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Just What is a Custom Configured Server?
djhanson wonders: "I just got back from a small claims court proceeding against Apple Computer. They successfully won their argument in front of the court that selecting additional memory and disk drives for a computer/server at the time of purchase, off of their website, constitutes a 'custom configured computer built to the customer's specifications'. Said computer is therefore not eligible under the company policy to be returned. Has anyone else heard of such a thing? As near as I can tell, Apple is the only company that has such a restrictive policy. I called both IBM and HP, and neither of those companies has such a policy. Am I the only one that thinks there is something terribly wrong with a policy like this?
Any opinions? Suggestions? Comments? Whatever?"
on the (limited) information you've given it does seem a little unfair to you though, technically, the judgement was correct. You configured the machine, you are a customer, therefore it is a customer configured machine.
There should be a warning on their site when you do configure the machine yourself that you won't be able to do certain things.
an interesting point would be, what if you used the same customer configuration system to add in say some extra software or another battery for a laptop?
Sounds like your computer does fit that description in its barest sense. Good on you for actually going to small claims court, though. Good use of the system. Hope it was a neat experience. Unfortunately, yeah, Apple does screw people in a couple of places. It's unfortunate, but they don't have huge margins for their hardware, and they are hell bent on turning a buck. As far as consumer rights go, you got screwed, but at the same time, you could have read the terms of the sale beforehand.
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I have certainly returned custom apple systems in the past and have not had any issue whatsoever with it. How long had you had it before trying to return it? Where is your court docket? You are way to lite on details for me to consider this anything but false at this point. Feel free to prove me wrong however.
Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
- What country/state are you in?
- WHY were you trying to return the computer? Was it defective or did you just not want it after you got it?
- How long did you have the computer before you asked Apple to accept a return? For that matter, DID you ask Apple to accept a return or did you just file suit?
- If you did ask Apple to accept a return, how far did you escalate the matter? Did you stop at the first person who told you "no" or did you ask for that person's supervisor?
If I was representing you in this matter, these are just the first of the questions I would be asking you, for two reasons: First, it is information that establishes whether you have a case. Second, they are the first questions the OTHER SIDE will ask you.Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
The point is, though, that the work is done by Apple, and should be done to as high a standard as the original manufacturing, and they should be prepared to offer a guarantee on it. Even with a well designed product, there is always a chance that a component will fail, and therefore the system should be fully guaranteed. It would be fair enough not accepting returns if the buyer had modified it, but not guaranteeing your own workmanship is a cop out.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
apple here employs asembly line workers through an agentcy. The agency fee is deducted in an hourly rate through the employee's hourly wage for the complete duration of the employment.As a result the employee gets under the national minimum wage which is 7.35 euro's .I am in ireland.
I know this as i was going to work there for the summer.
People have tried writing Steve Jobs, petitions, you name it. They do this all the time with notebooks. Their ram and HD upgrades are a ripoff anyway, I just add that stuff later. Apple won't take the machine back if there is a problem.
Worse, IMHO, is that there is no way to get Apple to send you a machine in the interim while yours is getting fixed. I make money with my hardware, and if I don't have a machine, that costs me a lot of money. So I have to have a backup machine just for that eventuality. Kinda stupid eh?
Hey Apple Executives, if you ever read anything here, FIX THIS BEFORE IT BITES YOU. This is one part of Apple that is really lacking, and coinidentally I'm sure, it's also one that Steve Jobs doesn't have a lot of personal expertise with.
I'm already paying a huge premium for Apple hardware. I would gladly pay a little more for the ability to get a hotswap done - Applecare does not offer this.
..don't panic
If that's true, I wonder why the standard amount of RAM on all Macs is so rediculously low. If they threw in more RAM, perhaps fewer people would custom configure their computers.
What juridiction is this guy in? In my state, small claims court does not allow attorneys. You can still go to civil court for similar amounts and use an attorney, but not small claims. I can't imagine Apple going to court without an attorney. The usual tactic for big companies is to get the case moved to circuit court. This involves months of waiting to get on the docket and can be quite expensive. This story, if true, would be very odd.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball(TM)
I think Apple really wishes customers would simply go out (or online) and procure a bigger hard drive or more RAM themselves. They go out of their way to provide instructions for installing these components and it really isn't that hard to do. Besides, it's far less expensive for the customer in the end, and you don't need to wait an extra week for the computer to be shipped by Apple...
It would be easier in most industries if you did the work instead of the company. Hey, most people don't want to bother. But they would like to pay for what they want.
