Apple does a new record(?) in trying to screw a customer

[Kaotik]

http://www.seattlerex.com/seattle-rex-vs-apple-the-verdict-is-in/

Short version:
Guy buys Macbook with 8600M, which as we know was affected by the "bumpgate"
Apple promises 4 year repair/replace guarantee for the affected laptops
Laptop breaks after 3 years, Apple refuses to repair/replace because the computer doesn't turn on at all (well, obviously, the damn thing broke completely)
Guy tries to call, send letters, complain in BBB and whatnot, and finally sues Apple
Apple tells blatant lies in court, believing their customers aren't tech savvy at all, and finally loses the case as the truth unfolds, guy gets all expenses paid, and the money he paid for the laptop originally.

Funniest part of the whole thing: When judge asked Apple reps how much it would cost Apple to fix the laptop, they replied "Oh, it wouldn’t have cost us anything, Nvidia foots the bill for each board we replace"

 

[Mize]

Brilliant marketing.

 

[I.S.T.]

I wish Apple was a small company...

 

[Mize]

I wish Apple was a small company...

I wish some other company made hardware as nice as Apple's.

 

[Richard]

I'm not defending Apple (Mize, lots of companies do, you simply prefer Apple's) but when my lappy's 8600M croaked the laptop still boot up, it's just that it would bluescreen everytime. So I boot into safe mode and replaced the drivers with Microsoft's VGA drivers and everything was fine. I lost aero and the VGA out capabilities but it worked... for a few weeks. Then the laptop would boot and the display would show 6 tiled repeated screens each at 320x240 (or something). Once that happened I left my lappy mostly as a quiet power-efficient back-up server. Occasionally a boot would show a corrected single screen. Next boot would revert to the 6 screen tiles. Finally after 3-4 months the laptop finally stopped booting at all. So maybe Apple thought the guy was not legit. ?

Anyway, all this is academic because they should have anticipated the cost of the legal procedings would >> the cost of replacement. If the guy's laptop had a 8600M he should have gotten a replacement no questions asked.

 

[Mize]

Not to derail, but please direct me to laptops of similar build quality to the MacBook Pros or even MacBook Airs. I buy about one laptop per month for my employees on average and would love to get some better stuff. I've been going mainly with Asus of late as they're pretty decent, but nowhere near the design and build of a unibody MacBook Pro.

 

[Kaotik]

Not to derail, but please direct me to laptops of similar build quality to the MacBook Pros or even MacBook Airs. I buy about one laptop per month for my employees on average and would love to get some better stuff. I've been going mainly with Asus of late as they're pretty decent, but nowhere near the design and build of a unibody MacBook Pro.

At least Samsung makes (aluminum?) unibody laptops

 

[Davros]

Loved this

You see, when I ordered my MacBook Pro, I paid about $300 extra for them to up-clock the chip from 2.5Ghz to 2.6Ghz.

I wish some other company made hardware as nice as Apple's.

Not a laptop but behold the majesty

 

[Mize]

At least Samsung makes (aluminum?) unibody laptops

I looked at one about a month back and it was flexy and squeaky. More like the Asus Zenbook than a unibody Mac. Maybe there's a new version?

The HP Envy 15 looks a lot like a MBP, but I have an ongoing problem with HP since a dozen desktops I purchased direct from them died from 1 to 4 months out of warranty from leaky caps on FIC motherboards and they would only offer new motherboards for the price of new computers.

 

[Grall]

Apple often tries to fuck their own customers on warranty and repair issues, even when the problem is due to well-known design, engineering or manufacturing issues that Apple itself created, which they themselves are well aware of. It's one of the reasons I'll never really like that company, even though I've bought some of their products.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

People who voluntarily buy apple products and buy into all the bullshit they tell deserve to get screwed.

 

[Mize]

People who voluntarily buy apple products and buy into all the bullshit they tell deserve to get screwed.

Why? So do desperate cancer, parkinsons, etc. patients who shell out their life savings on unapproved snake oil deserve to be ripped off too? As far as I can tell, how businesses should conduct themselves is unrelated to the intelligence, gullibility or any other aspect of their customer base.

Or is it just that you can't stand Appleites? If so, I'll assume your comment was in jest.

 

[Pressure]

People who voluntarily buy apple products and buy into all the bullshit they tell deserve to get screwed.

I'm wondering why you even bothered to reply if that is all you are going to "add" to this discussion.

Yes, the case is quite unlucky but I have faced the same situation twice.

The second time around I also involved the "forbrugerombudsmanden" (the equivalent to better business bureau?) and in the end I won the case against Apple and got the full amount I paid for the computer fully refunded.

I have no clue why they are so bad at these cases.

My first MacBook Pro (the original from 2006) had basically everything replaced and they still didn't think it was a lemon product.

What computers do I own today? Only Macs.The build quality, battery life and resale value are just too good (not to mention how the operating system suits my workflow 'like a boss').

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Lets just say I don't like apple business tactics and their consumer brainwashing.

For example: Dutch consumer law dictates that there is a 2 year warranty on electronics. Apple time and time again keeps not only screwing over costumers by telling them they only got 1 year warranty (which is against the law) and even now, when they were forced to change it, they keep being a bitch about it. So here you are, with your stupidly overpriced, childlaborour device, and you can't even expect apple to give you your lawfull warranty :') And the beauty of it all is that all apple consumers just accept it with a smile and go out to buy the next overpriced product a year later! Gotta give them credit for that.

