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What's going on with Apple's quality control, 2 MBP's with at least 5 problems...

L

Lordillingworth

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 8, 2007
148
0
Shropshire, UK
Video Rant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ObOwqHtPWE

I cannot believe how bad the macbooks i have had are! I love Apple but when you look online and see all the defects people have it really makes you realise that they are just another massive company out to make money... and that they seemingly will sacrifice customer satisfaction for it... this is my story so far...

Right then, i got myself a Macbook Pro the other day and i got Final Cut Studio 2 to go with it... 15 inch 2.4 penryn.

I spent over £2,000 ($4,000) that is a lot of money.

I got the macbook pro home and within an hour it had developed the vertical striping issue with the backlights, so i did the usual trick seen on the internet of either shutting the lid or restarting... then i discovered that it would not play discs properly, it just randomly spat them out or didn't accept them. It even refused a final cut studio disc!

So the next day i got on the train with someone to carry it for me as i have just had a hernia operation... we took it back to MCC the reseller in Chester (England) they swapped it straight away for a new one.

I had this one for a day, and straight away it has a strange sound coming from the hard drive at random times or when the hard drive is busy, it is not really loud but it is loud enough to put me off at night when i am trying to do things.

A couple of times it has made a much louder and unhealthy sound like a motor or something... definitely not normal.

I was attempting to record a podcast, i connected my earphones and discovered that no matter what the audio jack always has a little bit of distortion that makes it impossible to check the podcast for genuine noise that has been recorded along with my voice.

then discovered a dead pixel on the screen. a £1,300 computer with a dead pixel.


Those are two brand new units with all those problems... just what i am aware of. Now i love apple and ironically i had been running a fan site and creating video tutorials etc, building that site up into a bigger thing was one of the reasons i wanted to get this mac in the first place!

Unfortunately i can no longer have any confidence with a macbook as i will be constantly waiting for a problem to appear, so this week i am going to go and demand a full refund and i am going to contact Apple and the reseller head office to get some sort of compensation for the money that i have had to spend going back and to the nearest reseller, and especially the time taken up with installing things only to find the unit needs to be returned.

Have you had any experience like this... how did they take it when you asked for a refund? Any advice?
 
The audio hiss problem really is quite pathetic. I really hope they get on the ball with that issue because I'll be buying a macbook pro for audio recording among other things.
 
ONLY TWO?

Jees dude, I went though TEN complete systems in a month before I found one that's fully functional and without any glitches.

A techie opened one instore after I requested them to fully test the system before I leave. Those folks at one of the AppleStore's in england won't ever be saying MacBook Pro's never arrive DOA!

Think yourself lucky!!

Two.... ROFL
 
UltraNEO* said:
ONLY TWO?
Two.... ROFL
Click to expand...

now i know lots of people have gone through MBPs, but should it be funny? I know you are laughing at the fact that you have had much more problems than the OP, but it seems apple really does have a mini epidemic on its hands with the MBPs
 
bc008 said:
now i know lots of people have gone through MBPs, but should it be funny? I know you are laughing at the fact that you have had much more problems than the OP, but it seems apple really does have a mini epidemic on its hands with the MBPs
Click to expand...

Think we have to remember, once upon a time Apple was a tiny company with few users, many of them we're loyal. Often shelling out for equipment that costed more than the regular PC but they we're well built!

Often high quality comes with high build costs and most consumers don't wanna pay through the nose! For those old school Mac users (such as myself) Apple nearly went belly up!

Now Apple are in the limelight, I expect Apple are trying their damn hardest to keep up with demand. Also, I'm sure they're trying to increase profits without increasing their product price, which mean they'll cut the cost of manufacturing, thus possible reduce quality?

From experience, things often get worst before they get better! Undoubtedly Apple will learn from this slowly... and the quality will improve - hopefully!! Fingers crossed, aye?
 
UltraNEO* said:
Now Apple are in the limelight, I expect Apple are trying their damn hardest to keep up with demand. Also, I'm sure they're trying to increase profits without increasing their product price, which mean they'll cut the cost of manufacturing, thus possible reduce quality?
Click to expand...

It seems to me that Apple has taken the route of least resistance, that route being replacement and repair. This allows them to produce in high quantities, at low cost, and maintain their image. How many people here have been impressed by the speed that Apple fixes their products when taken into an Apple store? I'm sure many are, I was. But how long does that last? At what point do the problems out shine the service? If Apple changed their strategy and became price competitive, things would be different. You would get what you pay for, but in the current case you are not getting what you pay for. We pay far above higher-spec competition, and for what? I love my MBP, but with each new problem I think "maybe it would be better if Apple wasn't the sole supplier of Mac based laptops."
 
UltraNEO* said:
Think we have to remember, once upon a time Apple was a tiny company with few users, many of them we're loyal. Often shelling out for equipment that costed more than the regular PC but they we're well built!

Often high quality comes with high build costs and most consumers don't wanna pay through the nose! For those old school Mac users (such as myself) Apple nearly went belly up!

Now Apple are in the limelight, I expect Apple are trying their damn hardest to keep up with demand. Also, I'm sure they're trying to increase profits without increasing their product price, which mean they'll cut the cost of manufacturing, thus possible reduce quality?

From experience, things often get worst before they get better! Undoubtedly Apple will learn from this slowly... and the quality will improve - hopefully!! Fingers crossed, aye?
Click to expand...


I completely agree, i think we are in that weird middle point where apple is now a very popular company, but they still havnt perfected making so many computers on such a large scale.. fingers crossed.
 
Blink....

UltraNEO* said:
ONLY TWO?

Jees dude, I went though TEN complete systems in a month before I found one that's fully functional and without any glitches.

A techie opened one instore after I requested them to fully test the system before I leave. Those folks at one of the AppleStore's in england won't ever be saying MacBook Pro's never arrive DOA!

Think yourself lucky!!

Two.... ROFL
Click to expand...

Blink..Blink... Wow I think you have me decide which system not to get. Sorry you had so many problems.
 
masse said:
The audio hiss problem really is quite pathetic. I really hope they get on the ball with that issue because I'll be buying a macbook pro for audio recording among other things.
Click to expand...

you do know that you'll need an external amp if you want to record via "line-in" (not to be confused with most other laptop's "mic-in")

i've never had any major problems with my SR MBP. Only one time i woke it up and the screen was scrambled like so many people here..that just happened two days ago.

Sure you can get a refund, but i wouldnt expect a refund of the "gas/time" in order to get to the store.
 
Apple's QA process has gone through the tubes. Their service centers have had issues as well - earlier this year, my MBP's wonky display was replaced with a damaged LCD. When I sent it out again for repair, it went to the same service shop (Houston, I think). I did the sjobs @ apple thing, which put the heat on the service center. Of course, since it was the same service center, it was "not their fault." Eh well. Hopefully things will get better again.
 
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