Potential iMac lawsuit.

[Mapmonkey]

Potential lawsuit against Apple over iMac screen issues.

"As much as Koreans adore Apple products, many of them are equally unhappy with the U.S. company’s after-sales service policies.

In the latest indication of such a sentiment, a group of 130 Koreans submitted a request to the Korea Consumer Agency for help with an Apple desktop computer, according to local media reports yesterday.

The people say they have permanent stains on the display panel of their iMac computers and are threatening to sue if the problem is not resolved. "

Full article here
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2937580


Note it neglects to mention who makes the displays!

Has anyone else been told the yellowing is caused by cooking !!!

Korean articles tend to lack references to who said what to whom, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Posted for your information only. Don't shoot the messenger. Thanks

 

[wxman2003]

Apple has become the company that acts like it can do no wrong, and never, ever is it their fault. Pride goes before a fall.

 

[AlphaDogg]

Apple has become the company that acts like it can do no wrong, and never, ever is it their fault. Pride goes before a fall.

I'm sorry. Does Apple produce the displays? Do they control quality control on the displays? No. They just put them in their products.

 

[soco]

Apple has become the company that acts like it can do no wrong, and never, ever is it their fault. Pride goes before a fall.

They settle quite a few lawsuits. You know that constitutes admission of fault, right?

 

[wxman2003]

I'm sorry. Does Apple produce the displays? Do they control quality control on the displays? No. They just put them in their products.

What a foolish response. Yea, say that when your new car breaks down, and the car company says they don't make the parts, just assemble them, so it's not their fault when they install defective parts. Brakes fail and your family dies, sorry not their fault, they don't make the parts and you are on your own.

They settle quite a few lawsuits. You know that constitutes admission of fault, right?

No. In settlements, there is generally no admission of fault.

 

[soco]

No. In settlements, there is generally no admission of fault.

I meant to the general public, not a court of law. As in, every time we read something like "Company X settles with Company Y for $120,000." we all think Company X wouldn't have paid off Company Y unless they were in the right 100% and could prove it in court.

I'm sure there are instances where this isn't the case, but generally speaking I'm sure it is.

 

[wxman2003]

I meant to the general public, not a court of law.

And Apple has never admitted publicly they were at fault.

 

[soco]

And Apple has never admitted publicly they were at fault.

Don't take me so literally. I clearly mean all of this in the sense of what a company like Apple figuratively says to the public by settling.

I'm not saying by settling that Steve Jobs is literally sitting down to pen a nice letter to the public saying he raped a squirrel and he's really sorry, he'll never go to the small rodents' exhibit at the Bronx Zoo again.

Not that that ever happened.

...

 

[iVeBeenDrinkin']

Is this why Apple has one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the consumer electronics industry?

 

[Mapmonkey]

Don't take me so literally. I clearly mean all of this in the sense of what a company like Apple figuratively says to the public by settling.

I'm not saying by settling that Steve Jobs is literally sitting down to pen a nice letter to the public saying he raped a squirrel and he's really sorry, he'll never go to the small rodents' exhibit at the Bronx Zoo again.

Not that that ever happened.

...

Ha,ha I like your sense of humor, now I just can't get that image out of my mind! Was he holding the squirrel wrong!

Is this why Apple has one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the consumer electronics industry?

What is? Apple have had some pretty obvious issues with products in the past but yes many of us still love a lot of what they do. Doesn't make it right though does it! Not. Sure those on the end of those quality control issues would agree with you.

 

[iSayuSay]

I'm sorry. Does Apple produce the displays? Do they control quality control on the displays? No. They just put them in their products.

Okay. So i should contact LG if i have problem with iMac display? I should contact samsung if my RAM go wrong, or contact Sony when the superdrive aint that super anymore?

What's the point of buying Mac as a whole then? Not much different hassle if I build custom pc, dont u think?

 

[Hellhammer]

I'm sorry. Does Apple produce the displays? Do they control quality control on the displays? No. They just put them in their products.

But Apple still decided to use them in their products. They should change the supplier if the goods do not meet their standards. Instead, Apple has chosen to ignore the issue, even though they are well aware of its existence.

Besides, the actual panel is not the source of this issue. Other OEMs who use the same panel have no yellowing in their displays. It most likely has something to do with the backlight design, so yes, this is nobody else's but Apple fault.

 

[whoda]

This absolutely is 100% Apple's responsibility. While they may not manufacture the display, they have standards that the supplier is required to meet.

It is Apple's responsibility to enforce the standards. It is also Apple's responsibility to the consumer to cover the item as it is a sub part of your purchased system. Apple will then seek recourse from the supplier according to the purchasing agreement they have together.

Notice I did not say this is Apple's fault. As long as Apple stands by the product and corrects the issue then I believe they are doing their part.

Unfortunately, a lot of people do not appear to understand that engineering, design and/or manufacturing changes are not always the easiest or fastest things to correct or implement.

 

[lavino]

This is a problem only for Korean model or globally? I hv a friend who played more bootcamp win7 games than anyone in the world. If overheating will cause a problem he'll probably get it first... But I think his unit is ok

 

[Psilocybin]

This is a problem only for Korean model or globally? I hv a friend who played more bootcamp win7 games than anyone in the world. If overheating will cause a problem he'll probably get it first... But I think his unit is ok

guessing just korean models? i havent heard of this before

 

[maclaptop]

.

Apple has become the company that acts like it can do no wrong, and never, ever is it their fault. Pride goes before a fall.

You've summed it up nicely, with great accuracy.

A long time Apple user, I'm greatly disappointed to witness Apples negative change of tone as they've enjoyed massive success and the billions of dollars that follow.

