No help from Apple. Some please help!

[tnolte2001]

I recently experienced an issue with my Thunderbolt display or more accurately daisy chaining my Thunderbolt display. I have a 15 inch MacBook Pro and 2 Thunderbolt displays powered through the daisy chain. This set up has worked fine for about a year. Then recently the display at the end of the daisy chain stopped working. When I tried plugging it in straight to the MacBook it worked fine as did the other display, which lead me to believe there was an issue with the daisy chain or maybe the graphics card in the Macbook Pro.

I contacted Apple support and spoke to a Senior Advisor called Jake who took me through a series of tests across a whole week. The result of this did not lead to any conclusions. Except one of the so called Apple experts coming back to Jake to inform him that you can’t daisy chain a 15 inch MacBook Pro. I informed Jake that it had previously worked for about a year, that the sales guy in the Apple shop told me that it would work, that the Apple website said it would work and that the only reason I bought 2 displays was indeed because I was assured that it would work.

After another week of back and forth Jake told me to take my MacBook pro to a service center and that they would fix it. I did. They wanted to change the motherboard, not sure why they thought this would fix the problem but I’m not the expert so I said sure. Surprise, surprise changing the motherboard did nothing to fix the problem and just added another week to the problem not being fixed. 3 weeks on, I get back on the phone with Jake at Apple and tell him about the issue. Jakes runs me through the same test he already ran me through with the same results. 4 weeks on and getting a little frustrated I ask Jake if he can’t just get someone down here with their own 15 inch MacBook Pro to test it and fix it on site. Finally after 4 days of internal Apple negotiations they agree to send someone down. After missing the appointment 2 times Micro2000 in Singapore finally managed to get someone to me. The guy arrives with his 13 inch MacBook pro, a MacBook known not to have the ability to power a daisy chain, none the less he insisted on wasting my time and trying it. One hour later he concluded that it wouldn’t work with a 13 inch MacBook Pro and left. I quipped that I now understood why Micro 2000 has so much trouble getting to meetings on time or at all.

At this stage, we are now 2 months into trying to get this issue resolved. 3 times I was told it could not get fixed. 3 times I directed Apple specialists to their own website to assure them that it could and did in fact work. There are even videos in Youtube I told them. Finally Apple decide that it might be a good time to pick up my Thunderbolt displays and MacBook and take it in for testing and repair. I said sure. Micro 2000 (oh noooo…) came and picked up my products, I singed a form and they were off.

2 days later I get a call from Micro 2000 informing me that they have had lengthy discussions with Apple about my problem and that Apple concluded that you cannot daisy chain a 15 inch MacBook Pro with 2 thunderbolt displays. “Funny that” I replied and rattled off my by now well rehearsed and memorized answer to the “this won’t work” statement throwing in a few technical words for good measure.

2 months and 3 weeks in, I phone Apple to do Micro 2000’s job for them. I speak to Michael Perks, who in the typical very well trained manner tells me that he agrees with the ridiculousness of the situation and that he will now take personal charge to fix it. “Trust me this will get resolved even if I have to buy you a new MacBook Pro and hand deliver it” (maybe not that but its not far off). “I will call you back the day after tomorrow as tomorrow is my day off” I was assured.

The day came and went. I tried to call and sent 2 emails. The weekend came and went. I called again. Monday, Tuesday came and went. I Gave up and called the standard hotline. I was greeted by another chirpy chap in the usual perky what is your first name I’m your buddy manner. “Oh this is terrible, let me get a senior advisor for you” I wait 20 minutes and finally get put through to Rajeev Anand who assured me that he is now the main man (so it was never Jake and not Michael but finally the main man) and he will come to my rescue. I am to expect a call back in 2 hours but really I am expecting that I will have to call back day after day to be given the same smarmy customer service lines, empty promises and of course the standard this will not work answer.

It has now been 3 months since my Apple products stopped working. It has been 3 weeks that I have been without my Products and I have gotten no closer to a solution than I was at day 1.

I was once the biggest Apple fan. I have the IPhone (all versions except 5, IPad, a MacBook Air, Time capsule, MacBook Pro and 2 thunderbolt displays. I even have Apple TV, the old version and the new version. I got my wife hooked on Apple and we use Apple in my company. Recently Apple brought out a mediocre product in the IPhone 5, copied Samsung with the IPad mini and has gone from a company that leads in innovation to a company that follows in innovation and I fear that the straw that broke the camels back will be that they don’t know what their products can or can not do and that they can’t back up their intuitive and slick IU/UX with an intuitive and slick after sales service. Of course, Apple won’t care about losing me as a customer, they have millions more but I wonder if this is not an isolated case and ask you is this the beginning of the end at the top for Apple? For me…, I think it is…

Now…, can some please help me fix my MacBook / Displays?

 

[omegasyn]

I admit that I did not read your entire post but it seems serious... My only suggestion would be to email tim cook directly and see if anything happens.

I once had back to back MBA exchanges and finally emailed tim cook. After a day, someone from a blocked number called me from Apples HQ and took care of me. Maybe you will have the same luck buddy.

 

[coolmacoz]

You should take it to your nearest Apple authorised reseller (service provider) and ask them to fix it. They're generally more experience and more helpful comparing to Apple's own employees.
You may end up with asking your local Apple customer service to either replacing the screen or the laptop. Unfortunately, sometimes, it's difficult to identify the cause of the problem and the most cost effective way of fixing the problem is replacing the suspect equipment.

 

[bbasra]

I read all of it. You are going around in circles. I'd now Email Tim Cook.

Hope it gets resolved.

 

[seveej]

Now…, can some please help me fix my MacBook / Displays?

Firstly, I can only remind you that if it was not a mac, you would have gotten shafted very early on in the customer support process. If you consider how many Apple service people have used time on your problem you understand how committed Apple's customer service is.

That said, even the best customer service can't help if products break. And they do break, and I've heard (from many) that the TB display is a problem child. I myself am experiencing problems (MBP E2011 and TB display), and no-one's been able to clear up whether the problem's with the MBP or the TBD.

Anyway, I second that you may need to chance it with a direct mailt to Tim, but I'd recommend you try to write up a shorter message for him (an executive summary of sorts).

Before that, there are some things.
- There are reports, that the PSU in the TBD may not be up to scratch in all cases, especially if the TB display serves multiple devices (Ethernet, Thunderbolt, USB and FW devices). Thus, if your primary TB display serves a number of connections, you might try to remove some and try again.
- You do not mention it, but have you tried swapping the order of the TBD's (in case the daisy chaining is broken on the first?)
- Do you have access to anyone with another TB-equipped mac? If you can verify that this problem is not related to your machine, you could get closer to the root cause.

RGDS,

 

[bbasra]

Did you mange to get this sorted out?