- Report: #391880
Complaint Review: Apple Computer - California
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Apple Computer
California, U.S.A.
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Apple Computer Sells Defective Merchandise and deletes repair records - Fraud Cupertin, California
Apple sold me a Lemon PowerBook which had problems from the start. It couldn't read RTF files, played DVD's with a wobbling image as if people were under water and the hard drive cooked itself 3x (Cf. MacIntouch website under G4 15" Aluminum PowerBooks and hard drive failure for eye opening accounts from others). I had to return it to Apple 3x for hard drive replacement.
The third time I was cheerfully told that the 4th time it happens I get a new computer. Guess what? When I brought it in the 4th time they denied records of more than two repairs and denied having a record of an extended AppleCare warranty (from the 3rd hard drive replacement). I pulled out a Palm Pilot with a .pdf copy of the 7 page Apple Care Warranty with extension date on it. They inputted it into their computer.
They wanted to replace the hard drive rather than make good on their claim of a replacement. I said I would only accept that if they gave a new AppleCare warranty with it. They wouldn't. By the time it escalated to a 4th person within Apple (somewhere in the mid-west from the area code) they went from saying they only had records of two hard drive replacements (so they didn't have to honor "the 4th time we replace the computer") to now saying that they had NO records of hard drive replacements.
This is fraud compounded with hubris. If repair records are being altered and disappearing from Apple's corporate computers it begs the question whether this company is altering the data in order to be able to lie about reliability of their machines.
To have paid $2,3000 for a machine which could not read rtf files (I had to buy MacLink translators to open these files and Word 5.1 Macintosh files!) nor play DVD's from the start and whose hard drive cooked itself 3 times (twice while using a cooling tray below it) has been a painful lesson.
I hope many people read this account and think very hard about other computer brands before they buy a computer!
Pissed at apple
Palo Alto, California
U.S.A.
The third time I was cheerfully told that the 4th time it happens I get a new computer. Guess what? When I brought it in the 4th time they denied records of more than two repairs and denied having a record of an extended AppleCare warranty (from the 3rd hard drive replacement). I pulled out a Palm Pilot with a .pdf copy of the 7 page Apple Care Warranty with extension date on it. They inputted it into their computer.
They wanted to replace the hard drive rather than make good on their claim of a replacement. I said I would only accept that if they gave a new AppleCare warranty with it. They wouldn't. By the time it escalated to a 4th person within Apple (somewhere in the mid-west from the area code) they went from saying they only had records of two hard drive replacements (so they didn't have to honor "the 4th time we replace the computer") to now saying that they had NO records of hard drive replacements.
This is fraud compounded with hubris. If repair records are being altered and disappearing from Apple's corporate computers it begs the question whether this company is altering the data in order to be able to lie about reliability of their machines.
To have paid $2,3000 for a machine which could not read rtf files (I had to buy MacLink translators to open these files and Word 5.1 Macintosh files!) nor play DVD's from the start and whose hard drive cooked itself 3 times (twice while using a cooling tray below it) has been a painful lesson.
I hope many people read this account and think very hard about other computer brands before they buy a computer!
Pissed at apple
Palo Alto, California
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Josmul123
Almont,Michigan,
U.S.A.
Pressure on performance for apple stores leads to alteration of repair records
#2Consumer Comment
Fri, November 21, 2008
I've recently had a similar issue with my Macbook Pro repair. My computer has been in for service FIVE times without the magical "four repairs and it's free" policy that others have reported previously (I have an AppleCare plan on the machine). When I took it in for my fifth repair, I explained that this was the fifth repair, and the "Mac Genius" said it was my second repair. I assured her that I wasn't just exaggerating the number and that I could tell her exactly what my previous repairs were. What I found out was that Apple has a system that prevents OTHER apple stores from modifying (or even seeing) repairs that are outstanding. Once a repair is complete, the store where you are doing the repair is supposed to "flip" (their term) the repair so that the repairs are visible to all other Apple stores... At which point anyone who works at any Apple store in the country can view and edit the repair. However, if your repair is something that the Apple store wasn't *supposed* to cover (like if you smash your screen and they decide to repair it anyway), there's really no incentive for the store to "flip" the repair, since Apple corporate may question their decision to perform such a repair. That said, even if the repair isn't "flipped," the store where you originally had the repair done will always have a record of the repair and CAN provide you with a repair ID. Any Apple store can look up a repair by repair ID, even if it hasn't been "flipped." (They just can't SEARCH for such repairs). In my case, the Apple store replaced my screen for some "iffy" dark spots that were forming on the computer. They tried to tell me that it "had to be customer abuse," and I told them I was going to call corporate. They repaired the screen, but didn't "flip" the repair. Now, with my fifth repair, I had to track down all the repair ID's from the original Apple store and PROVIDE THEM TO the apple store doing the fifth repair. I called AppleCare directly, provided them with all the numbers, and they "flipped" all the repairs so that the other store could see them by searching for my serial. I don't think it's that they *REMOVE* information from their systems. It's that they *BURY* the information so Corporate won't audit them when they're a little too "enriching" toward customers. In the end, it benefits the average "one or two repair" customer, but to those who are counting down until a new machine, it's a detriment (but not impossible to solve). Apple cares about your brand loyalty first and foremost. Being irate (but not irrational... don't get arrested) while at the Apple store generally pays off better than quietly taking what the "Genii" want to give you. Managers are very helpful, since it really only takes one bad corporate complaint about an individual before he or she is fired from Apple retail.
