[Closed] How to force Apple to replace my computer.

Rather than post here I'd be in the Apple store 'demanding' of the Manager a replacement (would accept a temp). Don't be fobbed off and let them know in no uncertain way that they are impedding your ability to earn.

As b r says, go to you local Apple store. Don't be fobbed off with any of the regular 'geniuses' and demand to see the manager. Really kick off.

....and I mean a just a smidge down from this level of kicking off:

[img] [/img]

Nope.
Bypass the local store and use your wordsmith skills to write to the MD / President of the UK operations. Provide all of the info that you've included above.
He'll get one of his minions on to it ...

TBF you didn't buy any kind of business-critical cover so I don't see why they should cover you. Don't you budget for hardware failures if it is a business? Not trying to found an arse but just trying to see it from a business perspective.

or if they simply think i'm a complete **** idtio?

Shouldn't that be an [i]i[b]D[/b]tio[/i]?

Shouldn't that be an iDtio?

Nope, don't think so.

I have asked about business cover before, but I don't have enough machines (I only have two) which means I can't get apple to cover me. Apparently I don't really count as a 'business' as a freelancer/sole-trader.

Sounds very poor - they're normally pretty good. I'd try another store and see what they say. The graphics card just died on my 20 mth old iMac - I didn't take out the Extended warranty as I've never claimed on it for any other machines in 15 yrs. Typically this is the one to pack up

Doesnt not fit for purpose come in here..

Doesnt not fit for purpose come in here..

wysiwyg - Member
Doesnt not fit for purpose come in here..
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST

So it's a heavily-used two year old laptop, running a slightly funky version of Unix. Why would it be any different than any other IBM compatible laptop?

I'm using a brand new MacBook Air. It will be abused rushing about between airport lounges etc. I'll be happy if it lasts more than two years, but I won't be surprised if it doesn't. Pretty much every laptop I've owned has shown some signs of unreliability after two years - simply a fact that if you rattle lots of soldered joints about, eventually some will come slightly loose. Loose solders do not make for reliable computers....

over two years old. You have to show its a manufacturing fault and even then you would only be able to claim a part refund

You say it's business critical and costs you money when it's down

I'd buy another one but still push like **** to get that one repaired/replaced - then you'll have a spare

Would it be worth maybe upgrading to a Mac Pro? We had them at uni and they got constantly abused by students, and they seemed to last pretty well.

uplink - Member
You say it's business critical and costs you money when it's down
I'd buy another one but still push like **** to get that one repaired/replaced - then you'll have a spare
POSTED 35 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Mate,
If its business critical gear you should be upgrading it before it dies. Our Macbook Pros are expected to last 2 years then regardless they will be replaced
If you're editing every day you're hammering the thing. Have you thought about leasing the laptop??

Computers are the cheapest items in my manufacturing business,but unfortunatly just as critical as £100k+ machining centres. If they are more than 2 years old and they play up, I just change them. As much as it must p**s you off to have all this aggro, I'd just buy another one, you've probably lost more than £2K with all you're running around and reboots (nodoubt each time it freezes it loses some new work that you hadn't saved right up to date)If another make of machine will do the job and you are not happy, vote with you're feet and buy elsewhere. If your next lap top only last 2 years, then you need to factor in a new laptop purchase every 2 years into your business plan. time as they say, is money.JMHO.

Apple have sold out. Customer satisfaction is no longer important to this most succesful company. They just want your money!

I already have a mac pro for editing on a day basis. It's just for when i'm moving about or abroad. Maybe its only 18 months old, I can't remember. Regardless, i paid extra for a three year guarantee. When the three years are up, i'll replace it.

I don't think i'm being unreasonable.

imo that's fair, if you've paid for 3 years of cover then they should be able to keep it going for 3 years!

As others have said, try to escalate your problem within the organisation.

Just go and buy a £300 laptop from pc world or whatever, it will be as powerful as your mac but will actually work

A £300 laptop from PC World will not have the graphics or processor to edit HD video. To edit HD reliably you need an i7 quad or equivilent and at least 1gb of dedicated graphics card.

this^ even with the bottom macbookpro 13in i can work on native hd footage without generating a proxy, even grading/retiming clips in FCPx only takes a few seconds.

ok £600 then

Get a Mac, they just w.... oh.

