Will never buy an Apple Ever Again

[allfive6]

Without any desire to create a flame war or troll, the 'buy, swap, return' routine is one of the most criminal things I deal with at Staples.  I reject countless returns because people try to swap a broken product for a good one.  That's why good salespeople check the serial numbers.

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Without any desire to create a flame war or troll

I ask you does if feel good to stick it to the little guy. I mean yes it is not legal to do it but come on nether is charge someone 1300 to fix a problem a week after the warranty runs out. Or my personal fav you buy something 3 months later it breaks and even though is it under warranty the store tells you you?ll have to send it back the manufacture for god knows how long so they can maybe if they feel like send you a another one or maybe just repair the one you sent them.

[BajiRav]

Why on earth would you want your lcd to open up that far?  I would assume Apple's notebooks not opening up all the way would be an added support for the screen

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sit on your bed with folded knees and suddenly a laptop that can open flat is desireable :shifty:

[Nose Nuggets]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

you people are funny!

ok, maybe i can clear some misconceptions. i work for a local buisness that is certified service and sales for apple.

the 1300 bucks for a logic board replacement is real, the board is sold to us for around 800-900 bucks and we put a 100 markup on it. to swap a logic baord (mother board in apple terms) in any apple laptop takes about 2 hours. here, we charge 85 and hour, and i think apple charges 110 an hour.

if the board is broken an its outside waratey then what would you expect them to say? you where offerd apple care when you bought it (the 3 year warentee) its your fault for not taking it, not apples.

i love how you think its apple and only apple, if you buy a dell laptop, and its board fails 3 months outside warenty then guess what, same deal. you will prolly pay a little less becuase the parts in PC laptops are sold in much higher volume and thus are less expensive. but the same rules apply.

people have one experience that dosent go there way and all of a suden the whole company sux.

[Southern Patriot]

sit on your bed with folded knees and suddenly a laptop that can open flat is desireable  :shifty:

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I do that quite often with my iBook and find that the maximum angle for it is just right. Maybe it's just the angle that I sit at though (laying back with a couple of pillows behind my back).

[Chad]

OT stuff cleaned out. Let's keep it about the original post ok?

Without any desire to create a flame war or troll

I ask you does if feel good to stick it to the little guy. I mean yes it is not legal to do it but come on nether is charge someone 1300 to fix a problem a week after the warranty runs out. Or my personal fav you buy something 3 months later it breaks and even though is it under warranty the store tells you you?ll have to send it back the manufacture for god knows how long so they can maybe if they feel like send you a another one or maybe just repair the one you sent them.

586128973[/snapback]

What? It's illegal to charge someone to fix a computer AFTER the warranty is up?:blink:k:

It's no longer the company's responsibility to maintain that computer for free. The deal YOU signed when you bought the computer is up. You LEGALLY agreed to that LEGALLY binding warranty.

It's his own fault for not picking up the extended warranty.

sit on your bed with folded knees and suddenly a laptop that can open flat is desireable?

Having it open to a certain degree IS desirable, but 180 degrees? It would be impossible to type if your knees were at that type of angle where you'd need your laptop open all the way.

[the evn show]

snipped - irrelevant.

[aldo]

OT stuff cleaned out.  Let's keep it about the original post ok?

What?  It's illegal to charge someone to fix a computer AFTER the warranty is up?  :blink:

It's no longer the company's responsibility to maintain that computer for free.  The deal YOU signed when you bought the computer is up.  You LEGALLY agreed to that LEGALLY binding warranty. 

It's his own fault for not picking up the extended warranty.

Having it open to a certain degree IS desirable, but 180 degrees?  It would be impossible to type if your knees were at that type of angle where you'd need your laptop open all the way.

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Well, what happens when Apple KNOWS about an issue but CONTINUES to sell THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of KNOWINGLY _BROKEN_ products to consumers?

Is that ok? Because that's exactly what they did with the iBook's and I have now had my third logic board fitted in 6 months, and it's showing the exact same symptoms as it did before. So looks like it's either going to be my forth logic board or a new laptop, to be honest I've given up with it.

Let's contrast my 'in warranty' experience since obviously, Apple's ridiculously overpriced warranties /must/ be better than Dell's significantly cheaper and easy to use ones.

With Apple (a G4 Powerbook that fails to start up, yes, with applecare):

-Phone them up

-Spend about an hour being charged 7p (~15c)/minute 0870 doing the usual 'zap the pram' stuff with some totally rubbish call centre person.

-Finally get them to agree, yes, it's busted.

-Get told to drop it off at the nearest Apple Service centre. In Newcastle. 60 miles away. I am not driving 4x60 miles to get this thing fixed. Complain like mad. Eventually after about an hour get told that I can actually have it picked up.

-Get courier on the door to pick it up.

-Wait a weekish

-Get it back, fixed.

