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AppleCare - How Many Problems is Too Much?
steeviant wonders: "I live in New Zealand, and have been dealing with AppleCare Australia over issues with my PowerBook G4, which has needed three replacement power supplies, one battery, two motherboards, a top case, and a screen replaced under warranty, and it now has another hardware problem. I'm not satisfied that AppleCare Australia think it is acceptable for my PowerBook to have nine problems in two years, and want the machine replaced, but they are refusing. I have scoured the apple.com.au, and apple.com websites trying to find some way to contact anyone to try to get AppleCare to reconsider their stance on this issue. If New Zealand had an Apple branch office, I would simply take them to court, but even that is not possible as their computers are sold through a local distributor. Surely Apple don't consider this appalling number of failures to be acceptable for a computer which cost over NZD $9000. Can anyone suggest an avenue through which I can contact Apple in the U.S. for help?" Sometimes handing technical issues defect-by-defect works, however it seems to me that there are many cases where it would seem to be a waste of time...both the manufacturer's and the customer's. Should manufacturers be required to replace an entire machine after a certain number of defects in a specific time period, or might there be a better way to handle these kinds of technical issues? Update: 03/31 3AM EDT by C : steeviant wants to let everyone know that Apple has offered to replace his machine with a 'like for like' model before this article was even posted. So, "All's well that ends well." for some, how about you?
In the US there is a "Lemon Law" for automobiles. After 3 major defects you can return your car and get a new one.
I've always been of the opinion that there should be a similar law for electronics/computer systems. Sometimes you just get a bad equipment and the best course of action is to replace the entire thing.
~.Evanrude
Because thier batteries last for x hours, and (taking recharges*time on each charge) yours lasts for x +1000000 hours.
They'll run through $150 (or more) of batteries while you'll pay $50, while maintaining a smaller form factor in yours.
Ain't Apple great?
your original iPod was $500. it was not sold under the pretense of lasting forever. right now, you can ship it back to apple for $100 and get the battery replaced. that's one fifth of the original cost of the unit to make it functional again.
paying $8 to replace batteries on a $30 mp3 player is over a quarter of the price of the original unit. and the said battery lasts a lot shorter than lithum battery in iPod, requiring much more frequent battery replacements.
i think you are comparing apples to oranges here. diminishing battery capacity is a fact of life. until some miracle new technology comes about, apple cannot do anything about this. (of course, they could post a disclaimer that lithium battery has inherent natural lifetime... however, unless industry as a whole decide to do this, why should apple be handicapped for being honest? it's not like lithium batteries used by other companies are immune from the same problem...)
repeated component failures in a computer is just bad QA.
apple's warranty, just like most others, leaves it up to apple's discretion to determine how the unit will be fixed.
repeated problems do suck. but it's the standard of the industry, i guess... if you want more assurance, i'd go with other companies with unofficial history for complete replacements...
I work at a public university and we have a very good working relationship with Apple even though we don't buy nearly as many Macs now as we once did. Every Mac we buy comes with AppleCare and we almost always get a tech support person quickly. A faculty member here had some trouble with a new Powerbook and had the local Apple authorized repair place look at it a couple times and when the problem couldn't be worked out Apple replaced it. He had to demand they do it, but they did. That seems to be par for the course.
Dell requires a little less demanding to replace computers, but then, we pay almost twice as much for their support plans, and on laptops even more than that, so I'd expect it.
Keep in mind that Apple and Dell both regularly take the top honors in comparisons (survey-based) of tech support.
Firstly, the lemon laws vary state by state. But, in most of them, the law doesn't talk about the number of defects. It talks about the number of times repair is attempted on a single defect without success. If they fix it in (usually) 3 times or less, it's not a lemon.
I worked retail for a few years out of high school and this idea that the customer is always right is silly. If the customer was always right they would pay $1 for everything they wanted and it would all assemble itself while they sipped some drink of their choice and then did all their work for them. The average customer is stupid, lazy and above all cheap. The customer, in my experience, is hardly ever right and needs to be told what they need and how to do it, problem is that most sales and support folks are crooked or stupid themselves making the whole problem exponentially worse.
Lemon laws are great, and should cover almost everything made in my mind, and unless the author is leaving out some important details Apple should replace the unit and should have done it after problem #3 or #4 in my estimation, but what you gonna do?
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
...if something does happen, Apple will probably be the last to really care. You can see these attitudes reflected in the problems the iBook and iPod has had regarding their hardware.
Considering the number of iPods shipped since its inception and the number of people who actually complain about battery issues, it is a very small percentage of iPods that are affected. Furthermore, it's also debatable if the battery problems are indeed problems or just normal wear and tear. I have a first generation iPod and despite its age, its battery still works fine (I use it daily). In fact, I probably put more wear and tear on my iPod than average users since I've travelled with it around the globe.
I am not saying the iPod issues raised by some users are non-existent, but simply that it's a small percentage of users. Furthermore, Apple offers a one year warranty on iPods and extended AppleCare for it too. There are also 3rd party iPod battery vendors. So in terms of support, there are plenty of options.
Regarding the iBook, Apple has implemented a logic board repair extension program (http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/), so I don't quite understand what "attitude" Apple has that's deplorable in this circumstance.
-B
nothing like x86 where hardware is working but the software driving them aren't... :P
There is a threshold to which any device will operate, including switching power supplies and power control units.
Perhaps he has a faulty laptop, but after *two* motherboard upgrades... maybe it's a faulty power supply? Still, the issue isn't only "What is wrong with the laptop," but "What is killing the laptop"?
GPL Deconstructed
"The March issue of Consumer Reports, included a survey of 4,100 consumers, who gave Dell 62 points out of a possible 100 for its support on desktop PCs. Although it still managed to top competing brands Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, which scored 54 and 51, respectively, Dell's rating represented a decline from the magazine's last desktop support survey, published in June 2003, in which it received a 64.
Apple Computer led the pack, with 74 in the recent survey, while Gateway scored 61. A score of 80 would mean that respondents were very satisfied, while 60 is described as fairly well satisfied. Differences of more than four points in the survey were meaningful, the report said."
But why accept hard data from a well-respected product review organization that doesn't accept advertising when you can spew mindless anecdotal drivel pulled from a dark, hard-to-reach place that makes you feel so much more important than others? Getting more life?