24 hour old eMac up in smoke!!

[iGav]

Okay then.......

After months of persuading my brother to switch from the PC to the Mac, this week he ordered himself a rather tasty eMac 700Mhz, with a 'Combo' drive and 640MB of RAM.......

So then, we received it yesterday and began to set it up..... plug the keyboard in, plug the power cord in, press the power button, little light comes on, fan kicks in..... but nothing on the screen!! So we restart it again, and again and again...... NOTHING!!

Hey presto.... eventually the screen turns on and wham..... we think we're away!! Next thing it asks me to insert disc 1 of 4 discs to actually use the thing!! Obviously.... that's exactly what we expected to do!! REALLY!! So we spend christ knows how long inserting 4 discs and going through the whole restore process we eventually manage to get the machine to start up!! Cue a days trouble free use!! My brother was most impressed (he managed to forget the little glitch of actually getting the thing to turn on), after installing everything for him and showing him the basics I went home!!

Later that night he tries to turn the Mac on............ Nothing but the little light and the fan kicking in..... multiple restarts later nothing!!

So this morning I go over, determined to believe that it's something to do with software not hardware and prepare to reinstall OSX!!! I switch the machine on..... and hey!! The screen comes on...... superb!! Then I smell something........... and if that sure as hell didn't alert the senses to something going fatally wrong, then the smoke billowing out of the rear vent certainly did...... and in a move so fast that it would've convinced even the most sceptical person that I had endured 15 years of Shaolin Monk training I pulled the plug in one super swift move!! (Remember the UK was in the middle of a Fire Fighter strike at the time..... and a fire would have been alittle more serious with no f-in Fire Brigade to actually fight the thing!!)

So we've spent the day on the phone to the reseller trying to get them to either replace the machine or provide us with a refund, however they want nothing to do with it!! Passing the buck to Apple, saying that we need to discuss a repair with them!! Ha Ha...... no way! We're rejecting the eMac, and pushing for either a 'NEW' replacement or a full refund!! (remember this machine is 24 hours old) Under British law our contract is with the Re-Seller not the manufacturer, but this seems to fly straight over the head of the Re-seller.... Que Trading Standards who have advised us of our legal consumer rights with regards to dealing with them, although even this doesn't seem to worry this particular Re-seller, and I quote him when I recite our rights as consumers "It means nothing to us...."

Well I can tell you now, I'm going to nail this particular guy at this Reseller preferably into the dole queue for being a total ignorant and condescending moron!!

Suffice to say, I've cancelled my 1GHz PowerBook order from them, and have advised anybody I know who are due to upgrade as well as a couple of design studios to steer well clear of this particular Re-seller!!

Also Trading Standards have asked my brother to supply them with details with regards to the fault, as they said they're most interested when things like this happen on new products, so they're going to be checking to see if any similar faults have been reported nationally and will be contacting Apple to notify them of this fault to see whether it relates to any particular batch, design or product flaw!!

All in all........... a most marvellous 'Switch' experience for my brother!!

 

[medea]

after an experience like that, and with the reseller giving you a hard time, I wouldnt want anything to do with that reseller, get your money back and buy straight from apple.

 

[iGav]

Originally posted by medea
after an experience like that, and with the reseller giving you a hard time, I wouldnt want anything to do with that reseller, get your money back and buy straight from apple.

They won't give us our money back at the moment....... We have demanded it, but they're having none of it!! Hence why we've got Trading Standards involved!! this is going to drag and drag!! And this is from one of the biggest resellers in the UK!!

Suffice to say, I've now ordered my PowerBook directly from Apple (their double your RAM offer is a bargain!!)

I'm gonna have that cretins job though!! It's my new goal in life!!! Condescending ******!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

 

[edesignuk]

That very bad luck iGAV, sorry to hear it.
Who was the reseller? I'm looking to get either an iBook or PowerBook and would like to avoid whoever it is that sold you the eMac.

