Apple defective exchange policy & sales rep issue

[UNCMo96]

I was in an apple store today and was about to whip out the amex and buy an iMac and maybe a blackbook as well, but I balked.

I went to the store and waited for a while to get a salesguy.
I finally get some help and I bring out the freezing issue and he's yeah, whatever, I've never heard of it, if it's there it's been patched already, nothing to worry about. I even offered to show him about the issue online but he's like you gotta watch those "rumors" sites. LOL.

Then the guy was condescending to my wife about her educational discount. She's like I work at ___ U and as far as the discount (we were thinking about getting a Macbook and an iMac and wanted to see if we could discount both)... he interrupts, well are you a teacher, only then do you get the discount. Do you have an ID? No discount w/o the ID. (Wife's a teacher and a grad student)....

Sorry, just needed to vent about the salesguy.

Anyways, his attitude just killed my mood and his chance of ringing up 3 grand in sales but I asked about their exchange policy which I got an unclear answer on.

Here's my question for you guys about that:
If I buy an iMac and it has the freeze issue within the first 14 days can I just take it in to the store and exchange it? This guy made it seem like I had to "prove" to the Genius Bar people that I had an issue. What I don't want is to buy the computer, have it freeze at home, bring it in, have it not freeze in the store and be denied an exchange.

 

[ab2650]

I was in an apple store today and was about to whip out the amex and buy an iMac and maybe a blackbook as well, but I balked.

I went to the store and waited for a while to get a salesguy.
I finally get some help and I bring out the freezing issue and he's yeah, whatever, I've never heard of it, if it's there it's been patched already, nothing to worry about. I even offered to show him about the issue online but he's like you gotta watch those "rumors" sites. LOL.

Then the guy was condescending to my wife about her educational discount. She's like I work at ___ U and as far as the discount (we were thinking about getting a Macbook and an iMac and wanted to see if we could discount both)... he interrupts, well are you a teacher, only then do you get the discount. Do you have an ID? No discount w/o the ID. (Wife's a teacher and a grad student)....

Sorry, just needed to vent about the salesguy.

Anyways, his attitude just killed my mood and his chance of ringing up 3 grand in sales but I asked about their exchange policy which I got an unclear answer on.

Here's my question for you guys about that:
If I buy an iMac and it has the freeze issue within the first 14 days can I just take it in to the store and exchange it? This guy made it seem like I had to "prove" to the Genius Bar people that I had an issue. What I don't want is to buy the computer, have it freeze at home, bring it in, have it not freeze in the store and be denied an exchange.

That certainly does suck but sometimes you just get "one of those guys." Oh, and you DO need to watch out for those rumor sites We're a venting bunch of loons, but I think most of us wouldn't consider moving back to Windows.

Regarding the exchange policy, it mostly depends on how nice your apple rep is. I doubt if this guy were listening to your problem he would acknowledge it's severity. In that case you just need to ask for a manager or phone up AppleCare.

As far as getting it replaced, the typical policy is they get a few trys to try and fix it before they replace the whole unit. Blah blah blah, lemon law, etc.. It's been discussed to death on here. The real question is would they charge you a restocking fee on less than 14-day old faulty merch, right? I would say you have about a 25/25/50 shot at getting a refund, getting an all out replacement, and getting it 'fixed.' Of course your courtesy, professionalism and firmness on the matter will increase the odds of the first two.

Personally the Apple store has replaced an incorrectly labeled MacBook Pro (It was glossy, the box said Matte). If they do that I suppose you could take the replacement and come back later with an unopened item and ask for a refund... But the idea is you WANT the iMac, right?

I sense I've begun rambling. The point of the story is when you've suffered as many blows to the head as I have, consistency is something, something.

 

[kresh]

There is a grain of truth in what the Apple employee was saying though. You can quickly skew your view on a product based on what you read on this site.

By looking at all the threads with all the complaints you would think that the Aluminum iMacs all freeze up every 5 mins and they all have substandard LCD's that will horribly mangle every thing that the computer displays.

In real life I know 13 people that own Alu iMacs and none of them have ever locked up, and all of them have absolutely gorgeous displays.

 

[ab2650]

In real life I know 13 people that own Alu iMacs and none of them have ever locked up, and all of them have absolutely gorgeous displays.

Hear, hear! We (as a whole) tend to be 100 times more vocal about the problem cases than the wonderfully smooth transactions for perfect machines. By reading the posts you would think it's normal that people have to replace their macs 13 times before they get "a good one."

I've had 3 macs in recent times. Purchased in 10/2001, 12/2006 and 03/2007. I've *never* had an issue I'd consider returning/replacing/repairing it. The only time I've had a problem was the glossy-in-the-matte-box and it was immediately rectified.

I guess the only thing I have to be mad at is all those wasted AppleCare policies.