WOW *5th* MBP Now

[JayKay321]

Remember that one guy who posted here that he was on his 5th mbp? Well count me in on that crowd.

MBP #1: Crooked Keys, Loose Battery Cover
MBP #2: Unresponsive Trackpad clicks, unresponsive moving cursor (i'm aware of the potential firmware patch, but this one was particularly bad and occuring often)
MBP #3: Lines of static on monitor
MBP #4: Lid that wouldn't fully close

Now I'm on my fifth mbp and I'm almost ready to throw in the towel. As a lifelong pc user, I never expected to run into this many issues.

MBP #5 has a loose black plastic piece. The one on the back that you can see when the computer is closed. It slides left and right. Now I realize that this isn't a huge issue, but part of me feels like after paying a couple thousand dollars and I should expect better.

 

[MatLane]

Unbelievable


Im might be buying one in the next 2 weeks

Hope mine dont do this

Either ask them for a imac instead



or tell then to swivel and give your cash back

 

[coffey7]

I'm glad I have good luck with tech products.

 

[itisme1760]

My god, jolly, I must have had good luck. I ordered one and it arrived, checked for any flaws, none. Hope it works on the 6th try.

 

[Vanarak19]

5 MBPs?

what ever happend to taking your money elsewhere?

 

[xnolmt]

I had a problem with the crooked keys myself a few times. LOL. But Apple has done a great job replacing their products that are defective. Keep it up Apple. My new MBP seems flawless...

 

[Tuchy3]

Im awaiting the arrival of my second MBP, first one came with a terrible battery that wouldnt hold a 100% battery charge over night, after being completely shut down, and also a dent next to the apple logo.

 

[rychencop]

Rev. A's. i warned all of you.

 

[eba]

No problems here.

 

[amorican]

I'm on my 4th MBP classic. Finally I found a good one though.

1st one had backlights go out, and a white spot on the top of the screen.

2nd one had ripples on the bottom of the screen and a sticky trackpad button.

3rd one had a dead pixel near the center of the screen.

4th one I'm typing on now, and knock on wood is pretty much perfect.

Being a new PC convert, I almost gave up.

Sounds like some QC issues if you ask me.

 

[i0Nic]

Happy I got a flawless one first up.

 

[Crash1234]

5 MBPs?

what ever happend to taking your money elsewhere?

If one wants OS X there really is no where else to take ones money. It's not like with a windows pc where if you don't like the product you can just buy from any number companies.

I went through three mpb's and wound up getting a refund. It's ridiculous how many problems these things have.

 

[pdxflint]

longish post... sorry.

With all Apple's cash, they should build their own factory here in the States for the pro (MBP/Mac Pro, Xserve) lines. Keep the model variations limited with extensive BTO options, stick with a classy, functional design, and stringently exercise quality control at every stage. Don't skimp on connectivity/ports, and spend whatever money for product redesigns by focusing mainly on durability and reliability and easy serviceability. That's a big key for professional use. It's a simple concept, but requires a specific amount of resources dedicated to catching the slightest deviations in quality, almost before they are noticeable. Continuous quality control measurements need to be taken for this to work. It's not a new concept. Deming taught the Japanese how to do this in the 70s when they called it TQM (Total Quality Management,) and it requires a cultural change where workers are empowered to make decisions and take ownership of their processes, probably something you'd never see in a Chinese factory.

Other than that, I'd pull all manufacturing from mainland China and set up shop in Japan for the MBs. Margin will drop, but savings in returned/defective product warranties will offset this, as will increased sales.
It's not that the Chinese can't make good products - they can, especially in factories that are modern where workers' jobs are automated as much as possible, but...the key is, it's all about attitude and worker ownership of the process. Remember the reputation American auto workers got with the old "wrench left inside the body panels during assembly" back in the 70s/80s? In China, I think the quality problems are because the workers are extremely low paid, and don't really relate to the "quality" as being anything related to their "job." They just do what they have to to get by for the millionaire bosses. What's a fingerprint or scratch, a loose screw..? Just wrap it up, ship it out. A Chinese customer would never gripe about these products, because most of them would never see or be able to afford a product like that anyway... The Japanese are another story... they get it. Apple really needs to protect their reputation, because it can become damaged goods in an instant, and the public is very fickle. What's popular today, can find itself heading the "what's out" list tomorrow.

