[Veltliner]

I repeatedly tried to contact apple care.

No matter when I call, weekend, weekday, the wait is "15 minutes".

It used to be 2 minutes at most.

If I combine this with the high amount of lemons apple is churning out, I wonder why I'm still paying premium prices for their computers.

Yes, lemons.

My research about my loudly humming iMac has shown, that this problem has existed for a year or more, especially with the 24" iMacs.

Did they do anything about it? No. (My iMac was one of the last 24"s produced, my serial number tells me).

Or the story with the freezing glossy iMacs.

Or the story with the glossy iMac screens, that are unevenly lighted.

If apple were a car company, they would have callback after callback.

[analogika]

The freezing issue has been fixed.

I've never heard of the humming issue before your other thread, and I work at an authorized repair center.

And Apple's percentage of lemons is still, AFAIK, the lowest in the industry, and pretty much at the level it's been over the past five years or so. The *absolute* number of lemons has grown tremendously, of course, but that has to do primarily with the fact that their products are recently selling in utterly silly numbers.

The phone support issue might have to do with the fact that their products are recently selling in utterly silly numbers.

Not to lessen your apparently less-than-ideal support experience, but this stuff takes time to ramp up.

[Veltliner]

Well, I hope Apple, selling computers at utterly silly numbers, will also hire customer reps at utterly silly numbers, so we won't get waiting minutes in utterly silly numbers.

Sure, the freezing has been fixed, but not the uneven lighting of the screens.


As of the humming thread, when I researched the humming, I found one on MacNN via google, and brought it to the top in the hope one of these guys who had the problem, too, would respond and tell me how they fixed it.

The thread is over half a year old and I bumped it up, and you can see it here. It's called " noise coming from my iMac screen".

I hope very much Apple is not letting standards slip with increased volume of their business.

[analogika]

Considering your evidence of service and quality going down the drain includes an issue where some guy out of millions of iMac owners had a similar problem with a completely different model from the one you own - half a year ago...

Have you tried the, um, "obvious" - taking it back to the point of sale?

Because, from the thread you bumped from half a year ago, it would seem that *that* is how they fixed it?

[macintologist]

My iMac works perfectly and I love it.

[ghporter]

I found the uneven lighting contrast of my iMac screen only after carefully looking for it using a technique that stresses my eyes.

<boilerplate #7>People seldom post "I'm loving every minute of this new machine, and everything is completely perfect in every way" because they're enjoying their perfect computer. What gets posted is in something like 99% of cases, negative feedback only. This is NOT an indication of either a high lemon rate or massive numbers of problems affecting thousands of machines. It is an indication that users expect working, fully functional, and attractive products from Apple, which reflects WELL on Apple, not the reverse.</boilerplate>

While I agree that Apple Care needs more people on the phones, this is actually a sign that more people are adopting the Mac platform, not that Apple's customer service is flagging.

[Veltliner]

Of course I set up an appointment at the apple store.

I'll see where it goes. The fact that only three or four people reported this problem, doesn't mean only three or four people out of millions of mac users experience this problem.

Because not everybody posts problems.

Posting problems is not always venting emotions, even if it looks like that from the outside. You can also point out problems, because you don't want a certain company to lower its quality standards. I can see that some people find outcries outrageous.

And many people post positive remarks on their computers, and I did so, too.

This is why I hope that the problem is fixable, as an exchange will be difficult, as the white 24" is no longer produced (and who knows if they have still some in stock for this occasion).

Ghporter, I found that little line through "lighting" refreshing. Of course it's more illumination. Or maybe there's a better word for how a screen image is produced.

[Chinasaur]

You can't ramp tech support up at "utterly silly" rates unless you want "uttlerly incompetent" tech support. Doesn't work that way.

An old adage in Project Controls is "Throw lots of people at a late project and you just make it later..." Same goes with tech support. Who do you think would be training all those new people?

Existing tech support which would only deprive everyone of competent tech support thus making your wait time longer.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Veltliner 

Ghporter, I found that little line through "lighting" refreshing. Of course it's more illumination. Or maybe there's a better word for how a screen image is produced.

I did the strikethrough because I'm not convinced that the issue is as much uneven backlight as inconsistent contrast in the LCD itself. And as "contrast" is a function of both the backlight and the LCD together, I felt that was a better term. Functionally, for me anyway, this is a non-issue. My iMac is beautiful and I get beautiful pictures on the screen.

[AC Rempt]

Originally Posted by Veltliner 

The fact that only three or four people reported this problem, doesn't mean only three or four people out of millions of mac users experience this problem.

Your logic is a little hinky here.

It also doesn't mean millions have and just haven't gotten around to complaining.

I've had both models of Intel iMacs, the white and the aluminum, and while I did have some small issue with freezing (long since fixed), that's the only problem I've had with either machine. Doesn't mean no one else has had any problems, of course, but I think ghporter's "boilerplate #7"is closer to the truth.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Veltliner 

Because not everybody posts problems.

Posting problems is not always venting emotions, even if it looks like that from the outside. You can also point out problems, because you don't want a certain company to lower its quality standards. I can see that some people find outcries outrageous.

You will find, if you deal with end users a lot, as I do, that almost nobody ever visits a support forum such as this one UNLESS they actually HAVE a problem.