My refurb iMac fell out of the Box!

B

BigAl1

macrumors newbie
I was so surprised by this, so I decided to search on the web, and was surprised again to find that others have had this problem. I recently purchased a refurbished iMac. I picked up the box by the handle, as it was apparently designed for the purpose, and carried it upstairs to our office. At the top of the stairs, the tape at the bottom of the box gave way, and the iMac went tumbling down the stairs, placing a big gouge in our plaster wall in the stairwell. Amazingly, the iMac survived the fall quite well, although a little scratched up.

I didn't even bother to turn it on. The machine is not designed for that.

Apple has agreed to refund the purchase price, which I believe at a minimum is suitable. However, I was a little surprised when I asked about the damage to our house. They told me it was not covered "under warranty". What if the computer had landed on my child's head? I suppose that wouldn't be covered under warranty either! I'm not going to fight it, but I thought that was pretty lame on the part of Apple. I did suggest that their packing department should evaluate the security of their box/tape system. It seems thoroughly inadequate to rely on one single weak piece of crumpled dirty tape to ship a computer that weighs, I don't know, 20 lbs?

I hope nobody gets hurt as a result of this ****** packing system.
 
The bottom shouldn't have any tape on it, because its not meant to be opened... Someone screwed up.
 
BigAl1 said:
...I was a little surprised when I asked about the damage to our house. They told me it was not covered "under warranty".
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There's not a product out there that would pay for you to repair your house if you drop it. I have to side with Apple on this one.

What if the computer had landed on my child's head? I suppose that wouldn't be covered under warranty either!
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I would think not - in fact, I'd have to question why you raised a computer up above your child's head to begin with. :p

I'm not going to fight it, but I thought that was pretty lame on the part of Apple.
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Not really, any company would have done the same thing.

Scratch that - I suspect many companies wouldn't have covered even the computer if you dropped it. Yes, I know the tape came undone and all, but I still belive many companies would have saddled you with the burden of replacing it. Apple's doing the right thing here, both by stepping up and replacing your computer and by not paying for the repairs on your house.
 
They don't want to, but its their problem, not mine

Look, the box comes with a white handle. It is designed to be lifted by the handle. I lifted the box by the handle. I walked up the stairs. Those are all things that should be anticipated by Apple. Had the box not had a handle on it in the first place, I am sure that I would have supported it at the bottom. Thankfully, neither my son or my daughter were in the stairwell at the time, but it horrifies me to think one of them could have been. I agree that this is not a warranty issue. But, this is definitely a liability issue. Apple is at fault for this, and I believe I could push this, and it would be my right to recover the damages to my house. But, that's a minor thing, and not worth my time, so I'm letting it go. I can tell you that if someone gets hurt as a result of this packaging problem, Apple is going to have a major lawsuit on its hands. The right thing for Apple to do, is to realize that when a customer suffers a problem as a result of something it did, it owes them something in return.


Tomorrow said:
There's not a product out there that would pay for you to repair your house if you drop it. I have to side with Apple on this one.



I would think not - in fact, I'd have to question why you raised a computer up above your child's head to begin with. :p




Not really, any company would have done the same thing.

Scratch that - I suspect many companies wouldn't have covered even the computer if you dropped it. Yes, I know the tape came undone and all, but I still belive many companies would have saddled you with the burden of replacing it. Apple's doing the right thing here, both by stepping up and replacing your computer and by not paying for the repairs on your house.
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Isn't that what you have house insurance for? Put in a claim and get the wall repaired - job done, wall repaired, Apple sorting out computer, stuff happens.
 
Tomorrow said:
There's not a product out there that would pay for you to repair your house if you drop it. I have to side with Apple on this one.



I would think not - in fact, I'd have to question why you raised a computer up above your child's head to begin with. :p



Not really, any company would have done the same thing.

Scratch that - I suspect many companies wouldn't have covered even the computer if you dropped it. Yes, I know the tape came undone and all, but I still belive many companies would have saddled you with the burden of replacing it. Apple's doing the right thing here, both by stepping up and replacing your computer and by not paying for the repairs on your house.
Click to expand...

Not a lawyer, but I think you are incorrect. Apple packed the box at their facility (this is not an Amazon, just to pick on someone, repackaging), and since there is a handle on top designed to carry the box, neither the handle nor the box should fail while carrying it. If you were to sue Apple in small claims (or Judge Judy's ;-) courtroom, I believe you would prevail - negligence on Apple part; the reasonable man theory dictates that any reasonable person would expect the box to be strong enough to hold the product.

If someone had been seriously injured by the box failure, I'm sure a product liability lawyer would be happy to sue the deep pocketed Apple on contingency.

But I'm not a lawyer, so this is all just a stupid opinion :)
 
Ed is right

Eddie,

You're right. I'm not a lawyer either, but I've studied enough law to know on this one that Apple would be in a tough pinch if someone were hurt as a result of this. The fact that the same thing happened to someone else on this forum makes me think that there is a problem that Apple should know about.

Al

----------

If I put in a claim for this, my rates are going to go up. It's Apple's problem, not mine. In theory that is. I'm going to fix it myself. I just thought I'd vent a little.

Lankyman said:
Isn't that what you have house insurance for? Put in a claim and get the wall repaired - job done, wall repaired, Apple sorting out computer, stuff happens.
Click to expand...
 