 

[bananabar]

MBP #5 has a loose black plastic piece.

A lot of people are telling all of you to stop complaining about such 'small issues' but I agree, when you're spending thousands you should rightly expect a faultless machine.

And regarding your FIFTH laptop, what else might be dodgy inside the machine? Something that's ready to go pop the day after your warranty expires.

If it were me I'd get my money back and wait for the next gen. These new MBPs seem to be a risky purchase.

 

[MowingDevil]

Rev. A's. i warned all of you.

And the last revision of the old model was flawless right?

The only imperfection I can find on my rev A is some slightly off kilter F keys...and even then you have to really look for them. I consider this machine perfect, it works and looks great!

 

[clyde2801]

I am also tickled with the quality and build of my new MBP...the macbooks I exchanged OTOH, not so much.

I guess since Apple cut corners component wise to make a couple of extra bucks on the new MB (screen quality), I shouldn't be surprised that they'd settle for less stringent quality control.

 

[James17]

I went through 5 Penryn MBP's in the last few months. The 5th one had scratches on it. They replaced it for the new MBP but the first one made a terribly loud noise coming from the fans. I'm now on the 2nd unibody MBP and it's perfect (sigh of relief). They also upgraded the processor to 2.8GHz in this one for all the trouble.

To the OP, keep trying as I'm confident you will get one that's perfect.

 

[Sesshi]

Remember that one guy who posted here that he was on his 5th mbp? Well count me in on that crowd.

MBP #1: Crooked Keys, Loose Battery Cover
MBP #2: Unresponsive Trackpad clicks, unresponsive moving cursor (i'm aware of the potential firmware patch, but this one was particularly bad and occuring often)
MBP #3: Lines of static on monitor
MBP #4: Lid that wouldn't fully close

Now I'm on my fifth mbp and I'm almost ready to throw in the towel. As a lifelong pc user, I never expected to run into this many issues.

MBP #5 has a loose black plastic piece. The one on the back that you can see when the computer is closed. It slides left and right. Now I realize that this isn't a huge issue, but part of me feels like after paying a couple thousand dollars and I should expect better.

Welcome to my world, and welcome to the little things that the rabid fans don't tell you about until it's too late...

Although I have to say even I'm only on my second new-gen MBP.

Fact is, if you really need OS X or you must have the prettiest machine on the block, you need a Mac. If you don't, move on to better stuff.

 

[uiop.]

Wow. A normal person would still be on the first one...I'm really shocked Apple has let you go through that many. To correct the loose battery cover, you can just adjust tabs on the bottom of it.

 

[prism]

With all Apple's cash, they should build their own factory here in the States for the pro (MBP/Mac Pro, Xserve) lines. Keep the model variations limited with extensive BTO options, stick with a classy, functional design, and stringently exercise quality control at every stage. Don't skimp on connectivity/ports, and spend whatever money for product redesigns by focusing mainly on durability and reliability and easy serviceability. That's a big key for professional use. It's a simple concept, but requires a specific amount of resources dedicated to catching the slightest deviations in quality, almost before they are noticeable. Continuous quality control measurements need to be taken for this to work. It's not a new concept. Deming taught the Japanese how to do this in the 70s when they called it TQM (Total Quality Management,) and it requires a cultural change where workers are empowered to make decisions and take ownership of their processes, probably something you'd never see in a Chinese factory.

Other than that, I'd pull all manufacturing from mainland China and set up shop in Japan for the MBs. Margin will drop, but savings in returned/defective product warranties will offset this, as will increased sales.
It's not that the Chinese can't make good products - they can, especially in factories that are modern where workers' jobs are automated as much as possible, but...the key is, it's all about attitude and worker ownership of the process. Remember the reputation American auto workers got with the old "wrench left inside the body panels during assembly" back in the 70s/80s? In China, I think the quality problems are because the workers are extremely low paid, and don't really relate to the "quality" as being anything related to their "job." They just do what they have to to get by for the millionaire bosses. What's a fingerprint or scratch, a loose screw..? Just wrap it up, ship it out. A Chinese customer would never gripe about these products, because most of them would never see or be able to afford a product like that anyway... The Japanese are another story... they get it. Apple really needs to protect their reputation, because it can become damaged goods in an instant, and the public is very fickle. What's popular today, can find itself heading the "what's out" list tomorrow.

