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Apple Users Threaten to Sue Over iBook, iPod
An anonymous reader writes "Reuters is running a story about failing Apple hardware. 'Can a few bad apples -- like product quality complaints and potential lawsuits -- spoil the bunch for loyal fans of Apple Computer Inc. ahead of their biggest party of the year? As enthusiasts devoted to Apple prepare to descend on San Francisco next week for the annual Macworld conference, at least two online petitions have collected hundreds of signatures from potential plaintiffs seeking to file lawsuits over claims of defects in the iBook laptop.'" Yay, online petitions, the most effective way to effect change in the world.
I decided about a year and a half ago to give apple a chance on their ibook. However, because of consistent problems outside of warrenty, battery failings, and logic board issues, I figured Apple would live up to the name they built for themselves. All I can remember is that Apple stood for reliability and dependence, that I should "Switch." Unfortunately, because I've shared all the problems mentioned within the article, and because the customer service departments have been of no help, the first mac I ever bought will now be my last. From a business standpoint, Apple cannot afford to alienate all of us first time users. At 20 years old, I have quite a few more computers to pick up in the coming years, and unless things change - they'll be anything BUT macs... -tw- "All my favorite singers stole all my favorite lines." =AK3=
suck my ping!
And, if your reading this Mr BlackCider, they did recall a few things already (making your bad-recall-press rant in your Open Letter a bit moot), like the powersupply for the G3 and the replacement plan for noisy G4's. Hopefully they address this and all you iBook users out there with this problem get a solution, soon.
Apple has also had trouble in the past with iBook power adapters. Apparently when some people plug in their iBooks, sparks start flying from the port. When confronted, Apple denied the problem existed, and even removed posts on the support forums related to it.
WARNING: If accidentally read, induce vomiting.
What about all us people with titanium powerbooks that have serious paint issues?
I have been extremely careful with mine... yet paint is coming off everywhere! It literally bubbles off, and other places the paint has completely discoloured...
I know i'm not the only one that has these problems, some batches of tibooks have had severe paint issues, and nothing has been done about that either....
D.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
My boss' email account was unable to send mail to our client because they had blocked an IP belonging to his ISP. He called the ISP's tech support and told them that their IP was blocked by a major corporation (and probably many others) and told him to check an anti-spam site to verify that they were blacklisted. The guy said he wasn't aware of a problem. My boss told him the anti-spam URL again and the tech support guy chuckled. To which my boss responded "I am trying to run a business here and if you think it is funny I will throw all of your shit in a box and someone can come pick it up." After that he had three tech support guys on the phone, claiming they would fix the problem (they later did). Then he asked for their names and where they were working out of. The guy said "ummm, California." So my boss asked him the current time in California. He almost got it right.
I guess it is easier not to be laughed at when you can pull the plug on their service.
IANAT.
But I am an owner of three Macs (currently), past owner of several more and happy iPod owner.
I've never bought AppleCare on any of my machines because literally nothing hardware-related has ever gone wrong with them. I'm serious - no bad PSUs, no dead pixels (not even one), no nothing. I haven't had a kernel panic since OS X's Public Beta. And I am not shy about cracking boxes open and throwing in extra hardware, though I haven't broken out a soldering iron. Yet.
These disgruntled Mac folks probably have gotten used to similar experiences, and when they get a taste of real PC medicine they cry foul.
Go stuff it, you troublemaking bastards. You read the warranty information - or if you didn't you deserve what you get. Did you buy an extended warranty that would cover your complained-of problems? No? You really expect Apple's products to last forever, even though the company uses nearly all industry-standard equipment? You expect Apple's Li-Ion batteries to magically outlast the identical competition?
Take your licks and quit spreading accusations, petitions and talk of lawsuits. Or even better, go buy from another company and bring your unreasonable dissatisfaction with you. If you're not willing to recognize that an out-of-warranty personal computer (or MP3 player) is your responsibility alone... I guess you're not really a Mac person.
