Advice Needed - 2 New Faulty MacBook Pro in 2 months...

[RatFace]

I've had an absolute nightmare with my first MacBook purchase. I've had 3 MacBook Pros in the space of 2 months, 2 of them being faulty. The third one I received was the same spec but has the low resolution screen (I ordered the high res), and I've now just left it in it's box as I don't want to get too attached.

Here is an account of what happened.

September 13th – New MacBook Pro arrived.

It worked beautifully, but then noticed serious wifi dropouts, so much so I resorted to using my 4 year old laptop.

September 18th – I noticed a light patch on my screen, it may have been there all the time but very hard to spot with the default Lion wallpaper.

September 19th – Took it to the Sydney store, they replaced the screen in 2 days.

Continuous wifi drop outs, old laptop has no problems, neither does my girlfriend’s MacBook Pro (running SL).

September 25th – The machine starts to make ticking sounds (not related to the hard drive), I got an exchange on the laptop.

October 11th – New laptop arrives, no problems at all.

October 12th – I switched on the laptop and cannot log into Lion, everytime I enter password, it throws me back into log in screen.

October 13th – Took it a Genius, they wiped the hard drive, reinstalled Lion. It worked fine.

October 15th – Password problem occurs again. Take it to another Genius. (My appointment was at 1.30pm, I was seen at 2.15pm)

They run all sorts of test and diagnose it with a hard drive issue. They felt more comfortable if they replaced the whole machine. I was leaving the country to go back to the UK, so I couldn’t wait for them to replace it. They advise I get it replaced when I get back to the UK.

October 27th – I contacted Apple (UK) to get it replaced, they ‘investigate’ the issue with the team in Sydney. - This takes 12 days.

November 7th – They approve the replacement, I get details of TNT picking up the faulty model.

November 17th – New model arrives, but notice they sent me the same model but with a low res screen (I originally had the high res).

I have written an email and have tried contacting the Apple Care representative telling to sort it out, I’m not happy with this service and have been as polite as possible. I’m not the kind of person to shout obscenities down the phone but I have become very close to. I’ve been told that a senior Customer Representative will call me between 3-6pm yesterday, -they never did.

I’ve wasted enough of my time chasing Apple, all I wanted was a computer that WORKED! I’m going to demand a refund IF they ever get back to me. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.

What would you do if you were in my situation??!

 

[Ant.honey]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I would go on an Internet forum and rant...wait, no.

 

[Nick McEnjoy]

What would you do if you were in my situation??!

Get the refund and buy a Windows laptop.

 

[TheJing]

I’m going to demand a refund IF they ever get back to me. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.

What would you do if you were in my situation??!

Call Apple again and again and again until they give you a working computer or a refund.

 

[sweetbrat]

I would call Apple again and explain what's happened. Try not to shout obscenities. I know you're frustrated, but yelling at them isn't going to make things any better. Be polite but firm, explain what you've been through and what you want them to do. If you need to, ask to speak to a Manager.

 

[RatFace]

Get the refund and buy a Windows laptop.

I'm actually considering this... Might end up with a DellBook Pro

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-15z/fs

 

[Mojo1]

Good luck with Dell customer service should you have any problems with that computer!

 

[Nick McEnjoy]

Good luck with Dell customer service should you have any problems with that computer!

Well, actually it's not too bad.
I purchased computers, cameras, speakers,... from them. Returns and replacements are easy. In some cases, I got discounts for their mistakes

 

[revelated]

Good luck with Dell customer service should you have any problems with that computer!

It's not so bad...as long as you don't mind scripted drones from another country.

 

[thundersteele]

What would you do if you were in my situation??!

Be patient. Either wait until you get a working macbook, or demand a refund. You moving between two countries makes this quite a bit more complicated, also for apple.

 

[PS65]

I'm actually considering this... Might end up with a DellBook Pro

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-15z/fs

If you like cheap plastic and a boring OS, enjoy!

 

[Ice Dragon]

I would give it one more chance and then get a refund if you are not satisfied. I would then wait a bit and trying buying again and see if the same issues occur.

 

[Nick McEnjoy]

It's not so bad...as long as you don't mind scripted drones from another country.

