A very loyal Apple user very disappointed

[greytmom]

If you are having a problem, then take it back. If the next one has a problem, take it back. And so on, and so on. At each point, you'll make a decision on whether or not you want to go with another Mac, or perhaps move on to a different product. I am perfectly fine with whatever you decide... you have my blessing either way.

Blanket statements are rarely accurate, no matter which side of the blanket is facing up. People who have never had any problems with the products perceive that QC is good. People who have had lots of problems with the products perceive that QC is bad. People who argue about which one is right or wrong really need to find something better to do with their time.

 

[adam12345]

Given Apple's track record in reliability and customer service, I'll go with adam having occasional real issues and then a lot of imagined problems over him having actually gotten that many faulty products. Either Apple has no quality control at all (extremely unlikely) or adam has impossible expectations.

Thank you Dr Freud but I can stand by the fact that I know myself and my history with Apple better than you do. I am a consultant and rely on my products to be reliable, when they are not, I am disrupted, when I am disrupted = I lose money.

Any time I have had a problem with Apple = I have had a problem with Apple.

 

[Mackilroy]

Indeed you do. But what are the odds that you would get eighteen faulty products in a row? Astronomical. You're right to insist on quality hardware, and assuming you had actual issues with all of that I would agree that you should exchange them. Disbelief is far stronger, though.

 

[JorgeNC]

+1

I don't get people who still defend Apple even though their QC is abysmal these days. Some Apple fans even question the honesty and even sanity of those customers who dare to demand fully functioning hardware without cosmetic damage. Really, people have better things to do than fabricate stories about their laptop problems.

I'll tell you why some defend Apple. Plenty of us buy Apple products with not even one issue. I can understand a few issues here and there, but there are some things here I do not believe, such as 3 faulty pairs of earbuds. And 4 broken computers?? Why would you even keep trading out 4 different times? Maybe Apple products just aren't for you.

 

[adam12345]

Latest update today...3rd iPad 2 faulty with bleeding backlight

Just got back from Apple Store in Honolulu.

I swapped out the 2nd iPad 2 with backlight problems and they inspected and told me the 3rd was perfect before swapping it out.

Got home and its the worst of the lot.

See pic attached.

I've had enough.

 

[Ceebee1980]

I'm far from a fanboy, but I'm 30, and my family and/or myself has had:

1988 Mac SE
1993 Centris 660av
1998 iMac
2001 G4 867
2002 G4 867x2
2006 MacBook Pro 2.0
2011 MacBook Pro 2.2

Of these 7 computers over 20+ years, the SINGLE issue was a broken dvd portion of the 2006 MBP Super Drive. It still read CDs.

 

[ryannel2003]

Jesus christ you people must have some bad luck. Of my 7 years of being an Apple owner, I've owned:

Bondi iMac G3
1.25GHz eMac G4
12" iBook G4
Core Duo Mac mini
17" Core 2 Duo iMac
13" Santa Rosa MacBook
13" Aluminum MacBook
17" iMac G4
13" Mid 2007 MacBook
13" Unibody White MacBook

Of all those, the power adapter on my AluBook died about 2 months into ownership and both of the 13" non-unibody WhiteBook's had cracking palmrests, but otherwise I have never had any issues. I just got received my refurbished Unibody WhiteBook on Tuesday and it looks new. Not a scratch or mark to be seen. I've been buying refurbished Mac's for years and they always look like brand new, and Apple's quality has always been great for me.

 

[HBOC]

that many problems with THAT many DIFFERENT Apple products? I can guarantee that my MBP runs more than most peoples computers (meaning it is never turned off, ever) and I have not had that many problems (in that short amount of time). I have owned several Apple products.. 2X MBPs, iPhone (2 years), Airport Extreme (1 1/2 years), Magic Mouse (1 year), Apple TV2, and only my MBP Classic had problems, but they spread over 2 years.

 

[mrwonkers]

[Apple Fanboy Cult] sic...

When production levels greatly increase so do product faults. I went through many many replacements of 2010 iMacs all with serious manufacturing issues last year. The end result being I cannot ever see myself buying an iCrap ever again. The fanboy club in here loves to beat up on anyone who believes that all Apple products are not "perfect" or near enough to it.

