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Totally Pissed with 3k MBP - Is this usual?

T

tslewis

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 17, 2008
92
0
Before I start ranting, let me say that support from Apple by phone and at the store was pretty good and I know they do teh best they can. So thanks for that. If anyone has Steve's email address can you let me know!

However, after finding out that my less than 30 day old 3k USD MBP had a "header" file on the HD corrupted and required a total reformat, IM MAD.

This is totally unacceptable for a PRO macbook. I am a first time mac user and had been loving the experience until yesterday. I am relaly worried about my investment and wonderign whether I should have demanded a new replacement. I dont want to go down the same route of having to reisntall my hard drive several months, let alone years, down the line.

To be honest, Ive kinda lost my faith in the "Its a mac" differentiator. Yes, computers do break, but after spending 3k on one I find it unacceptable Im getting problems within 30 days. I guess its my bad for being a REV A tester. Gutted.
 
3000$ MacBook pro or 300$ Netbook, hard drive technologies are all the same. Outside of an SSD, there isn't a "premium" drive that would be more reliable than any other. I feel for your loss of data, but it's completely out of Apples control.
 
Ya, gonna have to agree on the being a REV A tester. I try not to buy any type of first gen. Unfortunatly, being a Mac does not mean that everything is perfect right from the get go. It's technology. And technology will never ever be perfect.

I'm sorry if I sound un-sympothetic, but, that's because I am. It's technology.
 
Thunder82 said:
3000$ MacBook pro or 300$ Netbook, hard drive technologies are all the same. Outside of an SSD, there isn't a "premium" drive that would be more reliable than any other. I feel for your loss of data, but it's completely out of Apples control.
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Agreed.

If you (OP) can show me a hard drive that will never corrupt, I'll say you are fine to rant away, but other than that, you just have a slightly warped sense on what a Mac is...

(it's a computer, just like all the others, only in a fancy case with a fancy operating system)
 
As someone who builds computers for extra cash, no matter which manufacturer you order from, you're going to have to RMA a few hard drives once in a while. The same goes with any computer part, really.
 
Thansk for the replies.

Im a little more calm now. May be finally getting to use the new 24 in display warmed me a bit. Its pretty mega.

On a serious note then, should I ask for a replacment hard drive or is this corruption of a file likely to be a one off?

Yes. I will be backing all my files up. I just havent finished totally transitioning form my old d**l.
 
I think that this post really serves well to illustrate the genius and the power of Apple's advertising. I think that the OP has been wooed by "it's a Mac" advertising campaign and in his enthusiasm carried himself right off straight to the land of unrealistic expectations.
 
Dude, please give me more credit than that. I have worked with computers since I was 12 inclding a Commodore PET.

As I stated in a previous thread, I have never had a computer die on me within the first month of my using it and every single one of those computers cost a helluva lot less money than this macbook. IF you drop 3k on a product I dont expect it to fail after 30 days.

SO my concenr is genuine about the reliability of my investment and non-biased expert opinion on whether I should cut my losses and demand a new MBP is welcome. If this corruption is a one off and is unliekly to cocurr again statisticlaly I will give it a chance. If not and it is likely I have a duff HDD Id prefer to demand a replacment now and I owuld hope I owuld be advised as such by apple.
 
tslewis said:
Dude, please give me more credit than that. I have worked with computers since I was 12 inclding a Commodore PET.

As I stated in a previous thread, I have never had a computer die on me within the first month of my using it and every single one of those computers cost a helluva lot less money than this macbook. IF you drop 3k on a product I dont expect it to fail after 30 days.

SO my concenr is genuine about the reliability of my investment and non-biased expert opinion on whether I should cut my losses and demand a new MBP is welcome. If this corruption is a one off and is unliekly to cocurr again statisticlaly I will give it a chance. If not and it is likely I have a duff HDD Id prefer to demand a replacment now and I owuld hope I owuld be advised as such by apple.
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I wasn't trying to suggest that your general knowledge of computers/technology is somehow lacking. All I was saying was that it seams that based on what you've said you've set your expectations rather highly almost solely on the fact that you were buying a Mac. No one expects their brand new computer to fail no matter if they buy Dell or Apple, you on the other hand seamed to believe that buying a Mac made you somehow immune to technical issues.

