People are too picky with apple products

[NT1440]

I diagree so are you saying a manufacturer doesn't have to do anything, people will pay more for whatever?

My point was that people assign reasons for the cost when really they are just talking out of their asses. Wheres does apple say the higher cost is because of x/y/ or z? You guys are just making up what you THINK the higher cost is for.

In reality, they are more expensive because they can be, yes there are probably a few other reasons (that dont drive up the cost to the point where they are) but until you actually know WHY that is, you cant declare it yourself without it being wild speculation.

 

[That70sGAdawg]

You gotta pay to Play baby....

You pay more, you expect more. Most of the time they deliver. A much better track record than even Sony in the eighties.

 

[wutisupmonSD]

this is most likely people belive that they get what they pay for, and you do pay a premium for the apple brand. this is why they get so upset, you spend $2000 on a mbp and something on it breaks where you could have easily spent $1000 less for the same specs.

 

[shoopaman]

I disagree, many will agree

lol @ the people trying to say that paying more money for apple products has something to do with better quality or something else.

Apple products cost more solely because they do, and people will pay for them.

My point was that people assign reasons for the cost when really they are just talking out of their asses. Wheres does apple say the higher cost is because of x/y/ or z? You guys are just making up what you THINK the higher cost is for.

In reality, they are more expensive because they can be, yes there are probably a few other reasons (that dont drive up the cost to the point where they are) but until you actually know WHY that is, you cant declare it yourself without it being wild speculation.

 

[NATO]

Apple charges more for their products because they can. Due to OS X and the design of their products they choose a price they believe the market will bear.

Regarding pickiness though, I expect high quality from my machine - if there was a big scratch on it, or the screen flickered, or the machine didn't slit flat etc etc, I wouldn't hesistate to return it because these are obvious flaws that should have been picked up by QA. I draw the line at things which require effort to look for them (eg, slightly slanted keys which are probably a fraction of a millimetre higher on one side than the other) or scratches around the speaker grille which requires a magnifying glass to see. Neither of those two examples are obvious flaws, nor do they impact the use of the machine.

Realistically, Apple's QA can't be expected to sit with a magnifying glass and go over the speaker grille, then sit with a spirit level on each key to make sure they're all straight. What's next? An electron microscope to make sure there isn't an atom out of place somewhere?

 

[lscangus]

For those people have have their 8600 chip dead, and have a nasty image with lines going across, that is a cosmetic issue i think. So Apple is really generous on that!

I was told that my CPU @ 104'C , is a feature that Apple gives me for free. So as the loose battery cover, so in my free time, i can play around with that.

Very very nice

But I love this Macbook Pro, the built is amazing, the unibody. Absolutely love it. I do expect a lot, as i am paying quite a lot more than an equivalent PC. And today, Apple still hasn't fix the throttling problem i have in windows or even in Mac, is good that we dun have a realtime CPU clock monitoring software. I will be returning mine on the 19th. I will miss this computer. But I will get a rev.B 15" or a 17" after macworld.I Hope they will bring out the 17". Fingers cross

 

[NATO]

For those people have have their 8600 chip dead, and have a nasty image with lines going across, that is a cosmetic issue i think. So Apple is really generous on that!

I was told that my CPU @ 104'C , is a feature that Apple gives me for free. So as the loose battery cover, so in my free time, i can play around with that.

Very very nice

Nice sarcasm Just before someone leaps in thinking you're serious

 

[November]

You pay more, you expect more.

This.

The same way as I'm going to expect a perfect product from, say, Aston Martin.

 

[NATO]

The same way as I'm going to expect a perfect product from, say, Aston Martin.

Absolutely, you expect a perfect Aston Martin both in terms of function and appearance - ie, you want the internals to be perfect and you want the car to have perfect paintwork and finish inside.

My point on this thread is that people have taken 'perfect' to a whole new level when it comes to Apple products. If you go back to your Aston Martin example and apply the same standards as you find here, you would find people examining every nook and cranny with a magnifying glass making sure there wasn't dust in the ventilation outlets, ensuring every nut and bolt was rotated to a certain angle, checking there wasn't a tiny loose thread on the upholstery or that the pedals were exactly 10.141cm apart and travelled exactly 19.1239cm when pressed

Point being, that people have a certain standard of what 'perfect' means and that works fine for most things, it just seems that people have gone absolutely bananas of late when it comes to Apple stuff. No matter what manufactured product you look at, it you look close enough you will find something that isn't 100% (even an Aston Martin!). It just depends how close you look. If it requires a magnifying glass or explaining to someone else so they can see it then it's probably something that you shouldn't worry about.

 

[jeff48]

This.