Just think of how much _more_ they would earn, both in revenue & customer respect, if they would refrain from pulling some of the stunts they do.

From the ever so acerbic CEO, speaking to his customers condescendingly in a very accusatory "you're holding it wrong" insult. To the many well known & valid technical problems that Apple initially denies for lengthy periods of time.*

Only after it's affected a massive number of users, do they relent after being forced to do the right thing.*

With all the money Apple has, they could easily admit & fix the issues immediately. Instead they hold back since they know their cult like following will consistently refuse to hold them accountable. It's not until it affects their mainstream consumers do they reluctantly acquiesce.

 

[MacHamster68]

I'm sorry. Does Apple produce the displays? Do they control quality control on the displays? No. They just put them in their products.

glad you said that , as i knew it would come up
so anybody who wants a flawless computer needs to look elsewhere because you cant blame apple for failing parts or other problems with their product


and user satisfaction hmm great thing when if you read posts here about people telling everybody " yes i am happy about my new iMac , ok there are smudges on the actual display and yes there is some yellowing on the bottom of the display too , but hell is that thing gorgeous ..."

thats how apple likes its customers, you can sell them anything with a apple on and they buy it no matter how many faults it has

if the iMac with all its flaws would be build by Dell most here would join that lawsuit to get a worldwide lawsuit to wipe Dell forever from the computer manufacturers list ,
but if someone blames apple for something its like blasphemy and the one who said apple did build a flawed product should be sentenced to be burned alive at the stake

 

[spcdust]

The iMac 27" screen on the last three generation (late 2009 onwards) have suffered two separate issues.

1. The inconsistent yellowing hue that is evident when you first receive your iMac. I agree with Hellhammer that this is an issue with the backlight or diffuser as the Dell 27" monitor that uses the same panel does not suffer the problem.

2. More worryingly the "soot/smoke" like blemishes that develop over time on the screen which Apple are arrogantly claiming are down to environmental conditions of the iMac placement.

I can speak from first hand experience having suffered both issues. With regard to the soot/smoke like blemishes I am guessing this is what the Korean case is referring to. I am very anal in the care of my iMac yet these blemishes appeared after about 6 months. Apple's official line was it was caused by either burning of candles, dusty environment, the room going from extremes of hot and cold, the screen being in direct sunlight, smoking, placing a hot drink on the same desk as the computer, cooking near the computer - take your pick. None of these were true in my case and fortunately I have a good relationship with a contact in Apple Executive Care. The official line was Apple would replace the screen once as a gesture of goodwill but after that I was on my own if it re-occured - when I politely stated this was not acceptable the contact I was dealing with, without stepping outside of Apple's official line, inferred they agreed with me.

Whilst I like Apple's products and have been a long time user (way before they became the huge phenomena they are today) I recognise they are not flawless and behind the generally good customer service they do have a rather "head in the sand" attitude to some of their technical shortcomings.

 

[MTI]

Apple products suffer from design and part defects like anyone else. They are not immune as some would like to believe, however to believe otherwise is illogical.

Overheating, bad video cards, improperly placed antennas, bad capacitors, vertical stripes on LCD panels . . . the list goes on.

What Apple has under its control is how it reacts to design or manufacturing defects. Apple has extended warranties, provided fixes, revised engineering, but due to their own hype about being "magical" and their customer's expectations of perfection, it's unlikely that remedial efforts are ever fully appreciated.

 

[TMRaven]

The biggest problem with the recent iMac displays has been yellowing tint, which IS most likely an apple fault, since they're responsible for the backlight implementation of the lcd panels from LG (which are nothing more than panels, no backlighting). Dell sells the exact same panels with their own CCFL backlighting, and have no such problems (they also have a larger color gamut as a result!) Apple uses LED backlighting, and if you didn't know, there's two types of ways to implement white balance for LED backlighting. There's using actual RGB leds to get white through an additive process, and then there's using a blue only LED with yellow phosphor thrown in to make it look white. That implementation is most likely the reason the displays used in the iMacs have less color gamut than their Dell counterparts, and have issues with imbalances between blue and yellow (because if you didn't notice, yellowed displays are actually just displays with a blueish top and yellowish bottom)

 

[HelplessMoose]

I am very anal in the care of my iMac yet these blemishes appeared after about 6 months.

I bought my 27" iMac in the fall of 2010, the smudges/dust appeared around Christmas a few months later. Took it in to the Apple store, they replaced the screen no questions asked. Now, around 6 months later, smudges are back.

I'll admit that that there's dust in my house, but Apple shouldn't expect people to operate their machines only in super-clean environments. It still seems like a design flaw to me if there's enough separation between the LCD and its backlight to allow dust particles to get in there.

So, my thought is to take the advice of another user in a separate forum, and attach some 3M filtrete strips to the bottom of the air intakes on the iMac. What do you think? Would you take this course of action to keep the screen smudging issue from coming back again in the future? It's ridiculous that I'm even considering that kind of "hack" on a $2k machine, but I don't enjoy lugging it to the Apple store every 3-6 months for a new LCD, not to mention they will probably start to push back even harder for any future replacements.

Only possible downside is risk of overheating through covering the air intakes. I use iStat to monitor temps and other stuff so I'm not overly concerned about that.

What do you think? If I remove my other options (1. buying a different computer 2. keeping the iMac but continuing to deal with the screen smudging as it comes up again and again until my AppleCare warranty runs out 3. moving to a new house), what else can I do?

I'm not going to risk taking it apart until at least my warranty is out, by which time hopefully there's a redesigned model anyway. But Oggy did post a nice guide here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12665931/