 

[Falleron]

Originally posted by edesignuk
That very bad luck iGAV, sorry to hear it.
Who was the reseller? I'm looking to get either an iBook or PowerBook and would like to avoid whoever it is that sold you the eMac.

I am in the UK + would be interested to know as well. I think MacWarehouse is good (from my experience anyway).

 

[springscansing]

That's total crap! Can I ask you though, why you purchased from the retailer in the first place? Not that you could've possibly forseen this!

 

[Falleron]

Originally posted by springscansing
That's total crap! Can I ask you though, why you purchased from the retailer in the first place? Not that you could've possibly forseen this!

There are no pyhsical Apple Stores in the UK. Of course the Online store could have been used. However, lots of people like to go and see their product before they buy it.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Damn, that totally sucks iGav. A friend of mine who I took to the Apple store here in Clarendon bought an eMac - and ended up having problems with it as well (although he never had smoke). He returned to the Apple store and they gave him a new one - it was like a week later I think.

Good luck on getting the eMac replaced.

D

 

[springscansing]

Originally posted by Falleron

I am in the UK + would be interested to know as well. I think MacWarehouse is good (from my experience anyway).

Yes, they are quite good. My family has spent over $5000 with them. Not a single problem.

 

[neilg]

I've always had a good experience with MacWarehouse- they replaced a Lacie drive I bought that went teets up straight away, no questions asked. I've always found the best deals on hardware come from the Apple site, though- customer service is good there too. It wasn't PCWorld was it? I had one PCWorld guy nearly literally tell me I was an idiot for buying Apple when I was in there buying a Laptop for my girlfriend!.. but hey! they sell xbox games there so they ought to know all about compooters...

 

[Falleron]

Originally posted by neilg
I've always had a good experience with MacWarehouse- they replaced a Lacie drive I bought that went teets up straight away, no questions asked. I've always found the best deals on hardware come from the Apple site, though- customer service is good there too. It wasn't PCWorld was it? I had one PCWorld guy nearly literally tell me I was an idiot for buying Apple when I was in there buying a Laptop for my girlfriend!.. but hey! they sell xbox games there so they ought to know all about compooters...

I had a PCWorld guy tell me they had no mac software when it was very obvious that we were standing next to a MAC SOFTWARE STAND!!!

 

[King Cobra]

Originally posted by Falleron
I am in the UK + would be interested to know as well. I think MacWarehouse is good (from my experience anyway).

From my personal experience, MacWarehouse has been a pain in the donkey to deal with, especially with memory orders. We got two shipments of memory, one followed by the other, for the wrong iBook model (PC100 and PC133). After the third try, though, we got the correct memory, waiting to be tested.

As for the eMac, there have been reports on some older eMac models that there have been hardware issues with it. Your experience, iGav, is a prime example.

Now you know where not to go...

And tell your brother that once he has a copy of the eMac from Apple, he won't want to go back.

 

[Falleron]

Originally posted by King Cobra


From my personal experience, MacWarehouse has been a pain in the donkey to deal with, especially with memory orders. We got two shipments of memory, one followed by the other, for the wrong iBook model (PC100 and PC133). After the third try, though, we got the correct memory, waiting to be tested.

As for the eMac, there have been reports on some older eMac models that there have been hardware issues with it. Your experience, iGav, is a prime example.

Now you know where not to go...

And tell your brother that once he has a copy of the eMac from Apple, he won't want to go back.

I have only ever really got things like Printer etc from MacWarehouse. I got my memory from Crucial. They are selling a 512Mb PC133 Dimm for about £45 at the moment. When I bought my 512Mb Dimm it was about £100.

 

[Ifeelbloated]

iGav, you're funny. Hee hee hee.

 

[Tommy!]

