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iBook: Apple Customer Relations SUCKS.

Crikey said:
I heard about all the problems people had with the G3 iBook, and was concerned that the G4s don't look much different on the outside. But I haven't heard about any chronic problems with the G4 iBooks, and I think they are a great deal for what you get. I'm kinda thinking about buying one to do audio recording on location (and all the other portable computing stuff).

Is there something I don't know about the G4 iBooks?


Crikey
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YES. DO NOT BUY!! i have had my ibook for 17.5 days and everyday since i recieved it, it has froze once, somtimes twice. i have lost progress on endless amounts of reports. and to top it all off, the case around the keyboard is coming loose. i am getting a call tomorrow from a superviser which i plan to explain the situation and tell him that he sold me a lemon!
 
I work at an educational Apple retailer and one of the employees there has an iMac (the one released just before the Intel) and has had 2 logicboard replacements. After he had a frank discussion with the Apple customer relations people, he was given a brand new Intel iMac.

Having your laptop fixed that many times is a total waste. You buy a product to be able to use it, not to use it for a few weeks and wait for it to return from the repair depot.
 
On my iBook G3, I got the HD replaced and then the logic board, work great since, but I did purchase applecare.

When i purchased my iMac 20" DC intel, I paid 85 euro about $100 bucks for the 3 year applecare.
 
So this might make you mad...

But a while back, I bought a G3 iBook off eBay for $800 shipped. It had 3 logic board repairs and after a 3rd one, they replaced my laptop with a new one, free of charge. I also told them I had extra RAM in it and such so i'm on a G4 w/ 768mb RAM, 1.2 ghz, 100gb 12" laptop because a few years ago I paid $800 for a used G3 on eBay...

This one has already had two sets of repairs.. I'm hoping that it breaks a couple more times and I ge a new intel iBook in a year or so :).

Man i'm a good talker...
 
Just curious, how do you guys use your iBooks to get so many dead logic boards? As hard as it is to believe, in my so many years of using my own self assembled PCs, I have yet to encounter *ONE* dead/burnt out logic board/component.

Zero.

Not even one.

And I leave my machines on about 10-12 hours a day, in some cases even 24/7.

Dogfood1 said:
So, the moral is, don't feel bad, at least they're really good about fixing it, and you didn't have to pay for Apple Care! Apple is still great about repairing and returning - usually less than 3 days, and remember, it's still a Mac. I'm pretty sure that a 2-year-old Sony or Toshiba laptop that had similar issues would be tossed in the trash, its guts full of spyware and viruses.
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Just to shatter some delusions, but "spyware and viruses" are software, much like the crud you have in your head. The "guts" of any laptop is hardware FYI.
 
marchcapital said:
YES. DO NOT BUY!! i have had my ibook for 17.5 days and everyday since i recieved it, it has froze once, somtimes twice. i have lost progress on endless amounts of reports. and to top it all off, the case around the keyboard is coming loose. i am getting a call tomorrow from a superviser which i plan to explain the situation and tell him that he sold me a lemon!
Click to expand...

Hey did you notice that this thread is FROM 2005? Y'all knew that, right?

And I just noticed I was one of the first responders. I sold that PB last summer.

Anyway, the iBooks are great. I don't know what you guys are griping about. The old G3s had problems, maybe the first rev G4s, but the last revs are killer. It'll be curoius to see if they keep the dual 14/12" form factor or squeeze it into a 13 incher.

And Applecare has ALWAYS been TOTALLY worth it for me. Someone asked last year how I got a new Tibook -- well they replaced the logic board, topcase, hard drive, keyboard, bottomcase, ac adapter -- and that baby is now been upgraded by Daystar from 400 to 550mhz with a combo drive and faster hard drive and still runs like a champ for my friend on Tiger. Thanks Apple for going on FIVE years with one great PB.
 
I'd be most concerned if I *need* to shell out an additional 30% on the preagreed price of my Mac just to keep it running for longer than a year.

All these talk about toasted logic boards really bothers me, seems like Apple engineers their products to fail within a certain time frame.
 
generik said:
I'd be most concerned if I *need* to shell out an additional 30% on the preagreed price of my Mac just to keep it running for longer than a year.

All these talk about toasted logic boards really bothers me, seems like Apple engineers their products to fail within a certain time frame.
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Actually, the reason they replaced my logic board was that I was on the phone with them while trying to put in more ram. While on the line with the Applecare guy, I broke off the little white ram holders.

Guess what? I needed a whole new logic board. And because I was on the phone with the guy, Apple replaced it for me under warranty.

So, sorry, Applecare totally worth it for me. The logic board was fine until I messed with the memory. I was really sacred; first time opening up a computer.
 
gandalf55 said:
My wife's video unit on her logic board has fried again. They replace the whole thing since the component is integrated into the board itself. This is the FIFTH one to go. So she will need a SIXTH logic board replacement.

Each time Apple replaces the unit for free (by shipping it someplace for a few days), but they refuse to replace the laptop. Well, I was told by about the 4th time we would get a replacement only to find out that their policy is never to replace it. I was told this by tier-2.

We didn't buy AppleCare with that thing. If we would have paid the $300 or so, I was told Apple would have REPLACED the whole iBook, with a new model, a long, long time ago. But since we didn't, we have to go this process of giving them the iBook, they ship it away, fix it, then ship it back. Ad naseum? Yes its our fault, but no laptop should need this many board replacements, ever.

So I ask you, shouldn't Apple at some point realize that this iBook is a lemon and replace it out of good faith? Shouldn't they allow us to buy AppleCare for this thing so we did get a new one?

