Worst Apple experience in my 2 years as a Mac user :(

xcalibur · Apr 18, 2005

Basically it all started when my 4 months old 20" iMac G5's hard drive died, just suddenly. That wasn't entirely Apple's fault since the drives aren't manufactured by them and I could be one of the really unlucky ones who got a faulty one which I'm sure is extremly rare. However, what is really frustrating is how LONG it's taking Apple to send me a replacement hard drive. The whole point of the repair it yourself process introduced with the iMac G5 is to save time!

I've been waiting for close to a month for the hard drive. I've called Applecare no less than 10 times, which btw is a non-geographical number = super $$$, and every single time they just keep saying that there's a delay in the parts arriving and that they can't give me an estimate of when I should be receiving the drive. I mean, come on, it's a 250GB Serial ATA hard drive. There must be like millions of them available online and here they are telling me that they're having problems getting one for me!?!?!?

I have been an avid Mac supporter and user since I got my first Powerbook in 2003 but this experience has totally tarnished my image of Apple's support and customer service. What do you guys think I should do? Just keep waiting? Or demand a refund? I really don't know, but for now...I have to suffer the pain of using Windows XP...See what you've done to me Apple!!!

Gee · Apr 18, 2005

If you're in London, you might want to check out how long Square Group, off Tottenham Court Road, would take to find you a new drive - they're a official apple service centre. Might involve lugging the computer into central london, or they might be able to give you the part.

Cheers
G

xcalibur · Apr 18, 2005

I tried them as well in the beginning. Waiting time is 4 weeks. Of course at that stage I though 4 weeks was absurd. At this stage 4 weeks doesn't sound so bad. Sigh. Are you sure they will be able to just give me a drive? I was under the impression they won't do that.

Gee · Apr 18, 2005

xcalibur said:
I tried them as well in the beginning. Waiting time is 4 weeks. Of course at that stage I though 4 weeks was absurd. At this stage 4 weeks doesn't sound so bad. Sigh. Are you sure they will be able to just give me a drive? I was under the impression they won't do that.

I've no idea but it's worth a try. When my power brick packed up, I took it in with my warranty and whatever and they gave me a new one. Should in theory be the same with a hard drive, no?

R.Youden · Apr 18, 2005

My girlfriends eMac died and it took an official Apple Service Cente 7 weeks just to look at it. Then they said that there was nothing wrong with it, charged her £70 (even though she had Apple care) and when she got home it was still not working properly and they said that there was nothing they could do becuase it was an intermittent problem! I dont think Apple care in the UK is as good as it is over the pond!

broken_keyboard · Apr 18, 2005

That's crazy dude - a 250GB SATA shouldn't be hard to come by.

Ask them if you can get it yourself and be reimbursed.

Gokhan · Apr 18, 2005

yeah

see this is always the case with any company willing to take ur money but not willing to sort out any problems ):

anyway take it down to apple store regent street and demand a refund !!

they did the same to me on my imac g4 = modem is very slow but they said nothing was wrong once i got some time i will prove them wrong with a external modem !!!

also if u paid with credit card call them and ask them to intervine ):

best wises

xcalibur · Apr 18, 2005

broken_keyboard said:
That's crazy dude - a 250GB SATA shouldn't be hard to come by.

Ask them if you can get it yourself and be reimbursed.

That's what I have been telling them over and over again. They still won't budge. I will call them again soon and this time I'm going to demand to speak to the Customer Relations department!

geese · Apr 18, 2005

My experience wasnt so bad, comparitivly.

The logic board of my eMac started to play up, within the years guarentee. As i was too tight to pay for Applecare i had to lug it to my nearest Mac dealer, which was in Islington. They seemed pretty fast and efficient.

It took 2 weeks to fix, which was a pain but I had no problems after that, although Applecare tried to charge me £35 for the call, which I eventually got back after a bit of whinging.

If you want their address, I'll try and dig it out for you.

JzzTrump22 · Apr 18, 2005

I feel your pain. When i needed a new hard drive for my powerbook they told me they needed to keep it for 2 weeks to fix it. Thats rediculously long. So i took it to a 3rd party apple retailer to get fixed, and the guy did it for free.

aswitcher · Apr 18, 2005

My guess is that their being cheap and waiting for a bulk order of 250 gigs to come in...

Apple should do somethign about extending Applecare when a machine goes in. Like 2 weeks for every week or part there of you dont have it, added onto the end of your Applecare.