Joe - Member
I already have a mac pro for editing on a day basis. It's just for when i'm moving about or abroad. Maybe its only 18 months old, I can't remember. Regardless, i paid extra for a three year guarantee. When the three years are up, i'll replace it.

I don't think i'm being unreasonable.

Totally agree, and this really pisses me off about Apple. Been bitten by it a few times before.

Matt24k - Member
A £300 laptop from PC World will not have the graphics or processor to edit HD video. To edit HD reliably you need an i7 quad or equivilent and at least 1gb of dedicated graphics card.

Are you comparing that to what a two year old macbook pro has? [IMG] [/IMG]

http://support.apple.com/kb/sp544

retro83
Not comparing to macbook as they generally use their graphics card and processor more efficiently than a PC. My point was that to edit HD video on a PC you will need to spend more than 300 quid at PC World.
I note that R J has revised his figure to £600.

I don't think i'm being unreasonable.

It does suck a bit, agreed, but they do seem to be trying to help.

Standing in the store is probably your best bet for a quick resolution.

A blank laptop with just OS would narrow it down to hardware, but I would consider it unreasonable to ask a warranty covered customer to do this - they should offer a loan PC to you, and run yours on a bench (maybe booted off a firewire disk with clean OS).

My experience of phone support was good though, they couriered my Macbook Pro to and from repair for nowt simply by staying on the phone and politely but firmly saying I couldn't get to a repair center in a reasonable timeframe, and my IBM Thinkpads of similar value all came with a collect/return warranty.

They didn't have to do it, but they did <shrug>.

why should they provide you with a brand new machine?

Because they took his money for the support contact to guarantee him peace of mind and a working Mac Book for 3 years. If they cant provide that service by fixing it they should give him a new one. He bought an insurance policy from them they should honour it or not take his money in the first place.

Because they took his money for the support contact to guarantee him peace of mind and a working Mac Book for 3 years. If they cant provide that service by fixing it they should give him a new one. He bought an insurance policy from them they should honour it or not take his money in the first place.

I don't think it does.

EDIT: Just found the T&Cs on the Apple site...

[i]Limitations The Plan does [b]not[/b] cover:
The provision of replacement equipment during the period when the Covered
Equipment is being repaired[/i]

Bit of insider info that might help. I can't definitely speak for Apple but most manufacturers have a procedure known as "Safety Capture" to remove potentially unsafe equipment from the field.

If the laptop was to develop a fault that was say causing you minor electrical shocks then they might be more willing to issue a replacement

But that's not the point is it, its the fact they have not been able to repair it ? I agree if he has given it to them to repair and everything was great and it worked fine. He has given them the opportunity to repair it a couple of time and they have not done so.

I agree if they COULD repair it then they don't need to replace it but if they cant they should as I bet the T&C's don't say we will try and repair it and if we cant tough titties !!

you should have got a PC mate!

But that's not the point is it, its the fact they have not been able to repair it ? I agree if he has given it to them to repair and everything was great and it worked fine. He has given them the opportunity to repair it a couple of time and they have not done so.

I agree if they COULD repair it then they don't need to replace it but if they cant they should as I bet the T&C's don't say we will try and repair it and if we cant tough titties !!

But they are still trying to repair it.

For Six months !!!! Is that really acceptable ?

replace and then get this fixed as a spare.

It's a business so you will be amortising the cost anyway?

It's business critical so having a spare is a good idea anyway.

How much have you lost with it being down already?

For Six months !!!! Is that really acceptable ?

Probably not but what options would you have? - sue them for the cost of the Apple care package?

bazzer - Member
But they are still trying to repair it.
For Six months !!!! Is that really acceptable ?

Mastilles Fannyface - you really are one of these prize fanny internet users, who sits behind his silly little computer screens all day making smug comments to people on forums. Why don't you just go outside you utter prick?

I casually browse here once or twice a day, and every single thread has a smug "i know better" comment from you. I find it amazing that after voicing your stupid opinion, you keep returning to this thread to post more nonsense.

In reply to this, you'll probably post a picture of an octopus, or some other cliquey shit which internet saddos like you revert to in times of desperation.

I'm no Mac expert, but.

