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I bought a pair of shoes from LL Bean 10 years ago. A month ago, the
sole on one of them cracked and split. Not normal wear and tear, but a
major blow out. When I asked them if their '100% satisfaction
guarantee' would cover such a thing, they said it was up to me to
decide. They credited me the full purchase price of my 10 year old
shoes against a new pair.<br>
<br>
In the short run, they probably lost some money. (Not much, given the
margins they make. :)<br>
<br>
But look at the big picture and compare. I'm doing free ads (like
this) for LL Bean, while on the other hand, the Mac Partners list at
MIT is publicly debating whether it's reasonable and customary for a
manufacturer to refuse to take back a defective product (let's be
binary about this -- part of the product does not work as designed,
advertised, or intended -- it's defective!) because they don't agree
that 1 or 2 or 6 bad pixels constitutes a defect.<br>
<br>
In the long run, who are the smarter business people?<br>
<br>
Jeff<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
John C. Welch wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="midBC57905B.1866F47%25jwelch@mit.edu">
<pre wrap="">On 2/17/04 9:10 AM, "Matthew Walburn" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:matt@math.mit.edu"><matt@math.mit.edu></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">The article with Apple's policy is here:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=22194">http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=22194</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">I understand the policy.
My primary issue is that since this IS their policy, that they owe it
to their customers to make this policy known at the time of purchase.
It's unethical and misleading to sell a $3000 computer in good faith to
someone and then have this little "policy" hidden away to cover them
when things go wrong. It's blatant deception of consumers... executed
because apparently Apple won't stand behind the quality of their
displays.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
Caveat Emptor. Every LCD manufacturer has done this for well over ten years.
It's not a case of quality, or standing behind things. It's a case of
manufacturing limitations. Apple could very easily reject all screens with
even the slightest imperfections.
But that costs more. That cost is not absorbed by Apple, nor is it absorbed
by the factory making the LCD screens. It's absorbed by the consumer.
This is not limited to the computer industry. Anything you buy is going to
have "an acceptable range of defects". Cars have them, etc. If the defect
isn't critical, then you're going to kind of be stuck with it. As well,
since Apple does have the policy on their web site, (the modern day
equivalent of "fine print"), it is feasible for you to know this policy
ahead of time. (ignorance of such a policy does not make it null and void)
Having said that, you MAY have a chance to get this fixed, depending on how
you approach this. Calm, rational, and non-hostile will get you a LOT
farther than anger. When you get hostile, the willingness of people to bend
rules or put themselves out shrinks rapidly. I've had good luck with such
things because I set my anger aside.
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">If this is going to be their policy, one of the following should be
true: a) customers need to be educated of this policy at the time of
purchase, so that they can decide if they want to take the risk, or b)
customers need to be allowed to examine the merchandise they are about
to spend that considerable amount of cash on. Why doesn't Apple allow
these things? Because if they did they wouldn't be able to sell as many
LCDs. They'd be be forced to step up their quality control and that
would affect their profit margins. Instead, Apple (literally) gives you
a black box, one that you're not allowed to open before purchase. How
convenient for them.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
Who says you're not allowed to open it before purchasing? Did you ask? Have
you checked appropriate laws on things? Why would you assume that you can't
open it? As well, why do you assume it's endemic. I have no less than 4 LCD
screens from Apple in my house, they're all perfect. I've owned or used 9
Powerbooks, never had an LCD problem. Does that mean my experience is the
rule? Well, for me. Yours is different.
But, to be blunt, no company has a defect list on their products. No company
has a list of every known possible defect. There is a reasonable assumption
that anyone spending thousands of dollars on something would do some
research on such policies. Error is unavoidable, and there is no product
manufactured that is 100% error free.
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Would you buy a car if you weren't allowed to kick the tires a bit and
take it for a test drive? I don't think so. The only reason I didn't
insist on this with the laptop is because I was told I had 10 days to
return a defective item, with no stipulations explained to me as to
what constitutes "defective". It is not the consumers responsibility to
dig through Apple's knowledge base to become educated on the gotchas of
their return policy, it's the responsibility of Apple and their sales
people.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
Why should Apple be held to a standard that no other company or industry is
required to meet? I agree it sucks, but I fail to see why it's anyone else's
responsibility to tell you every possible thing that can go wrong at every
stage of the manufacturing process.
Perhaps they should include a warning that dropping a laptop could damage
it, with charts showing relative damage from varying heights? Of course,
that's silly. You're expected to realize that dropping something could
damage it.
I'm really willing to bet that an polite request to power up the machine
before the sale is closed would not be taken as out of line, especially if
said request was a requirement for the sale to be complete. Especially if
you had your credit card in your hand, and that sales person was seeing that
commission floating right in front of them. And if they grumbled about it,
you were to, politely, point out that you can always get this somewhere
else.
This would work REALLY well at the Galleria, since there's an Apple Store on
Rt. 9, and Micro Center not 5 miles away, and they'll happily stick it to
the galleria.
john
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