As Apple products have become exceedingly popular over the last say 3 years - Many quality control issues have reared their heads with many Apple product lines - You fanboys know exactly what I am talking about even if you will never admit it....

When you used to buy Apple products it use to be a great experience - quality all the way. Now when you buy an Apple product its like playing the lottery - Sometimes you win - Sometimes you lose - and some lose or win more than others - Fanboys are another story all together....

As the masses flock to purchase Apple products - Quality control has suffered as has the quality of content in Apple related forums.

I liked it when Apple sold less product and was more of a niche market - I'd gladly pay more for Apple Product if Apple exercised tighter quality control.

For me 15 replacements out of 22 machines purchased over the past 18 months was just not good enough.

Apple machines should be built to a standard and not to a price just to entice Mr average Joe consumer.....

Good luck to the original poster, I hope things work out well for you - sorry that all the trolls/fanboys are giving you a hard time for offending their religious sensibilities [Apple Fanboy Cult] Hopefully Apple do the right thing and sort you out.

 

[Mackilroy]

Good luck to the original poster, I hope things work out well for you - sorry that all the trolls/fanboys are giving you a hard time for offending their religious sensibilities [Apple Fanboy Cult] Hopefully Apple do the right thing and sort you out.

Most Apple users realize Apple has problems. All companies do. But when one person consistently gets bad products (and in such numbers) something becomes suspect. If Apple were shipping that many bad machines the uproar would be much greater. I agree, Apple should (and they do) go out of their way for people. But if you simply cannot get a good machine, either a) you're seeing things that don't exist or b) you have impossibly bad luck.

 

[superego]

Most Apple users realize Apple has problems. All companies do. But when one person consistently gets bad products (and in such numbers) something becomes suspect. If Apple were shipping that many bad machines the uproar would be much greater. I agree, Apple should (and they do) go out of their way for people. But if you simply cannot get a good machine, either a) you're seeing things that don't exist or b) you have impossibly bad luck.

I don't think Apple delivers that much DOA machines, but they do deliver incredible quantities of second grade quality. Scratched, dented or bent cases straight from the factory, display lottery, terrible backlight bleeding, dead pixels, noisy hard drives, excessively hot and noisy laptops and so on. Come on, even most PC manufacturers don't have these issues.

If you're lucky enough to get a flawless Mac product, then it's indeed great. Unfortunately the quality control is so loose these days that the odds are you're not going to get one.

 

[Mackilroy]

If you're going by what you read on forums, don't. Most people come here to complain – the people who have good machines by and large don't bother posting, and they outnumber those who come here.

 

[mrwonkers]

If you're going by what you read on forums, don't. Most people come here to complain – the people who have good machines by and large don't bother posting, and they outnumber those who come here.

So "YOU" say - good of you to speak for "most" people....
Mackilroy AKA Everyman ; the voice of the people.

The people who have good machines by and large don't bother posting here as they are not ubernerd forum dwellers - therefore if they had problems with their machines I highly doubt this would be the place you would read about it.

There is no doubt that with most new Apple products there are quality control issues that can probably [note I use the probably] be attributed to large volume increase of products shipping by Apple presently as compared to quantities shipped say 3 years ago.

Maybe "don't" speak in absolutes on behalf of everybody else unless you have statiscal data to back it up, it makes you come off as ignorant... Dr Strangelove wouldn't do it so why would you ?

 

[ryannel2003]

If you're going by what you read on forums, don't. Most people come here to complain – the people who have good machines by and large don't bother posting, and they outnumber those who come here.

I agree with this. I personally know 2 people with MacBooks (1 Pro and 1 White) and they've never had any issues with them. I'm not saying Apple is exempt from having issues... all manufacturers do at some point in time. I've personally owned 3 HP/Compaq laptops and all 3 have had some type issue that was hard to overlook. Would I buy an HP laptop again? Most likely, but I'm forgiving of issues than most people.

