[neophilia]

After waiting 2 months for the new Dual 2.5, I finally couldn't wait any longer for a new machine, so I went ahead and ordered a new, Rev A dual 2.0 from Macmall. Got it in 2 days, this past Friday. Thank God, the wait was finally over.

So I set the thing up, careful to not plug in anything extra -- just in case. Turn it on. Fans rev up to full blast and stay that way through the registration process. Great.

Call Apple, they tell me to upgrade the OS from 10.3.3 to 10.3.4 or better. I ask, why the heck would you guys ship these things with a known software problem? No solid answer. So I keep the friendly tech support lady on hold while I upgrade and restart. Fans still at full blast. She then escalates the issue to a product specialist, who has me do everything under the sun to fix the problem. Problem persists. Next step was to talk to an "engineer" but that will take at least 2 days on top of the weekend. Great.

So I lug the thing down to an Apple Store and they run a temperature calibration utility on the thing. After reading up on it on the forums, I was pretty confident that would do the trick. Nope, CPU test fails. One of the 2 CPUs is DOA.

My options? Have them order a new CPU (at least 5-6 days, but we all know how reliable Apple shipping estimates are) and swap it with the bad one. Considering this was defective out of the box, I might as well have saved $500 bucks and gotten a refurb.

Called Macmall and they can't do anything until Monday when tech support is in. From what little they told me, it sounds like they'll try to fix the thing and send it back to me rather than give me a new machine. Fat chance I'll settle for that.

What I don't get, this is very obviously a hardware problem. Don't these things get QA'd off the factory floor? Wouldn't they notice if one of the machines sounded like a 747?

All in all, this has been the worst computer buying experience I have ever had. So much for spending a premium for that Apple experience. Instead, my homebrew AMD 64 PC is running like a champ and cost me less than $500 to upgrade.

Argh.
-n

[Maflynn]

Bummer dude,

I'd get a refund, I believe macamall has to accept it as a return and then go to apple and pick one up there, having them check it out before you buy it.

FWIW, my g5 2.0 has been running great, I know its no consolation for your predicament.

Mike

[sideus]

Originally posted by neophilia:
Don't these things get QA'd off the factory floor?

The way I understand the manufacturing process, no, not every single computer is tested. They will make a batch of them and then select certain ones to perform hardcore tests on them.

[djohnson]

Well, nothing is perfect. it does suck when it happens to you, but Apple should hook you up... Maybe you will get a rev b dual 2Ghz G5?

[erohy]

Having gone through a similar ordeal, I can sympathize.

After using PC's for years, I decided that Apple truly did make a superior machine and had superior service. I decided to switch 100% at home and excitedly ordered a Dual 2.0, ATI 9600XT, 2GB Apple RAM, 250GB HD in mid-July. A couple weeks later it arrived... and gave me the UI-freeze continually throughout the Welcome screens... fresh out of the box, no peripherals attached, completely virgin system.

I called Apple Support and was told to try a few things. Diagnostics CD checked out fine, resetting usual stuff like PMU & NVRAM didn't help. I also had an external firewire drive and an iPod that both stopped working immediately after being plugged into the G5. Apple finally said to bring the machine into the local Apple store.

A one-week repair estimate turned into three weeks. Apple technicians were curt on the phone, told me not to call asking about status of my machine (they'd call when it was done, they said), and gave me conflicting information about first a bad CPU, followed by a bad logic board, then a bad hard drive.

I finally escalated the issue to the manager, who helped speed along the repairs. They were not, however, willing to repair the iPod, claiming it just happened to fail on its own at the exact time I connected it to the G5 (my guess is that the hard power-offs each time the machine froze sent power spikes through the firewire bus that fried both device's firewire controllers).

Long story short, I started an excited 'switcher', completely enamored with Apple, and ended with some of the excitement gone. Sometimes you get a bum machine, it's true, but it's how a company then responds that truly defines them. After paying premium prices, my machine was DOA, it took weeks to repair, and Apple service certainly didn't live up to its name.

I can say that my machine is now fully healthy and I love it. I remain committed to the Apple platform. I just fear that they won't make any headway in the market if too many people (and especially first-time 'switchers') have experiences like myself and others posting here.... and from what I hear, these are unfortunately not isolated incidences.

[aaanorton]

What the $%*#@! is up with Apple?

What does "$%*#@!" mean? I mean, what curse word has 6 characters and fits the given context? I feel fairly comfortable with the breadth and width of my curse vocabulary, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. Maybe this convention doesn't work this way. Perhaps it's simply a matter of punctuation groupings to represent the spirit of a curse in general. Would more punctuation marks convey a more severe curse? I personally don't get any sense of frustration from "$", so maybe that was a bad choice of marks to begin with.
I guess the bigger question, though, is who the **** uses this stupid convention? Other than cartoon characters, of course. It's totally lame. Sure, when Dagwood hits his finger with a hammer or finds out the dog ate all the cold cuts, "#!&%" might be appropriate. But I hardly think this means that people should start using these in real conversations.
As far as the original poster's "problem" goes: that's what warranties are for, Nit-wit. Use yours and stop crying up the internet.

[booskaboo]

I too have had some issues (see other post about crashing g5 bad tech support)

SO I FEEL YOUR PAIN!!!!!

I had to wait 2months+ for my computer to ship because of all my upgrades and you'd have thought they would have tested it before shipping?

Are they shipping these when they know they have problems because they have to wait for the propper items to fix them. maybe they would rather ship defected items and act as if they don't know what's wrong with them, rather than holding back thousands of order longer to fix problems first?