It seems like a lot of comments are complaining that the people with problems with their iBooks are just bitching and moaning and want someone to listen to them whine about it. Several others have pointed out that Apple's support is (usually) very good and will fix anything under warranty, pretty much with no questions asked. However, I think some of these people are missing something important.
I have no complaints about Apple's support at all. Quite the opposite, actually; the people I've dealt with on the phone have been extremely helpful, and when I've had to send my iBook in to be repaired, it's been returned to me so quickly that they must've fixed it and put it back in the mail immediately after it reached them. They've even replaced part of the case that was scratched while they were fixing other unrelated things.
The problem isn't with how wonderful their support department is or how they're willing to fix anything at no cost (as long as it's under warranty). The problem, for me at least, is that in the year I've had my iBook, I've been unable to use it for a significant amount of the time while it's being repaired. This past fall, during the most recent period it was in for repairs, I counted all the things that had gone wrong with it and determined that it's had a major hardware failure that made it completely unusable every 55 days since I bought it. I hardly ever travel with it, and I'm very gentle with it. It doesn't take any kind of abuse at all, unlike some people's laptops, but it still manages to be completely useless far too much of the time.
I brought my iBook with me on vacation last spring to work on some programming projects to pass the time while traveling, and it died the day after I left. By now, almost a year later, I can't trust that my computer, which I paid over $1000 for, will work long enough that I can start and finish a project on it before it up and dies on me, and although Apple has taken good care of me and fixed it repeatedly, they obviously haven't solved the problem, since it keeps happening over and over and over. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of people with similar stories to mine. This is the problem.
I'm not asking for Apple to do anything special for me or to give me any kind of special treatment. I just want the computer I paid for to work for more than a few weeks at a time. If something goes wrong once in a while and I have to have it fixed, I can understand that, but if replacing the same part (the logic board) a couple times doesn't solve the problem, I don't want them to keep pretending that trying again a third, fourth, or eleventh time is going to make a difference if there's something fundamentally wrong with the design or manufacturing process.
All I want is a solution to whatever it is that's wrong with this generation of iBooks (which I am otherwise completely happy with, when mine works) so I can use it normally without being panicking and worrying that it's broken again whenever I see some kind of rendering or display artifact on the screen. I'm sure the poor support people at Apple would be happy to be done dealing with me calling in on a regular basis so they can take a break.
I'm not sure that there is anything legally related to this, but Apple repairs are covered for 90 days after the initial repair, within the initial warranty or not. I know this for a fact. I am a certified Apple repair technician (desktop and portables). My 9-5 is filled with fixing broken and defective Apple computers. In my experience Apple is very aware of how customer service is crucial to thier business. They rutinely cover repairs in our shop that are out of or not covered by warranty under what is called a CS (Customer Satisfaction) Code. The sad fact is that the majority of the computers that I see are out of order due to abuse (dropping, liquid spill, general clumsiness, etc.). This is expressly not covered by apple's warranty, limited or extended. Still people expect Apple to fix thier machines no matter the scope of the damage at no cost to them. Historically speaking (in my experience), Apple has been much more forgiving than I would ever expect. I've even seen a number of machines replaced to satisfy unhappy customers. Now, having said all of this, like many /. readers, I don't know how relevant my post is, as I haven't read the article yet. I may have to eat my words in a few minutes when I go back to read the articles.
1. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball. 2. Do not eat iPod shuffle.
My complaint is this: I had my iBook logic board replaced within a year of purchase. Free repair, great. But they didn't fix the problem, and I didn't get another year warranty on the new logic board. So, my warranty expires a few months later, and the problem still remained but didn't manifest itself until a few months after my warranty expired. Now they would like US$280 to repair my logic board again, but the problem is that their repair doesn't solve the problem, and you can bet that your iBook will be out of commission within a year again.
And you're right, they aren't obligated to do anything about it, but if they want to maintain a reputation of customer service, they had better.
An additional note: A friend of my with the G3 iBook eventually had so many problems they've now set him up with a brand new G4 iBook. He had Apple Care.