And than I wont even start about bullshit like ''retina''. Bitch please, the DPI is only 10% higher than my Touch Diamond had 4 years ago. Actually, it took until the iphone 4 until the iphone could finally do everything my Diamond did.

I will never ever own apple products.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I'm wondering why you even bothered to reply if that is all you are going to "add" to this discussion.

What did you expect people would add to a thread with the OP basically bitching about Apples consumer practices?

 

[Grall]

People who voluntarily buy apple products and buy into all the bullshit they tell deserve to get screwed.

Not bought into any Apple bullshit, the Apple stuff I've bought have been informed decisions after looking at the other available options. I'm of course aware of Apple's propensity for bullshitting their customers, so they're unlikely to be able to screw with me since I'm already prepared.

 

[Mize]

Lets just say I don't like apple business tactics and their consumer brainwashing.

For example: Dutch consumer law dictates that there is a 2 year warranty on electronics. Apple time and time again keeps not only screwing over costumers by telling them they only got 1 year warranty (which is against the law) and even now, when they were forced to change it, they keep being a bitch about it. So here you are, with your stupidly overpriced, childlaborour device, and you can't even expect apple to give you your lawfull warranty :') And the beauty of it all is that all apple consumers just accept it with a smile and go out to buy the next overpriced product a year later! Gotta give them credit for that.

And than I wont even start about bullshit like ''retina''. Bitch please, the DPI is only 10% higher than my Touch Diamond had 4 years ago. Actually, it took until the iphone 4 until the iphone could finally do everything my Diamond did.

I will never ever own apple products.

All good reasons to avoid Apple, but their customers?

 

[Richard]

Not to derail, but please direct me to laptops of similar build quality to the MacBook Pros or even MacBook Airs. I buy about one laptop per month for my employees on average and would love to get some better stuff. I've been going mainly with Asus of late as they're pretty decent, but nowhere near the design and build of a unibody MacBook Pro.

If you start putting up restrictions like that it's going to be hard. If you're also only interested in laptops which have an apple like logo on the back it's going to be harder still.

I have an Asus U36SD. The magnesium-aluminium aloy it's made of is far "nicer" than the macbook's shell, it's anti-fingerprint, cool to the touch, gorgeous to look at and black. It's not unibody thankfully because I want to be able to upgrade the ram or switch bateries without having to take it to a store and pay for the previlege. The battery lasts 8 hours (that's real hours, Asus advertises 10 hours), which is why the charger never left my house ever since I bought the laptop 5 months ago. It weighs 3.5 pounds and is less than 2cm in height all the while sporting a standard voltage i7. It never heats up, the fan is never audible. The keyboard is the nicest chiclet keyboard I've ever used (I've used macs btw). It only cost me 899 euros. It's not perfect obviously, no computer is, but as long as you are willing to look you will find other, as you said, "hardware as nice as Apple's.".

Like you I also have a restriction that's a deal breaker. I'm a programmer, Apple's decision to remove hardware Home, End, Page Up and Page Down keys means apple's laptops and their wireless keyboards are unusable for my work. Apple only makes 3 laptops, Asus, HP, Samsung, etc. make dozens for different price ranges for people with different needs. But if the sole option Apple gives you is exactly the one you prefer, more power to you, just don't generalise because Apple's hardware is not fit for everybody.

 

[Mize]

FYI, I own one (1) Mac (personally) and it's in the center of the house for open use. I also own (personally) three W764 laptops (all Asus) and three W764 desktops. My company's local office owns a grand total of 2 Macs out of about 60 computers the rest being either linux or W7. Worldwide the number of Macs increases by about 2 and others by about 200. I'm hardly that biased. Right now I'm typing this on my 3x1920x1200 watercooled gaming rig...nope, no OSX

Actually I forgot, I also have a MacBook Air with NO OSX partition - only Ubuntu.

As for Apples wireless keyboards and laptop keyboards, yes, they utterly suck. Why they don't make a full sized wireless I can't understand as it would be great for my server room/KVM switch. Fortunately for me I use vi for all my remote admin stuff so the lack of home, etc. in convenient locations is not an issue. I haven't written code since 1992.

I like that Asus U36SD you linked to - just wish it had something better than a 520 GPU.

 

[Grall]

If you start putting up restrictions like that it's going to be hard. If you're also only interested in laptops which have an apple like logo on the back it's going to be harder still.

LOL!
Anyhow, it's hardly unreasonable to want a good quality build laptop. Most PC lappies are made of plastic and very creaky, and they often have AWFUL quality LCD screens. Mac screens, while not exactly rivalling IPS desktop units, are generally much better both in color and viewing angles, contrast and often also brightness.

it's anti-fingerprint, cool to the touch, gorgeous to look at and black.

Being both anti-fingerprint AND black would seem to be almost revolutionary properties!

It's not unibody thankfully because I want to be able to upgrade the ram or switch bateries without having to take it to a store and pay for the previlege.

Wut. A unibody mac is generally much easier to take apart than most PC laptops; the shell has one metal lid held down by a handful of precision screws, instead of 15 plastic hatches covering separate components and eleventy screws. You remove the lid, everything is exposed, nice and tidy. You can upgrade your RAM, switch out your harddrive, and have your laptop screwed back together again inside of five minutes.

Couldn't be simpler.