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A just outcome—and I’m amazed that legal action was even needed, considering how astonishingly flexible Apple support/service has always been in my experience. They so often bend the rules in favor of the customer, that it’s bizarre to see them bend—no, break—the rules in the other direction! Certainly that’s not the typical experience. Glad he won! (How could he lose?)

I agree. In my experience, Apple always sided with me in terms of support. Maybe the blogger's temper was along the lines of the Florida undergrad who shouted the infamous words, "don't taze me bro."
 
My favorite posts are the fan boys defending apple. What part of "Known issue" do you not understand? :rolleyes:
 
I guess you are done with technology in general as not one of Apple's competitors are even remotely close to Apple in terms of customer service. At least with Apple you can get somebody in the US who speaks English on the phone. Dell just had to pay out big dollars for screwing over its customers.

Further, like with any company, the lower level employees have very little authority. You have to escalate these issues up the ladder. I had a logic board die after five years. It had the logic board replaced twice under warranty, and than it died two years out of warranty. I send Jobs an email telling him how I thought the iBook was defectively designed. I got a call from his assistant the next day. Apple sent me a box for my Mac, fixed it, and sent it back to me. Once I got the iBook back, I was so happy with the way I was treated I bought a Macbook soon after, and another since then. Both have been great machines.

I know, I also had a logic board replaced for free on my iBook. Apple was good with support before, but it has gone way down the tube lately. Here is one recent experience I had. I brought my Mac Mini in to replace a DOA optical drive. The first thing, was that apple didn't follow their reservations. I saw my name on the genius bar screen, but then it was erased, before I was ever called. Ten minutes later, after several people were called before me, I asked a genius what was going on. He then tried to tell me I never made a reservation, despite the fact that my name was on the screen. I then showed them a printed email saying the time I should arrive. They said they would try and get me in the que, and that they were sorry. Their idea was to get me in the que when there were no other appointments scheduled. I waited for several HOURS, while approximately 30-40 people were allowed to go before me. At the end, while I was still waiting, people were being attended to who had reservations over an hour and a half later then mine. I started getting extremely angry, as the genius goons wouldn't attend to me, now over two hours after my scheduled appointment, and the stupid manger just stood around and did nothing. Finally, they found an opening, and took my device. It took about 5 minutes to type the info in on their computer and let me go. They said it would be ready in a few days. Skip ahead to one week later. My computer is not ready. I called the apple store and guess what? They said they never got my computer, and that they didn't have it at the store. I almost died. Before I started screaming at them, the goon said he would ask around. A few minutes later, he got back on the phone, and said they found it, and it would be done in a few days. Skip ahead another week. Another call of where the **** is my computer and guess what now. They put it at the back of the repair que again. My few day repair is now over 2 weeks. About five days later, It was finally ready for pickup. This is now 2.5 weeks in. I go there to pick it up and then they tried to charge me for the repair. I started laughing at this whole situation right in the store. I had apple care, and it was DOA, so WTF again. After another "talk" with the insane manager, they decided to give me the repair for free. That is the last transaction with apple I will ever make.
 
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I am confused. Apple guarantees the machine will work for the period of the warranty. No longer. If it fails after that period, the machine is not defective. In this case, the machine died after the warranty was up.

I was responding to soundguyami's point that the person was at fault for buying the product in the first place.
 
The fact the the guy did not want to settle for a replacement, but wanted a non-defective 8600 or an alternative (which both do not exist) might have been a crucial point.
Here, Apple might have been in the situation to not only acknowledging that the 8600 is faulty and will be replaced (which they obviously did and do for 4 years from buying date) but now they also need to acknowledge that the only proper replacement would be a newer generation laptop.
Now THAT could count put to a real big amount of money – much, much larger than the one Nvidia has to come up for (by replacing 8600/logicboard).

So, I think that's why they sent in those two mothership-connected lawyers with their silly attempts of denial.

I ask myself if this incident could possibly lead to any kind of claims of existing 8600 owners for replacement computers of a non-faulty generation.
I'd be in for it.
 
This comes back to what I said about nVidia - they (Apple) should have demanded a replacement of the defective GPU design with a non-defective from nVidia, even if the non-defective is the generation that followed the 8600 series and ends up costing nVidia money. What I think would be really pathetic is if Apple ends up giving nVidia a second chance when it comes to supplying GPU because believe me if they end up going back to nVidia then these maybe my last Apple products - if Apple can't get it through their thick skulls what a giant clusterf-ck nVidia is then pretty much all hope for them is lost.
 
My favorite posts are the fan boys defending apple. What part of "Known issue" do you not understand? :rolleyes:

There is nothing to defend. They should have fixed it. Done!

However, when I hear class action suit I could scream. Has anybody ever seen any kind of an award other than lawyers getting rich?

The way these class action suits are settled, they might as well give everybody a coupon for 20% off on a toaster. (Nobody gets the toaster:)
 
This guy refused a new motherboard, which would have solved his problem, because he thought ALL GeForce 8600M GT chips are defective. He was wrong about that, and so was the judge who "ruled that Rex's machine was not repairable."