Imac is heavy and staples or a different type of bottom should be used on the box. The handle gives you the impression that the box is sturdy..however the taped bottom is poor at best.
 
i'm glad my refurbished imac box didn't break when i was carrying it up my apartment!!:eek:
 
OP has a reasonable point I think.

We also got a refurb iMac recently and I thought the box felt flimsier than the boxes they use for the brand new models...

It is not unreasonable to expect that given there is a handle it is designed to be, and should be perfectly safe to be picked up by the handle alone. I didn't check the bottom of the box until reading this thread, and though the tape on our box was securely stuck on I could see how it might be a problem if it wasn't!

I suspect the boxes are fine when they leave Apple, but maybe some moisture and/or heat got under the tape whilst in transit and loosened it. At least the polystyrene inside is fairly substantial, but that's no help if the thing flies down stairs and bounces off walls.

Glad Apple are doing the right thing re: a refund, I'm not sure a legal claim for the plasterwork damage would be very successful (difficult to prove I would think), but if there was someone injured it might be different, I think the OP makes a good point. Like bushman4 says, a couple of heavy duty staples in the bottom of the box would be a good idea.
 
I am siding with the OP here as well. I love apple but apple is at fault. Call apple customer service (weekdays)
 
bushman4 said:
Imac is heavy and staples or a different type of bottom should be used on the box. The handle gives you the impression that the box is sturdy..however the taped bottom is poor at best.
Click to expand...

I noticed the same thing when I got my refurb. All they really need to do is add a second strip of tape, or two short strips at each bottom end.

Apple's shipping dept. seriously overestimates the care Fed Ex is taking with these computers.
 
BigAl1 said:
Eddie,

You're right. I'm not a lawyer either, but I've studied enough law to know on this one that Apple would be in a tough pinch if someone were hurt as a result of this. The fact that the same thing happened to someone else on this forum makes me think that there is a problem that Apple should know about.

Al

snip
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You are correct. If anyone was injured because of this their response to you would be very different.

We had a friend's RAM fail on a MBP years ago and it caused the bottom to case to heat to the point it made his daughter's skin (legs) turn bright red. When we called, they transferred us immediately to someone who wanted to make sure we had her looked at and that she was not seriously injured. They followed up two days later to make sure she was ok.

They replaced the RAM and the entire housing for their trouble but it was very clear they are sensitive to liability issues. Just not property damage I guess.

Cheers,
 
I think the op has a valid point.
Thank God no one was injured. But if someone get injured because of handling the package the way Apple seems to suggest(ie handle), Apple will definitely get into trouble.
 
Hopefully a tornado doesn't hit your house and cause damage, I don't think you'll be able to get through to Mother Nature's customer service to have them repair it for you.
 
The only thing i don't understand is that you didn't even bother to turn the computer on? you just got a refund for it just like that? odds are the computer would have stilled worked.
 
Dewroo said:
The only thing i don't understand is that you didn't even bother to turn the computer on? you just got a refund for it just like that? odds are the computer would have stilled worked.
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Maybe, but it fell down the steps. He can't trust that something won't go wrong later and when Apple checks they somehow know it was dropped and deny service.

Cheers,
 
BigAl1 said:
I was so surprised by this, so I decided to search on the web, and was surprised again to find that others have had this problem. I recently purchased a refurbished iMac. I picked up the box by the handle, as it was apparently designed for the purpose, and carried it upstairs to our office. At the top of the stairs, the tape at the bottom of the box gave way, and the iMac went tumbling down the stairs, placing a big gouge in our plaster wall in the stairwell. Amazingly, the iMac survived the fall quite well, although a little scratched up.

I didn't even bother to turn it on. The machine is not designed for that.

Apple has agreed to refund the purchase price, which I believe at a minimum is suitable. However, I was a little surprised when I asked about the damage to our house. They told me it was not covered "under warranty". What if the computer had landed on my child's head? I suppose that wouldn't be covered under warranty either! I'm not going to fight it, but I thought that was pretty lame on the part of Apple. I did suggest that their packing department should evaluate the security of their box/tape system. It seems thoroughly inadequate to rely on one single weak piece of crumpled dirty tape to ship a computer that weighs, I don't know, 20 lbs?

I hope nobody gets hurt as a result of this ****** packing system.
Click to expand...

Dont listen to all the critics. People dont expect anything out of retailer anymore. And thus we have horrible customer service. Replacing your iMac was not good customer service, that is the absolute minimum. I would push it - that's me - when a company messes up. They should make it right. And replacing the iMac was not making it right :)
 
My refurb box had strong staples underneath as well as tape... Perhaps a packaging person was having a bad day at apple?
 
They beef up the tape and packing renforcement - then all the pretty box people will light this forum up like a fricken Christmas Tree. Because the pretty packaging is no more.

Just about every warranty starts with stating they're liable only for replacement of the defective product itself, and are excluded from any effects their defective product may have caused. These vary from state to state, and may not apply to you.

That said, your kid didn't get killed by the flying box, so please chalk it up to misfortune, and that (#*$ happens. There will likely be 15,000 deaths caused by blood loss from a paper cut sustained from these boxes - before anyone is killed by a bad handle. So please don't pull a McDonalds Hot-Coffee incident.... please.
 
Many companies would have said their liability ended when you accepted the delivery from FedEx. And letting the kids play on the stairs while you're carrying heavy stuff up or down them isn't a good idea regardless. So all in all I'd say you learned a couple valuable lessons, got your money back and you're only out some time for a minor home repair.
 
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