iMac White Intel Core Duo 20"
I Paid $3300.00 AUD for the initial package. It Worked well for the first 2years and 7 months, then started randomly shutting down/not powering up. The first problem was in December 2008. It has been thirteen months now. I have been trying to get apple to fix it. They told me I would have to pay another $1064.00AUD to replace the 'failing' logic board. It started 'failing' with still five months of my $200.00 appleCare? Extended Warranty still in effect.
I am typing now on my friends G4 'Sunflower', nearly a decade of use and still purring along nicely. It is the reason I bought an iMac, I was expecting an easy 8 years of uncomplicated use out of my iMac. I got less then 3 years.
apple are very sorry, but they hope that paying them an extra $1064.00 after my initial $3300.00 would not lessen my satisfaction with their products and services.
'Whats in the box?' I hear you ask, my more then $3000.00 computer has been back in it's box since September 2009, for five months now while I spend hundreds of dollars in mobile call charges and hours and hours composing letters.
I am particularly fond of the catch phrase, 'It just works'. When my iMac isn't shutting itself down, or refusing to power up, it does work pretty well. I got it out in December 2009 for another fun play with my media, information and entertainment centre and it shut down 8 times in two days, with about a ten minute window of use in between each shut down. To prove apple are very sorry they offered me free 'Mobile Me' today. It sure does make me happy, and more then makes up for not being able to use my iMac with any confidence for the last 13 months. Their customer relations efforts are like rubbing salt into a child's grazed knees. Yes, in the beginning I had an innocent childlike trust of apple.
I once loved and adored apple, until they took all my money and would not stand behind the faulty 'failing' iMac they sold me. I do not expect perfection, and I do not deny them the humanity of not getting it right every time. I did expect they would want to learn more about this 'failing' so they could continually improve however. Outright denial is not a good first step when you have failed. The Toyota lesson is to be open, be honest, and learn from your mistakes so that you continually improve. I thought that would be the way apple would face this situation as well. I assumed incorrectly.
After more then $250.00 of mobile call charges and hours of writing apple finally accepted to repair it. I got it back on Monday. It has failed to start up once, and shut down once, in less then three days of having it back. It has gone in for another 'repair' now.
From the way apple and the service team have spoken and written to me, it seems I am expecting to much. They really have been quite condescending when I have mentioned the fact I was expecting to get 8 years out of it. I don't know, but maybe they know something about apple computers that I don't.
I am really glad I purchased appleCare? Extended Warranty. Thirteen months on and still I can rely on an intermittently stable, operationally unable iMac. I can't wait to be receiving it back, the 'Mobile Me' free sorry consolation gift they have offered me will sure come in handy after my 60 day free trial ends......and more then make up for all the time it has turned off, not turned on, the times I have packed it up and been without for weeks, the trips into town, the parking fees, the phone calls, the letter writing, the anger, frustration, despair, the unjust and unfair!
Lower case a in all apple references intentional, as are the mid sentence ? after references to appleCare? Extended Warranty.
