Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: BernardLanguillier on November 14, 2006, 02:08:57 am
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I love OS X, but my first weeks as a Mac user are a total disaster.
After only 11 days of very casual use of our new iMac 24, it plain refused to turn on... It has been in Apple hands for 17 days now, and they still cannot confirm us when we will get it back.
I would seriously discourage anyone from buying an iMac now for anything remotely critical, including decoration purpose.
I suspect that they have actually now lent .My Mac to another buyer to whom they couldn't deliver a real new one... in 11 days that guy will have a power failure, and Apple will then ship .My Mac back to me after having restored the system as it was. A smart way to deal with their inability to ship timely. I wasn't aware to be involved in a Mac time sharing experience when I clicked "purchase" on the aqua icon of their website...
Either way, at this very moment, my newly bought chinese tea pot turns out to be just as good a computer as the Mac while consuming la lot ess desk space...
Cheers,
Bernard
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Thanks for your encouraging words ladies and gentlemen. It feels good not to have to go through this with only my tea pot as company.
Cheers,
Bernard
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Bernard,
I know it won't help you but iMac quality is improving... All the iMacs G5 (1st generation) we installed had at least one (or more) major component replaced during the first 3 months of use. Things got better with the Intel powered iMacs... Far from perfection, shame on you Apple!
I guess it's time to have something "better" or stronger than tea, how about a glass of Lagavulin or Glenrothes, without Evian!
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Thanks for your encouraging words ladies and gentlemen. It feels good not to have to go through this with only my tea pot as company.
I can almost feel your pain, but the cynic in me says that you were very unlucky and got a dud.
Apple consumer customer service is, unfortunately, known to be pretty bad in several geographical locations (including Norway, but I didn't know about Japan until now), and a consumer is basically left to hope that no problems arise.
If purchase a business service contract, they're supposedly more helpful.
I hope this works out to the best for you!
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I too love the new computers, but I miss the rock-solid (physical, not system) stability of my old Macs, which were made to retire as boat anchors, whereas my iBook G4 has been nothing but problems since I got it, with all kinds of pieces breaking, even under light use). I would really love to recommend Apple more, but this iBook has just been a pain, and while they replaced all kinds of things under warranty, more things broke just a week outside of warranty--it really makes me second-guess my purchase.
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Hi,
Sorry to hear about the problems that you are having with your iMac.
I have had my iMac (my first mac) for around 8 months and the whole experience has been bliss. No problems whatso ever, rock solid performance and stylish to boot.
It's a 17" iMac core duo with upgraded ram (1gb), and it is plenty fast enough to run Aperture and Photoshop.
Been really pleased.
Hopefully Apple will sort out your problem in a timely manner.
Best of luck,
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The screen on my 17" MacBook Pro went funny - the bottom 1/3 suddenly went really pale. I took it to the Birmingham Apple Store and they sent it off to be sorted. I was told to expect as much as a 3 week wait; thankfully it was done in 6 days but I have to agree that their customer support is pretty hopeless.
My iPod is a whole different story - suffice to say, even buying new over Ebay is a bad idea. Sadly, these stories have been circulating at least as long as I've been using Apple, I hope they change things.
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The Mac is now announced to come back by Saturday after a 21 days trip, my tea pot will finally get some rest.
Thanks for your comments.
Cheers,
Bernard
p.s.: I had signed for their 200 US$ extra support plan...
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Macs are the Landrovers of the computer world !
My new (ish ) 15' MAcbook Pro has a bad purple tinge to the screen that they can't get out with calibration where I bought it, they tell me it could be the video card or the screen itself ....
The good news is at least it works so I won't send it back in till I'm on holidays and can live without it for a few weeks...
More good news, the new 17' Intel that apple sent me FOC as a replacement for the G4 17' I tried to use for 18 months without much success is working so far..
I think Apple have some serious issues with quality control and need to have a re-think about the way and where they put computers together, they have quality profits now they need the product to match...
