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27" Core i7 iMacs Arriving DOA or With Cracked Screens?
- Thread starter thejadedmonkey
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You are looking at it as them being cheap and lazy but lets stop for a moment and flip it around.
You have a customer that ordered a custom machine (which can take as much as 2-3 weeks from order to delivery) and it has a defect. You could tell them to send it back. You could even tell them to call back with the FED EX tracking number and the replacement order will be submitted right away instead of waiting for it to arrive at some Apple depot (which depending on the two locations could be 3-5 days). But even with that and expedited shipping it will take two weeks to build, test and ship a new machine.
Or it could end up being a fixable problem and the customer could have the machine back in a couple of days or even the same night.
So which are you going to recommend.
The factories are in another country.It is unlikely that Apple has someone there every single day watching the building of every single computer. Any more than any company would have.
Perhaps the answer is for the US to develop programs that make it more appealing to keep production in the US. I work in film/tv and it's a common game with us. Various states have set up tax credits and such to encourage filming in those places rather than having it head off to Canada where it is cheaper. Or even cases of a supposed New York City show filming in Los Angeles.
My 27" i7 arrived last week and it is up and running beautifully. However, one thing I noticed is that the packaging was pretty chintzy by Apple standards. I was looking forward to the traditionally quasi-religious Apple unboxing experience, and was sorely disappointed. It sounds to me as though many of the problem shipments could have been due to damage incurred in transit-- a cracked screen is not likely to pass inspection! I wonder if this mostly relates to inadequate packaging.
In just about every respect, brand new screen technology, brand new motherboard, brand new CPU and chipset, brand new case design in terms of manufacturing, etc. Other than the general form-factor of the iMac line, in what way ISN'T this a brand new device?
http://www.apple.com/imac/design.html
It's a CTO so I guess there is no way around that. This is likely a vocal minority but still enough of an issue that it requires immediate attention. Perception is everything when you market as heavily as Apple.
I agree with you completely. Just take a look at the Rev A MBA's. I returned mine, but you had people buying coolbook and reapplying all types of cooling gels. Yet they will always rate their experience as blissful because of the great CS and some pride. Overall this isn't the typical experience, but it's an obvious calculation that Apple has made and live with.
That doesn't explain the DOA issues that aren't screen related. I agree with you though that it is most likely attributable to shipping, but it could be the strength of the glass as well. They need to beef up their boxes. Especially if the damage is happening at the same area. My plasma came shipped via FedEx ground and the box looked like it could survive a bombing. I would expect more from a iMac which costs more
Yeah this is actually a good thing for those who want a refurb 27" i7.
Indeed, perhaps eager buyers should wait for the discounts
one thing i hate about making apple computer in china - are all the green house gases produced to ship the computer to the owners around the world, worse USA, the other side of earth.
they did not build the computers and ship them on massive container ship. apple send them by plane and trucks to customers, what is this?
all the fuel wasted, all the damaged done to the sky by all those planes. it is very sad, if they make it in USA, it maybe worse in QC, but it will not damage earth as badly as shipping the computer by air from the other side of earth.
i am disgusted by apple practise, they should build a lot of them, and ship them off to USA by container ship, it take month, but it will save the earth.
Apple doesn't make these
I'm sure that their will be more problems with shipping glass screens from China to the US, Europe, & the many other areas that they go to. Maybe we could make Apple a greener company by doing their own computer manufacturing again. They could manufacturer them within a much more reasonable distance from where they are being sold. Less shipping distance, less carbon produced, a greener product, & Al Gore can claim these carbon credits so that he can continue to fly his top carbon producing airplane that he has. Or he could fly commercial like the rest of us common folk.
I'm sure that their will be more problems with shipping glass screens from China to the US, Europe, & the many other areas that they go to. Maybe we could make Apple a greener company by doing their own computer manufacturing again. They could manufacturer them within a much more reasonable distance from where they are being sold. Less shipping distance, less carbon produced, a greener product, & Al Gore can claim these carbon credits so that he can continue to fly his top carbon producing airplane that he has. Or he could fly commercial like the rest of us common folk.