God, how I despise new Apple hardware. It is becoming increasingly and increasingly more unstable, and of lesser quality. I had a problem with my eMac too, and it made an extremely loud noise, and had constant crashes under OSX for no apparent reason. Of course, after only having it a couple days I didnt want that same one! they wanted to 'fix the monitor' , which would apparently fix the crashes :/...

So anyway, I said i wanted a different computer or a refund, but of course the retailer said no. So after hours of bitching apple out on the phone at their business (in front of other prospective buyers) they finally gave in, and took the eMac back. I got an iMac with the combo drive and they took 150$ off, which was nice. But I still had to pay a little extra.

Well, I had my cool new imac for a couple of months, and I start it up one day after switching os9 back into osx, and bam, I get the flashing question mark! I started from the cd and the computer cannot recognise my hard drive. I took it in to be fixed, and since its a 'software problem' its not under warranty... I have to pay 60$ to get my data back! its really frustrating; Ive had a performa that is 7-8 years old, a mac plus that is god knows how old, and an imac rev c that is 4 years old... nothing like that ever happened on these machines, which are still in use today. I thought I bought an Apple, not a Dell . I'll either have to switch, or sell my imac G4 and hold onto the money for a while until they come out with some better machinery

 

[Ifeelbloated]

Hmm. The eMac seems to be the only machine from Apple having so many problems. What gives eh?
I've had one emergency since I've had my 933Mghz G4 PowerMac. I restarted after updating my Superdrive firmware and I got the broken file icon. I didn't panic but it was cause for some concern. I consulted my owners manual and followed the directions.
Hold eject key while restarting and insert Nortons Utilites 7.0 and restart from CD-ROM.
Major error found-Catalog B-Tree error. Fix all.
Restart.
No problem.
Good to go.

 

[iGav]

Cheers guys.......

First off.... it wasn't MacWarehouse or PC World...... so don't go linching!! it's from a Dedicated Apple UK re-seller that is supposed to win several awards a year for it's SERVICE!! It was bought Mail order (my bro had already checked the eMac out at a store and liked it, but on my say so, and because of my past experiences with this re-seller I convinced him to order from this particular dealer!!) Suffice to say, had we have bought it from a shop, and they gave me this level of hassle, I would have made one hell of a scene and certainly got my way! But it's difficult to do that over the phone!!

The thing is I've dealt with them for four years, buying all my Mac equipment there and spending probably in the region of £11k there in that time..... not a huge amount but still quite abit...... the thing is I've never had to send anything back, so I guess when a problem arises, you find out exactly how good they are! And in this case they suck like a Hoover!!

In this instance I think my brother was just plain unlucky, but having the re-seller pull more tricks than David Blaine isn't helping matters, I've been on and on about how great the Mac world is to him, and for the majority of the time it is great, but it's not a great advertisement for 'Switchers', and I have to admit that the initial problem of actually getting the monitor to turn on stumped me at first..... if all this had happened to someone with zero Mac experience I think they'd have gone straight back to Windows and likely never consider a Mac again!! And I think it's due to the attitude of the staff at the re-sellers that are causing most of the problems! although flakey hardware doesn't help either!! but it happens, could've been on a Dell, or an SGI I suppose!!

Although it's certainly tarnished the whole Apple experience for my brother, when he was using it for those few hours, he really was blown away by iTunes and how easy it was for him to make his own compilation CD's, (he's not the most technical of guys!) and also how he can watch a DVD and work all at the same time, so hopefully when we receive the replacement eMac, he'll forget about the problems and begin to enjoy the whole Mac experience!!

I meanwhile, am going to have a chilled cider and chill out after yesterdays stress-fest!!

Have a good weekend all!!

Gav

 

[iMac]

Originally posted by medea
after an experience like that, and with the reseller giving you a hard time, I wouldnt want anything to do with that reseller, get your money back and buy straight from apple.