You got a point there, but on the same token I think America should just stop making cars apart maybe the high tech Tesla types, there are plenty of outside manufacturers that are better at it if not much better so it just makes no sense to make cars with the exception of providing jobs but that is a dead end proposition in the long run.

 

[KingYaba]

MBP #4: Lid that wouldn't fully close

Did you happen to take pictures of the 4th? What do you mean it won't fully close?

 

[Jalbuke]

Why Buy Apple? Are We Crazy?

Remember that one guy who posted here that he was on his 5th mbp? Well count me in on that crowd.

MBP #1: Crooked Keys, Loose Battery Cover
MBP #2: Unresponsive Trackpad clicks, unresponsive moving cursor (i'm aware of the potential firmware patch, but this one was particularly bad and occuring often)
MBP #3: Lines of static on monitor
MBP #4: Lid that wouldn't fully close

Now I'm on my fifth mbp and I'm almost ready to throw in the towel. As a lifelong pc user, I never expected to run into this many issues.

MBP #5 has a loose black plastic piece. The one on the back that you can see when the computer is closed. It slides left and right. Now I realize that this isn't a huge issue, but part of me feels like after paying a couple thousand dollars and I should expect better.

Why Buy Apple? Are We Crazy?
Or do we have a taste for suffering?

 

[Sesshi]

With all Apple's cash, they should build their own factory here in the States for the pro (MBP/Mac Pro, Xserve) lines. Keep the model variations limited with extensive BTO options, stick with a classy, functional design, and stringently exercise quality control at every stage. Don't skimp on connectivity/ports, and spend whatever money for product redesigns by focusing mainly on durability and reliability and easy serviceability. That's a big key for professional use. It's a simple concept, but requires a specific amount of resources dedicated to catching the slightest deviations in quality, almost before they are noticeable. Continuous quality control measurements need to be taken for this to work. It's not a new concept. Deming taught the Japanese how to do this in the 70s when they called it TQM (Total Quality Management,) and it requires a cultural change where workers are empowered to make decisions and take ownership of their processes, probably something you'd never see in a Chinese factory.

Other than that, I'd pull all manufacturing from mainland China and set up shop in Japan for the MBs. Margin will drop, but savings in returned/defective product warranties will offset this, as will increased sales.
It's not that the Chinese can't make good products - they can, especially in factories that are modern where workers' jobs are automated as much as possible, but...the key is, it's all about attitude and worker ownership of the process. Remember the reputation American auto workers got with the old "wrench left inside the body panels during assembly" back in the 70s/80s? In China, I think the quality problems are because the workers are extremely low paid, and don't really relate to the "quality" as being anything related to their "job." They just do what they have to to get by for the millionaire bosses. What's a fingerprint or scratch, a loose screw..? Just wrap it up, ship it out. A Chinese customer would never gripe about these products, because most of them would never see or be able to afford a product like that anyway... The Japanese are another story... they get it. Apple really needs to protect their reputation, because it can become damaged goods in an instant, and the public is very fickle. What's popular today, can find itself heading the "what's out" list tomorrow.

Good points, but also quite fundamentally they also need to employ more / talented engineers to compensate for the prima donna designers. Other companies can engineer around the culture of 'Chinese Workmanship' to make properly-working, properly built products. Part of Apple's problem is that they aren't just in the position of benefitting from 'Made in Japan' - they need 'Made in Japan' to make their designs work, and also there needs to be more functional substance in many elements of their visually excellent design. The new MBP design is probably a realisation of the build quality issues though - more of the core manufacturing process, especially on the cosmetic / structural side - is automated, although I suspect it still won't substantially curb the number of less than perfectly assembled MBP's.

The Applezombie, technically ignorant fanbase is certainly a help though: Similar or in fact just slightly better 'build quality' to Apple which takes just as long to sort out - as on the XPS M1330 as an example of a major upper-end fumble from Dell - gets you trashed elsewhere among more informed consumers. Over here it's just a lull to the pavlovian drooling for the next model.