Long time lurker to this forum, had to share this story.
My first foray into the world of Apple was exactly four years ago, in 2011 when I purchased my first iPhone (iPhone 4). Probably nine months later I purchased my first Apple computer, the mid-2011 iMac in December of that year.
I had long coveted the venturing into the Apple ecosphere and the only thing that had really stopped me was my wife.
We were so tethered to Windows products for all those years, went through multiple Dell Computers since our marriage began in 2000. I finally wore her down.
Fast forward exactly 3 years and 1 month from the original purchase of my iMac. I suddenly started hearing a clicking noise coming from the machine. It was sporadic and seemed to only happen when the machine was taxed, possibly when the fans kicked in. I was fairly convinced the hard drive was failing, ala 'click of death'. I was hesitant to take it to the Apple store because my AppleCare had just expired in December 2014. I wasn't too keen on paying out of pocket to fix whatever the issue was.
So I finally decided in late February, obviously this problem isn't going away, need to take it in. We dropped it off at one of the local Apple stores (there are two in our city) and waited for a call. The 3-5 day window from my repair order passed so I started calling. They said it for sure wasn't the HDD and they thought it was one of the fans but they had to isolate which one. That would take a couple of more days.
Couple of days later, this past Thursday evening to be exact, the Apple store called me and said it wasn't the fans but possibly the power supply and when the power supply is at issue they typically don't mess with that. So (pregnant pause, in my head anyway) they were going to "give me a new one". "A new one?", I said. "Yes, because when the power supply is bad we don't normally replace those", etc, she said. I kindly said thank you and she said we could come pick it up the next morning.
My wife happened to be out near there after her work day ended on Friday and went to pick it up for me. She explained the situation to the genius bar person she spoke to and they went back and came out with the box and according to my wife he said "Enjoy your new iMac". She called me as she was getting to her car and said what the specs were (my wife isn't overly techy like myself) and I said to myself...they actually gave us a new one. In the box.
So I'm now the proud owner of a brand new iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013). The box had even been updated with the Yosemite imagery. I know when this Mac first streeted it had the Mavericks imagery. So this was essentially the most recent refresh of the 21.5 iMac. Basically the same specs as the one I had...2.7 Ghz Core i5 with a 1 TB HDD (though this was 5400 vs 7200 of my old iMac) but with upgraded graphics and more ram out of the box than mine came with. This was...a BRAND NEW FREAKING iMAC they just gave me.
Needless to say I'm still a little stunned, after all my AppleCare ended in December on the old machine. My plan was to get my old iMac fixed and give it to our 11 year-old son and for me to purchase a mid-2014 MacBook Pro which I did this past Tuesday in lieu of getting my old one back to give to him. Reason being he constantly wants to play his Steam games and I'm tired of sharing my machine with him.
Obviously I have known Apple to be very customer service oriented in the past. They replaced an old keyboard from my iMac with a brand new one out of the box, "no questions" early last year for me. They replaced my iPhone 5 in late 2013 when I had the 'purple flecks' in the camera lens that showed up on all photos, "no questions". Didn't even make me dip into my AppleCare for either instance.
I can't help but ask though...is this normal for Apple to replace an older machine with a new one at no cost? Or did mitigating factors take over (I had AppleCare that just expired, etc)? Mind you I never raised the issue with them about my AppleCare expiring just a scant 2 months ago.
Anyway, sorry such a long post but I had to share this with fellow Mac lovers.
My first foray into the world of Apple was exactly four years ago, in 2011 when I purchased my first iPhone (iPhone 4). Probably nine months later I purchased my first Apple computer, the mid-2011 iMac in December of that year.
I had long coveted the venturing into the Apple ecosphere and the only thing that had really stopped me was my wife.
We were so tethered to Windows products for all those years, went through multiple Dell Computers since our marriage began in 2000. I finally wore her down.Fast forward exactly 3 years and 1 month from the original purchase of my iMac. I suddenly started hearing a clicking noise coming from the machine. It was sporadic and seemed to only happen when the machine was taxed, possibly when the fans kicked in. I was fairly convinced the hard drive was failing, ala 'click of death'. I was hesitant to take it to the Apple store because my AppleCare had just expired in December 2014. I wasn't too keen on paying out of pocket to fix whatever the issue was.
So I finally decided in late February, obviously this problem isn't going away, need to take it in. We dropped it off at one of the local Apple stores (there are two in our city) and waited for a call. The 3-5 day window from my repair order passed so I started calling. They said it for sure wasn't the HDD and they thought it was one of the fans but they had to isolate which one. That would take a couple of more days.
Couple of days later, this past Thursday evening to be exact, the Apple store called me and said it wasn't the fans but possibly the power supply and when the power supply is at issue they typically don't mess with that. So (pregnant pause, in my head anyway) they were going to "give me a new one". "A new one?", I said. "Yes, because when the power supply is bad we don't normally replace those", etc, she said. I kindly said thank you and she said we could come pick it up the next morning.
My wife happened to be out near there after her work day ended on Friday and went to pick it up for me. She explained the situation to the genius bar person she spoke to and they went back and came out with the box and according to my wife he said "Enjoy your new iMac". She called me as she was getting to her car and said what the specs were (my wife isn't overly techy like myself) and I said to myself...they actually gave us a new one. In the box.
So I'm now the proud owner of a brand new iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013). The box had even been updated with the Yosemite imagery. I know when this Mac first streeted it had the Mavericks imagery. So this was essentially the most recent refresh of the 21.5 iMac. Basically the same specs as the one I had...2.7 Ghz Core i5 with a 1 TB HDD (though this was 5400 vs 7200 of my old iMac) but with upgraded graphics and more ram out of the box than mine came with. This was...a BRAND NEW FREAKING iMAC they just gave me.
Needless to say I'm still a little stunned, after all my AppleCare ended in December on the old machine. My plan was to get my old iMac fixed and give it to our 11 year-old son and for me to purchase a mid-2014 MacBook Pro which I did this past Tuesday in lieu of getting my old one back to give to him. Reason being he constantly wants to play his Steam games and I'm tired of sharing my machine with him.
Obviously I have known Apple to be very customer service oriented in the past. They replaced an old keyboard from my iMac with a brand new one out of the box, "no questions" early last year for me. They replaced my iPhone 5 in late 2013 when I had the 'purple flecks' in the camera lens that showed up on all photos, "no questions". Didn't even make me dip into my AppleCare for either instance.
I can't help but ask though...is this normal for Apple to replace an older machine with a new one at no cost? Or did mitigating factors take over (I had AppleCare that just expired, etc)? Mind you I never raised the issue with them about my AppleCare expiring just a scant 2 months ago.
Anyway, sorry such a long post but I had to share this with fellow Mac lovers.