I pay CASH bro! By the time you pay that AMEX card off how do you think you save any money after that UNGODLY interest they charge??? Dude, the life of a computer today is around 3 years so you'd off it and upgrade for $400-$500 more ($500 for using it 3 years is pretty cheap because it offsets the cost of added memory or drives that didn't come stock) so who cares about that extra year? If it lasted that long it will last for a long time because the mean time before failures are usually 6 months to a year of a computer. And most likely in three years and 9 months they will have plenty of parts to swap out for that machine and they will just swap out the parts in it NOT give you a brand new one... and I really HOPE you didn't think... "a brand new one!"
You are loaded if you think that's going to happen after 3 years and 9 months he he...
Everybody Knows...
Yea, everybody knows Honda and Toyota both make crappy cars. That's why hardly anyone buys them. They just fall apart about a week after you get them. And most of them come from the factory with a nest of squirrels in the dash. EVERYone knows that!! And the factory workers have sex in each and every car before it leaves the factory!! Geez people, get a clue.
Yea, everybody knows Honda and Toyota both make crappy cars. That's why hardly anyone buys them. They just fall apart about a week after you get them. And most of them come from the factory with a nest of squirrels in the dash. EVERYone knows that!! And the factory workers have sex in each and every car before it leaves the factory!!
Geez people, get a clue.
Pro Tip: If you pay the entire balance of your credit card bill each month then you never pay any interest. It's exactly the same as paying in cash like you did, but you also get all the many powerful layers of consumer protection that the credit card provides.
Flawed logic.
Perhaps this would be true if the planes carrying the Apple computers were ONLY carrying Apple computers and nothing else and were only partially full. These things are shipped along with other products from other companies and it all gets thrown together. Not so inefficient as you might think. If you are really concerned with saving the Earth, don't buy a new computer at all until you REALLY need one. Oh, and don't waste electricity by surfing around MacRumors!
Perhaps this would be true if the planes carrying the Apple computers were ONLY carrying Apple computers and nothing else and were only partially full. These things are shipped along with other products from other companies and it all gets thrown together. Not so inefficient as you might think. If you are really concerned with saving the Earth, don't buy a new computer at all until you REALLY need one. Oh, and don't waste electricity by surfing around MacRumors!
Thumbs up. I buy everything of any significance on my Costco AmEx card (and pay it off every month). I get all the consumer protection you mention plus a small amount of cash back on each sale.
It's crazy to buy anything that can break or fail without the free protection you get from AmEx or a platinum level Visa or Mastercard. It's saved my bacon on more than one occasion.
I don't think it has much to do with who has the jobs.. it's more about the seeming waste of shipping these things so far around the world. There may also be a perception of a quality issue, but that seemingly be addressed.
works right. except now when its not available in the stores.
that's why everyone is so pissed. they spent this money and then had to wait weeks only to get a dud that can't be returned at the store but has to be shipped back and wait weeks again
trouble is that the standards don't extend to the trucks or the drivers.
at my local mall the trucks are on a drive between the parking deck and the mall and you can see them tossing boxes to the ground, pitching them around etc all the time.
more like the other way around. if it was a manufacture defect it would likely hit all of them. but the custom builds ship differently than the store stock
perhaps, perhaps not. the DOAs could have been caused by melted wires and components due to being improperly stored in transit. making it a shipping problem, not an actual defect.
we just don't have enough information to know.
Ha ha... you are an amusing character. However, I pay off my AmEx every month. There's no difference from paying cash, except I have an extra month to do so. And also protection for that extra year - which includes damage done accidentally by me. And also I get points for buying with AmEx - which I get to convert to cash, which I would not be able to do if I bought with cash. And also I get protection if the merchant screws me - AmEx will go to bat for me, and I can have the charge reversed... what are you gonna do once you pay cash and it is all gone?
If you know how to use it, you'll come out ahead using your AmEx. Just pay for most stuff with my Amex (as does my wife). I pay $150/year for mine and my wife's AmEx Gold Awards Plus, and make back about $600 a year... so I'm ahead by some $400-$500 every year.
That looks terrible!
I hope they get swift replacements. Has anyone posted a smashed up box yet or are these coming out of clean, dent free boxes?
I hope they get swift replacements. Has anyone posted a smashed up box yet or are these coming out of clean, dent free boxes?
That looks terrible!
I hope they get swift replacements. Has anyone posted a smashed up box yet or are these coming out of clean, dent free boxes?
These are coming out of clean, dent free boxes. Also, the cracks are always in the lower left hand corner.**
**According to complaints and images from the official Apple Support threads.
Thanks Fastshutter.
Hmm, so it seems some people may have been too quick to blame the courier/shipping agent.