I am stunned.
The Apple help crew was terrific over the past month of problems installing Leopard in my iMac, the most alarming of which was its increasingly frequent habit of just shutting down cold.
Turns out that the problem was known to Apple, which issued a recall about a year and a half ago for models which included mine. If you weren’t looking for the notice, you wouldn’t have found it,.
The Mac service center now tells me that the recall expired 5 months ago, and it will cost me $600-700 to get it fixed. A call to Apple’s “customer service” got me a stout NO. The supervisor was downright rude, all but said “tough”.
Apple knew about but didn’t notify owners — the “customer service” supervisor said Apple couldn’t possibly be expected to e-mail everybody about it (say what?). They didn’t offer even to meet me halfway, reduce the cost of the replacement parts. Nothing. Tough luck.
I’ve always had such good experience with Apple, their products, their customer service, their options for help for non-geek-speak people like my husband and I. Has something fundamental changed at Apple?
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This is exactly how to lose a customer. Companies have to keep in mind that once you get bad service from them, you will tell your friends, then they will tell their friends and so on. Get my drift?
Thanks,
Richard Rinyai
www.theprofessionalassistant.net
Richard Rinyai on January 20th, 2008 at 11:14 am | Link
i was always taught the rule of 11.
your actions towards a customer directly affect the opinions of 11 people.
1 being the person, and 10 being people they talk to about it.
treat a customer good, and you may have just earned yourself many new ones, treat them bad and they’ll cost you 10 more that may have otherwise walked in your door.
i think its strange that they don’t know that, considering its one of the KEY things PC techs are taught.
Andrew on February 27th, 2008 at 10:50 am | Link
I have had my imacsince dec 2006.it worked for 2 months. I never knew and actually researched the best i could without a computer, of info on a possible recall. you are correct in that you would probably, as i did not.Find this info. I am furious with apple.I have advocated them so much so as to of gotten 4 others to purchase a total of nearly 10 grand in macintosh computers and am sickened by the fact that i have had nothing but problems even the only 2 months the piece of crap worked. Apparently apple has joined the intel class of “must suck to be you,” type of customer policy I have had with pc pentiums. too bad the APPle fell and rolled into the GATES of hell. JOINT CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT IS A WAY TO DO IT!
jennifer on March 28th, 2008 at 4:27 am | Link
I AM FURIOUS WITH APPLE TOO FOR THE SAME REASON. THEY SAY THEY WILL PAY FOR INTERMITTENT SHUT DOWN REPAIR BUT IT IS A BIG FAT LIE. THE FIRST TIME I ASKED ABOUT THIS EXTENDED PROGRAM I WAS HUNG UP ON.
NEVER AGAIN WILL I BUY AN APPLE PRODUCT AND IN MY BUSINESS, WHICH HAS BEEN DAMAGED BY THE LACK OF CONSISTENCY WITH MY COMPUTER, OF MEETING VACATIONERS IN THE ORLANDO AREA I WILL BE SURE TO WARN THEM OFF OF APPLE AND ESPECIALLY IMAC.
Patrese Lovecraft on April 27th, 2008 at 9:08 am | Link
I’ve been considering an Imac for some time now. F*** that! Thanks for the heads up
geo361 on November 3rd, 2008 at 8:08 pm | Link
I have always worked on Macs, but I will never again buy another iMac! Mine is only a year old, and in the past 8 months, I’ve had to have two major repairs done. First, the internal DVD drive went kaput, and it had to be opened up and replaced. Then (three weeks ago) my hard drive completely died and needed to be replaced! For each of these two instances, I went through hell just getting my Mac in and out of the “repair line”; with the hard drive replacement, I spent an entire weekend fighting with The Apple Store and Customer Service on the phone. I finally have the computer back, but in total, I had lost three weeks of work time because of both repairs. You’d think in this economy, a company like Apple would go out of their way to keep customers… I guess they don’t have that attitude yet. DON’T BUY AN IMAC!
Erin on February 23rd, 2009 at 6:32 am | Link
Don’t feel badly about missing the recall. They replaced both my mother board and power supply.. (third time on each).. took me three days and a lucky conversation to even find they HAD a recall.. seems it was “oh, so unusual” the first two times it happened.. “no known issue”.. yea, right. and so now their “all fixed” hardware just went south on me.. for a FOURTH time.. lasted a little over a year this go round. Has something fundamentally changed at Mac?.. Yes. when they were based in computers, they had a product that couldn’t be touched.. now that they import iPods?.. Customer support, and the value they place on the likes of us has gone to H…..
Scott on April 6th, 2009 at 8:38 am | Link
Here is copy of letter I sent to Apple regarding Ibook screen cable failure four days ago. I have yet to get a response; sounds like from what I’ve been reading I might as well go bark up a tree…..
