I'm on the verge of selling my MacBook and never looking back. I love my iPods and iPhone, but I'm really disappointed in the computer.
I've had more problems than a "premium" computer should as well. Everything was fine out of the box. A few weeks into owning my MacBook, Tiger locked up (bought the MacBook in March of '07). Full system crash. I ignored it saying to myself "it happens" while ignoring the thought that XP never locked up.
Time went on and the random crashes every so often became a regular thing I had to deal with. Though Windows running in Boot Camp never crashed.
My DVD writer went bad. It was unable to write DVD-R/+R discs, but could write CD-Rs fine and read discs without a problem. The case started to discolor from regular use (despite washing my hands religiously and wiping it down with a soft damp cloth) and the plastic around the vent started to turn a noticeable shade of yellow and the casing on the hinge and around the vent started to separate.
So in August of last year, I sent it in for repair. A week later it was back in my hands. I was so happy to have it back. I happily ripped the box open and took the plastic off of the machine only to see that it had been scratched so bad that it looked like it was a 10 year old mistreated system. The casing had been replaced but the optical drive was untouched. Back it went. A week later it came back and, again, new casing but scratched up. The DVD writer had a "re-alignment" performed on it that essentially rendered it useless. Apple offered to replace at that point, so a week later I had a new MacBook in my hands. Took a total of 3 weeks.
Jump ahead to this year, end of January/beginning of Feb. I notice my battery has warped and the casing along the palmrest, right side, has started to separate and literally lift up from the case. Send it in. Comes back with a new case, same battery, both scratched as bad as the first one. Sent it back out. Comes back with a new case and new battery, both scratched to no end. Third times a charm.
For those keeping track, thats 6 weeks without my MacBook.
Diana S. took over my first case. She did a great job of trying to take care of things.
Nate D. Took over my second case and, also, did a good job. Before him, however, I had to deal with Ken Bell. Theres no polite way to describe the way he acted so I'll leave it at that.
While Apple's customer service did a good job, and I know that optical drives just die, the rest of the problems shouldn't have happened. The build quality of the MacBook shouldn't have resulted in discoloring or case separation. The repair facility shouldn't have scratched it up. For the price paid, I shouldn't have been without a Mac for 6 total weeks.
Theres the other issues too. OS X shouldn't randomly lock up the way it does. I've had both Tiger and Leopard randomly look up (Tiger on both Macs), while XP and Vista have not.
Then theres the fact that I could have gotten much better hardware. Just weeks after getting my MacBook I noticed I could have gotten something with a similar processor, more RAM, more HDD space, 17" screen, and a GeForce Go 7600 for $800. But of course I told myself "I have a Mac! It's better!" all while dealing with low -end hardware and endless random crashing every so often.
As I said at the beginning of my post, I love my iPods and iPhone. They're all fantastic. But Apple needs to shape up the Macs in a big way. They need to bring the build quality up to the same level as cheaper PCs. They need to bring the specs in-line too. Theres no reason for a $1099 notebook to have integrated graphics and a combo drive. It should be dedicated (at least a Radeon 3470 for 13.3", with HDMI out) and a DVD writer. The MacBook "Pro" should have its price reduced by about $800 and be shipping with a GeForce 9600M GT 512MB by now, along with an option for $200 blu-ray upgrade (which the MacBook should have as an option as well).
This will be the only Mac I own unless Apple does what I listed above, and gets OS X up to spec. This is 2008, no reason for random crashing.
another chance.