That said after reading this thread and your other two threads it seams that you might have gotten a "lemon" so indeed if you feel that an exchange or for that matter a full refund is appropriate then in my opinion they should be provided to you by Apple.
 
Steve's email is sjobs@apple.com

I emailed once about mobileme problems, and next day, I got a call from the executive office, and they ended up sorting everything out real fast.
 
bitesize said:
Steve's email is sjobs@apple.com

I emailed once about mobileme problems, and next day, I got a call from the executive office, and they ended up sorting everything out real fast.
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Just as an aside, when I e-mailed them about issues I had they called and essentially said "yeah, it sucks we messed up on multiple occasions and you were without a working ipod for a month, but **** happens." I was expecting at least an itunes gift card for the issues I was having.
 
I think what it comes down to is blame the HDD maker and not Apple, since this isn't really something even their quality control protocols would have caught. So see if you can exchange the MBP or maybe even just have them replace the HDD, keep back ups as you said you were planning to and if you have another problem try a different brand HDD after researching the MTBF of each specific HDD that would potentially replace yours.

Also I don't know if Apple uses the same brand of HDD for all their computers or if it varies but perhaps request a different brand of HDD from them and see what they say.
 
Back up the drive, call up applecare, tell them your hard drive has corrupted itself and you suspect it's defective, initiate a repair they'll replace the drive and whatever else they see fit while it's in their care, and if they screw that up, then it's time to email sjobs.

give them a chance to right their wrong before calling them on it.

i've had to go to the big guy myself when the local store here *dropped* my girlfriends macbook while it was in repair and they wouldn't own up to it. two hours after shooting off the email i got a call from the store owner and he replaced her laptop with a shiny new aluminum one and replaced mine too because it was me who went through all of this on her behalf. i turned that machine and some cash into this base model mbp a few days later via craigslist :p

seriously though, give them a chance through the normal channels, the reason apple is such a respected company is because they really take care of their customers, and not everyone is perfect (hence my experience with the repair employees where the owner on the other hand was totally committed to me being 100% happy) but you probably have already experienced that.

and like the others have said above, no matter what computer you buy today, the basic hardware is the same, it's the design philosophy and software that makes it different, and most importantly, the service the brand provides it's end-user.
 
Maybe you could try tech tool deluxe that comes with applecare. Or a similar problem that will read your hard drive.

Bummer. Sorry. Hard drives are prone to failure, yes. But has anyone else had problems with a hard drive on a brand new apple product? Kind of makes you wonder about apple's QC lately.
 
The thing is he's already fixed it, it's no longer a problem, what he's asking is if it's an isolated incident or if the same hard drive is likely to have the same malfunction, or did the fix bring it back to a like-new non malfunctioning hard drive.



Ampidire said:
Back up the drive, call up applecare, tell them your hard drive has corrupted itself and you suspect it's defective, initiate a repair they'll replace the drive and whatever else they see fit while it's in their care, and if they screw that up, then it's time to email sjobs.

give them a chance to right their wrong before calling them on it.

i've had to go to the big guy myself when the local store here *dropped* my girlfriends macbook while it was in repair and they wouldn't own up to it. two hours after shooting off the email i got a call from the store owner and he replaced her laptop with a shiny new aluminum one and replaced mine too because it was me who went through all of this on her behalf. i turned that machine and some cash into this base model mbp a few days later via craigslist :p

seriously though, give them a chance through the normal channels, the reason apple is such a respected company is because they really take care of their customers, and not everyone is perfect (hence my experience with the repair employees where the owner on the other hand was totally committed to me being 100% happy) but you probably have already experienced that.

and like the others have said above, no matter what computer you buy today, the basic hardware is the same, it's the design philosophy and software that makes it different, and most importantly, the service the brand provides it's end-user.
Click to expand...
 
tslewis said:
Dude, please give me more credit than that. I have worked with computers since I was 12 inclding a Commodore PET.

