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On My 5th Alu Macbook in 3 days!!!

J

Jambosive

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 31, 2008
11
0
Basically I purchased a new 2.0ghz alu macbook 3 days ago, its my first ever mac so I was pretty excited. Got it home and noticed the Keys were slanted and the battery cover was loose, like rattling! So I took it back the next day £950 quid for a laptop I expect perfection.
They replaced it and I got the new one home, Turned it on and as soon as the white screen appeared I instantly noticed a Dead pixel! so I went straight back to the apple store and showed them. They apologised and brought out a new one. I asked to check it and when I turned it on another dead pixel!! So they took back that one and brought out another new one. This time Battery Cover was fine, no dead pixels, but then I noticed two noticable scratches near the keyboard. Almost like someone had taken a bit of sand paper and rubbed it on various spots. Soo... they took that back and I now have my 5th.

I am lost for words at how ridiculous the whole situation is I've never had this issue with any PC's.

They didnt offer me any sort of compensation for my wasted time and effort and no explanation.

So much for "it just works"

All said and done this is an amazing laptop and Leopard pleasantly suprises me daily, just leaves a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth and makes me wonder how long this one will last!

My advice, dont be afraid to return something no matter how small the detail because it will constantly annoy you until your warrantee runs out.

Do you think it's worth emailing apple about this? or am I flogging a dead horse!

Thanks for listening this is my first post!
 
"It just works!" refers to the OS not the hardware. Being a Mac owner for decades has taught me to roll with the punches. Supposing the third-party HDD fails, new one installed and formatted in 3 hours. Suppose the Nvidia GFX card may fail, extend the warranty where one can still buy with confidence. You'll discover that it does just work when connecting to WiFi, migrating data, backing-up, syncing between Apple TV and iPods, the list goes on.

Sorry for your unfortunate problems. The glassbooks do appear to leave something to be desired in their quality control.
 
Write a letter stating your experiences to their UK address (I think its in Ireland) and they will instantly give you a iPod Shuffle :D...

Happy days
 
The Samurai said:
Write a letter stating your experiences to their UK address (I think its in Ireland) and they will instantly give you a iPod Shuffle :D...

Happy days
Click to expand...

Hm worth a try I suppose, thanks for the tip.

on a side note I'm loving the fact you can drag images from the internet into album art using expose. Damn you apple I'm finding it easier to forgive by the day:p
 
Not to make light of your situation whatsoever, but I believe the fact that they were willing to replace your MacBook 4 times in 3 days speaks more about Apple than does their QC issues. Yes I understand it's frustrating, and yes I would have probably done the same, but I doubt most PC manufacturers would be so willing to do what Apple has done and with such little trouble. After all, there is a reason why they are rated so high in customer service.

This may have left an unpleasant taste in your mouth, but I'm sure you'll be glad you went with Mac. Or at least this has been the case for me thus far being a long time PC user and a relatively new Mac owner.

Anyways, best of luck with this machine and hopefully you won't find any more issues :)
 
synth3tik said:
Your compensation was a 5th computer. Are you expecting a hand out or something?
Click to expand...

This. It's not like you made 5 trips to the store. You made one additional trip in which they let you inspect each one until you found one that met your criteria.
 
People like you increase the cost of Macs for everyone else. You should've just asked for a refund after the second one, and bought a PC. Five is a bit ridiculous.
 
nishishei said:
People like you increase the cost of Macs for everyone else. You should've just asked for a refund after the second one, and bought a PC. Five is a bit ridiculous.
Click to expand...

I went through 5 MacBooks too.

I asked for a refund after the second replacement because I told the employee I didn't want to keep opening up their stock. He denied me and brought out more replacements. After the fifth one, I finally told them I really wanted a refund and they agreed.

I guess they figured they could keep my money and still sell the opened ones as refurbs for a profit (although not as large).

Apple's quality control is absolutely nonexistent right now. Imagine how hard this forum would tear apart Dell or HP if they released computers with horrible screens, shoddy assembly, dents and scratches right out of the box, etc...
 
The Samurai said:
Write a letter stating your experiences to their UK address (I think its in Ireland) and they will instantly give you a iPod Shuffle :D...