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I guess it's time to have something "better" or stronger than tea, how about a glass of Lagavulin or Glenrothes, without Evian!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=85427\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Francois,
The bottle of Talisker was about to get empty when I got the call from Apple... it was close... I can confirm for now that Tokyo's tap water isn't a good replacement for Evian...
Cheers,
Bernard
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Yes, it's no fun when a Mac goes down... Usually they're quite reliable, but judging from various Mac websites and forums, weird things do happen.
I work in higher ed as an IT Consultant, currently responsible for about 100 Macs (eMacs, G4/533DPs, iMac G5s and Intel iMac 20"s). I began this job in '98 running a room full of 8500s! Here's what I've seen over the years:
The 17" AppleVision monitors accompanying the 8500s died like flies (bad video boards). Out of 13 eMacs, 2 or 3 went bad quickly (no video). The G4s have been pretty good, with a couple of power supplies and some IBM DeathStar hard drives dying. Oh, and several of the 17" Apple flat monitors have gone dark on the bottom half and then need a part replaced. Now I'm seeing the folding support legs going weak on two of them.
I have a similar model G4 tower at home (gotten used from another school) and yet another (bought on ebay). The school one is fine; the ebay one lost its power supply after I unplugged it to clean it but I replaced it successfully.
We bought 22 17" iMac G5s for a lab on special knowing about the bulging capacitor issue. I've had a few of these go down for various reasons, but now i've got at least 2 dead with bulging capacitors (I saw them with my own eyes). Now I await the demise of the rest. I stick eMacs in their place while we await AppleCare service.
Of our 47 new 20" Intel iMacs, only one was bad out of the box--it wouldn't accept a disk image (in restore mode), nor could I insert a DVD into the slot to boot from it! We got that one replaced. The rest have made it almost through a semester intact. (BTW, you can't get into these like you can the G5 iMacs).
I've also seen other people's PowerBook G4s exhibit the half-black screen and white spots (including one owned by a student who worked at an Apple Store!).
So, yes, it does seem quality has gone down in more recent models, as compared to the older beasts (the beige G3s just don't die, do they?). I now have a 2-month old MacBook and have had no trouble at all--so far!
Do buy AppleCare!
PS: I'm writing you from a PowerBook G4/667 I got used in a trade. Never had a problem with this one over the past year I've had it... Everything works.
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...The bottle of Talisker was about to get empty when I got the call from Apple... it was close... I can confirm for now that Tokyo's tap water isn't a good replacement for Evian...
...
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=85539\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Now, really.... Talisker should be drunk NEAT, no water near it!
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Bernard,
Keep Evian just in case you spill Talisker, Lagavulin or Glenrothes on your "freshly repaired" iMac.
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Got a new MacBook, the dvd burner went down after a month,
I had to deal with a bad service, as apple told me that my reseller have to handle the shipping fees etc..., because they are independant.
OK... that way why apple don't let them sell the product at theire own price...
I am really peaced of, and not done yet with them, I really didn't the way they were on the phone.
I am working on something that could put them in trouble.
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OK... that way why apple don't let them sell the product at theire own price...
Well, margins for resellers are so slim that I doubt that you'd find a [much] better price than the one Apple is advertising! I buy my computers on the Apple Store although I could order them as a reseller - just not worth the time and expenses if something goes wrong.
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Bernard,
Keep Evian just in case you spill Talisker, Lagavulin or Glenrothes on your "freshly repaired" iMac.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=85605\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
You are killing me Francois, I don't even want to think of another problem on the Mac. As a matter of fact, I think that I'll keep it turned off just to make sure that it won't break down a second time.
