I’ve been using Macs since the early 1990s and have a lot of Apple stuff. There has in the past been occasional problems with the equipment which has usually been sorted out well but sometimes there have also been frustrations. In the past couple of years, however, the service and quality of the machines seems to have got much worse just as the machines have got more expensive.
In 2016 I bought a Macbook Pro to replace a 2012 model which had run with no issues but was getting old. This new machine had continuous problems from the outset: over 18 months, the keyboard stopped working three times and the display went once. Each time I had it repaired under warranty at the local Apple store. When the keyboard broke again in June last year I lost patience, decided I’d got a lemon, put it down to bad luck, and traded the machine in for a new Macbook Pro. Staff in the store assured me that they had not had the same level of problems with the new model as with the 2016 one so I was optimistic.
Five months later and the keyboard on the new machine stopped working properly. This time, I couldn’t go to the Apple store as the local one was booked out, so I rang Applecare and they told me they could pick it up for me to get it repaired. This they did. Then, two weeks ago, the display went. Same issue with not being able to take it in store, so Apple again arranged to have it picked up for repair. But this time, the repairers said that the display wasn’t working properly due to “accidental damage” and that they couldn’t therefore repair it under warranty. When I asked them to return it unrepaired, they asked for over £100 to do so!
This seems to be the latest Apple approach: make it impossible to take a damaged computer in-store, then take the computer off of you and refuse to return it unless you pay £100, meaning not only do you lose the computer but you can’t even argue with them about the damage they claim you’ve done. I rang Apple. They were very sympathetic and rang me back several times but in the end did nothing beyond suggesting that I paid for it from my home insurance. I wrote to Tim Cook – nothing!
So now I feel that I have an expensive computer with useless cover which might cost me £100 every time I try to use it should Apple’s repairers decide that it’s my fault (with no appeal, because they’ll just hang on to the computer). I am very unhappy about this and, with the increasing prices of these machines, for the first time I’m seriously thinking that my next computer/phone/speaker/TV won’t be an Apple one. This is difficult because I’m not at all fond of Windows, but, honestly, if it gets me a machine that I can get repaired locally without some sort of arbitrary surcharge if it’s decided it’s my fault, then it’s worth considering.
In 2016 I bought a Macbook Pro to replace a 2012 model which had run with no issues but was getting old. This new machine had continuous problems from the outset: over 18 months, the keyboard stopped working three times and the display went once. Each time I had it repaired under warranty at the local Apple store. When the keyboard broke again in June last year I lost patience, decided I’d got a lemon, put it down to bad luck, and traded the machine in for a new Macbook Pro. Staff in the store assured me that they had not had the same level of problems with the new model as with the 2016 one so I was optimistic.
Five months later and the keyboard on the new machine stopped working properly. This time, I couldn’t go to the Apple store as the local one was booked out, so I rang Applecare and they told me they could pick it up for me to get it repaired. This they did. Then, two weeks ago, the display went. Same issue with not being able to take it in store, so Apple again arranged to have it picked up for repair. But this time, the repairers said that the display wasn’t working properly due to “accidental damage” and that they couldn’t therefore repair it under warranty. When I asked them to return it unrepaired, they asked for over £100 to do so!
This seems to be the latest Apple approach: make it impossible to take a damaged computer in-store, then take the computer off of you and refuse to return it unless you pay £100, meaning not only do you lose the computer but you can’t even argue with them about the damage they claim you’ve done. I rang Apple. They were very sympathetic and rang me back several times but in the end did nothing beyond suggesting that I paid for it from my home insurance. I wrote to Tim Cook – nothing!
So now I feel that I have an expensive computer with useless cover which might cost me £100 every time I try to use it should Apple’s repairers decide that it’s my fault (with no appeal, because they’ll just hang on to the computer). I am very unhappy about this and, with the increasing prices of these machines, for the first time I’m seriously thinking that my next computer/phone/speaker/TV won’t be an Apple one. This is difficult because I’m not at all fond of Windows, but, honestly, if it gets me a machine that I can get repaired locally without some sort of arbitrary surcharge if it’s decided it’s my fault, then it’s worth considering.
