UPDATED: Converting to Mac for the first time.

[TheDoctah]

Hi All,

I've decided to take the plunge and go Mac instead of PC. My lifestyle has changed, gaming is not a big deal now. I use my PS3 whenever I do want to game a bit. Based on what I've read the Mac can do everything I want it to do and elegantly at the same time.

I've always had my eye on them so I sold my old PC and placed my order.

I decided to take advantage of the refurb deals they have online and bought the 2.4Ghz 24" iMac that they have for sale. More than enough power for me and a nice huge display!

I ordered it on last week Thursday and it showed up at my door Tuesday morning. Pretty fast for free shipping! So far so good.

I opened it up, everything is in like new condition, wouldn't know it was a refurbed product if it weren't for the box saying Certified Reconditioned Apple Product.

I plug in everything and start it up for the first time... and the tale begins.

During the intro video the sound came out sounding rather odd, i thought to myself thats very un-apple like to have an intro video sound like that?? but I figured maybe its something new and I'm just being overly cautious. (The sound was like a constant static with a ringing in the background)

I decided to open up iTunes and play something from the web, once again, I got the same static sound from the speakers.

I decided to plug in a pair of headphones and make sure its just not some setting i'm missing, through the headphones it sounds perfectly normal.

I called Applecare and they had me shut down, restart, restart while pressing several keys, which caused it do reboot several times. Nothing helped. Eventually the tech said I should take it in to an Apple Store.

I took it in to Yorkdale Apple store (45min drive from where I live) that same night only to find out we need to make appointments to see someone regarding computer problems. So i made an appointment for the next day (another 45min drive), and took it in. The guy at the Genius bar was nice and verified the problem and said he would have to order parts for the unit.


So...now my iMac is sitting in service for a minimum of 5 business days and I'm waiting for them to call me and tell me its ready.


I'm really dissapointed this happened, I already had several friends/family try to convince me that this was a mistake and now that this happened its just salt in the wounds.

I'm computerless (posting from a friends computer) for over a week now which is making it feel even worse.

I still have hope, but this really does suck, how did this even get out the door in the first place, the sound is so obvious!

Will update you guys when I get it back...

 

[zackkmac]

I ordered the same thing from the refurb store and got a DOA. I called AppleCare and they told me to send this one back, and in less than 24 hours [from when I dropped it off the next day], I got my new iMac. I was also disappointed with my first Mac being a DOA and I considered asking for a refund so I could by an HP, but I'm glad I didn't. This iMac is amazing.

Sorry for your troubles though
What bothers me is that both of ours had obvious problems yet Apple still sent them. Apple states that they check every refurbished computer, how could they miss damaged speakers, or a completely dead LCD [mine]?

Your iMac should be great after it's fixed, it's worth the wait, I must say.

 

[Trouble1]

These aren't the greatest speakers

I've never listened to anything with the built in speakers.
It's either headphones or a killer sound system.

My refurb rocks. Somethings aren't worth driving 180 minutes to get your way. It seems like a waste of gas in my opinion.

Now you're without a computer.

 

[Insulin Junkie]

That sucks hearing about your first experiences with your new computer! And yeah, post back and let us know if all has been resolved. I know I'd get pretty damn mad if that happened to me. Wasting days worrying over something that should be working in the first place isn't a nice experience. I had that when I got the MBP and had to return it due to a faulty graphics card.

 

[memo90061]

good luck with your computer!

i dont have a mac yet but the days are getting closer! im going to buy a refurb in like 3 or 4 weeks for school. i hope i get a working computer. i dont wan't to deal with all that.

 

[TheDoctah]

So, a quick update, as promised.


I received my iMac back on this past Weds, 1 day extra of the 5 days promised. I will admit that was out of their control as the Store was shut down one day due to an explosion in the area, they were forced to evacuate.

The speaker problem has been fixed. I got it back in pretty much the exact same condition I sent it in, both sw and hardware. Minus the stand has a couple scratches on the front now, im assuming from tilting it to open it up.

Either way i'm glad to have it back, i was explaining my story to the apple rep that helped me out when i went in to pick it up and she was extremely apologetic for my experience thus far.


After a couple of days working with it so far. It is definitely a change from the Vista/XP environments I had gotten so used to. However, its been relatively easy to learn. Obviously, I haven't had an opportunity to get too deep into it such as working with system files or anything like that. However, installing sw and such is straight forward and simple.

It automatically recognized my Brother Wireless MFC which I was impressed with, no Windows Computer has done that before.

I attempted to transfer my files via a usb external drive from my old windows ntfs drive. It recognizes most files, however hidden files on the ntfs drive are literally hidden. I'll have to try and connect it to someone elses computer to change the properties first. There's about 250GB of music/videos/pictures that I want to keep so I plan to copy it all to the iMac HD temporarily and then reformat the external as HFS and then transfer them back. Then evetually merge them all into my itunes/iPhoto libraries. A process I am dreading.

I've also just noticed they dropped the price on the iMac by $50, so I've just called in for a rebate, and they are currently processing it. No questions asked.


All in all, its been a relatively good experience. I'm still a bit dissapointed my iMac already had to be serviced, but hopefully that was the first and last time. I still intend to buy Applecare to play it safe though.

Hope this helps future buyers make a decision.

Thanks for reading.

 

[bertpalmer]

Sorry to hear you had problems to start with.

Still atleast now you are good to go.

I bet the screen is nice!!!

 

[iwuzbord]

wow. sorry to hear about that.

last week actually, i made the plunge into mac osx. i got a macbook, it was new and i had no problems with it. the good thing from all of this would be that you actually got a replacement, and werent let down by having to wait days or weeks.

 

[soberbrain]

Sorry to hear about the bumping start, but I'm glad to hear things are looking better now with your iMac. Let us know how things go with your music/video/picture migration.

Congrats on your new iMac