I mean, come on... this is disgusting Customer Relations. If we don't get a new iBook this time around, my wife is simply going to get a PC laptop. :eek: :eek:
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My advice is to get it fixed and then sell it on eBay while it is working. Then buy yourself a new laptop. Sometimes it just isn't worth the trouble.
 
apple customer relations are not as bad as i first thought. i have been having alot of trouble with my ibook freezing ever since i recieved it 19 days ago. i have been on the phone with tech specialists for hours but with no avail. so i asked to get transfered to customer relations, hesitantly the tech guy obliged. the lady at ACR told me there is nothing she can do but will escalate the issue and a superviser will call me either friday or for sure monday, so i was satisfied and decided just to wait and not push the issue. i waited tell monday afternoon, still no call. by now i was livid, as you can probably imagine. i called up ACR again and the same lady answers the phone. i told her who i was, then just as i was going to give her the verbal beating of a life time, she said calmly, "Devin, we have decided to replace your iBook." i was dumb founded and absolutly beside myself. i didnt no what to say so i just thanked her and she told me someone will contact me in a few minutes with the details.

i was so suprised at how little argueing i had to do.
 
That's another good approach. Work your way up. I had trouble getting anyone from Canon to respond regarding a very expensive "L" lens I sent for repair a month eariler (no one was ever available to "take your call" for TWO WEEKS! Seriously!). I finally gave up and wrote to the President of the company and faxed it in. Got a reply from the repair depoit within the hour saying they'd fast track it. As it turned out, a week later, they admited they lost the lens and would send me a refund. The point of the story is, always head to the top if your not getting satisfaction.
 
I have not had any problems with my 7 month old iBook. I plan on getting AppleCare in the summer time to extend the warrenty. With portables you always need extended warranties.

To the OP, I would look at Apple's lemon policy. If they have to fix the same problem x many times, they have to give you a new computer.
 
Sony Japan

Customer service of Sony in Japan was really impressive for me. My Sony vaios motherboard failed so I called customer service and they sent a box and some packing materials for me to pack it in. Then the next day, this guy came to pick it up. 2 days later he came back with the laptop totally fixed.

Thats what I call excellent customer service. All this ofcourse without paying a single cent! And you shouldnt be!!
 
spaceballl said:
I mean plees...
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I don't get your response -- I did break off the little memory ram holders...

and as they are soldered to the logic board, you must replace the whoie board. I noticed the new board had metal ram holders on it, so my rev A Tibook was updated and great after that.
 
iBook g3 fried

I am having my second bout with the infamous logic board problem. My comp has had kernel errors a couple times in the past couple months and has been "acting strange." (Its been slow, freezes from time to time, etc.)

The logic board was replaced in January 2005 and my Applecare expired in November 2005. And yesterday, my screen went black.... I called Apple only to be told that they cant do anything since I have no Apple care. They guy said "we cant just keep replacing these things." What?!?

It is sad as I was almost a Mac convert. You see, this computer technically belongs to my wife. I've been a PC user all my life, and recently I found myself lusting after a Macbook as my next comp, but I cant justify the risk. The risk being that the logic board will be badly engineered and will also have problems.

After learning a bit about BGAs I do believe this iBook issue is a case of bad engineering. The Chip and the board it is soldered on must have matched thermal properties otherwise, you have one expanding (from heat) faster than the othr and eventually the solder points get weakened, which is what happened (and is happening) to the iBook logic boards.

the only way to tell Apple that we want a resolution (besides writing to sjobs, which I did (let's see what he says), is with our money. But as Mac people are so fanatic about Apple and wont consider buying PC, this will never happen, and Apple can keep acting in arrogance forever. Count me out.
 
How I got mine sorted.

1.9Ghz iMac G5 bought at the end of 2005 with only the standard 1 year warranty on it.
It failed due to a "fault with the logic board" in late 2007, just before its 2nd birthday with us (mother-in-law actually).

On investigation, it's serial number was not covered in the acknowledged faulty board range, so I embarked on a mission to persuade Apple to acknowledge that other boards of theirs were faulty, ie, Mother-in-Law only checks emails and does basic word processing, and all of a sudden this machine which should have provided years of trouble free service (the very reason we persuaded her to buy it) fails, and the cost to fix it was the same as a brand new one!

Predictably, Apple weren't going to budge, and after talking to manager after manager and emailing Steve Jobs, I gave up that line.

I then contacted the suppliers and distributers in NZ (there's not many) who only refered me back to Apple support.

Not yet even close to giving up, as I was completely fuming, (M-I-L bought a PC as this saga stretched out over a couple of months) I investigated my consumer rights. Now here's the thing, In NZ (and probably in most highly regulated countries) we have something called the Consumer Guarantees Act. Essentially, this says that 'goods and equipment, bought for a specific purpose, must be fit for that purpose for a reasonable period of time'.

And so it was that I went back to the large electronics/furnature store that I bought it from, with this piece of information, to which I got an immediate response that they take these matters very seriously and within a week they had aggreed to fix it (having previously not claimed any liability and directed me to Applecare).

It has now been fixed and returned to us, and we will sell it on. Unfortunately for Mac their stance has alienated M-I-L who was intrepid in the first place, and stopped my wife and I espousing their virtues to others. All-in-all a very bad piece of PR from Apple.

So, essentially, if you get no joy from Apple, check out your consumer rights and take it to the people who sold you the thing.

As an aside, the NZ Consumer Rights suggests that you needn't ever buy the 'extra extended warranty cover' for anything as you will be covered by the Act.

Jeff
 
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