The same way as I'm going to expect a perfect product from, say, Aston Martin.

Aston? Perfect???? ROFL LMFAO
You are kidding right?

 

[lscangus]

Aston? Perfect???? ROFL LMFAO
You are kidding right?

they are quite poorly made.

A rolls Royce will be a better example. There isn't anything perfect in the world. But what is defect, and whats not is easy to differentiate. A dented unibody case straight out of the box is not a feature. Loose battery cover cannot be a feature. Crooked keys are not a feature as well.. Well you may not notice it, but even dell has some keyboard which is alright, then i suppose Apple can do better than Dell. Am i right?

 

[MowingDevil]

Well I just got my replacement....after the "repair job" that Apple's head "Genius" in Sydney did....its nice to have TWO fans cooling my machine; nice to have backlights on the keyboard...nice not to have graphics glitches, audio headhphone pops and weird noises every now & then. Keep in mind, save for the graphics issue, none of those defects were there when I dropped my machine off.

So I have yet to go over this new MBP w/ a fine tooth comb, magnifying glass or black light...but so far so good. Only issues I can notice is the space bar is a tad loud or "poppy" and the it appears the laser guiding robot sneezed when doing the left speaker grill. There appears to be some water mark type stains and some of the holes are almost double in size creating a bit of a pattern. I noticed this because my right speaker grill (and both in my previous unit) is perfect. Am I going to return this because of small imperfections on the grill? Probably not. It will bug me a little bit only because I know its there but to be honest I only see the speakers out of my peripheral vision anyways and dont' sit there admiring them. If the speakers work thats the important thing. If something else comes up thats a bigger issue it will go back otherwise I can live with it. And I don't think I'm "settling" because after everything I've been through this is something thats a non factor if the machine is perfecly functioning in ever way. Hell the F keys are even straight and the battery lid isn't loose!

ps Looking side by side I swear I like my old screen better (they're both 84s).....I don't know, there's just something about the other one; it was amazing. Perhaps the new one needs a calibration but it seems a smidge washed out w/ the whites. Guess every screen is a bit different in some way.

 

[sangosimo]

they are quite poorly made.

A rolls Royce will be a better example. There isn't anything perfect in the world. But what is defect, and whats not is easy to differentiate. A dented unibody case straight out of the box is not a feature. Loose battery cover cannot be a feature. Crooked keys are not a feature as well.. Well you may not notice it, but even dell has some keyboard which is alright, then i suppose Apple can do better than Dell. Am i right?

off course nothing is perfect but that is what six sigma procedures and quality control are for. Reducing the deviation from perfect is much more important.

 

[November]

they are quite poorly made.

haha really? damn.

but you get what i mean, i hope

 

[apolloa]

Rolls Royce is the best example for a hand built car, pretty much most supercars are unreliable. It's part of their character.
But compare a Lexus to a Mac. That's a whole different ball game, it's built by machines, Macs are too, yet one has good quality control, one doesn't can you guess which one?
And just how do you get dents and scratches on the Unibody case? It's people not giving a crap if you ask me, chuck them around, let the machine run faulty making them etc.
Now for me smudges and fingerprints behind the screen which I will NEVER get rid off are not acceptable for $2500 plus so it went back, and guess what, I went over the screen of the replacement with a fine tooth comb as I now know about the defect.
That's how I discovered the small red mark behind the screen of the second one, I didn't care to much about that but the collection of dead pixels pissed me off so back that went too.
I would do the same for a dent or badly scratched case, because these are all MAJOR defects, not small ones like the speaker holes, these are defects equivalent to your shiny new Lexus having a wing mirror missing!

Anyway, I am not picky, I will challenge anyone who says I am, and if you accept these things as acceptable defects then more fool you for throwing your money down the toilet. It's Steve Jobs who publicly stated Apple does not know how to make a crap cheap Net Book, not me.

 

[Digital Skunk]

People that don't do $h!t with their machines complain. I have a friend who bought a 17" MBP with a tiny scratch or string of dead pixels on the right corner of his screen.

He needs the book to do his work, so he lives with it. He's pissed that it's there, but can't have the book out for 3 days simply because of a minor inconvenience.

 

[Ploki]

hahaha
just found out that mine has a small portion (a few mm) of leftover glue on the edge of the screen (Where alu meets rubber).
im not going to take it back, its waaaay too much hassle in this country to do that. besides, other than that, its perfect (i mean perfect) and i will get it off with a toothpick later.
its funny tho, they shouldnt have their production in China... Korea would be much better if u ask me. but then again, it would bring less profit.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

hahaha
just found out that mine has a small portion (a few mm) of leftover glue on the edge of the screen (Where alu meets rubber).
im not going to take it back, its waaaay too much hassle in this country to do that. besides, other than that, its perfect (i mean perfect) and i will get it off with a toothpick later.
its funny tho, they shouldnt have their production in China... Korea would be much better if u ask me. but then again, it would bring less profit.

