BruceEBonus
Nov 15, 2007, 10:49 AM
Great. After being (repeatedly) assured from the good Forum-ists on this site that my forthcoming first Mac .. ever in the world... ever... would be fine with Leopard Drop In (even though I'd been promised preinstalled by the commission-hungry sales guy) I was prepared to just get it up and running. And also realised the drop in disc might actually be a better deal .. but those .. nice piccies of Leopard on the box, though . .mmmm .. Leopard. I'd already also ordered a Mac Mini-which I cancelled the day after the iMac order - and this had taken a whopping TWELVE days for them to refund back on to my card - so I wasnt exactly pleased at the seeminlgly institutionalised-tardiness of Apple so far.Sorry, readers but I can only go by personal experience here. Anyway - it arrived today .. the 24" iMac with wireless `board `n' mouse. From TNT Couriers in the UK.Ok. Ordered on 26th October. Getting a natty £100 Back To School Student Rebate (via my daughter) and a smart 10% off for the same reason. Cant go wrong. Oh no. Hang on. I can. The box corner was well bashed on the outer brown box. Mmm. Opened up the same. Oh dear. Its a Tiger machine going by the non-Leopard screens (as expected) so I opened up this inner retail box. Oh dear oh dear!.There was an even bigger bash on the same corner as the outer box - and the polystyrene packing was cracked. Lovely!. Ah - but its not over yet. Despite this being `security sealed' with clear plastic tape - the power cable was lying loose. Yes - the keyboard and mouse seemed new but there was a flattish square box .. empty and a bit battered inside .. containing what I presumed wouldve been the docs and software.No. Nowt. Nothing. All the package contained was .. a 24" iMac.A box with the input peripherals. Er.. thats it. I didnt even bother to power it up. Straight on the phone. Some AfterSales `Droid telling me (in a very slow and measured drawl ...zzzzzzzzzz) that the courier would once again come out .. a returns number would be issued via .. snore ..... email .. in the zzzzzzz... next 48 hours for me to place on the outer box .. and ... huh? Where am I?. Ah yes. To be collected by them and I then get an email stating that they have received the duff iMac and will be asking Ronnie Wang and Jimmy Nadger at the Shanghai factory to get off their tea breaks respectively and build me another. So .. what about the AppleCare I bought that begun a WEEK ago?. What about the fact I am now out of a computer for a further two weeks .. to add on to the two I have already had to wait?. Jeez!. And what about this accursed £100 rebate?. Seems that the Order Number stays the same so the rebate should be fine. The AppleCare folks will amend the cover to be extended about a month(!) and I will receive a "compensatory gesture" when my new machine arrives .. one day. A compernsatory gesture could range from a box of tea bags to a night out with Steve Jobs in Las Vegas ... I think it may well be neither. Anyway - `fact is .. Im not impressed. I wish Id gone to the Apple Store in the frist place. Dammit!. Reason I went online was because I had to order the iMac before 30th October to get the rebate offer .. but thought there'd b emore chances of a new-built-Leopard-piccy-adorned spanking new from the factory machine .. than one out the back of the store .. hmmm. Well what you think and what you get ...
Moral of the tale?. Theres nowt to beat real flesh and blood when it comes to buying stuff. And at least in the store you have someone there to punch! :)
I shall continue to stagnate using this clunky old PC and will meantime keep peering thro the closed windows of my local reseller (the AppleStore Sheffield is too far to do that) and hope that one day I may also join the ranks of the `converted' .. as soon as I can:
Get the coveted email with the Returns number
Get TNT to ring me and arrange to pick up the `Friday afternoon special' here
Get a mail from Apple saying "Hey buddy - we're sorting you out another" Hey!Ron .. any chance of that one . yeah . THAT one with the picture of the Leopard OS on it . like they show on the Apple Store page?. Oh. Ok.
Get excited about the inevitable new delays on my new iMacs shipping
Get (falsely) hopeful that it may have come off the new line and not the old batch of duffers that this one was from
Get a mail (this time) saying its coming before December ....2007
Get an iMac that is NOT bashed/is complete/ideally Leopardy ...
and then .. and ONLY then may I commence to fret about:
Whether its a freezer .. got a duff screen ... or both .. (maniacal laughter ensues again)
Ha, ha!. You're probably wondering why I havent asked for a full rebate after this fiasco and gone out and bought a nice new Dell. eh?.
Well one reason why not was the great discount .. and Back To School rebate offer ...
And the other reason is that Im still suffering the side effects of emotional shock ... at STILL not seeing Mr. Jobs' wonderful new machine in front of me ... Im sure they exist .. Ive seen them .. in shops and films an' that ...
Please - dont forget to tune in later this month for more exciting updates in my Wacky World Of Online Apple Fun! Who needs to spend time on the worlds best operating system when you can spend the same amount of time .. just .. thinking about it!.:D
Im getting addicted to it .. and will probably be oddly disappointed when Im typing this in a Safari environment!.:eek:
Thanks for reading ... now you can go!.
Quote of the Day: "No you cant just walk into your local Apple Store and swap it - its two different departments, Sir!"
Moral of the tale?. Theres nowt to beat real flesh and blood when it comes to buying stuff. And at least in the store you have someone there to punch! :)
I shall continue to stagnate using this clunky old PC and will meantime keep peering thro the closed windows of my local reseller (the AppleStore Sheffield is too far to do that) and hope that one day I may also join the ranks of the `converted' .. as soon as I can:
Get the coveted email with the Returns number
Get TNT to ring me and arrange to pick up the `Friday afternoon special' here
Get a mail from Apple saying "Hey buddy - we're sorting you out another" Hey!Ron .. any chance of that one . yeah . THAT one with the picture of the Leopard OS on it . like they show on the Apple Store page?. Oh. Ok.
Get excited about the inevitable new delays on my new iMacs shipping
Get (falsely) hopeful that it may have come off the new line and not the old batch of duffers that this one was from
Get a mail (this time) saying its coming before December ....2007
Get an iMac that is NOT bashed/is complete/ideally Leopardy ...
and then .. and ONLY then may I commence to fret about:
Whether its a freezer .. got a duff screen ... or both .. (maniacal laughter ensues again)
Ha, ha!. You're probably wondering why I havent asked for a full rebate after this fiasco and gone out and bought a nice new Dell. eh?.
Well one reason why not was the great discount .. and Back To School rebate offer ...
And the other reason is that Im still suffering the side effects of emotional shock ... at STILL not seeing Mr. Jobs' wonderful new machine in front of me ... Im sure they exist .. Ive seen them .. in shops and films an' that ...
Please - dont forget to tune in later this month for more exciting updates in my Wacky World Of Online Apple Fun! Who needs to spend time on the worlds best operating system when you can spend the same amount of time .. just .. thinking about it!.:D
Im getting addicted to it .. and will probably be oddly disappointed when Im typing this in a Safari environment!.:eek:
Thanks for reading ... now you can go!.
Quote of the Day: "No you cant just walk into your local Apple Store and swap it - its two different departments, Sir!"
