iBook and PowerBook Quality?

SiliconAddict · Jan 22, 2004

Some of you may know that I have a livejournal, mainly from a discussion a few weeks back, and due to this I keep track of some of my friends online. One of my friends had this to say about his iBook that he got last August......

Well, guess what? I couldn't reproduce the problem to "prove" it to the Apple store. Sure, they believed I wouldn't waste my time going down there in order to waste their time to lie about my iBook having a problem just so I could be without it for another week, but they won't service it unless they can see the problem for themselves. I turned it on, put it to sleep, opened it up, several times, restarted it, turned it off, nothing brought the problem back. The guy I talked to rapped on the iBook sharply with his fingers, saying the symptoms I described sounded like the dreaded "logic board" failure of iBooks frequent, but that his actions should make the notebook "go crazy" and it just sat there mocking me. He picked it up and shook it around, took the keyboard off and poked around, and told me that it was probably just a pinched cable that went back into place.

Well, that's just great. I wasted 45 minutes and gas to drive to Southdale to be told they can't do anything about it unless I can show it to them. I hate this machine. It worked fine for the first four months until this past month and a half. I wish I'd never bought it. It will be the last portable from Apple I ever buy (not including super old collectable machines like the pack rat I am), and it may be the last new machine I buy from Apple, period. I don't know how I'd handle switching to another OS but I'm tired of this bull****.

My short term plan is to see if this happens again. If it doesn't, I'll count my blessings. In the meantime, I'm buying a hard drive caddy and a wireless PC card for my Thinkpad so I have another wireless notebook either for when this one craps out, and/or I finally get fed up and get rid of it (I would have done that long ago if I could get more than $900 for it, when I paid $1500 in August).

One thing this runaround has taught me, besides Apple having ****ty tech support (Your mileage may vary, but after what I've been through that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it), is that I don't treat my iBook like it's made of glass anymore. The first one I had never left the house. I was so terrified of it getting damaged. And the HD still ended up having bad sectors and reading problems, the video board had flaws (much like this one but worse), and it developed stuck pixels after a couple years. I don't angst quite as much about bringing this machine out and about, work, school, friends places, partly because it's about three pounds lighter than my first iBook, and partly because I no longer hold it in such high regard as I once did. It's not the wonderful, beautiful, flawless pinnacle of technology I thought it was. It's flawed, it's been a pain in the ass recently and overall my positive experience with it pales in comparison to the frustration and aggravation it's caused me. I wish I'd never bought it. I wish it were worth selling. But I'm stuck with it.

Several things strike me as funny. Other then the fact that my friend has a tendency to over exaggerate things but still I've seen his iBook flip out so it's not his imagination. The first being that if Apple has such high quality products why do they give users such a run around to get something repaired? It's not like the end user is trying to scam them for a new motherboard or something. They just want to get their system fixed.
I'm going to be honest. Crap like this scares me. I've gone through 3 laptops in my time. Compaq, Dell (still have), and now Toshiba, and for the most part they have all been reliable and when I have had problems I've NEVER been given the run around.
Can someone. ANYONE tell me cases like this are extremely rare because secondly:
Disgruntled Apple users get vocal

That there are actual petitions online and that there have been people who have had their hardware repaired multiple times makes me wonder just how committed Apple is to customer service esp when you consider:
applecare marketing
Yet Another iBook Tragedy
Is Apple's 'Book Quality Slipping?

Finally I have to ask the question on the quality between the iBooks and the PowerBooks. Obviously you are getting more specs when you purchase a PowerBook but what about the quality and build? Are PowerBooks more solid? A better quality?

Maybe its just me but this behavior smacks of a company trying to save a buck, or two, or one-hundred, or two-hundred at the sacrifice of their customers.

Now I know the first thing a person is going to tell me. That all OEM's have this problem. But everyone keeps telling me Apple=quality. Then where the heck is it!?!? If Dells are POS and Apple is blissful computing heaven then why do I have 2 friends who have had major headaches with their systems!?!? (Both iBooks.)

I want to be convinced that this kinda crap is few and far between or if nothing else if I spend $3,000 on a laptop I'm going to get what I pay for and that is quality. I'm sorry if I come off pissy but I've spent the last 6 months hyping myself up over getting a PowerBook sometime this summer/fall (Depending on when they come out with a G5 PowerBook.) and suddenly I read my friends rant and start doing some digging and find many a pissed off Mac user. It's more then a little disheartening and nerve racking to think I could get a lemon and Apple could, for all intents and purposes, tell me to piss off.

Anyone have any insight into this? I'm I being over paranoid? IS it not as bad as some make it out to be?