I'll go to Wal-Mart, buy bookshelves and put them together myself. I'd much rather have a store deliver the bookshelves and set them up, but I don't want to pay for it. If I were willing to pay for it, I wouldn't be going to Wal-Mart.
There are things that I'm willing to pay for so that they will be done right. The first bookshelf didn't turn out too well.
I am sure that Apple has figured out how to ship do the "custom configurations" more efficiently than that. You, most likely, have to wait a little longer because they don't pull one off the shelve. They, probably, do the config at assembly. It cost next to nothing for them to do the custom config. I am sure that is what they do because that is what everyone else of any size in the industry does.
Apple charges such a high prive for memory and hard drives because people will pay it, and they do. Most people order the machine configured as they like. Most people are not going to upgrade a new machine. Geeks will do that, but not most other people or corporate customers.
That's pretty funny... I assume you're probably some retail grunt working part-time at an Apple Store whining because you didn't read the fine print of their holiday bonus promotions.
I just left a job with Apple after about 5 years with them. I can honestly say that I've never worked for a company that treated its employees as well as Apple and the people I worked with were fantastic. In fact, if my wife wasn't offered such a large career opportunity out of state that practically doubled our income, I would still be working with them.
I'm an Apple employee too, and you're full of shit. Employees are treated very well at Apple. What other company can you name that gives everyone a week off at christmas over and above normal vacation? This year, we even got the whole week for thanksgiving, too.
Falconware will provide you with customized cases (including an airbrushed nude, I suppose) if you pay them enough. You can get your iPod with a peronsalized engraving - those are customizations.
By your same argument, selecting the 40 gig iPod instead of a 30 gig could be consided a "customization", if it was presented as such. Is that reasonable?
Apple has numerous authorized resellers out there, next time look at buying your product from them. Most of the resellers I know of have much more leniant return policies and sometimes you can even get a better price. As long as the vendor doesn't advertise a lower price, that would violate the "minimum advertized pricing, but they can sell at a lower price. ...and remember, they're call "VALUE ADDED Resellers" for a reason, you just have to find the added value yourself.
Consumer Reports consistently ranks Apple #1 in lowest incidence of repair and best support among all computer manufacturers.
Most recent Consumer Reports report available on their web site (June 2003)
Most recent report, available to CR subscribers, referenced in News.com article (March 2004)
So if Apple's support is "horrible", then I guess everyone else is a lot worse (especially since Dell, the next closest to Apple, got the middle rating on 3 out of 4 support categories, while Apple got the top rating in all categories).
Alienware and several small time pc sellers take a similar stance on 'customized' hardware, even when the customization is just adding harddrives or ram. It's pretty bad that Apple is doing this though, what would happen is Dell acted like this, every pc they sell is customized based on this logic.
You are wrong.... I work in apple, on the asemply line and i get about 9.90 an hour. I was employed through the agaency (TRIL). While it isnt great it is above the minimum wage..... plus employees get 27% off all apple products.
I purchased a G5 through Apple last year at Christmas time. I customized it and all, blah blah blah. Because I had moved to a new state in the meantime, MBNA cancelled the order and had it shipped back to apple the day it was supposed to arrive It just suddenly appeared on the tracking information that the package was to be returned. After fighting wiht MBNA for about an hour, I finally decided to just let them win and sever my relationship with them. I'd just go and get a Mac in a couple of months instead of getting it on credit. The problem was NO ONE KNEW WHERE THE PACKAGE WAS. Not fedex, not MBNA, not Apple, and they refused to credit my account until they found out where it was. Nevermind that I wasn't the one who returned it, they were holding me liable for a product that I never received. Apple and MNBA were particularly nasty about it saying that they could do nothing. They kept claiming that they would not charge me for something that I never received, but when I asked them to credit my account, they were still adamant about not crediting it to my account. For a full month, NO ONE KNEW WHERE THE 3000 USD computer was. Apple still refused to credit my account even though they couldn't find the computer. MBNA was STILL CHARGING ME INTEREST telling me not to worry everything was all right. Needless to say I no longer want a G5 and I no longer want to do business with MBNA. I learned an important lesson that day. Even potentially loayal customers do not have a chance in this environment. I went back to building my own PC, where at least I have less risk of losing money and I control my own tech support. It may be more work, but I don't have to beg Corporations to be reasonable each time I have a legitimate grievance with them.
http://cincyboys.blogspot.com/ Everything Cincinnati. Including the word 'Finnih'
They respond to government bids with a price so low you can't refuse, lock you in to a year, or multi-year agreement and then a month later that special part number cheap system is 'discontinued' and you come back with a system where they make money.