I don't mind as long as they give me good deals. Ad trust me, the "drones from another country" really like to give you discounts. Of course if you just jump on the phone and yell "give me discount" won't work. That is my experience.

 

[Nick McEnjoy]

If you like cheap plastic and a boring OS, enjoy!

Most businesses use Windows machines for business applications. I have worked for five companies during last 25 years. None of them uses Mac.
Windows may be boring, but the OS is not what Windows users really care. Not all Windows machines are cheap plastic and they can be expensive, too.
I use both Windows and Mac for different purposes. I enjoy both.
I believe if you limit yourself to Mac only, you only know half the fun. I also use Linux, Ubuntu version. A lot of fun.

 

[PS65]

Most businesses use Windows machines for business applications. I have worked for five companies during last 25 years. None of them uses Mac.
Windows may be boring, but the OS is not what Windows users really care. Not all Windows machines are cheap plastic and they can be expensive, too.
I use both Windows and Mac for different purposes. I enjoy both.
I believe if you limit yourself to Mac only, you only know half the fun. I also use Linux, Ubuntu version. A lot of fun.

That is a ridiculous argument. You can always tailor that argument to fit each platform. Yes, I would prefer to build my Excel models in Windows, but I would prefer to use Mac for everything else.

My business machine is a Windows machine - it's still awful, not sure which part of Windows is fun? Maybe the funny blue screen, or the 'Not responding' message?

With regards to nice Windows machines, show me one and I will take that back...and don't send me a picture of a HP Envy.

 

[RatFace]

Thanks for your responses, still haven't heard anything from Apple and it's been a few days since I've contacted them :-/

A discount from Apple would be 'nice' but all I want is a working computer without all the hassle. I understand my circumstances probably arent common, but to be sent a laptop with the wrong resolution... and taking this long to get a response is taking the p***.

I'll give them another week, but not sure what else I can do if they dont bloody respond!

 

[Nick McEnjoy]

That is a ridiculous argument. You can always tailor that argument to fit each platform. Yes, I would prefer to build my Excel models in Windows, but I would prefer to use Mac for everything else.

My business machine is a Windows machine - it's still awful, not sure which part of Windows is fun? Maybe the funny blue screen, or the 'Not responding' message?

With regards to nice Windows machines, show me one and I will take that back...and don't send me a picture of a HP Envy.

I am amazed how people can easily call others "ridiculous." However, I refrain myself to talk back. I'm not interested. I believe if you think again, you will find the comment "ridiculous" unnecessary

Anyway. Forum and stuff are supposed to be fun.

The Blue Screen of Death, or the "BSOD," is something unfamiliar to me. I said unfamiliar because I did get one or two, when I used Windows 95, 15 years ago. I know the causes: incompatible parts or software. Fix it and the box will run well. I have had none after that. Believe it or not. In general, Windows users alter their machines a lot, and many of them have little knowledge about computers but have a lot of courage to abuse their machines. That's why.

I have used HP, Dell, Sony, Asus, and Thinkpad. My favorite Windows machine is the Thinkpad X61. I'd love to have the new X220, but my X61 (that I am using to type this post right now) is performing so well that I can't justify to buy a new one. Believe me, my wife told me to get a new laptop

You know what, I ordered my first MBP 13" right before BF midnight. Well, I played with it (in a local Best Buy) well enough to know I'd like to have one. My plan? Windows 7, MS Office, and some accounting/financial packages. See how it will perform. They rumor MS Access do not perform well on Mac. I am building some Access apps and I'd love to compare their performance on both platforms. Coding for Mac is a lot of fun too, I believe.

No. My expertise is not computer. I'm in finance and accounting, but do a lot of coding though. Just for the love of computing networking stuff.

Sorry, OP. I really don't want to morph the tread to a Windows/Mac love/hate one. I just would like to make a constructive post

Aahhh. It's so good to discuss with people

 

[thekev]

If you like cheap plastic and a boring OS, enjoy!

This is way too generalized. I've gone back to paying more attention to the Windows side too (recently), and it's not really like you suggest. That image comes from the fact that a lot of cheap plastic machines do exist on that side, and there are plenty of them because they're cheap. This shouldn't come as a surprise. There are plenty of really demanding users on the Windows side of things. Windows actually has a lot more cad/3d users including a lot of product designers.

