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New iMac 27" - Terrible Applecare and Fusion drive problems
- Thread starter toddbe
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Did you read the OP? Are you abreast of the CTO program, ordering/build times and the shortages of the 27" iMacs? Spending 8 hours on the phone with support...on a weekend, ON your brand new +/- $3k machine without resolution...in my world, that's a pretty 'big deal'...and no, obviously the 'fix' isn't 'easy'
Please share! I'm all ears...and I'm very interested in the fusion drives. They're an incredibly reasonable solution to speeding up performance yet maintaining plenty of storage. All reviews I've read have been extremely positive.
Man I am glad I ordered a 3.4Ghz 3 TB hard Drive only with no Fusion option. I don't trust the Fusion yet. I think many people will find more problems with the fusion down the road. If fusion works ok later on them I may invest in a Fusion drive , but for now I will be happy with my 3 TB 7200 RPM Hard Drive!
The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Ask for a Supervisor and if you get no where, ask for his/her Supervisor! I would not take this lightly. Good luck man!
Of course, I'm familiar with those things and no way would I spend 8 hrs. on the phone with support. Ridiculous. There's a point at which you just say, f it, you guys fix this and get me a new machine. As for the build times, I am very well aware of them, having just been through it, and there are a few stories of people changing orders or having broken imacs replaced without going to the back of the line. The point here is that this is not something to be passive about. After 30 minutes, if they haven't solved it, time to escalate. They bank on the poor schmuck who's willing to spend 8 hours of futile troubleshooting.
I think it's a great idea but I think it's still in its infancy.
http://www.zdnet.com/mac-fusion-drive-pro-users-beware-7000006661/
I feel your pain
Toddbe:
I went through similar a week ago after waiting five weeks to receive my 27" iMac with 3TB Fusion Drive. I went through three techs and two senior advisers before they decided they could not solve my problem. At one point I was told to simply take it to an Apple Authorized service center and they would fix it in a jiffy. The service center didn't seem to think so and said I would be charged for any software fixes.
That cinched it for me. After five weeks of waiting, about five hours of lost phone time, maybe 16 hours of wasted time altogether, and a promise that I would have to pay for the fix, I talked to a nice lady on the phone who helped me start the process to return the computer for a full refund. Now I'm waiting for the refund, so I can decide what to do next; get an identical computer and not use Bootcamp, or get a smaller drive, avoiding doing any of my own partitioning?
The machine was absolutely beautiful.
Toddbe:
I went through similar a week ago after waiting five weeks to receive my 27" iMac with 3TB Fusion Drive. I went through three techs and two senior advisers before they decided they could not solve my problem. At one point I was told to simply take it to an Apple Authorized service center and they would fix it in a jiffy. The service center didn't seem to think so and said I would be charged for any software fixes.
That cinched it for me. After five weeks of waiting, about five hours of lost phone time, maybe 16 hours of wasted time altogether, and a promise that I would have to pay for the fix, I talked to a nice lady on the phone who helped me start the process to return the computer for a full refund. Now I'm waiting for the refund, so I can decide what to do next; get an identical computer and not use Bootcamp, or get a smaller drive, avoiding doing any of my own partitioning?
The machine was absolutely beautiful.
I am in Denver, going to Apple Store today at 2. Called Customer Relations yesterday, same empathetic tone. No answer in when I will get a new machin! No return phone calls or emails from anyone!
This IMAC is a 3.4 3TB BTO machine. What a time sink!!!
This IMAC is a 3.4 3TB BTO machine. What a time sink!!!
Have you tried to "break" the Fusion drive, and then let Disk Utility rebuild it for you and reinstall OS X to the "out-of-box" condition? Then you could start over.
Here is an article you might find helpful:
http://www.macworld.com/article/2015664/how-to-split-up-a-fusion-drive.html
This should reformat the individual drives and have them re-joined into the Fusion drive where you can do a recovery OS X install, then reload your backup environment.
Seems like it would take much less time to try this rather than running all over town trying to get it replaced. And you still have that option if it doesn't work for you.
I wrote this post this morning for another user that describes the manual methods of doing this:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16699290/
Here is an article you might find helpful:
http://www.macworld.com/article/2015664/how-to-split-up-a-fusion-drive.html
This should reformat the individual drives and have them re-joined into the Fusion drive where you can do a recovery OS X install, then reload your backup environment.
Seems like it would take much less time to try this rather than running all over town trying to get it replaced. And you still have that option if it doesn't work for you.
I wrote this post this morning for another user that describes the manual methods of doing this:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16699290/
IMAC 27" worst purchasing experience of my life!
This has been the worst purhase experience in my life (I am in my 50's). Here is why:
1- Leaving messages and getting zero return phone calls or email updates from the worker or their supervisor at AppleCare.
2- Apple Store telling me they will get me a new IMAC before AppleCare, now the Apple Customer Service person Katie at the store saying that is not true. Could be up to two months, no ETA.
3- AppleCare telling me they show the Apple Store working on this.
4- Apple Store telling me they show Apple Care working on this.
5- They have almost $3,000 of my money.
6- Ordered this Nov. 27th, received machine Jan.17th, died that day.
When I ask for a supervisor of the supervisor at AppleCare they say that is impossible to transfer to. Where is a real person who has authority I can escalate this to?