I can readily see why a motherboard swap might cause instability. Different ages / revisions of motherboard could well have a different mix of chipset components on there, and even with an otherwise like-for-like swap you might still have differing firmware revisions or other ephemeral changes. Whilst it's not ideal, I'm not wholly surprised that Apple are suggesting a clean reinstall of the OS, this sounds sensible to me.

With respect to the OP, I'm sceptical of statements like "this has been going on for six months"; how much of the six months have been Apple's fault, and how much of it has been the OP putting up with the problem and refusing to follow their advice? (I don't know, of course, I'm guessing here)

Also, "it's business critical" holds no water I'm afraid; if it's critical, you build in redundancy. If a faulty PC was impacting my business to a point where I was losing money, I'd buy a new one and keep the old one as a spare. Whether you use it daily for your business or twice a month to download porn matters not a jot as far as either Apple or warranties are concerned.

That said, if I'd had it back several times without success I think I'd be squealing Sale Of Goods Act. I'd suggest that it's reasonable to expect that a two grand laptop still warrantied by the manufacturer should last for the length of the warranty, and you've given them reasonable opportunity to rectify the problem and they've failed. You really need to try a clean build though, you're on shaky ground until you can disprove it's a software issue (which when all's said and done, it might be).

Mastilles Fannyface - you really are one of these prize fanny internet users, etc etc {snip}

I think I'm beginning to see why you're having issues getting the service you want from Apple, if this is your standard reaction to people who give you advice that you don't like.

Mastilles Fannyface - you really are one of these prize fanny internet users, who sits behind his silly little computer screens all day making smug comments to people on forums. Why don't you just go outside you utter prick?

Have a nice day.

[img] [/img]

'ere we go.

Matt24k - Member

retro83
Not comparing to macbook as they generally use their graphics card and processor more efficiently than a PC. My point was that to edit HD video on a PC you will need to spend more than 300 quid at PC World.
I note that R J has revised his figure to £600.

Actually you'll generally find the opposite; the drivers are generally (far) more optimised and complete on Windows than on OSX. Graphics card performance especially.

As per the advice that apple have given, the first thing I would do for an intermittent fault would be to clean install, then leave the machine running a burn in test for as long as possible. Would include thermal stress into the equation, and ensure you perform on both graphics cards assuming you have duals installed.

If this passes without any faults, then start installing critical software (i.e. Productivity) Repeat the burn in process and continue. Cloning the hard drive after each additional instal will also ensure an easy way to roll back if / when you do have issues.

Also as a side note, if it is a critical machine that is relied on for income then there would be nothing on it bar the bare minimum software to earn the income, so the above should be a short enough process.

It may sound like a complete PITA, but its the only way to test that what you are installing / connecting is functioning correctly.

As an anecdote, I've had a very similar occurrence with a 2010 17", and after running through the above it was a Lacie Bigdrive's raid structure which was being used for time-machine that was causing the issue.

Don't say that - OP will become aggressive and insult you because he isn't happy with the opinion given (even though he asked advice on an open forum).

Ahh well. Some people's heads work like that.

Can you try to find some middle ground with Apple? So they want to run your machine for a couple of weeks with a clean build or booted from an external drive with a fresh OS? Seems reasonable as this could well prove/disprove the problem as software related. Why don't you ask them to loan you another machine, with your environment moved onto there (by one of their techs to make sure it's done 'properly') which you can then run simultaneously.

If you don't see any issues on the loaner it's a fair bet the problem is hardware.Hopefully this will coincide with a freeze on your machine running the fresh OS.

I understand your frustration, but rather than get all confrontational and put their backs up try to work with them.

Mastilles Fannyface

Arguments aside, that's a brilliant insult. I'm still giggling. Sorry. Ahem.... 😉

you should have got a PC mate!

Whilst I sort of agree (currently posting from 3-4 year old dell that has had its fair share of video, photoshop and audio editing abuse), you can't get FCP for Windows.

I certainly don't agree with the way in which the OP chose to respond. But he's obviously annoyed by the service he's received from Apple as I think most of us would be if we had paid for a 3yr warranty. Frankly taking the side of a multi-billion dollar behemoth thats screwing someone about just amounts to a bit of a wind-up. And they are amazingly common on this forum. Quite why, I don't know?

so what did you do about it Joe?

+1 for Fannyface. I'm quite amazed no one's thought of that before actually!

It's behind you....

[img] [/img]

[i]Almost[/i] an octopron moment...