My half brother had the same failure.. He paid $600 for a new logic board, and it failed again with the same symptoms.. The Genius told him to **** off. So I told him that Apple gives a 90 day warranty on the repair.. Turned out to be the Nvidia issue again.. He was reimbursed for the first repair, and the second repair free. The even gave him a new battery..

Pretty much ALL 8600M GT chips are faulty, it its a matter of time when they fail. So yes, they simply replace the faulty logic board with another one that is defective. Its not a matter of will it fail, but when it will fail!!
 
Funniest part of Rex's dilemma is collecting the $

He now has a judgement, if Apple doesn't pay up quickly he's more than within his rights in most states to lien property. I'd go in with a repo order for the local Apple Store :)
 
Absolutely ridiculous. Very unbecoming of Apple to let it get this far.

This would never have happened under Jobs' watch. And what, Tim Cook thought this was a good idea??

Mind-boggling.
 
Bah. My $1,500 MSI laptop has been flawless for 18 months (and counting). People I follow on Twitter have had far more issues with their Macs, but to each his own. Or her, I suppose.

$1500 isn't a cheap computer...
 
This was the best Apple advertisement before next generation release of MacBook Pro :) Tim Cook is proud :)
 
Absolutely ridiculous. Very unbecoming of Apple to let it get this far.

This would never have happened under Jobs' watch. And what, Tim Cook thought this was a good idea??

Mind-boggling.

Tim Cook was likely never involved. I'm sure it started under Steve Jobs as well, they have nothing to do with issues like this.
 
Apple can't always be the good guy, but why spend money fighting this ? Cheaper just to cover the repairs for what is an obvious defective product.

Especially when someone else is going to foot the bill :D
 
My experience with Apple has been very different - GOOD different. I have been using Apple products since 1981. NUMEROUS times during that period when issues major or minor have come up, I have always been impressed with Apples handling of the issues. In two especially bad situations they came through with (MULTIPLE 'Out Of Warranty Repair'.
I had an iMac which I had purchased AppleCare for, and AFTER the extended warranty expired, capacitors on the Motherboard went bad. Apple replaced the Motherboard TWICE at ZERO COST to me, three months later (then early FIVE months outside the EXTENDED Warranty time, they replaced the Logic Board - again, at no cost.
I later had a 2008 White MacBook. Again outside of warranty period, the case developed a crack and one of the keys began sticking. Apple replaced the case AND KeyboRd / Track Pad assembly... again at no cost.
Tip: Like any other company on the face of the planet, there are good stores and bad, good Customer Service and bad. If I find that shining example of Stores or Emoyees, I go back to THEM when needed, and NEVER let anger rear it's head in. The conversation. Soon as you do, human nature is such that any communication that MAY have been taking place ENDS at that moment. If EVERY company acted as Professionally as Appme and their Emoyees, what a great world it could be...
 
Wouldn't it have cost many many times more to litigate this in court than to just give the guy a new computer which Apple can get at cost? The bad PR alone is worth many thousands of dollars in lost sales.
 
I find the Genius Bar to be hit-or-miss. Sometimes I get someone who knows exactly how to solve my issue, and other times I get someone without a clue. Sometimes Apple replaces a device, no questions asked; other times they inexplicably dig in their heels. It's the inconsistency that might upset people.

A friend of mine has an iPhone that refused to update over WiFi. He brought it to the Genius Bar and they refused to help him, no explanation given except that his 3GS couldn't handle the update (which makes no sense).

So I can see how someone with a $4500 MacBook Pro would get upset with Apple. If you charge premium prices, that should always include premium service (which doesn't really cost Apple anything, especially in this case).

That is also my experience with Apples genius bar. Sometime they seem to outright lie (like in the case of my Powerbook Ram Slot failure). But I don't think they lie, they just are clueless. Apple should train their people better regarding this stuff.
 
Seems to me this is more about precedent. Apple doesn't want people to think that they are just going to fix three year old computers that aren't under AppleCare for free regardless of what the supposed problem is.

The Genius at the Apple Store couldn't take the customers word that the problem was the graphics card. You simply can't make those technical decisions which result in parts and labor costs based on what a customer tells you. Too many people have no idea what they're talking about to make that a reliable source.

I'm not saying Apple is right in any of this. Far from it. But the initial disagreement occurred over a computer that couldn't be diagnosed.
 
Same thing happened to me

Wow, I had the same problem last Autumn. My 2008 MBPro (worth €2500 when bought) had graphic card problems. It started with screen shattering and ended with the computer not turning on at all. I called Apple and they told me that as it was outside warranty I would have to pay for the repair, fair enough.

I then took it to a authorized Apple repair centre (no Apple stores here) and they told me that Apple knew of this problem, but that my laptop was not covered because it was built 3 months before Apple introduced their return and fix policy, and that it would cost me about €700 to repair. I turned this down and instead bought a new iMac, however now that I know of this case I am wondering what my chances are of getting my old MBPro repaired/replaced.

Would anyone have any tips or has anyone had the same problem?
 

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