Complaint : Apple Store Genius Bar / Quality - Page 3

My problems w/ the 12" PB never seemed to be related to the product quality, but Apple's depot--they would fix one thing but only to have to send it back for another. If you caught my original post, it was so bad at one point they had to replace almost everything except the LCD--pretty much built a new computer.

I called the manager from the Apple Store and she got the pics of the vertical lines I sent her... she said it's no problem and that she's sorry to hear I've had the problem. She's got one waiting for me (white one) but I'm wondering if a black one would be worth it, either. Better luck maybe? I don't know...

Here's a shot of what happened this morning when I turned it on...


To be honest, and I didn't want to say this on the phone, but do you all even think it's worth it at this point to "try" another one, or should I just sell it? I don't know... I just don't feel like going through the trouble of re-loading all of my data on the damn thing only to have it fail again...hopefully not, but still, after only 3 days... :-(

On the plus side, I'm *very* happy w/ Apple's willingness to help me out--they've been pretty good but I can't say much for the Genius' at that store...

You're right--it's probably good karma too...

Is there anything special about the BlackBook, other than it being black and having a bigger HDD? I thought about paying the diff. and getting it but for just a black case, I don't know... I would think that white would hide fingerprints and scratches better than black.

Got the new, replacement Macbook today--wow what an experience... (good things)

With the exception of a snotty mac specialist (weird because they're usually very nice), I finally met w/ the mgr again and she was very cool as always. I even went so far as to apologize for the other day but just so 'disillusioned' by everything because of the rash of bad luck I've been having.

She was more than sympathetic to the problems and had a new white macbook waiting for me. I asked her what she thought of the black one; at first she said, "They're $200 more and you get a bigger hard drive" (I knew this but wanted to know her impression). She walked over to show me and said, quite bluntly, "These things are a pain to keep clean...we have to wipe them every day. Beautiful yes, but just a pain to keep clean. Sadly the matting on the top case gets worn off by everyone rubbing the lid" and she showed me. I wasn't shocked, but I could see how it could be an issue if you didn't keep it clean. She said "stay w/ the white one...it's the one I have and I love it.. .the blacks are pretty though and really stand out". I was surprised at how "honest" she was w/ me about the BlackBook because I actually toyed w/ the idea of getting one.

"What about the Pros? The 15" is really nice". She said, "They're great but for what you're doing it's kind of big..."

I love honesty in retail--it's rare but does happen... she has all my respect for that. She could've made an extra $200 off of me but she chose to do the right thing by me.

The replacement one feels the same as the old one, except the mouse button clicker is much more forgiving and doesn't require as much effort to press down or hold down. Also, the "humm" or "whine" i heard on the other one (which was not cause for alarm, but maybe why the logic board died) is not nearly as profound on this one. It seems almost 'too quiet' because I can't even hear the hard drive spin up or down.

that was another thing--they just swapped the hard drives inside. I didn't know how easy these things were to get to the hard drive, but they are and it only took them 5min--I lost no uptime, it booted up flawlessly. iTMS just had to be reauthorized, but that was it. Awesome deal.

I'm a happy camper if this one holds out for a while--Apple has been terrific on the customer service thus far. :-)

**Update **

(2nd) White Macbook 13" 2.0Ghz..

-- Died two (almost three) weeks after I received it... brought it back to store, they tested, dead unit. No scratches or damage (they checked EVERYTHING--I think they were really skeptical at this point).

The asst. mgr lady who helped me prior doesn't work at that store anymore....that was odd. They couldn't power it on but once, and it had the vertical lines in it. Reset PRAM, got it to boot once, and then it died for good. I have all my data backed up on my ipod, but it's mac-formatted (DOH!). I have other backups thankfully...

They offered me a replacement, but I asked for refund and put everything back on my credit card. Great customer service; I was going to take the replacement and probably sell it at this point, but they saved me the trouble. I think they must have seen this a few times.

The guy who refunded it said, "I'm sorry we couldn't meet your expectations." I politely replied, "I don't think I had expected anything unreasonable; I'm just tired of driving back here all the time. Thank you for the good customer service though...I'm very happy w/ my iPod too."

I saw that...nice towers... Woodcrest will be a great addition to the product line.

What is sad is I really liked the size/weight of the Macbook, but the reliability factor wasn't there. I need a portable, and in this case, the Macbook has just been.....garbage. The 12" Powerbook I had was pretty reliable but the depot Apple uses is just not good. I'll never forget getting back the 12" DVI I had and it was just beat to hell, like it was thrown back together and then dropped.

After 3 years of experience using an Apple, I've switched back to PC... I didn't want to take another chance w/ another defective Macbook... 1 is understandable, but 2?

Don't get me wrong, Apple's customer service has been **really** good--the only exception has been the Genius' at South Coast Apple Store.

Hopefully my luck w/ HP will continue; I ended up giving my ZV6000 to my nephew who is starting high school this Fall.

Best of luck to the rest of you...happy Macs to you all. :-)