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I agree that Apple wants to maintain its reputation as a premium brand and thus offering a refund for repairs is good business for them, but I disagree that they face a serious threat of a class action suit for this. Mainly what I am pointing out is that it is unusual for a company to pay for repairs for a product that is more than a few years old and out of warranty.

By way of example, I owned a 2003 Jeep where the window regulators failed after about 3 years (just long enough to be out of warranty). Jeep charged over $400 per window to fix them. Siimilar to this problem, Jeep substituted a plastic part for a metal one in order to save less than a dollar per car. Jeep never issued a recall nor did they ever offer to pay for the cost of repairs despite it clearly being a design flaw that affected thousands of their customers. (I only paid full price for the first repair, afterward I bought replacement parts online and repaired the remaining three windows myself for about $100 each.)

I am not sure why you think a class action suit is not realistic. Apple was hit with them a few times recently, just search iPhone 6 and Class Action. There has been others too, and these are for items that are out of warranty.

Just because something is out of warranty, doesn't mean that a company doesn't have to fix a problem, especially a design problem. A consumer can always sue, or there can be class action against them.

As for Jeep, there might be a class-action lawsuit in the future if what you say is true. I know Jeep has really suffered from quality control issues and design flaws over the past 15 years, but they have a really loyal fan base that keep buying their crap. Similarly to Mercedes Benz.
 
We had one self destruct in the office in the middle of a quiet staff meeting. Sounded like a gunshot went off and the display slammed down. They replaced it under AppleCare, and when they did, found the shrapnel and impact destroyed the motherboard and fusion drive. They eventually replaced most of that machine.
 
Does anyone know how long this takes to fix if I were to bring it into the Apple Store to have it done?

My iMac qualifies for this. Does anyone know if they need to mess with your HDD or SSD, because I have a fusion drive. I don't think fixing/replacing the hinge mechanism will have anything to do with them reformatting my fusion drive. For those of who had this done, could you chime in and let me know if they touch your drive or not?
 
I would like to know how long the repairs take as well. I really kind of need my computer on a daily basis so I wouldn't be too thrilled if it had to sit in the shop for five days or something.
 
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These people obviously haven't been in the windows camp. If they think Apple's quality and QC is bad, they haven't seen nothing yet. I've been on $500 Dell Inspiron laptops before. Never again.

As a college student, the difference is obvious. I know several people with separating hinges, pieces breaking off, or loosening screws on their windows laptop and now have to find a replacement laptop. These laptops have no value, so expensive repairs aren't even worth it. People give me crap over my paying almost $2k for my rMBP, but my laptop is still going strong and runs as well as the day I bought it.

Wait, so you are comparing a $500 Dell to a $2K Macbook?

And all the problems you just described affected the plastic Macbooks too and they were $1K+ models. Go look at the cracking, peeling, swelling batteries and discoloration on this very forum.

Price means nothing. Apple laptops are still fraught with issues. You don't have to look very far. Ask anyone with a rMBP with the screen coating coming off ...
 
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"Scared" of buying Apple products these days.

Honestly, I agree, although my first Mac (owned by me) was a second-hand 2001 iBook, and it had a flaw whereby the hinge would "cut" the wires to the display. I had it fixed under warranty, and it was good as new again, but while it was flawed, oh boy was I annoyed and frustrated at times. I'd even take it apart just to get it working again, and then it would stop again. Lucky that it got serviced under warranty at all, I must say. :)

But I've never heard of this iMac hinge problem, and I'm honestly surprised that such a quality-control issue would exist. Doesn't Apple have automated testing facilities moving the screen up-and-down thousands of times to test the thresholds of such parts? If not, then shame on them.
 
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Except nobody is buying Surfaces, Microsoft even stopped releasing the sales numbers.

The Surface line is so crap that Microsoft even had to apologize publicly and they have to lie to people about it in their presentations.

Surface that is crap and the Surface Studio are not the same.
The Surface Studio hasn't even been out long enough for there to be "historical" data on sales for it.
 
I would like to know how long the repairs take as well. I really kind of need my computer on a daily basis so I wouldn't be too thrilled if it had to sit in the shop for five days or something.

This is actually why I'm not interested in buying an iMac. I don't know why they are so popular. With the exception of laptops, I believe the computer should be separate from the display. Too bad that Apple has been ignoring the Mac mini. It just don't have the profit margins to pay for their new corporate campus, though.
 
Good job Apple. Now replace all those peoples iPhone 6s' rather than fob them off with a battery replacement program.
 
Surface that is crap and the Surface Studio are not the same.
The Surface Studio hasn't even been out long enough for there to be "historical" data on sales for it.

The Surface Studio will be another flop that nobody will buy.

It's an Halo product and nothing more.

You must be dumb to pay $3000 for that machine. People everywhere want the monitor and nothing more!
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Nobody? The Surface may not be selling in iPad-record numbers, but it's selling quite well. It wasn't doing well at launch, mind you. But that was years ago.

It's selling "quite well" compared to a kid's lemonade booth. Not according to the 3rd largest tech company.
 
I actually am amazed that Apple will pay for a repair on a four-year-old computer even if it is a manufacturing default or design flaw. In my experience most companies will not pay for an out-of-warranty repair no matter that it was their fault.
When people pay a premium, they expect premium products and service. This should not be viewed as Apple being nice.
 
