Apple Support aware of light leak/bleed issue, advising customers to wait?

[ahbo]

I've been loosely following this situation, as my iPad 2 has it to some extent, but have been ambivalent about following-up on it. It's tempting to exchange but, a) there seem to be many units that have it and, b) you could always end up with worse problems. I was ready to accept it and move on.

Recently, though, I've seen a few comments around suggesting that Apple might be acknowledging the issue, and suggesting customers wait before exchanging for a new unit.

iPhonewzealand.co.nz, a legitimate Apple blog in NZ, called Apple Support and got through to a senior advisor, who had this to say:

Thanks for holding. This is a know issue for the new iPad 2 and Apple will be replacing the unit for you, however not straight away. We [Apple] believe it is a bad batch and our engineering team are investigating this to get it resolved, so I will be forwarding your case to them... At the moment there is no point in us replacing it right now as the next one you get will likely have the same issue. Also we are very low on stock so it is unlikely the store will have one to replace it with.

http://www.iphonewzealand.co.nz/2011/all/ipad-2-screen-bleeding-what-can-you-do-if-it-affects-you/

There is also this post over at Apple Discussions. Forum posts are obviously less reliable, but it appears genuine:

Just returned from the Genius Bar at Bridgeport Village in Tigard, OR USA. This was my second visit for light leakage and I'm on my second unit.

The Apple employees were great and acknowledge the issue and said they have sent back all their replacement units at the request of Apple Corp. and ordered me a new unit from a production run without the issue. It may take 3-4 weeks, but I'm ok with it if I get a unit without the issue. They also said all their demo units had the issue at different levels.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2779476&start=285&tstart=0

Finally, this post by another user on the same page offers corroboration. However, colour me sceptical about this one:

Just wanted to reiterate for this group, that I spoke with an Apple Store employee, and Apple Care, and they both said the production on the iFad II has been halted for quality control issues with the screen. Evidently shipping from the factory will begin again in earnest on April 21st.

Apple has sent hardware engineers from Cupertino to China to resolve the issues. All the iFad II's currently in the supply chain may have screen bleed issues, so it's going to take 3 or 4 returns to get it right !

Anyway, the point of this thread is to consolidate any information you might have from an Apple Store, Apple Support, etc. for anyone who's interested in following this issue.

 

[jav6454]

Seems like a valid reason from Apple. If they do have a bad batch, they might not want to give more of them to already frustrated customers.

This is already reminiscent of the 27" iMac yellowing/ish tint problems.

 

[asleep]

Apple is suggesting you hold the screen "really tight" all around the perimeter to remedy this "supposed" problem.

 

[Shasta McNasty]

I have light leak issues but am waiting a few weeks before trying to get a replacement. It seems pretty pointless to try and get one now if the issue still exists.

 

[Built]

This completely makes sense. I decided to wait as soon as the issues began surfacing. Right now my iPad 1 is just fine, and will tide me over till May or June.

 

[MasonH]

This completely makes sense. I decided to wait as soon as the issues began surfacing. Right now my iPad 1 is just fine, and will tide me over till May or June.

I've also been following this in the Apple forum. Would be nice if it's true (except for the delay involved of course).

 

[Dorkington]

This completely makes sense. I decided to wait as soon as the issues began surfacing. Right now my iPad 1 is just fine, and will tide me over till May or June.

Ditto.

And maybe even until after iOS 5 releases, who knows.

 

[cmvsm]

Deja Vu all over again from the Ipad 1 days. You obviously have a choice to wait, but I highly doubt that Apple is going to change the type of panels that they use in the iPads. Due to the thin nature of the product, I'm not sure that they even have a choice. And if they did, you'd be paying more for it.

So again, live with the technology or wait until the iPad 3 comes out and just maybe something newer will come along. Currently, the Apple stores are just trying to get customers out the door without having to open up every ipad they have in stock looking for the 'perfect' one.

 

[applelvr]

Apple is suggesting you hold the screen "really tight" all around the perimeter to remedy this "supposed" problem.

Seriously? How are you supposed to do this with only two hands? And should I use my nose to type on the screen?

 

[kfscoll]

My iPad 2 has minor backlight and color gradient issues, but my iPad 1 wasn't perfect either. I suspect that these issues are largely a limitation of the technology, but I got my iPad 2 at Target (90 return policy FTW!) so I'll probably just exchange it in June once the supply situation improves.

 

[IbisDoc]

If this were true (count me as skeptical), a reputable company would recall all of these lemons.

 

[splashnader]

Seriously? How are you supposed to do this with only two hands? And should I use my nose to type on the screen?

I believe the post was being sarcastic. As in Jobs telling people that they were holding their iPhone 4's wrong when the whole antenna problems surfaced.

 

[act1980]

A 'bad batch'? More like a ton of bad batches from what I have read on here. If it was just a batch you would think that a select amount of people in one country would have been affected. Not people in various countries.

I'm due for mine to be delivered today and I am just hoping that it's ok. I am assuming that it was the first lot of orders and deliveries that have had issues?

I have waited a little while for mine so keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[Built]

If this were true (count me as skeptical), a reputable company would recall all of these lemons.

That would be a logitical and PR disaster for them. IMHO, they are quietly exchanging returned units, amd banking on the fact that a certain percentage of users with flawed units won't even realize they are flawed.

 

[MasonH]

If this were true (count me as skeptical), a reputable company would recall all of these lemons.

To be fair I've yet to hear a report of a customer being refused a swap over this issue. Frankly I'm amazed they allow you to swap it out up to five times or so (from other people's experience).

And if people don't notice/aren't bothered by it why would you "recall" the whole batch? It's not like a car that shipped with no brakes after all.

 

[MadDragon1846]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Apple is suggesting you hold the screen "really tight" all around the perimeter to remedy this "supposed" problem.

Seriously? How are you supposed to do this with only two hands? And should I use my nose to type on the screen?

lol if you try this, please video it

Hopefully give it a month and we'll see less and less reports of screen bleed. *crosses fingers*