Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Portland "Mac Store" strange experience...

robzr

robzr

macrumors member
Original poster
May 4, 2006
92
18
Portland, OR
I took my 2011 27" iMac in to the Portland Mac Store (not the Apple Store) for warranty service as it stopped booting. They had it about a week, according to the work order they changed the video card and the logic board out under warranty. I got it back and it boots and works, but now theres a big splotch of stuck pixels on the LCD (about 3x3) that wasn't there before. Also, when I opened it up to swap the hard drive, I noticed the "new" video card has a broken connector on it. I'm bringing it back in today to complain.

WTF? Has anyone else had an experience like this? <pointless speculation deleted> How else can all of a sudden I get a crappy LCD when mine was previously perfect? Since thats all internal circuitry I can't imagine it was damaged when reassembling. Could that be from the video card that was changed?

Rob
 
Last edited:
robzr said:
I took my 2011 27" iMac in to the Portland Mac Store (not the Apple Store) for warranty service as it stopped booting. They had it about a week, according to the work order they changed the video card and the logic board out under warranty. I got it back and it boots and works, but now theres a big splotch of stuck pixels on the LCD (about 3x3) that wasn't there before. Also, when I opened it up to swap the hard drive, I noticed the "new" video card has a broken connector on it. I'm bringing it back in today to complain.

WTF? Has anyone else had an experience like this? Did the service guys take good parts out of mine to swap with their own gear? How else can all of a sudden I get a crappy LCD when mine was previously perfect? Since thats all internal circuitry I can't imagine it was damaged when reassembling. Could that be from the video card that was changed?

Rob
Click to expand...

Maybe they even changed the whole computer... remove hard drive, insert hard drive in the other computer. If you have written your serial number somewhere, you can compare them and see if you were scammed.
 
lewis82 said:
Maybe they even changed the whole computer... remove hard drive, insert hard drive in the other computer. If you have written your serial number somewhere, you can compare them and see if you were scammed.
Click to expand...

It is the same serial #. I brought it back in last night, the guy who took it back said the serial #s are tracked on certain components, including the video card and LCD, so there should be a record of them being changed. Since there is no record on the work order of them changing the LCD, I think I can use that to get to the bottom of it, even if I end up having to deal with Apple.

The guy who took the computer at the desk said it wasn't his call but he wished me luck because 1) the LCD dead pixels are probably within the warranty limits (which does not address the fact that my LCD was fine before I gave it to them) and 2) the only way I would know if the video card was damaged was if I was opening up the computer enough to access "non user serviceable parts" which is BS because basically that gives them the green light to do anything they want inside the computer as the mere fact that I noticed the damage they did gives them an escape from culpability.

I eMailed the store manager twice but I've had no response. This experience is quickly leaving a really bad taste in my mouth about The Mac Store.

The service center is going to give me a call if they won't fix the computer. If that happens, I'll be escalating, taking names, talking to management and complaining to Apple about their authorized service centers. I'll keep posting here with the outcome.

regards

Rob
 
Take it in and talk to the Manager in person. If unsatisfied, take it up the chain, ask him for a higher point of contact. I would imagine that when the Mac Store takes in hardware, a blemish like this would/should be noted and recorded so you can't scam them. I'm not saying you are, just saying it's would be a good practice for them to follow.
 
Huntn said:
Take it in and talk to the Manager in person. If unsatisfied, take it up the chain, ask him for a higher point of contact. I would imagine that when the Mac Store takes in hardware, a blemish like this would/should be noted and recorded so you can't scam them. I'm not saying you are, just saying it's would be a good practice for them to follow.
Click to expand...

I agree, also the service tech who took the unit back mentioned that both the LCD panel and the video card are serialized and tracked so it should be in records if the units were changed. Makes me feel better, as I suspect the LCD was changed, I've never heard of dead pixels occurring from physical contact, and there were no signs of physical damage to the LCD. The video card is supposed to be a new replacement unit just put in by them.

The Director of Service did get back to me via email a few minutes ago, so it does appear to be getting escalated, or at least brought to their attention.

Rob
 
Peace said:
What Mac Store are you talking about in Portland ?

What's the name of it ?
Click to expand...

It's called "The Mac Store" - http://themacstore.com Normally I'd just go straight to the Apple Store, but our Apple Store here is located in a mall downtown and I didn't feel like lugging my iMac across 4 blocks from a parking spot and through a mall to have them look at it. The Mac Store has free parking right next to it.

Seems like a nice enough store, they have an iCade on display and a good selection of accessories and mac gear. The techs that I've dealt with in person all seem pretty cool. They sent it into a larger repair facility for the actual work though.

Rob
 
robzr said:
It's called "The Mac Store" - http://themacstore.com Normally I'd just go straight to the Apple Store, but our Apple Store here is located in a mall downtown and I didn't feel like lugging my iMac across 4 blocks from a parking spot and through a mall to have them look at it. The Mac Store has free parking right next to it.

Seems like a nice enough store, they have an iCade on display and a good selection of accessories and mac gear. The techs that I've dealt with in person all seem pretty cool. They sent it into a larger repair facility for the actual work though.

Rob
Click to expand...

You should have gone to the Mac Pac. Great people and good service . All the tech guys there are pretty good at what they do.


http://www.macpac.com/
 
steviem said:
Portland and strange experience just made instantly think of the show 'Portlandia'...
Click to expand...

Trust me. I live there. It is strange.

:p


you see this everywhere :

keep-portland-weird.jpg
 
Last edited:
Firestar said:
That show is incredibly weird.
Click to expand...

That show is awesome! Looks like Season 2 just got weirder. I'm new here (1 year) but they seem to do a good job of catching the vibe of portland in the show. It's a great place.

Rob

----------

Here's my follow up post. They did a great job, they turned it around in less than 2 days, fixed everything, and were apologetic and nice. The new LCD is fine, I haven't spotted any stuck pixels so I'm a happy camper. The connector on the video card - actually it was the backlight board - is fixed.

I have to say, it wasn't cool on my part to speculate that they could have swapped parts for less than honorable reasons. I was frustrated and kind of jumped the gun on that, as someone who deals with customers myself, I know sometimes things don't go perfectly, you can overlook something, whatever; but at the end of the day it's how you deal with those issues that define your customer service. By that measure, they really were great.

I really shouldn't have speculated on what happened before giving them a chance to fix it, so my bad there. They came through and were good to deal with.

Rob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back