Apple Product Quality

[pendragon1984]

I understand that given the number of computers sold it is probable that a few people will end up going through multiple bad computers. However, my personal experience was that 5 out of the 5 rMBPs I owned had bad screens or some other problem (namely buzzing noises). The only way I could get a good rMBP was to swap the perfect screen from the buzzing model to a non-buzzing model.

I also inspected two rMPBs at my local apple retailer. The screens had issues there too. One had a dead/stuck pixel(s) and another had blue-green blotches on the screen. So, really 7 out of 7 I saw had issues.

I'm no statistician but my personal experience is certainly evidence (albeit defeasible) that Apple's QC aint great. If the number of rMPBs with QC issues is very low, what I experienced should be very improbable, and it's not just me who's having these issues as evidenced by this forum. So, I must conclude that if you buy a new rMBP, there is a decent chance that you will end up with one with issues. I agree though that the chances are going to be much lower than what the data on this forum would seem to show.

 

[superego]

This is absolutely preposterous. There's no evidence whatsoever to support the claim that a "flaw right out of the box" is more likely than not.

If you're looking for evidence, you're searching for it in the wrong place. This is a public forum and everybody talks here from their personal experience.

Anyway, I've used and owned several Apple products and more than half of them had some kind of quality problems straight out of the box (such as scratches in aluminum) and this concerns several product lines bought from different stores at different times. Statistically the sample size is naturally extremely small and no generalizations can be drawn from that. Maybe I'm just unlucky, maybe I'm not. My opinion is that QC issues appear to be more common than they're thought to be, and many of them are not even reported back to Apple, because people accept them for whatever reason.

 

[john123]

If you're looking for evidence, you're searching for it in the wrong place. This is a public forum and everybody talks here from their personal experience.

I'm not the one who made the outlandish claim that the majority of products have problems out of the box. In addition to common sense (that the economics of that don't work out in the long-run), it just sounds silly. The burden of proof is on you.

Anyway, I've used and owned several Apple products and more than half of them had some kind of quality problems straight out of the box (such as scratches in aluminum) and this concerns several product lines bought from different stores at different times. Statistically the sample size is naturally extremely small and no generalizations can be drawn from that.

Indeed. Anecdotal evidence is quite weak. That said, I'm typing this from PowerBook/MacBook/MacBook Pro #20 that I've purchased, and only one of them has had a problem of any kind out-of-the-box—and even that problem was a minor one. I had some case flex on two others, but that flex only emerged after some use. I've never had any scratches, dings, or dents in the aluminum.

My opinion is that QC issues appear to be more common than they're thought to be, and many of them are not even reported back to Apple, because people accept them for whatever reason.

I'll agree with this statement. I never bothered with the case flex because it seemed rather trivial, I'm sort of OCD but not that OCD, and most of all, it wasn't worth the hassle of taking it in and being without the machine for a little while.

Nevertheless, I've never seen or read anything that comes even close to backing your assertion that the majority of MBPs have one or more issues out of the box. And that's a significantly more aggressive (and difficult to prove) claim than "there are more QC issues than many people think."

 

[UBS28]

Apple product quality sucks. I had 3 Haswell rMBP.

1st rMBP: Buzzing noise but great screen
2nd rMBP: No buzzing noise but dead pixel
3rd rMBP: Again a buzzy rMBP + yellow screen + performance issues (it was slower than the previous 2 rMBP's, something was wrong with the hardware)

Not sure if I'll should start ordering a new one again. ( i asked for a refund after the 3rd rMBP )

 

[Ai-apple]

^ Don't order any more rMBP. You have more choices with Windows and Chrome PC's.

 

[takeshi74]

Does anyone think their manufacturing quality for certain products as taken a nosedive, or it just the norm?

Just the standard skewed perspective from reading a discussion forum site.

 

[Shmanky]

We know from the wide-spread reports of image retention that Apple ships computers with defects. Those who got their display replaced got a yellow-tinted replacement. There are nearly 600 pages documenting this on MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in? Regardless of the actual ratio of defective to non-defective units it's clear that the units Apple ships for the same model can have very different characteristics and you can't assume what you got is identical to other units sold.

 

[AirThis]

I wanted to see what people think about the quality of their rMBP's or retina iPads.

Everywhere I go I hear of screen issues. Even replacements need replacements. And to top it off I don't think Apple admits it.


Does anyone think their manufacturing quality for certain products as taken a nosedive, or it just the norm?

I guess I'm asking past vs present.

I can assure you that quality has vastly improved since the days of the Performa 5300. I ordered 30, and around 10 had defective logic boards.

 

[iCreak]

I had a couple of bad units from Apple, which I had replaced by them. The newest replacement unit I received from Apple was perfect. No case creak. no bad screen. Very happy with the build quality with the one I have now. This is how it should have been from the start.