame because i really enjoyed using that computer.

 

They actually swapped the entire MacBook 3 times? I hadn't heard of them doing that before. Normally they seem to just repair the defect, and only actually swap the whole laptop out after the 3rd repair.

Did you just end up giving up after 3 times then? I would think that eventually you could have gotten one that met your needs.

Just out of curiosity, what were the defects that you returned each MacBook Pro for?

The whine most people talked about was with the earlier original MacBook Pro logic boards; the thing you describe sounds different though.

-Zadillo

 

Well all my problems were cosmetic, and could not be fixed by them so they replaced it. I think i swapped it 4 times but i forget. Keyboard was not installed properly for two of mine and the mouse clicker were soft on the corners of mine. I know its a silly reason to swap, but honestly paying premium for those things to occur simply wont do.

It might be the whine, because ive done research and found a solution to fix the hissing and buzzing sound, by running photobooth or mirror widget. It might not be that noticble to other people, but i have sensitive ears and am in a very quite area and it is quite bothersome.

Oh yeah i also had another problem, but it wasnt that big. It might have been the battery recall problem, but on occasion my battery would not charge to a full 100%. It would charge up to 99 or 98 percent and just stop.

 

Interesting. Not saying it's a silly reason to swap, just that I've normally heard of them just replacing the defective part of the case or something first (i.e. replace the keyboard, that kind of thing), rather than actually swapping the whole thing out with a whole new MacBook Pro. I guess maybe they just figured it was simpler to replace the whole laptop though?

I was pretty sure that the whine that was solveable with Photosbooth was with the older logic boards; it seems like with the newer logic boards it shouldn't actually happen though (not sure though, I haven't kept up on that one as much). I think it has to do with Photobooth keeping the CPU active or something.

I think you're right about the battery; I recall that many of the people with batteries that were recalled had problems like that, where the charge never showed up as a full 100%.

So do you still have a MBP? From what you said before it sounded like you were talking about it in the past tense, but in this one it sounded like maybe you still have one?

Anyway, I agree with you. It isn't silly to get something fixed if there's a defect. It does seem like MBP owners seem to have less tolerance though; again, just going back to my days as a Sony Vaio owner, I remember a lot of complaints about various defects, etc. (loose batteries that can only be fixed by putting some velcro on the battery to keep it from wiggling... spacebar issues, etc.)..... but I noticed a lot more Sony owners seemed to just sort of deal with them, rather than replacing them (even though the Vaio is also a premium brand).

-Zadillo

 

^^ yeah i have a problem with getting past/present grammer correct, but yeah i returned mine after arguing/screaming with the manager that it is not acceptable to sell these kind of products . She agreed to refund my money and waiver the restocking fee.

 

I see. Well, sorry it didn't work out for you. Again, I'm pretty impressed that Apple actually gave you a whole new MacBook Pro 2 additional times (instead of just fixing the keyboard problems, etc.) - it's really odd actually, just because the keyboard issue you described with the first one is something they would typically just fix. I can't understand why they didn't do that for you instead of swapping the whole thing out (especially for them to do it twice).

You really screamed at them though? I agree that you should expect perfection, but if we're just talking about a problem with the keyboard or trackpad that Apple can repair fairly simply, yet actually was willing to give you a whole new MBP each time, it seems like they were going out of their way to at least try and get you something that was satisfactory.

I'm also surprised they didn't do a logic board replacement for you, regarding the whine issue.

What laptop did you end up going with?

-Zadillo

 

^^ Well my space bar was stiff so the guy tried to fix it on the spot, but made it worse!! So that was one reason why they replaced mine. Also the i think because my clicker was messed up and would not make that "click" noise on the corners might have something to do with it. Also i insisted on getting a new one becuase i heard of stories of having the macbook scratched when it goes into repair.

 

Wow, what the heck store was this though? I mean, which Apple Store was this? I wouldn't trust them to try and do a keyboard repair right there.

Either way, I understand why that would be a reason for them to do it once, but why were they willing to completely replace your MBP 2 or 3 more times as well rather than just having it repaired professionally under the AppleCare warranty, which would have been more reliable?

I still don't understand why they were willing to do this so many times for you though; usually just insisting on a new one in and of itself isn't something to get them to just give you a whole new MBP rather than having it repaired through proper channels (plenty of people get their MBP's repaired without being scratched up, and if that were to happen, they would replace the case).

-Zadillo

 

I look at it this way, yes there are more problems than usual, but it is still worth it. For one, my wife had a problem with her brand new Dell Inspiron 6000D when we purchased it. Dell did replace it, but it took 4 or 5 calls to tech support. Not too bad until you consider that each call was a minimum of 1 hour on hold and we were hung up/disconnected nearly everytime. Plus the English was less that impressive. At least with Apple the hold times are reasonable, and all the reps are in US/Canada. Plus they take care of things very quickly.

Having said that, Apple does need to figure out what is going wrong. I do think they have gotten it under control becuase the complaints seem to be less than before. As for why it gets so much attention? Because it is Apple. Who cares when Asus or Dell or Sony release a new computer? Noone outside of us here maybe. But when Apple releases anything people go nuts and its ll over the place. Apple has that cool factor, they can get the news, good and bad. There are alot of people who love Apple and alot who hate them, and both are very vocal.

 

Yeah I agree, Apple is held to such high standards by its customers and we the consumers are very critical of their products.

Now this isn't a bad thing, it's pretty much a watchdog group, we keep them straight by the actions we take. Now you know why everyone considers First Gen products as buggy and anyone who purchases it the Beta Testers. Doesn't exactly sound great, but really the chances of you getting a bad one isn't that high and when someone does they need to shout it!