Happy days
Click to expand...

Well, if it was in Ireland it wouldn't be a UK address, would it?

But you're right, Apple EMEA is in Cork, Ireland.
 
BoingoBongo said:
Apple's quality control is absolutely nonexistent right now.
Click to expand...

I got one with no dead pixels, a tight battery cover, and no dents or scratches. I don't know how it slipped by them. Maybe I should take it back so they can inspect it. OMG! What if it's FAKE!!!??? OMG HELPZORS WTF???!!!
 
mcdj said:
I got one with no dead pixels, a tight battery cover, and no dents or scratches. I don't know how it slipped by them. Maybe I should take it back so they can inspect it. OMG! What if it's FAKE!!!??? OMG HELPZORS WTF???!!!
Click to expand...

you are very lucky. I've been through 5 as well.
 
skorpien said:
Not to make light of your situation whatsoever, but I believe the fact that they were willing to replace your MacBook 4 times in 3 days speaks more about Apple than does their QC issues. Yes I understand it's frustrating, and yes I would have probably done the same, but I doubt most PC manufacturers would be so willing to do what Apple has done and with such little trouble. After all, there is a reason why they are rated so high in customer service.

This may have left an unpleasant taste in your mouth, but I'm sure you'll be glad you went with Mac. Or at least this has been the case for me thus far being a long time PC user and a relatively new Mac owner.

Anyways, best of luck with this machine and hopefully you won't find any more issues :)
Click to expand...

Yeah I am impressed that they went to all the trouble and I am happy with the current Macbook. Just cant believe how many faulty "new" computers I saw in such a short space of time.

synth3tik said:
Your compensation was a 5th computer. Are you expecting a hand out or something?
Click to expand...

Just something to compensate me for the day wasted sorting out this mess rather than enjoying one of the few days off I get.

Mindflux said:
This. It's not like you made 5 trips to the store. You made one additional trip in which they let you inspect each one until you found one that met your criteria.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but for a company that supposedly prides itself on amazing design there shouldn't be indescrepencies. My criteria was simply a new laptop that has all the pixels working, no scratches and a battery cover that doesnt rattle about, you know like £950 worth.

nishishei said:
People like you increase the cost of Macs for everyone else. You should've just asked for a refund after the second one, and bought a PC. Five is a bit ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Well considering the money they saved on QC I guess we're about even.

BoingoBongo said:
I went through 5 MacBooks too.

I asked for a refund after the second replacement because I told the employee I didn't want to keep opening up their stock. He denied me and brought out more replacements. After the fifth one, I finally told them I really wanted a refund and they agreed.

I guess they figured they could keep my money and still sell the opened ones as refurbs for a profit (although not as large).

Apple's quality control is absolutely nonexistent right now. Imagine how hard this forum would tear apart Dell or HP if they released computers with horrible screens, shoddy assembly, dents and scratches right out of the box, etc...
Click to expand...

The thing is I've never had this problem with any other laptop its crazy.

Dont get me wrong I'm loving this Macbook and I've wanted to switch over to Macs for ages hence my persisitence rather than just getting a refund.

Just wanted to publicise this so hopefully people are aware and maybe something is done about it in future.
 
Not that I would be happy, but technically speaking they are doing you a solid by replacing the systems with dead pixels. They don't have to do that, because one or two dead pixels is considered acceptable.
 
Jambosive said:
Agreed, but for a company that supposedly prides itself on amazing design there shouldn't be indescrepencies. My criteria was simply a new laptop that has all the pixels working, no scratches and a battery cover that doesnt rattle about, you know like £950 worth.
Click to expand...

Sorry to knock your grammar but there's no such word as "indescrepencies". I'm sure you meant "discrepancies". Although I do understand your situation and feelings on the matter those issues you mentioned (outside of the loose battery cover) are normal for any product.