Thanks,
Todd
This has been the worst purhase experience in my life (I am in my 50's). Here is why:
1- Leaving messages and getting zero return phone calls or email updates from the worker or their supervisor at AppleCare.
2- Apple Store telling me they will get me a new IMAC before AppleCare, now the Apple Customer Service person Katie at the store saying that is not true. Could be up to two months, no ETA.
3- AppleCare telling me they show the Apple Store working on this.
4- Apple Store telling me they show Apple Care working on this.
5- They have almost $3,000 of my money.
6- Ordered this Nov. 27th, received machine Jan.17th, died that day.
When I ask for a supervisor of the supervisor at AppleCare they say that is impossible to transfer to. Where is a real person who has authority I can escalate this to?
Thanks,
Todd
It would be quicker to ask for a refund and order again?
I've never had to make a complaint to Apple. But I think if try to find a general customer relations contact that can sort this out. As AppleCare and the store can only sort out their respective sides. There must be a department that oversees both. I think I'd be writing down the names times and dates of every contact too.
I'm not surprised you are unhappy. I would have asked for my money back given all that and either ordered a new one online. Or phoned about as there are BTO machines arriving in stores
Personally I think Apple should give you a brand new one and refund you. What a balls up. Start. to. End.
I've never had to make a complaint to Apple. But I think if try to find a general customer relations contact that can sort this out. As AppleCare and the store can only sort out their respective sides. There must be a department that oversees both. I think I'd be writing down the names times and dates of every contact too.
I'm not surprised you are unhappy. I would have asked for my money back given all that and either ordered a new one online. Or phoned about as there are BTO machines arriving in stores
Personally I think Apple should give you a brand new one and refund you. What a balls up. Start. to. End.
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This is exactly why he should not start trying to fix the issue himself
It is totally up to them to resolve it, no excuses allowed
I suggest a bit more patience (if only to help you calm yourself) but keep the pressure on them.
It is frustrating but in the end with Apple I believe it will get resolved
If not send an email to Mr Cook !
It is totally up to them to resolve it, no excuses allowed
I suggest a bit more patience (if only to help you calm yourself) but keep the pressure on them.
It is frustrating but in the end with Apple I believe it will get resolved
If not send an email to Mr Cook !
I'm assuming you paid by credit card. If you are not having success with Apple, consider contacting your cc company and initiating a complaint, escalating to the fraud department if necessary. Just don't take no for an answer from anyone. No offense intended, but it sounds like you are falling for their false roadblocks. So perhaps the cc route is the way to go now.
I would email tcook@apple.com. Of course it doesn't go to Tim Cook, it goes to an executive support team, both times I have used it (over the past 6 years) I have received a phone call the next day, and they have helped work out the issues I was having.
I would also check the chargeback provisions of your credit card, to see how long you have. I would hate to wait too long for a chargeback, and lose the right to do that.
Best of Luck.
I would also check the chargeback provisions of your credit card, to see how long you have. I would hate to wait too long for a chargeback, and lose the right to do that.
Best of Luck.
Timing is everything.
Delivery date=January 17; today is the 24.
At this point, I would present the iMac (in its packaging) at the Apple Store and get your purchase refunded.
Prior to doing this, I would contact your CC Customer Service and open a Dispute Case # for this purchase and inform them that when you hang up, you are going to proceed directly to the Apple Store to return the product and obtain a complete refund--hardware + AppleCare.
Good luck
The worst of it is, no matter what happens, you'll never get compensation for the 8+ hours you wasted with the tech.
At this point, if you're getting no satisfaction from the support people, just as for a refund.
It sucks, but a small percentage of computers suffer early mortality. You just got "lucky" and on a machine that's very constrained in supply to begin with. Not saying that makes it ok, but that's the situation.
If it helps, I've been an Apple customer nearly continuously since 1979, and I've yet to experience a really intolerable support situation.
It sucks, but a small percentage of computers suffer early mortality. You just got "lucky" and on a machine that's very constrained in supply to begin with. Not saying that makes it ok, but that's the situation.
If it helps, I've been an Apple customer nearly continuously since 1979, and I've yet to experience a really intolerable support situation.
Again ... the root of the problem here isn't the Fusion Drive.
It is the unfortunate and bad AppleCare advice to abort the re-partition process mid-way through that caused the problem. That would happen to any drive you did that to.
It is, however, further compounded by the lack of training and understanding of the Apple Store "Genius" technicians who apparently don't know how to fix the problem without replacing it.
Windows on Fusion Drive
Received new 27" iMac last week. Setup was straightforward and without incident (it was a clean install, not using Migration Assistant, etc). Set up 100GB VMWare Fusion Win 7 virtual machine. No problems.
Great machine, and super fast. 1 TB Fusion Drive, i5 processor.
Apple walked me brought transferring 30K of emails (about 16GB) from MbA to new iMac, without incident. Knowledgeable guys on the other end.
Perhaps clean installs work best?
Received new 27" iMac last week. Setup was straightforward and without incident (it was a clean install, not using Migration Assistant, etc). Set up 100GB VMWare Fusion Win 7 virtual machine. No problems.
Great machine, and super fast. 1 TB Fusion Drive, i5 processor.
Apple walked me brought transferring 30K of emails (about 16GB) from MbA to new iMac, without incident. Knowledgeable guys on the other end.
Perhaps clean installs work best?