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.

Comments

Willful Ignorance

[Dr Tom Danger]

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=

Not too bright, I see...

[o-hayo]

The creator of BlackCider.com describes his iBook as a $1600 paperweight because it isn't being fixed, so he writes up a website asking Apple to fix it, and on that website he has pictures of his iBook disassembled which probably disqualifies him for any future recalls or free repairs. You'd think the smart thing to do is at least *hope* for the best and stick it in a drawer or something. To me it puts a certain, "I'm just bitching" attitude towards the whole thing - what stance does he have now that he took his laptop apart?? Hell, I drive a Ford Focus and thats exactly what I did with a fuel pump problem. I lugged that thing around for 3 months in anticipation of a fix, good thing too as it was getting worse and I was about to try and trade it in to some dealer.

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.

Not the first iBook Problem

[radicalskeptic]

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.

Whining about whiners...

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

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.