 

[MacHamster68]

i am a Mac Fan as i collect old Mac's and i love them ,
but god whoever still believes that myth about they just work must have been be living on another planet before they buy a Mac
apple's laptop range in terms of reliability issues is on fourth place behind sony ,toshiba,ASUS (asus leads in reliability ) nearly every 6th apple laptop fails within 3 years , so they do not just work , they just have a better design , and OSX , other then that they are no better at all, not to mention how many come out of the box with faults already which dont turn up in that statistic , ever wondered why there are so many refurbied sold on apples website , sure apple wants you to believe they are all returned because people could not get used to OSX or because they did want bigger or smaller screen version , but reality is lots come out of production which seems to lack any kind of quality control

 

[mrwonkers]

ever wondered why there are so many refurbied sold on apples website , sure apple wants you to believe they are all returned because people could not get used to OSX or because they did want bigger or smaller screen version , but reality is lots come out of production which seems to lack any kind of quality control

+1 you nailed it.

 

[brentsg]

To all those who called me a troll...absolutely not, not a liar.

Nobody said you didn't have ANY problems. But to have 18 consecutive hardare faults like that before the long part of the post.. requires some mighty staggering statistics.

 

[steadysignal]

Nobody said you didn't have ANY problems. But to have 18 consecutive hardare faults like that before the long part of the post.. requires some mighty staggering statistics.

or staggering bad luck...

 

[brentsg]

For me 15 replacements out of 22 machines purchased over the past 18 months was just not good enough.

It's got nothing to do with being a fanboy. I really dislike Dell, but if someone told me they had to return 15 of 22 Dells they bought (much less 18 straight), I'd know something was up. Usually this is a person that's going over a product with a magnifying glass and looking for a level of perfection that's above and beyond the mass produced goods we buy.

I'd feel the same way with Dell, HP, Apple, any company. In this case it's not about the product, it's about the customer. When I was in sales it was common practice to identify these folks and and try to ensure they went elsewhere to shop, or at very least they got hooked up with another sales person. There was no money to be made there, only headaches.

Amazon does the same thing by closing these customer's accounts. It's not that the customer is always wrong, but they're identified as customers that Amazon simply doesn't want to do business with. At that point they end the relationship.

 

[brentsg]

or staggering bad luck...

That's what I mean.. if it's staggering bad luck then some astute statistics folks can tell us if it's 1 in a trillion or what.

Statistics classes were way too long ago for me.

 

[chrono1081]

Hello all,

Last week I upgraded from MB to the new 15 inch MBP. I was in Tennessee for business when I bought it last week. When I got back to the hotel I turned on my upgraded Mac and noticed that the speakers were vibrating to an uneven beat. So much so that even a simple soft sound would run across my hand while I am typing. I brought it back to the Tenn. Mac store. The Apple Genius tried for himself and said that he's never seen this issue before and ran diagnostics. He came back and said that it was defective and replaced it for me with another brand new 15" MBP. He opened it up to test it out and it seemed to be the same exact problem. He agreed that it sounded just like the other and said it didn't feel right. He ran diagnostics on it and told me that it was at the extreme high level before they consider something defective.

Keep in my that the MBP had a promotion that it came with a Printer for free ($100 - $100 mail in rebate). So when they replaced the MBP the printer had to be there for the "exchange" because for the promotion both the MBP and the printer have to be on the same receipt. So I went back to the hotel that was a half an hour away and got the printer and brought it back for the exchange.

I wasn't happy with that but I brought it back to the Hotel and used it that night. I couldn't get past how any little sound that came up would distract me because of the way the speaker pulsated on my hand. I looked at the serial number and it was one off from the original. Maybe it was a bad batch. I brought it back to NY where I live and Apple replaced it for me with no problem again. Now these speakers work perfect but one of the USBs don't work. It doesn't recognize anything plugged in. I'm really disappointed. This is my 3rd MBP in a week. I feel like I should speak with them again. Has anyone ever dealt with something like this? I am a very loyal Apple customer and have never experience anything like this in all my years using their products.

I appreciate you reading and any advice given.

Exchange it. Simple. Consumers want cheap electronics so they are made in factories by the hundreds to bring down costs. This is a side effect, nothing more.