You may have gotten lucky with your past PC notebooks but a dead pixel is not unusual for any LCD. I've seen may PC notebooks with dead and stuck pixels. Minor scratches are expected with anodized aluminum. I have a brand new set of expensive anodized aluminum cookware and it came with very minor scratches. It's very easy to scratch aluminum but it rubs off just as easily.
You really weren't dealing with "defective" Macbooks, just minor flaws you found unacceptable.
And yes, the store could have easily refused to open another Mac after the 3rd one, most stores would offer your money back so to be compensated for your time in the store is asking way too much.
Glad things worked out. :)
 
Jambosive said:
The thing is I've never had this problem with any other laptop its crazy.
Click to expand...

I had an Acer laptop a couple of years ago that had little rubber feet on the bottom. Within a day of getting it, 2 of them fell off. They were glued on (Apple's are fitted into the casing). There were also a couple of tiny but noticeable glitches in the plastic housing here and there. But I figured, hey, it's plastic, it ain't perfect, whatever. It also creaked like no one's business when you opened or closed the lid. And there were a couple of sharp edges along the battery cover. Oh well. I remember looking at another one at another store. It was exactly the same.

My point is, people tend to hold Apple to a very high standard. You'll probably never notice small scratches on a Dell or an Acer, because the whole thing is pebble textured plastic, and plastic hides imperfections FAR better than a sleek smooth slab of aluminum. Other companies have QC issues too. In fact, I'd be willing to bet Apple's QC related returns are lower than a lot of other manufacturers.

People here are going on and on about Apple's QC, making the issue sound much worse than it likely is. As is mentioned here EVERY single time a new product comes out, people tend to chime in when there's a problem with their product. They don't come here to sing songs about how great Apple is. Read a bunch of problems in a row and it seems epidemic. But for every person who posts a problem, there are countless more who are perfectly happy with their Mac and have no idea places like Macrumors even exist.
 
ntrigue said:
Sorry for your unfortunate problems. The glassbooks do appear to leave something to be desired in their quality control.
Click to expand...

BoingoBongo said:
I went through 5 MacBooks too.

Apple's quality control is absolutely nonexistent right now. Imagine how hard this forum would tear apart Dell or HP if they released computers with horrible screens, shoddy assembly, dents and scratches right out of the box, etc...
Click to expand...

My white MacBook has several issues with cracking. This is unacceptable in a less than two year old computer.

I still love my Apple products, but it is going to be a while before I buy another :apple: product based on some of the horror stories I read about here at MR.

Jude
 
Thanks for the grammar lesson, just figured out spotlight gave dictionary definitions, so no more errors from me.

I really dont think dead pixels are acceptable on a brand new computer, thats not being picky.

These scratches weren't like hair thin they were the size of thumb prints, like someone had taken an angle grinder to it.

People sure are passionate about Macs! I guess thats what got me thinking about one... all these people raving about them they must be good!!

I guess I just let my aesthetic expectations get to high, especially after the 20 min video with an english guy having some epiphany on camera about how they've reached laptop nirvana!

Dont get me wrong the performance and OS are surpassing my expectations, Spaces and expose FTW! bootcamp is awesome dug out a load of pc games and they ran at full settings without a hiccup....very impressed!
 
ntrigue said:
"It just works!" refers to the OS not the hardware. Being a Mac owner for decades has taught me to roll with the punches. Supposing the third-party HDD fails, new one installed and formatted in 3 hours. Suppose the Nvidia GFX card may fail, extend the warranty where one can still buy with confidence. You'll discover that it does just work when connecting to WiFi, migrating data, backing-up, syncing between Apple TV and iPods, the list goes on.

Sorry for your unfortunate problems. The glassbooks do appear to leave something to be desired in their quality control.
Click to expand...

Agreed. For as much as Apple brags about their engineering (and don't get me wrong, my MBP is quite nice), what's most important to me is the OS. Provided everything worked, I'd be just as happy with my Thinkpad loaded with OSX. I know I could have done the Hackintosh thing, but I'd rather have something that's supported and somewhat guaranteed to work.
 
I also got a dead pixel (only 1) with my new Macbook.:( But by the time I notice I had already set it up. So I will live with it. I am not to picky. :D
 
I'm about to get my second replacement. First one had a battery fault, second beachballed constantly. Here's hoping third time lucky.
 
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