As I stated in a previous thread, I have never had a computer die on me within the first month of my using it
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You didn't have a computer die on you, you had a file get corrupt. And honestly you don't sound like you've been working with computers very long at all, including this last post.

The amount of money you spend on a computer has nothing to do with getting a corrupt file.
 
A corrupted header is easy to fix with a manual sector repair… or butterflies too.
 
brentsg said:
You didn't have a computer die on you, you had a file get corrupt. And honestly you don't sound like you've been working with computers very long at all, including this last post.

The amount of money you spend on a computer has nothing to do with getting a corrupt file.
Click to expand...

Hmm, the semantics might not be correct but I call failure of a component leading to a complete inability to use a 3k usd computer equivalent to the "computer dying" on me. If you think it is ok for a compoennt to fail after 30 days and for the consumer to say "oh, silly me, I should expect things to fail" after paying a "mac premium" you are living on a different planet.

My point is

a) I was concerned if this indicative of the quality of the mac and its components. I have plenty of experience using computers and without getting in to a d**k swinging contest and as I said, I have never had any computer in my 23 years of experience fail or its component fail within a month. Nuff said.

b) Whether a corrupt header is indeed "just bad luck" and it is just as likely to occur if I were to replace it with a brand new one.

As an aside, I also saw another guy in the store yesterday take his brand new MBP in for hard drive issues.

Thanks for the useful replies. Being a pro user I dont really want to send my MBP away for repair as I cant afford to be without it for 10 days, Im kidna on the fence, Ill see what apple care say. So far they have been pretty good except they are only open 12 hours a day,

cheers
 
tslewis said:
IF you drop 3k on a product I dont expect it to fail after 30 days...
Click to expand...

The computer didn't fail... the hard drive data got corrupted. There is a hugh difference and if you REALLY knew about computers like you said you did, then you would know it. It's like saying your brand new car (insert model) is crap because it got a flat tire.

The reason we backup computer data is because header info can get corrupted or the hardware in the drive can go bad. Yes, even new ones! It's a fact of life (unless you buy a SSD) so get used to it.
 
pnyc said:
I think that this post really serves well to illustrate the genius and the power of Apple's advertising. I think that the OP has been wooed by "it's a Mac" advertising campaign and in his enthusiasm carried himself right off straight to the land of unrealistic expectations.
Click to expand...

"Unrealistic expectations" would be something like the OP believing that it's a Mac so it should never ever ever fail. However, the OP has already pointed out that he/she does not believe any such thing, only that a $3,000+ computer shouldn't fail in such a way, which is perfectly reasonable. :rolleyes: Any manufactured product, including Apple, can have defective components. Fact of life. Having a failed hard drive sucks, but a hard drive can be replaced for a couple hundred dollars. I for one am glad that the OP didn't experience something much worse...something not so easily replaced, like a faulty graphics card or LCD screen. ;)

EDITED
 
Hard drives are a dime a dozen. They fail. Often. Get over it and have Apple replace the drive. A bad drive does not warrant a new machine. Perhaps you need to come back down to planet earth.
 
tslewis said:
Being a pro user I dont really want to send my MBP away for repair as I cant afford to be without it for 10 days
Click to expand...
If you have an Apple Store near you, they offer a service called Pro Care for people just like you. You basically get head-of-the-line priviliges at the Genius Bar. At my local store, the average turn-around time is 1.4 days for normal repairs. I'd imagine Pro Care folks get their stuff back quicker.

At least with this Rev A, all Apple has to do to replace your drive is remove the battery cover. In all prior models, they had to disassemble pretty much the entire unit to get to the drive in the middle of the assembly.

I'm with you .. I've been doing computers stuff since the VIC 20 days, and I've never personally had a new drive fail so quickly. But I've been on enough forums (and BBS's back in the day) to have read that it's a fairly common occurrence. So I wouldn't personally take a dismissive attitude towards this issue, even though I haven't had it happen either.
 
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