Years ago I worked at a Circuit City and it was common to see 1 out of every 7 - 10 major electronic items returned due to a defect (an actual existing defect, not the customers imagination).

It's got nothing to do with being a fanboy. I really dislike Dell, but if someone told me they had to return 15 of 22 Dells they bought (much less 18 straight), I'd know something was up. Usually this is a person that's going over a product with a magnifying glass and looking for a level of perfection that's above and beyond the mass produced goods we buy.

Not necessarily. Our company bought 60 Dell XPS gaming machines for our client and every single one was dead within a month (all had bad ram, many had bad graphics cards). Dell would not replace them either because they claimed that the damage was not done on U.S. soil (even though it was, it was an APO address).

Not to mention out of the 500 laptops we ordered many arrived with bad touch pads.

 

[mrwonkers]

If someone told me they had to return 15 of 22 Dells they bought (much less 18 straight), I'd know something was up.

Usually this is a person that's going over a product with a magnifying glass and looking for a level of perfection that's above and beyond the mass produced goods we buy.

I'd feel the same way with Dell, HP, Apple, any company. In this case it's not about the product, it's about the customer. When I was in sales it was common practice to identify these folks and and try to ensure they went elsewhere to shop, or at very least they got hooked up with another sales person. There was no money to be made there, only headaches.

I wish these forums had the same policies in place you exercised "when you were in sales". Might save us having to read such trolltrash, which gives me headaches I can tell you.

In regard to me being a bad customer having 15 out of 22 machines replaced - uuh well, they were DOA'd - they wouldn't even turn on, and we are a business client. I guess in your world our IT department [who don't even have a magnifying glass] would incorporate more of fanboy ethos in regard to not complaining/returning defective Apple products. We should all be greatful that Apple consistently produce 100% troublefree quality controlled merchandise.

I see you were in sales, good idea you got out of it I guess. Anyway am off to grab an asprin, the way these forums are going is giving me a mega-headache.

 

[brentsg]

Not necessarily. Our company bought 60 Dell XPS gaming machines for our client and every single one was dead within a month (all had bad ram, many had bad graphics cards). Dell would not replace them either because they claimed that the damage was not done on U.S. soil (even though it was, it was an APO address).

Not to mention out of the 500 laptops we ordered many arrived with bad touch pads.

That's a good point. Bad batches, or runs that all contain a common defective component are certainly possible.

Usually you'll see something that can get past QC like an issue that only presents under very high load, or after some amount of run time (esp with hard drives). I saw this with Gateway desktops and WD hard drives once.

 

[brentsg]

In regard to me being a bad customer having 15 out of 22 machines replaced - uuh well, they were DOA'd - they wouldn't even turn on, and we are a business client. I guess in your world our IT department [who don't even have a magnifying glass] would incorporate more of fanboy ethos in regard to not complaining/returning defective Apple products. We should all be greatful that Apple consistently produce 100% troublefree quality controlled merchandise.

I see you were in sales, good idea you got out of it I guess. Anyway am off to grab an asprin, the way these forums are going is giving me a mega-headache.

So do you believe that a 15/22 defect ratio is common for Apple or any reasonably popular manufacturer? Apparently you do..

Also, my last couple of posts were generic to the industry. You say that you don't want to argue, but you continue to throw about the fanboy term and insult people. That does nothing but invite further argument.

 

[edifyingGerbil]

i got the 2.0GHz MBP the second day it came out and that had to be returned due to queer hardware problems which the geniuses couldn't diagnose...

then when i decided to go for the better graphics card two of them had stuck pixels...

so maybe it *is* a "batch" thing. My current one is running beautifully and doesn't overheat or display any other strange issues...

I stuck with apple because i played around with a friend's mid 2010 MBP and i really liked the design, the trackpad, OS X, the graphics, etc.

all in all, despite the setbacks, i'm happy with my purchase. i was a little surprised tho, that UK apple stores don't do good-will gestures unlike american stores or online apple stores. At least in london their policy seems to be: "you either want it or you don't, no one's forcing you to buy it".