[Macpartners] Apple Powerbook Display Scam

[wlitant@MIT.EDU]

Perhaps my experience with Apple will help. When my son went to college
three-plus years ago, I bought him a new G3 laptop. Not long after the purchase
he began to experience problems with the hard drive. I brought the computer into
the local Apple-authorized repair guy. A short time later he called to tell me
that he had, indeed, found a problem with the hard drive however the problem was
intermittent and, he said, Apple wouldn't pay for service or replacement unless
the problem was constant. Now, before I came to MIT I spent 15 years with the
Mass. Bar Association and was more than a little familiar with the law. I
educated the guy about the Implied Warrantee law (basically, by law any new
product must deliver the service for which it is intended). He called me back
and told me "No problem! I told Apple what you said and they quickly agreed to
replace the hard drive." So, try this. If it doesn't work, let me know. Before I
came over to the dark side (PR/communications) I was a reporter and there's a
great consumer story here.

Good luck!

Bill Litant

Quoting Theresa M Regan <tregan at MIT.EDU>:

> Hi Matt,
> 
> sorry to hear of your experience...
> 
> I will forward this note to our Apple representatives and request that 
> they or any appropriate Apple representative contact you.
> 
> Regards,
> Theresa
> 
> 
> On Monday, February 16, 2004, at 04:17 PM, Matthew Walburn wrote:
> 
> > MacPartners,
> >
> > I wanted you all to be aware of the following should you be 
> > considering purchasing a new Powerbook. I'd also like to know what 
> > other experiences people have had with Apple regarding similar > matters.
> >
> > My girlfriend and I purchased a new Powerbook G4 at the Apple Store at 
> > the CambridgeSide Galleria this weekend. We went for the 15" 1.25 GHz 
> > model. As you might imagine, we were pretty psyched. That is until we 
> > got home. That's when we noticed that the screen had a broken pixel in 
> > the middle of the screen, causing it to display green and only green.
> >
> > We were bummed, but since the salesperson we bought it from told us we 
> > had 10 days to exchange a defective item, we weren't too worried. We 
> > went back the Apple store the very next day to do the exchange.
> >
> > "We don't consider that to be defective," the manager told us.
> >
> > I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The thing was screwed up before 
> > we even took it out of the box and we tried to return it within 24 
> > hours. We weren't given the option to examine the thing for problems 
> > before we bought it. We weren't told about that little "gotcha" in the 
> > return policy. The return policy didn't define defective as, "anything 
> > but 1 to 7 pixels out in your LCD monitor... if that happens you're 
> > screwed." Who would buy something with that kind of policy? Not us... 
> > so why are supposed to just accept a policy that was obscured from us?
> >
> > "1 in 5 LCD screens manufactured today have minor pixel problems like 
> > that, it's normal," was another justification he gave us.
> >
> > That's strange... I've placed countless orders for laptops for people 
> > at MIT and we have numerous LCD monitors in my department. None of 
> > them came to me with bad pixels. If it's that prevalent of a problem 
> > maybe they should let people know up front. They should probably say 
> > something like, "By the way, I should let you know that you've got a 1 
> > in 5 chance of getting a bum display when you drop $3000 on a 
> > Powerbook... we won't be able to help you if you're the unlucky one, 
> > care to roll the dice?"
> >
> > These computers are too expensive for consumers to not get exactly 
> > what they are paying for. No one buys a computer thinking that it 
> > might be slightly defective. When you spend that kind of money you 
> > deserve perfection, nothing less.
> >
> > Does MIT have a point of contact with Apple that I can discuss this 
> > with? I hate to think that we're stuck with this defective display 
> > that we spent all this time saving for.
> >
> > Any advice you all might have would be much appreciated.
> >
> > -Matthew
> >
> > --
> > Matthew Walburn, RHCE
> > Network Assistant - x. 3-4995
> > MIT Department of Mathematics
> >
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> 
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