With Dell:

-Phone them up.

-Spend about 10 minutes on the usual diagnostic stuff on a /toll-free/ number.

-Get it escalated and get told that I'll have a replacement tomorrow.

-Wake up to find courier with replacement laptop and box for old one to get sent back in.

-Send it back.

Done.

What is easier? Are you honestly telling me that Apple is better in this regard?

[sachleen]

that sucks, :( ,call them, and yell, and tell them how much BS service they got. they might just give up and fix it for free if you call them enough times.

[MonkeyClaw Veteran]

Well, what happens when Apple KNOWS about an issue but CONTINUES to sell THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of KNOWINGLY _BROKEN_ products to consumers?

Is that ok? Because that's exactly what they did with the iBook's and I have now had my third logic board fitted in 6 months, and it's showing the exact same symptoms as it did before. So looks like it's either going to be my forth logic board or a new laptop, to be honest I've given up with it.

Let's contrast my 'in warranty' experience since obviously, Apple's ridiculously overpriced warranties /must/ be better than Dell's significantly cheaper and easy to use ones.

With Apple (a G4 Powerbook that fails to start up, yes, with applecare):

-Phone them up

-Spend about an hour being charged 7p (~15c)/minute 0870 doing the usual 'zap the pram' stuff with some totally rubbish call centre person.

-Finally get them to agree, yes, it's busted.

-Get told to drop it off at the nearest Apple Service centre. In Newcastle. 60 miles away. I am not driving 4x60 miles to get this thing fixed. Complain like mad. Eventually after about an hour get told that I can actually have it picked up.

-Get courier on the door to pick it up.

-Wait a weekish

-Get it back, fixed.

With Dell:

-Phone them up.

-Spend about 10 minutes on the usual diagnostic stuff on a /toll-free/ number.

-Get it escalated and get told that I'll have a replacement tomorrow.

-Wake up to find courier with replacement laptop and box for old one to get sent back in.

-Send it back.

Done.

What is easier? Are you honestly telling me that Apple is better in this regard?

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That sucks man. i had an issue with my headphones, took my in ears down to the apple store bout the same distance away, handed them to a guy, he listened to them and just handed me a new box. didnt need the old case, just wanted to know when i got them. Before that, i had a key fall off my powerbook. Drove down to the apple store, a guy at the gen bar took it back, replaced it and checked every single other key on the keyboard, came back 5 min later and it was good as new.

I had a friend whos ipod was messed up (i think it was battery or hdd, not sure). he just drove down, handed it to them, they checked it and handed him a new box. they just asked when he got the thing.

simple as that so i really dont see why you have so many issues, but lets just say that in my travels, apple is the best tech support i have ever had to deal with. of course my issues werent as seroius as a messed up logic board (though when that key fell off it felt like it was the end of the world), but based on what my friends have told me, my little issues, and my first hand eye accounts, im am confident in saying that i am in good hands.

[divinatum]

the iBook g4 doesnt have a problem! that was the G3 neither do the new powerbooks, those were the old ones with the white edges.. neither do the newwer ipods

Ok, so apple shouln't have you zap the pram/nvram which fixes a great deal of problems, so they should take in extra machines that just need pram zapped... right, that makes perfect sense

[Matt T]

iPod batteries that die within one year and are not replacable.

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Only if you keep them on the charger or connected to a PC/Mac when you're not syncing - it's the same thing as a mobile phone, or any other devive that uses Li-ion batteries. And if my memory serves me right, you can replace iPod batteries, but unfortunatly it's not as simple as popping in a new one as you would with a mobile.

[Gary King]

The best you can do is sell the laptop on eBay for parts :) I'm sure you will get a decent price back for it - if you have info on the HD, I suppose you should take that out first. You can tell people on eBay that it is working, just that it has this *slight* problem :p

[BlueLab.524]

I'll never understand why people think Apple claims them to be invulnerable to everything and it's going to work perfectly. I believe the argument is that the MacOS is not vulnerable to viruses and other malware, and that causes less problems.

It's a complex thing. It's going to break. We could have pages of all of our issues with support, etc., but they'll prove nothing but inconsistancy. The first time my Dell broke, it was decided it was the Motherboard, and they flashed the BIOS. They eventually realized it was the DVD drive and actually upgraded me to the faster. Then I tried to upgrade the warranty but you can't do it through Dell. Then there was a 3rd party warranty upgrade that came to my school to replace the dead motherboard (from overuse ). That proves nothing about Dell's tech support. It depends on who you call or deal with. I had bought my PowerBook a few days before the Tiger Upgrade program was eligible (basically i was inelgible because it was more than a month before). Called support for the 1st time they said no. 2nd time got a different person and they upgraded it and got it the day it came out by mail.