They should also strongly consider offering discount vouchers for future Mac purchases, like 5-20% off depending on how much they screw your life around. They give these things away in their opening store bags, it would be nice to see them send them out as a "sorry for the long delay repairing your Mac"...

aswitcher · Apr 18, 2005

Another cool thing for them to do would be to offer you to upgrade for the cost of aprts only things like ram, dvd drives, hdd sizes, and anything else user instalable as a "lets not make this an all bad experience"

Mechcozmo · Apr 18, 2005

aswitcher said:
My guess is that their being cheap and waiting for a bulk order of 250 gigs to come in...

Apple should do somethign about extending Applecare when a machine goes in. Like 2 weeks for every week or part there of you dont have it, added onto the end of your Applecare.

They should also strongly consider offering discount vouchers for future Mac purchases, like 5-20% off depending on how much they screw your life around. They give these things away in their opening store bags, it would be nice to see them send them out as a "sorry for the long delay repairing your Mac"...

Well, I know that if your AppleCare runs out during a repair-in-progess it is extended for a month when you get it back.

And that would be great, getting 5%-20% off. When my PowerBook went it....

At least it was back in 4 days.

xcalibur · Apr 18, 2005

Thanks for the advice guys. Still not really sure what to do next though. I mean I just want the part. I don't actually need a certified technician to diagnose or change the part for me! Sigh, this is really frustrating!

Anyway, I'll call them again soon and see if there's any changes (highly unlikely)...Any chance that there are other Macrumors readers who have iMacs which suffered the same fate as mine?

James Philp · Apr 18, 2005

Gee said:
I've no idea but it's worth a try. When my power brick packed up, I took it in with my warranty and whatever and they gave me a new one. Should in theory be the same with a hard drive, no?

or an entire iMac - can you not get a replacement machine? (or your money back!?)

Reduaram · Apr 18, 2005

I know just how you feel!

I've blown several thousand dollars on Apple products over the past couple of years, and have had numerous problems with the equipment and with their lack of customer service. Basically, I may as well talk to the can of corn sitting that's on my kitchen counter. They make really pretty stuff and all, but I believe that Apple's hype is highly over rated and if they don't get off their collective arses, you-know-who will be there to feed on the remains. I really want to believe in Apple! Is anyone reading this?

xcalibur · Apr 19, 2005

Well looks like one of the Apple agents I spoke to (out of the 10 or so of them!) actually is doing a decent job. She called me today to inform me that she's received a note that the drive is going out within this week (I'm sceptical to say the least) and that she's sorry it's taken so long and that she's surprised no one informed me of a backlog in the parts. (This is not entirely true...all the agents kept saying there's a backlog but they had no clue of when it's arriving)

A few minutes after that she called me up again to say that she appreciates my support to Apple for waiting for such a long time and that I'll be able to get a free gift! At this point I felt a bit better but that feeling vanished when I heard what the gifts were. Basically it was a choice between a mug, key-chain, t-shirt or windbreaker. Anyway, I guess it's better than nothing. At this point I just want the 250GB SATA HD!!!

reykjavik · Apr 19, 2005

xcalibur said:
Basically it all started when my 4 months old 20" iMac G5's hard drive died, just suddenly. That wasn't entirely Apple's fault since the drives aren't manufactured by them and I could be one of the really unlucky ones who got a faulty one which I'm sure is extremly rare. However, what is really frustrating is how LONG it's taking Apple to send me a replacement hard drive. The whole point of the repair it yourself process introduced with the iMac G5 is to save time!

I've been waiting for close to a month for the hard drive. I've called Applecare no less than 10 times, which btw is a non-geographical number = super $$$, and every single time they just keep saying that there's a delay in the parts arriving and that they can't give me an estimate of when I should be receiving the drive. I mean, come on, it's a 250GB Serial ATA hard drive. There must be like millions of them available online and here they are telling me that they're having problems getting one for me!?!?!?

I have been an avid Mac supporter and user since I got my first Powerbook in 2003 but this experience has totally tarnished my image of Apple's support and customer service. What do you guys think I should do? Just keep waiting? Or demand a refund? I really don't know, but for now...I have to suffer the pain of using Windows XP...See what you've done to me Apple!!!

Honestly dude, and I know Im gonna get **** or this, but Apples hardware sucks. Every single Apple hardware product I have ever owned, has had a hardware problem to some degree (mostly large issues) at some point. From my ipod to my iMac to my iBook to my apple headphones. Every single hardware product has had an issue. So youre not alone. Furthermore, every single person that I know, that has owned an apple product, has had a major issue with their hardware at some point (that some point is usually within a year). I know this doesn't help you at all, but I just wanted to let you know youre not the only one pissed off.

liquidtrance123 · Apr 19, 2005

Read this and be enlightened.

Worst Apple experience in my 2 years as a Mac user :(

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