The Surface Studio will be another flop that nobody will buy.

You must be dumb to pay $3000 for that machine. People everywhere want the monitor and nothing more!
[doublepost=1480451967][/doublepost]

Surface Studio is a 28" display and starts at $3000, as you said.
A Wacom Cintiq in 27" runs $2300, and you still have to buy a computer to use with it.
There's really not a huge difference in price.

One of the Penny Arcade guys has one of these and really loves it. The display feels more natural because the gap between the drawing surface and the actual display is much thinner, he said, compared to he Cintiq.

Maybe the issue here is you're not really the type of customer that Microsoft is targeting with this device, so you do not see the reason to spend such a large amount of money a computer outfitted this way.
For graphics designers, illustrators, and other creative professionals with an all-digital workflow it's not so simple.
 
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You did it wrong: Some people's purchasing decisions hinge on things like this. A quality defect might tilt them towards Microsoft, who is falling over to get more sales of the Surface Studio. Hopefully Apple will lean back and look at their direction from a different angle, realizing that their profits today is only being propped up by the iPhone.

Because Microsoft is well-known for their legendary build quality across all their product lines. /s

P.S. The entire surface lineup has lower percentage of Microsoft's revenue (5%) than iPad alone has for Apple right now (9%).
 
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This is kinda weirding me out because I have a late 2012 iMac at work and I've never had any issues with the hinge, have never heard about this issue before now, and this morning when I came into work my display was tilted down and it has never done that before. I even asked if anyone had been on my machine and nobody had (we're a small team with a locked office) so I wonder if this iMac has this problem? So far it seems ok but I'll keep an eye on it. I get a new iMac in the spring so I'm not too worried yet.
 
Except nobody is buying Surfaces, Microsoft even stopped releasing the sales numbers.

The Surface line is so crap that Microsoft even had to apologize publicly and they have to lie to people about it in their presentations.

Lots of people reuturning their Sb and Sp because of bugs like sleep and bad pen input.

Ummm... I think you missed their point?
It had nothing to do with Surface or Microsoft. Had everything to do with play on words: riffing off of the whole tilt angle.
 
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"Apple's customer service is behind (insert company here)."

Well... no. The amount of things they are realizing and fixing, as well as all the little things like phone swaps for ridiculously small details, show they still have some of the best customer service.

Of course it isn't perfect, because some things you think should be free, aren't, but that's rarer than the free fixes.

That's not completely accurate. Apple has been known to stonewall on reported problem. They did with fan issues in the G5 iMac for instance. They denied different screen defect issues on previous MBP and then subsequently, at a later time, initiated repair programs for the devices. Apple is a deny first, act later. If it was first rate customer service, they would investigate and resolve the issues promptly.
 
This is kinda weirding me out because I have a late 2012 iMac at work and I've never had any issues with the hinge, have never heard about this issue before now, and this morning when I came into work my display was tilted down and it has never done that before. I even asked if anyone had been on my machine and nobody had (we're a small team with a locked office) so I wonder if this iMac has this problem? So far it seems ok but I'll keep an eye on it. I get a new iMac in the spring so I'm not too worried yet.

I too have never heard of the problem, but I will be checking it out tonight when I get home from work. I had my Fusion Drove repaired last year, I wonder if Apple replaced my hinge without me knowing.
 
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Apple offering refunds ?? Did ...

article-2535709-1A7D371000000578-703_964x531.jpg


just freeze over? Well, nice to see they are offering refunds; just wish they would bring back the sunflower design ...that is to say, if the iMac ever gets updated (I know 413 days isn't far from the average, which is 317 days, but it seems now that you never know with Apple)
 
I can confirm that this story is true.

I have a 27" iMac (late 2012, iMac13,2) and it has had a failed hinge spring for perhaps a year now. Previously not covered. I contacted Apple today and they indicated that it was covered under warranty and told me to bring it in, no further questions asked.

This is good news because I was cranky about this weak hinge design and considered it a design defect. Apparently Apple did too. I will update if there is a problem with the repair, but I don't expect there to be. I have a case number with an agreement in writing.
 
Just can't understand who at Apple thought it was a good idea to use plastic in a weight bearing system that can be adjusted frequently? This is a true example of Apple maximizing profits above all else.
 
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Some peoples' purchasing decisions hinge on things like this. Glad the newer models seem to be unaffected, though.

Nice pun intended there.

The only good thing to take from this is that the affected iMac's actually in the phsyical world reflect the 'sad' Mac icon from the old original Macintosh days when a floppy had no data to boot. "Eeep"
 
Because Microsoft is well-known for their legendary build quality across all their product lines. /s

P.S. The entire surface lineup has lower percentage of Microsoft's revenue (5%) than iPad alone has for Apple right now (9%).

⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

Dude! Is Microsoft that much of a dog whistle for you?:oops: Seems a bit... wait for it... unhinged.
You're ranting about a clever play on words:
"You did it wrong: Some people's purchasing decisions hinge on things like this. A quality defect might tilt them towards Microsoft, who is falling over to get more sales of the Surface Studio. Hopefully Apple will lean back and look at their direction from a different angle, realizing that their profits today is only being propped up by the iPhone." @konquerror nicely done sir, nicely done.
 
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