I don't know, all I do know is that i still love apple! They are still the best machines out there setting trends for all other computer to try and reach. But, I do think the others have one thing over apple, and that's tech support. My father (still pcguy, but WILL make the switch on next computer purchase) has a dell. Get this, they actually come to his house to fix/address problems. It's amazing...

Oh well, i'm sure eventually I'll be happy with my g5, but, i wish they'd just give a brand new one that they KNOW works.

Good luck to ya!

[bradleykavin]

i personally think the best way to order a macintosh computer, is from apple...ive had problems with computers from macwarehouse and macmall..ive never had a problem from apple..and when a piece of equiptment does not work, it is replaced within five days no charge..

[Big Mac]

I have never heard of an Apple 5 day replacement policy, bradley. Are you talking about AppleCare service or something else? If there actually is such a policy, all of us would be very interested in the details. I personally am overjoyed with my G5, btw.

[Al G]

It wouldn't be any better getting it direct from Apple. Maybe in the past, but not any more.

Last I checked, Apple's policy still says they will replace DOA machines, however, contrary to their written policy, they will not, under any circumstances do that (perhaps for a large institution but not for the average customer). Even if the machine won't power up, they insist that you drag it to a service center.

[booskaboo]

Originally posted by bradleykavin:
i personally think the best way to order a macintosh computer, is from apple...ive had problems with computers from macwarehouse and macmall..ive never had a problem from apple..and when a piece of equiptment does not work, it is replaced within five days no charge..

I agrre w the others, I WISH THERE WAS A 5 DAY RETURN POLICY.

I hope to talk with apple about my g5 problems again today, but, I can guarentee they will not be telling me "we'll just give you a new one"

Oh well... It sucks that a machine and company that I've bragged about for so long is dissapointing me so much lately...

[bradleykavin]

i bought an ibook a couple of years ago..and i didnt have applecare but within my service support time (first year that you buy from apple) my hard drive stoped being recognized by the os and i could not reinstall osx..i called apple, the next day they sent me a box, i put the computer in it..and literally three days later it came back working fine

[Superchicken]

My Apple repair experiences have sucked... that said my new PB is running awesome hopefully buying Apple Care will be a waste on this thing

[Link]

Biggest suggestions when you buy from apple:

1. Buy with a credit card that has extended warranty and good buyer protection
2. If you're going to do such, buy from an apple store if you can so you don't screw over the people who run the smaller stores (or buy from a store with a good return policy).
3. Put your foot down and don't let Apple's tech support give you the run around. After spending $2000-3000 on a tower that's DOA they better not be trying to repair it, after all you'll now have a refurb machine.

If they don't want to play by your rules, you take in the machine and if they refuse to give you a refund, call the credit card company and have them take back the money. Seriously a company who tries to pride themselves off good tech support should either stand up to their standards or EAT @#$&.

[neophilia]

Thanks to everyone who replied!

Just got off the phone with Macmall. Man, what a difference calling on a weekday makes. In less than 15 minutes, they arranged to have the defective unit picked up tomorrow at their cost and a new one shipped out today (with $199 Apple Care this time..). I guess the regular sales folk that work over the weekend have no clue about their DOA policy.

And here I was ready for a fight to the death. Big gold star for Sam at Macmall.
-n

[BkueKanoodle]

Originally posted by aaanorton:
What does "$%*#@!" mean? I mean, what curse word has 6 characters and fits the given context? I feel fairly comfortable with the breadth and width of my curse vocabulary, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. Maybe this convention doesn't work this way. Perhaps it's simply a matter of punctuation groupings to represent the spirit of a curse in general. Would more punctuation marks convey a more severe curse? I personally don't get any sense of frustration from "$", so maybe that was a bad choice of marks to begin with.
I guess the bigger question, though, is who the **** uses this stupid convention? Other than cartoon characters, of course. It's totally lame. Sure, when Dagwood hits his finger with a hammer or finds out the dog ate all the cold cuts, "#!&%" might be appropriate. But I hardly think this means that people should start using these in real conversations.

Obviously the original poster is a programmer. The $%*#@! is really just a clever attempt at declaring a variable. The $ signifies that is it a variable with %*#@ being the variable data, which could be any 4 letter curse word, followed by a ! which instructs one to read the aformentioned variable with exclamation.

Back to reality, the symbols $#*@%! when taken in the written context, offer more emphasis on the frustration of the writer then **** allows. It is considered proper etiquette to not use curse words in a public forum, for a number of reasons, such as some who are reading the post may be doing so behind corporate monitoring programs designed to catch those doing inappropriate onlines activites through Keyword filtering. When one wants to get a point across with a certain emotion, theRE is often a lack of an acceptable alternative to $%*#!. Hence the use of $%*@!.

[neophilia]

That was unexpected -- In addition to posting here about the Apple experience spiralling down the toilet for me these past few months, I emailed the big Steve and a few hardware PR people at Apple. Got a call "on behalf of Steve Jobs" today to make sure my issue had been resolved and apologize/make excuses for all the delays. She'd looked up my issue and checked in with tech support to see its current status.

I took the opportunity to tell her how shrouding these product releases in secrecy and simply not knowing is what really irks me about Apple. I make a living off this hardware. The least they could do is give me a reasonable amount of information to make an informed purchase.

Anyway, she assured me she'd communicate my opinion to Steve and left me her direct number should I have any further issues. Nice touch, Apple.
-n

[t0ast]

Some time ago, I ordered a Yikes! from apples. I got it and used it for several weeks, but it didn't work as supposed, it was rather slow and froze all the time. I contacted apple support, an they helped me doing some diagnostics before I was told to get the 'puter to the local apple-store. A few days passed, and a NEW g4 arrived to me, a Sawtooth, which is a much better computer than Yikes! (PCI vs AGP..)



Praise apple!

Burn microsux's peecees!