Thanks.

Alex Wrege · Jan 23, 2004

iBook quality issues

My experience with Apple's customer service department has been kind of double-sided. My friend got an iBook in 2003. After about 4 days the logic board committed suicide. I talked to the support hotline and they shipped a box to us via Airborne Express. And this is where our journey into Apple's service jungle started. In total the iBook had to be shipped back 3 times.
The first replacement had a new logic board but a totally keyboard-scratched screen. My friend's iBook was still in pristine condition when we sent it in for repair so we demanded an exchange for the first replacement.
The second iBook replacement had no scratches on the screen and the logic board was ok, too, but this time the shell of the iBook was really superscratched. By this I mean not just a little bit, but it looked as if somebody had taken a carpet cutter.
3rd replacement? Finally ok! But: the AC adaptor was missing - so another call to Apple and they promptly shipped a new one.
This whole process was very annoying and we only followed through because we really believe in Apple as a company and as an important competitor in the monopolizing personal computer market. Also, Apple treated her with a nice present. A $ 150,- gift certificate for the Apple Online Store. This was, we thought a nice gesture from Apple, even though we really expected something like this from them since the computer was "travelling" for about 6 weeks.
And then: Before Christmas we bought an iBook for my dad and mom. This time the screen is not properly attached to the hinge and it is getting loose. So, I assume another joyful conversation with the Apple support team might be neccessary.
Please don't misunderstand me, I really believe in Apple, but I also think that certain repair issues need to be resolved more quickly.

The Macintosh is 20, Happy Birthday!

latergator116 · Jan 23, 2004

Apple should be offering some kind of replacement iBook or a refund for all thses problems. I bet they lost tons of customers over these logic board failures.

jefhatfield · Jan 23, 2004

apple inc goes through cycles in having a bad customer service department and a good one

unlike the pc world of late which has cycles of good quality and poor quality, apple keeps most of their machines working from the start and they are well designed...they are committed to making a better machine and a more reliable machine with a more stable operating system...that alone should convice the buyer to buy apple inc products

but as for applecare and their committment to its customers? well, that is a different story and steve jobs whipped apple inc into shape on this weakness when he came back to apple, but it fell apart again and the company has shown the consumer that once you buy a machine, they don't really care very much about you...that could change briefly again for the good but there is not enough money to make the best and also have the best service because you either spend your money on one aspect or the other and remember apple inc is in business and they need to pay their employees and make a profit

some companies may not offer the best product, like the one i am a certified tech for so i won't mention names, but they have great customer service....but that does not make up for the fact that the company is known for second or third rate quality out the door

so you have to ask yourself, do you want the better product or the better service because no company in high tech offers both consistently over a long period of time

as an analogy, before i was in high tech, i worked at a hardware store as a kid...the biggest issue was price since the quality and products were very much the same over all the vendors...ace, true value, craftsman, etc and our store was one that had the highest prices and the smallest selection and we got criticized mightily for it...but we made up for it in superior service and we never hassled the customer on returns...and in the end, we got the customers who wanted the best service and no post sale runaround (but there was always the option of getting the same product cheaper but at a place where they wouldn't take the return or if they did, they crucified the shopper) but the bargain hunters went for them

so it's comes down to which aspect is more important to you...do you want to do without the quality and much better operating system? or do you want the better service, of which most pc companies give you over apple inc?

note: most pc platform companies, workers, and techies know pcs are not as good as macs, so they innately want to bend over backwards and make up for that in service

but if apple offered superior service also as well as having the better machine/more reliable machine/better os/better design/better packaging, one of two things would happen...either their market share would go up, or they would lose their profit margin and go out of business...i think it's the latter

Applespider · Jan 23, 2004

Or, if you're buying off the shelf, buy it from a reseller with a good reputation for customer service.

I bought my Powerbook from John Lewis in the UK, who throw in an extra year's guarantee free on all PCs. I figure that if things go wrong, I've got more chance of getting a good deal from them than Apple.

Example - on TVs they give a 5 year guarantee. My elderly aunt's Sony TV/video combo died after 4 1/2 years. No problem. They collected it, tried to fix it (giving my aunt a replacement since she's housebound), couldn't so gave her a new model one and a new 5 year guarantee. Not bad!

Hmmm...so if my Apple dies in a year and a half, think they'll give me a Powerbook G5!?!?!?

abhishekit · Jan 23, 2004

scary scary fr a newbie like me....
i toss around my ibook all the time..no probs so far...hope it stays like that fr atleast 2 yrs...

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iBook and PowerBook Quality?

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