Apple sold me a lemon and now they want to hold my Macbook to ransom

[theguyfromanotherforum]

Blah, blah, blah.....Apple fanboys in full force even on Thai Visa.

 

The fact most Apple religious fanatics don't understand is that a lot of people like myself simply can't stand mac os. I could never get used to it and do everything twice as fast on a Windows machine. Someone who grew up with Apple will feel the same about pc. 

 

Too bad Amiga went bankrupt as otherwise tech scene would be a lot different these days. I have Atari 1040ST and Amiga 2000 here in Canada. They still both work great. Over 30 years.

[Byron Allen Black]

I owed a debt of gratitude to Apple for introducing the extremely user-friendly 512 which was the first computer I ever used, at the age of 45, in 1986. You can imagine the stress and frustration. But Apple made it easy for non-nerds to get going on documents easily.

 

I was thus not wary or suspicious when, in 2008, I made the decision to purchase an iMac 24, having earned my living as a copywriter / proofreader with PCs, starting off with DOS and WordPerfect in 1991. The iMac was glamorous and appealing, like all Apple products.

 

Disappointment set in immediately. The beautiful transparent acrylic keyboard was so sticky that fingers started to hurt from punching keys after five minutes. Solution? $30 Logitech. Further, the cable from the keyboard to the main unit (integrated mechanicals / CD-ROM / screen) was about 50cm long. Already I am thinking 'This is the quality I'm getting on a $1500 computer?'

 

BUT IT'S AN APPLE!!

 

The internal CD-ROM drive was slow to load and occasionally did not want to eject, which was frightening when you considered the entire unit would have to go in for service if a disc got jammed. I go burrowing on the web: '...Apple is notorious for cheap and flimsy hardware...'

 

BUT IT'S AN APPLE!!

 

Three weeks after the one-year warranty expired the hard disc passed away. Go to have it replaced: $225 - more than double the price of a nearly-identical Seagate.

 

BUT IT'S AN APPLE!!

 

By this time I was getting the picture: the brand has the masochistic fanboy core market, so they can cut corners and chisel the user as they please.

 

Try to load a .jpg file: cute little question mark on the screen.

Try to work with Microsoft software: can't do this, doesn't want to do that...

 

Then the motherboard died, on or about its second birthday. Tell me, dear reader, what does a motherboard cost for any other home computer? Certainly not $800. - and that did it for me with Apple.

 

BUT IT'S AN APPLE!!

 

When an employee carried the big unit into the Jakarta service center, lo and behold, it met up with many, many of its brethren: same model, lined up by the dozens. This indicated it was a generic flaw in the design, that would cause the motherboard to detonate at a certain point.

 

BUT IT'S AN APPLE!!

 

It was already 2010 and the world of PCs strode right ahead, particularly in terms of value-for-money. Windows 7 was an impressive, reliable workhorse, requiring none of the finicky work-arounds you face with Apple.

 

BUT IT'S 'ANYTHING BUT APPLE' on Facebook, friends. 

 

(Now I try to give away the dead iMac 24. Nobody wants it. No surprise.)

 

The brand philosophy is apparently the same as with other snooty high-end brands like Porsche, Leica, Sony or Ferrari: take it or leave it. Don't like it? <deleted> you.  

[5633572526]

Your problem is with the Thai store and until Apple gets actual representation in Thailand they are limited in what they can control. Personally I have never had a problem with Apple products and they are all I use now. Every time I return home I spend the first week I am there fixing problems with all my friends windows computers and thanking god I switched to Apple.

[Ebumbu]

On 7/27/2018 at 7:20 AM, TonyClifton said:

I do hope you purchased Applecare.  If not, you have surprises in store for you.

I've owned Macs since 1997. Never had a problem. My MacBook pro was knocked off desk by my cat and landed on the tile floor, leaving a dent in the case. Because the laptop has a motion sensor, all was fine. 

However, will check cost of AppleCare. If it's $200, would consider it. I think it comes with a 1 year warrantee out of the box, no charge. 

[4evermaat]

On 7/28/2018 at 4:24 AM, richard_smith237 said:

In an imperfect world we sometime need an imperfect solution....

 

Instead of leaving your MacBook which you don't want to be without, leave a deposit... it stinks, but it's a solution, no? 

 

This is is just the way Thailand works. 

I had a nice car and received a stone chip/crack on the windscreen. 

Insurance would cover it but I had hassles when getting the garage to order a new windscreen from Europe. 50k deposit returned a month later after the new windscreen arrived & insurance paid...  It was a frustrating learning experience, the customer is not a priority ( apples & oranges I know,  but the point is valid).

 

 

That's quite an expensive windshield.  What is the make/model of the car?

 

On 7/30/2018 at 10:22 AM, 5633572526 said:

Your problem is with the Thai store and until Apple gets actual representation in Thailand they are limited in what they can control. Personally I have never had a problem with Apple products and they are all I use now. Every time I return home I spend the first week I am there fixing problems with all my friends windows computers and thanking god I switched to Apple.

 

What problems were the windows computer experiencing?

 

I owned a macbook several years ago and I will admit it was pretty robust and I could use VM Fusion to run windows as well.

 

But Macbooks have gone to a closed model where you can't really upgrade anything.  And repairs will be a pain in the arse for private repair shops. Apple has been caught intentionally making 3rd party repairs difficult. Applecare is nearly a requirement for their products; surprised they don't make 3 year warranty for their notebooks (2 years for iphone) standard practice.  Great for apple profit-wise, but not so great for the consumer

 

Not sure why OP doesn't suck it up and just leave the laptop at the repair shop.  These laptops (MBP) are 45-100k+ baht new.   Buy a spare (windows) laptop for 18-20k with the 8th gen intel processor, SSD, etc and just wait for the repair to be done.  Or pick a different repair shop.

[watcharacters]

On 7/27/2018 at 5:29 PM, lordblackader said:

Mac's peaked maybe 6-8 years ago and they've going backwards since.  

 

I thought Apple  reached a trillion dollar valuation.

 

They must be doing something right.

 

[ChomDo]

I had exactly the same case with my 2015 MacBook Pro, except that my screen had only tiny bubbles. They changed it for free but the waiting time was totally ridiculous! If I remember correctly it was many weeks that they kept my laptop at the iCare store. I was upset about it, but I had my older MacBook Pro to use at the time, so I didn't make a bigger problem out of it.

 

That being said luckily Mac's are so great that I usually have one laptop for at least 5-7 years without any other issues. Of course if or when you need to use iCare, it might be quite inconvenient.