Yeah, I have to go with Medea here, I wouldn't want to deal with them either- BUT.. (there is always a but with me) I would like to get revenge on this particular reseller, so I think that you should return it to them. You do realize, when they buy from Apple, they make a profit on the sale, b/c they get it at less than the retail price. Wouldn't it be just great if THEY had to eat the computer, NOT APPLE! Why hurt apple, a decently run company with friendly people? WHO THE HECK IS THIS RESELLER, I WANT TO GIVE THEM A PIECE OF MY MIND!

 

[Durandal7]

Your experience with the service there makes me wonder if they sent you a refurb without mentioning it.

 

[iMac]

Well, they clearly have terrible customer service, they dont' know that the customer is always right. Since they seem to be jerks, I wouldn't put it past them. You should call Apple like stat and give them the serial number and find out. If they did send u a refurb, u could sue the reseller for about $3,000... can you prove damaages to your desk it was on?

 

[3777]

Apple & resellers

Originally posted by iMac
Well, they clearly have terrible customer service, they dont' know that the customer is always right. Since they seem to be jerks, I wouldn't put it past them. You should call Apple like stat and give them the serial number and find out. If they did send u a refurb, u could sue the reseller for about $3,000... can you prove damaages to your desk it was on?

When I ffirst got my iMac DV I had problems as well, I called reseller, PC mall, and they said call Apple. I called Apple, they said call PC mall. They are all full of it. You buy at your own risk. Thankfully my problem didn't involve fried boards and smoke, and I eventually spent 50 bucks and fixed the problem myself.

P.S. I have to say the only place that ever took a defective product back no questions asked was Mac warehouse, so I buy everything from them now.

 

[3777]

Originally posted by Ifeelbloated
Hmm. The eMac seems to be the only machine from Apple having so many problems. What gives eh?
I've had one emergency since I've had my 933Mghz G4 PowerMac. I restarted after updating my Superdrive firmware and I got the broken file icon. I didn't panic but it was cause for some concern. I consulted my owners manual and followed the directions.
Hold eject key while restarting and insert Nortons Utilites 7.0 and restart from CD-ROM.
Major error found-Catalog B-Tree error. Fix all.
Restart.
No problem.
Good to go.

Actually my cousin's new iBook went up in smoke a few months ago...... similar to the emac story in this thread....... I was really surprised as I had recommended Apple and got them hooked with the iMac series. (I've since moved to an Alienware PC as primary system ...... still have iMac DV though ) Anyway between that and the many stories I've heard about eMacs and dead pixel problems on LCD iMacs, I wonder if quality issues are beginning to creep into Apple hardware......

 

[MrMacMan]

Well the Re-Seller Should pass the $$ on to you but I belive you still have the apple warenty so call them and explain what happened and you will get a quick responce.

 

[beatle888]

Originally posted by iGAV


They won't give us our money back at the moment....... We have demanded it, but they're having none of it!! Hence why we've got Trading Standards involved!! this is going to drag and drag!! And this is from one of the biggest resellers in the UK!!

Suffice to say, I've now ordered my PowerBook directly from Apple (their double your RAM offer is a bargain!!)

I'm gonna have that cretins job though!! It's my new goal in life!!! Condescending ******!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

i hope you NAIL THIS GUY TO THE WALL. this is bull**** and completely
unheard of. your brother must think macs suck. i would be down their
every day with a picket sign until they replaced the model. you might
want to get apple and the retailer on the phone with each other...im
very sorry you have to go through this. i cant believe this reseller is
being so impossible. go over his head and talk to the manager, the
regional manager, the president....keep going higher. apple will
probably send you a new one right away if you tell him you dont
feel comfortable with the system that almost blew up on you. again,
although i know its not my fault, i am sorry you have to go through this.

 

[rjrufo]

Did you pay with a credit card?

I don't know what the laws are in the UK, but here in the US, you can have the credit card company refuse to pay the merchant for defective products. The charge will not show up on your statement if done early enough. Otherwise, it will show as a charge, then credit.