That is a ridiculous argument. You can always tailor that argument to fit each platform. Yes, I would prefer to build my Excel models in Windows, but I would prefer to use Mac for everything else.

My business machine is a Windows machine - it's still awful, not sure which part of Windows is fun? Maybe the funny blue screen, or the 'Not responding' message?

With regards to nice Windows machines, show me one and I will take that back...and don't send me a picture of a HP Envy.

Nice is a subjective term. Do you want it to be pretty? powerful? Apple balances heavily toward weight, form factor, and aesthetics with their machines. You can build a laptop with better performance than a macbook pro, but it won't have the form factor or relatively light weight of one. Kernel panics (blue screen) are rare in Windows these days, and it's not really that ram hungry relative to Lion. Really if your hardware and drivers are decent you shouldn't have any problems in excess of what you see in OSX.

I think the idea that Windows machines are all cheap plastic boxes filled with a million viruses that must be rebooted every few hours, is a somewhat dated concept that needs to go away.

 

[Ramunas]

Get the refund and buy a Windows laptop.

This.

 

[econgeek]

Anyone recommending a windows laptop is an idiot. What he's experienced is typical of windows laptops, but atypical of Macs.

I bought my machine in the UK, had a minor issue. When they went to repair it, they found a "Quality control problem" and recommended a MB replacement.

So, Apple's service in the UK was pro-active. I couldn't' do it then because I was leaving the country. Just like the OP.

So, I came back to the USA, walked into an Apple store, and they took the machine and fixed it.

You can't do that with any windows laptop. Nobody has retail locations in all these small towns-- both in the UK and the USA I was in a relatively small town, yet there were Apple stores.

And it was no-hassle at all. The geniuses just looked up the machine in their system, saw the notes the UK people left and took the machine in.

I think your problem might be that you're calling Apple rather than just walking into the store.

 

[rocknblogger]

Anyone recommending a windows laptop is an idiot. What he's experienced is typical of windows laptops, but atypical of Macs.

I bought my machine in the UK, had a minor issue. When they went to repair it, they found a "Quality control problem" and recommended a MB replacement.

So, Apple's service in the UK was pro-active. I couldn't' do it then because I was leaving the country. Just like the OP.

So, I came back to the USA, walked into an Apple store, and they took the machine and fixed it.

You can't do that with any windows laptop. Nobody has retail locations in all these small towns-- both in the UK and the USA I was in a relatively small town, yet there were Apple stores.

And it was no-hassle at all. The geniuses just looked up the machine in their system, saw the notes the UK people left and took the machine in.

I think your problem might be that you're calling Apple rather than just walking into the store.

I don't disagree with what you say but please refrain from calling people idiots just because they may have a different opinion. It's just wrong.

 

[PS65]

Ironic given the thread, but I stand by this:

http://www.apple.com/why-mac/better-hardware/

 

[Nick McEnjoy]

Anyone recommending a windows laptop is an idiot.

This includes Bill Gates. Wow.

 

[revelated]

I don't mind as long as they give me good deals. Ad trust me, the "drones from another country" really like to give you discounts. Of course if you just jump on the phone and yell "give me discount" won't work. That is my experience.

We're talking about support, dude. Not sales.

 

[RatFace]

Anyone recommending a windows laptop is an idiot. What he's experienced is typical of windows laptops, but atypical of Macs.

I bought my machine in the UK, had a minor issue. When they went to repair it, they found a "Quality control problem" and recommended a MB replacement.

So, Apple's service in the UK was pro-active. I couldn't' do it then because I was leaving the country. Just like the OP.

So, I came back to the USA, walked into an Apple store, and they took the machine and fixed it.

You can't do that with any windows laptop. Nobody has retail locations in all these small towns-- both in the UK and the USA I was in a relatively small town, yet there were Apple stores.

And it was no-hassle at all. The geniuses just looked up the machine in their system, saw the notes the UK people left and took the machine in.

I think your problem might be that you're calling Apple rather than just walking into the store.

So I thought I'd give this a go, I took the laptop into the Apple Store, they told me there's nothing they can do as I bought it from the Apple Online Store and not a retail store...