Dear Apple,
I have been Mac user my entire life. I recently purchased a mac maintained ibook power PC 750 serial # UV24366LQ5. It is the second one I’ve owned; the first CPU was permanently damaged by a shorted out display cable. Now, this second ibook, has the same exact problem. I was assured by the certified mac service people that this was not a problem to even be concerned with, and that they never even heard of this problem in the past. Now, after six months of use, the same exact problem has occurred.
Needless to say, I am very disappointed with the clear lies and the fact that this otherwise simple problem could have been solved by either the mac service dept replacing the known cable defect (not a simple job, from what I understand), or just tell me the truth so I could have made another choice. Perhaps even engineering better cable design for this clearly obvious defect, so it could more easily replaced.
Aside from this scenario, I have yet to find any other problems or issues with my macs or usage until ibook. Please help!
Jef on June 22nd, 2009 at 11:54 pm | Link
I was doing research on the new 27in iMAC and was planning to make the purchase tomorrow. Not anymore. Going with the Sony instead.
Dan on November 10th, 2009 at 8:21 pm | Link
I was planning to buy a new iMac with the 27″ screen, with the LED backlight for the sharpest picture ever. I went into the store and was confused, as I heard the clerk telling some customers, that they didn’t have any new iMacs in stock of any size. The clerk told me, that there were problems with their wonderful new screens, so they recalled them from shops. I don’t know about any poor schmuck, who had already bought one, who could have been me. I suppose they recalled all the new “theater ” monitors also, though I’m not sure of that. Thank God, that I didn’t buy one the week before. Since MacIntosh charges twice ‘as much for their machines, I find this extremely disappointing. The change, which has come over MacIntosh is Quite simple,I think. It;\’s a common problem with corporations. G-R-E-E-D / D-I-V-E-R-S-I-F-C-A-T-I-O-N They are probably licking the toes of institutional customers, but to them we are only “chump change”. Besides, they probably make more money with iPods and iPhones and sundry these days. They can’t e-mail us all? They certainly do an efficient job of getting the news of their new, wonderful products to ALL of us.
Carlos on January 16th, 2010 at 6:13 pm | Link
I bought my iMac in May 2006. I saved $50.00AUD per week for nearly a year and a half to get the money together. I bought appleCare? extended warranty with money I saved from birthday and christmas gifts of cash.
In December 2008 I shut down my iMac to move it to another room. It would not turn back on. I had to leave it unplugged for a few hours before it would restart. Since then it has been randomly powering down, I hear a gentle click and everything goes dark and silent. I have to pull the plug and leave it for an unspecified time before it will turn back on. I phoned Apple about it and they said they had not heard of this happening to any other iMacs. I am stunned that they told me that, considering the obvious widespread problem with their product. I do not like being lied to. I had a childlike adoration and total respect for apple and that is why I paid nearly three times the price of other computers for an iMac. I was easily expecting to get 11 years out of a product with such a high price point (as it is, my friend generously upgraded and lent me his ten year old ’sunflower’ Mac to Tiger 10.4.11, to use). I was expecting to use my iMac for five to eight years and then to pass it on to my nieces to use for their high schooling. I got less then three years.
I took it to Mac1 in Brisbane, Australia. They tested it for nine days and reported that it had a ‘failing’ logic board and that I would have to pay another $1067.00AUD to have it replaced. I could not believe that they would even suggest that I should pay more money on a product that I had paid nearly $3000.00 for and gotten less then three years use out of. It is always my intention to only buy high quality products for sustainability and ethical reasons, as well as sensible consumer reasons. I believed when I bought an apple product that I was getting high, built to last quality that made responsible use of the earths raw materials and energies. I thought that apple had those high ideals in my mind, though now I know that apple are creating throw away products, while charging premium prices and treating their customers with contempt and derision.
I have spent so much time researching the ‘failings’ of my iMac, enlisted the help of a friend who has spent a lot of time researching and investigating as well. I have spent more time with out the use of my Mac, or with the threat of it randomly shutting down looming over my use. I have spent hours talking with apple on the phone at $.080c/minute, resulting in more then $200.00 of call charges. I have spent hours writing letters, and spent hours in despair, anger and frustration. I have packed my Mac up, leaving the centre of my communication and entertainment bare. I have driven into town, paid for parking, crossed busy streets and hot asphalt car parks carrying my ‘back in the box’ iMac. With more then 21 days in service and testing, I finally got apple to replace at no charge to myself my ‘failing’ logic board. I am very sorry to say, I do not have confidence in what they have replaced it with, and even though I have asked apple what kind of guarantee they give this replacement, I have not received an answer. Indeed, of all the questions I have asked, they have not yet answered one. I would be more then happy to email a copy of the letter and questions I wrote and asked of apple to anyone who wants it. Also, join the petition and petitionspot.com.
Lastly, it is not a typo that all a’s in apple are lower case, I think it is only fitting due to how low apple have treated their customers. Also, the ? mark after appleCare? is intentional in all my writing.
Edward Alan Ross
Edward Alan Ross on January 25th, 2010 at 3:23 pm | Link