Cheers,
Bernard
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Well, margins for resellers are so slim that I doubt that you'd find a [much] better price than the one Apple is advertising! I buy my computers on the Apple Store although I could order them as a reseller - just not worth the time and expenses if something goes wrong.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=85648\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I will ask, as I just figure out that one of the relative of my neighbour is selling mac...
will let you know about the margin
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I will ask, as I just figure out that one of the relative of my neighbour is selling mac...
will let you know about the margin
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=85702\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
FWIW, I'm a reseller (VAR). Unless you sell in high volume, it's simply not worth it. The situation is the same with other brands.
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FWIW, I'm a reseller (VAR). Unless you sell in high volume, it's simply not worth it. The situation is the same with other brands.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=85767\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I do think that FutureShop, Compusmart, big stuff all around canada are big enough not provide better price and they, as one of them told me he couldn't sell for less because of apple policies.
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I do think that FutureShop, Compusmart, big stuff all around canada are big enough not provide better price and they, as one of them told me he couldn't sell for less because of apple policies.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=85823\")
David,
I don't know anything about Apple's policy in Canada but I've seen some discounts on Amazon US.
Apple probably sets a minimum advertising price. But margins are very often in the single digit range for iPod, iMacs & MacBooks. On the other hand, AppleCare, .Mac and software titles have much higher margins. When you sell in high volume like big store chains you can survive & prosper with those tiny margins but small or medium stores really struggle unless they make their income with services or accessories.
If you want better prices, you need to work or study in higher education. Prices [on hardware] are lower than what resellers pay. For instance, Apple software is only 50% of the retail price.
You can read more about resellers struggle [in the US] with Apple [a href=\"http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/apple/topic4212.html]here[/url].
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Apple had various issues with their hardware over last few years. I remember that lot of people had problems with first "Titanium" laptops, they were literally falling apart (case problems, display problems, HDD etc.).
New iMac line also has various issues, especially 24" model. I was considering buying that model recently, but I gave up. I didn't like it's almost non-existent upgrade options and screen quality, but later I found it had more serious issues. For example, 24" display is way too bright, even if you turn the brightness setting at the lowest level. However, if you turn down the brightness level, suddenly iMac starts to emit humming noise, and the lower you go the hum is louder.
I think those are serious issues for such expensive computer (I know that new iMac's are competitively priced, but you can still get PC with faster processor, faster GPU, more memory, more HDD space and faster drives, and better display for LESS money, not to mention upgrade options, so they are still expensive IMHO). You end up paying for Mac OS X, and although to certain extent it has sense, since OS X has many advantages over other operating systems, combined with quality issues iMac line has at the moment I think it's not as good option as it seems at first glance, unfortunately.
I just can't understand how could they make such bad move with the 24" iMac screen.
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I just can't understand how could they make such bad move with the 24" iMac screen.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=85915\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
The iMac is IMHO a living room computer, people (like me an my girlfriend) go for it because it is a good looking piece of furniture that can optionally also be used as a computer, sometimes.
From this standpoint, having a bright screen is not that much of an issue. It would be if you were to use for critical photo editing work, but that is not what the iMac was designed for.
I do not rely on it for anything critical, I still have my workhose 3 years old 2 Xeon PC that has never let me down a single minute. I might replace is with a Mac Pro sometimes next year when PS CS3 is released, or maybe not.
By the way, the iMac is back and works fine for now, who knows until when that is going to last...
Cheers,
Bernard
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...By the way, the iMac is back and works fine for now, who knows until when that is going to last...
...[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=86138\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Bernard,
My experience is that, once fixed, they can last a long long time, unless you got a lemon!
I wish you all the best with your repaired iMac.
I'd keep a gallon of Evian just in case you turn it into a fish bowl.
By the way, congrats for your photos of Shichuan, they are truely fantastic!
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Bernard,
My experience is that, once fixed, they can last a long long time, unless you got a lemon!
I wish you all the best with your repaired iMac.
I'd keep a gallon of Evian just in case you turn it into a fish bowl.
By the way, congrats for your photos of Shichuan, they are truely fantastic!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=86147\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Thanks a lot for your encouraging words Francois!
a+
Bernard