I'd be pretty excited if they were produced in Japan.

 

[jjahshik32]

People buy macs for the looks as well so if there are imperfections then I think you have the right to exchange them.

Basically your paying for OSX + Art.

 

[Ploki]

I'd be pretty excited if they were produced in Japan.

wanted to say japan but japan is far from china or even korea.
id be freaked if they were made in japan. but japan is faaaaar from cheap labor nowadays... very far. superior quality. so precise it hurts. id buy something made in japan with greater pleasure than anything european
korea has picked up in the last decade very much.
china too, but just not half as much as korea.

 

[madog]

... in response to people not complainging about Dells...

People do, but you just don't hear them complain. They either take it back for a fix or they live with it, but they don't waste time complaining.

Taking a Dell back in..... bwahahahahahaha!!!!! That's hilarious for many reasons.....

 

[RelievedSimplet]

Just reading your first post and nothing more here is my reply. I paid $2,200 for this laptop. You damn well better believe it's going to be perfect, considering I could have gotten a similarly equipped (not 100% equivalent, I know) for a fair amount less. So yes, I am going to nitpick every little thing until I get a perfect one, which I have. My last laptop was a "top-of-the-line" at the time Gateway, had many issues with plastic casing gaps, etc. I didn't care because Gateway is just a run of the mill laptop manufacturer who makes run of the mill laptops. Not much more to be expected, and it cost me $1400.

 

[HLdan]

It's the fault of Apple's customers.

The biggest parties at fault are Apple's customers for expecting more than what the company OBVIOUSLY does. I'm saying this because many of Apple's customers are so damn blind that they are allowing the prettiness to cloud their vision.

Apple may advertise their products to be of good quality....BUT....that's just what Apple does is "ADVERTISE".

Apple's products are NOT:

(1) Custom built.
(2) Exclusive and unique to the customer that buys them.
(3) Built in small quantities and sold only through very exclusive dealers.
(4) Described in advertisements as "Perfect"

Apple products ARE:

(1) Advertised on TV, in magazines, on websites, in most retail stores.
(2) Mass produced. You see Macs all over the place now and just about everyone knows someone with an iPod.
(3) Sold in MANY places including Best Buy, Walmart, Fry's and Circuit City. Also sold online at Amazon and many online resellers.

All of this is should be OBVIOUS to everyone that this is Apple's business M.O. The customer can talk crap all day about how expensive Apple's products are, or speak the infamous line on MR "I PAID $2500 for this Mac"...... as if no one else has paid that much..

Outside of obvious defects such as dead pixels or a dented warped cabinet, people shouldn't expect perfection.
If it's not obvious that all of the above spells "Consumer Product" then something's wrong with YOU.

 

[grahamnp]

Consumers have a right to expect a fully functional product that is in excellent condition. It's not like we picked it up for free, Apple charges a premium and the end product should reflect this.

It's made even more intolerable by the fact that Apple doesn't hesitate to hammer the competition for all of their shortcomings. Look at the Get a Mac commercials, when Apple so readily berates the PC, you would expect their own products to be way better.

Maybe it's too much to expect 100% of all products sold be to be completely satisfactory. QC is run by humans after all and these things happen but there's been a definite increase in the number of unhappy customers. Apple has changed the way their doing things and it's not working out well for the consumers.

I'm grateful for the "whiny" posts. Better to make a purchase informed of all the problems and maybe even avoid buying it at all then to spend a couple of thousand on something you're not prepared to put up with.

 

[trip1ex]

The "whiney" posts do nothing except make more folks obsessive compulsive and anal.

See what's lost on many is there's a difference between being obsessive compulsive & anal and expecting high quality.

The "whiney" posts are the ones that have to work to look for flaws. Those folks are obsessive compulsive. They have nothing better to do then check the slope of the keys on their keyboard with a magnifying glass and a tiny level. Or check the speaker grill for dust. Or they whine about a tiny scratch on the bottom of their laptop which of course will never get scratched while they own it.

And "whiney" posts only draw more of these people out in spades. "Oh hey you're right there Fred, this is bogus. Apple can't get away with this. AFter I read your post, I had my magnifying glass out and my F6 key is .01 mm lower the 2 keys surrounding it. Apple's QC is really going downhill."

And then the "whiney" posts just start multiplying. And it starts worrying other folks.

And it even starts worrying sane folks until they realize that posters are far off in O-C-ville. And aren't coming back into soon.