And about it costing $1300, that seems a bit steep, but not too unrealistic. Most of the computer is contained on the logic board (video card, actual motherboard, ports, some even have the CPU). Check these prices, and some of these are used http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/catalog/catego...rds_page_1.html. I took a go at repairing a G3 Powerbook for a friend because it way out of warranty, and the imput for the powercord had come loose, meant 30+ screws and dissasembling most of the system. High labor costs are to be expected.

And for the record, a good number of screens will not go completely flat. The screens on the iBook and PowerBook G4 are designed differently than most (if you look at pictures of it open).

Just my 2?.

[Southern Patriot]

It's too bad they are not using Open firmware in the Intel macs according to rumours. BIOS is a step backwards.

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I missed this the other day: It's not a rumor, it's specifically stated in Apple's Universal Binary developer documentation.

Universal Binary Programming Guidelines

[BajiRav]

Having it open to a certain degree IS desirable, but 180 degrees?  It would be impossible to type if your knees were at that type of angle where you'd need your laptop open all the way.

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All I do is read in that position with minimal typing if any. guess we have our own ways :)

[Nose Nuggets]

everything apple is more expencive for a lot of reason. they sell a segnificantly lower volume of product then someone like dell.

if your on your 4th logic board you should ask for a new one. apple is stuborn but they will do the right thing if you push.

[Ramble]

Please, this place reeks of Apple fanboys.

Perhaps when the guy said Apple's were inferior, he was talking about performance? Which would be correct.

Or perhaps he meant the OS, which, I also think is true, i prefer linux over OS X in most departments.

Perhaps you should ditch your laptop and buy another one, im sure you could find another Apple laptop for under $1300.

[Nose Nuggets]

Please, this place reeks of Apple fanboys.

Perhaps when the guy said Apple's were inferior, he was talking about performance? Which would be correct.

Or perhaps he meant the OS, which, I also think is true, i prefer linux over OS X in most departments.

Perhaps you should ditch your laptop and buy another one, im sure you could find another Apple laptop for under $1300.

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you think the PPC is a less capable chip then what? and why is the mac os inferior?

[Southern Patriot]

Please, this place reeks of Apple fanboys.

586133057[/snapback]

:rolleyes:s: You come into the Mac forum and are surprised that there are people here that support Apple:blink:k:

[raskren]

Support and "FanBoyism" are two entirely different things. :shrug:

[jazztheglass]

randysaba: it's sad that you had such a bad experience with Apple. When buying Apple's you can expect to pay more money than you would if buying a PC, but that's because Apple use very high quality hardware - but I agree with you, 1300 is going over the top.

Hmm... this isn't exactly a new claim, Apple hardware going ###### up or simply being fragile... so, they use very expensive hardware that breaks easily...

What unique form factors or hardware do they use these days? An Apple isn't that far from a PC anymore, at least not so much as it used to be... So how much do people have to pay now before they can expect to buy quality hardware that wont snap off if you look at it crosseyed?

A friend of mine who had been a PC user for life got a PowerBook for graduation, the shift key on it broke within the first few days that he owned it, a week later it had some sort of fatal problem that involved having to return it... but, Apples don't crash, and they're the computer for the rest of us, I need to keep that in mind.

[Chad]

Last chance to keep the thread clean. Any more of this fanboy/hater crap and the thread will be closed.

[Evolution]

Unless Apple knows of a specific design flaw in your notebook's model....then you're better off selling the components, and buying a new notebook with an extended warranty.

If you're going to buy an Apple Powerbook for a premium, then you may as well get an extended warranty for a little more.

[Nose Nuggets]

Hmm... this isn't exactly a new claim, Apple hardware going ###### up or simply being fragile... so, they use very expensive hardware that breaks easily...

What unique form factors or hardware do they use these days?  An Apple isn't that far from a PC anymore, at least not so much as it used to be... So how much do people have to pay now before they can expect to buy quality hardware that wont snap off if you look at it crosseyed?

A friend of mine who had been a PC user for life got a PowerBook for graduation, the shift key on it broke within the first few days that he owned it, a week later it had some sort of fatal problem that involved having to return it... but, Apples don't crash, and they're the computer for the rest of us, I need to keep that in mind.

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every computer will have its problems. ive seen plenty of DOA dell laptops in my time.

like bad hardware and stuborn tech suport is an apple only thing

riiiiiight.

and its not uniqe form factor, what it uniqu is the chip they use. no other conusmeer computer company uses PPC

[Wickedkitten Veteran]

See, thats why living in the UK is great. Yes we may pay more for items because of exchange rates but hell if we don't get better protection as buyers.

The Sale of Goods act is a great thing for the simple reason that you have up to 5 years in Scotland (6 years in England) to claim for a repair, replacement or partial refund on an item that has broken. Most people don't know this so they end up taking out expensive warranties for no reason.

A lot of salespeople don't tend to know about it either I have found to my amusement.