Significant light leakage, few light botches on sides/corners - defective?

jnewell wrote:

What Apple does with warranty replacements is to give the consumer a new unit in a generic, non-consumer package. I don't know for a fact what happens to the defective unit, but I'll bet dollars to donuts that it goes back to China where it is repaired and then sold in the Apple "outlet" section as "refurbished."

This is not correct. Apple is very much in the practice of doing warranty replacements with refurbished units. I've had 2 iPhones replaced with refurbished units (you can tell from the serial numbers). I believe that, if it's within 30 days, it's considered DOA, and they will replace with a new unit. After that they will replace with refurb if it's available. If refurb isn't available, then they will use a new unit. At this point, I don't know if there are any iPad 2 refurbs yet.

Interestingly, I've heard from several expert sources that refurbs are actually given more thorough quality testing than a regular mass manufactured unit.

Unlike iPhone 4s or even the 1st gen iPad, the iPad 2 is not designed to be modular. The only entry point into the unit is to unglue the glass panel from the frame and LCD panel. The labour alone does not justify the expense of them refurbishing units for warranty replacement purposes. I've had my original iPad (1st gen) replaced a few times and the original replacement was actually during the first few days of launch. The replacements all came from replacement stock with the replacement series of serial numbers. I've had my launch day iPhone 4 replaced the second day. Again this was replaced from replacement stock. I've had my iPad 2 replaced twice and both times they were from replacement stock. It's more likely that Apple's assembly plant has production runs solely for replacement stock units with the only difference being that they do not come in retail boxes with accessories.

Let's look at the math of it all, for Apple to go through refurbishing units for the purpose of using them as replacement stock, it's not feasable from a financial point of view due to the labour involved as well as the relatively inexpensive components. It's more likely that the units which are sent back due to being defects are used used for the purpose of later selling as refurb units online as they make pretty much the same amount they would make on those as a retail priced unit (minus about 9% which is negligible). As for costs of replacing faulty units, with the size of the contracts they have with their components suppliers as well as their assembly plants, this cost could possibly be written into their agreements with those companies in which they are allotted an x-amount of replacements. The bottom line however is that I highly doubt that the labour and costs involved with refurbishing a returned iPad 2 just to use as replacement stock justifies doing so as it most probably tends to costing Apple more than if they were to just replace it with a new unit (sans retail packaging). It makes more sense for refurbs to be sold rather than to be used as replacements as they would be able to make whatever costs was involved with refurbishing the unit and then a good amount on top of that which they take in as profit.

Now as for other products that are modular in nature, such as their Macs or even easily replaceable parts like the iPhone 4 back panel and battery, those are more likely to be acually repaired rather than straight out replaced (depending on the component which is damaged/failed, keeping in mind that with Macs, basically everything is made to be replaceable as the modular nature is built in by design).

This is all speculation of course but I am basing it on the fact that replacement units which do not come in retail boxes and have replacement series of serial numbers were readily available and plentiful pretty much the first few days of product launch. If they did not have runs for units for the sole purpose of using them as replacement units then these would have taken some time before the stores started having replacement units in stock after launch but this is not the case. Also keep in mind I'm mainly talking about their products which are assembled to be more permanently assembled rather than modular (their non-Mac line of products have become more and more dependant on being firmly assembled via glue and fragile clips which usually are attached to the most expensive components of the device with a very high chance of damaging the component most of the time when trying to take the device apart). Also another thing to take into consideration is that for a replacement unit for out of warranty units, the price is basically at cost if you break down the pricing of how much it took Apple to build one (of course there's about $100 or so that they take in as profit for iPad 2's as the replacement price is around the $350 mark).

Sadly we will never know because Apple will never explain how they run their business nor should we feel entitiled that they disclose such information. The only thing folks should keep in mind is that just because it's not in a retail box does not automatically mean that the unit is refurbished. There's lot's of reasons they are not giving you a retailed box unit as a replacement. The first and most obvious reason is that if they swapped it out with a retail boxed unit, it will wreck havoc on their retail inventory. The other reason that you get a replacement in the brown box is because it's easier and less expensive for them to have the faulty unit shipped back since the box your replacement comes in is the same box that they ship your faulty unit back with. Let's just say this, it's much more likely for one to buy electronics from Best Buy off the shelf for full retail price that has been opened and futz around with by someone else that has returned it back to Best Buy than their is for you to get a replacement unit for your iPad or what not that is 2nd hand.

ClayG wrote:

jnewell wrote:

What Apple does with warranty replacements is to give the consumer a new unit in a generic, non-consumer package. I don't know for a fact what happens to the defective unit, but I'll bet dollars to donuts that it goes back to China where it is repaired and then sold in the Apple "outlet" section as "refurbished."

This is not correct. Apple is very much in the practice of doing warranty replacements with refurbished units. I've had 2 iPhones replaced with refurbished units (you can tell from the serial numbers). I believe that, if it's within 30 days, it's considered DOA, and they will replace with a new unit. After that they will replace with refurb if it's available. If refurb isn't available, then they will use a new unit. At this point, I don't know if there are any iPad 2 refurbs yet.

Interestingly, I've heard from several expert sources that refurbs are actually given more thorough quality testing than a regular mass manufactured unit.

The problem with this is, (In my opinion), They are still giving customers who purchased the item in good faith expecting a flawless product, a refurbished for a mistake Apple made themselves.

Sure they have may have been repaired with new parts tested and be perfect, however unless the whole unit was completely new parts, (which they are'nt) they are still units somebody else has had their grubby mitts on before you getting it.

Maybe its just me, I never buy 2nd hand items. its just my standard.

Yes there are refurbs being pumped out now for light bleed returns.

@Dookster you honestly believe Apple is not doing anything with all these returns of light bleed iPad2's? lol, of cause they are.

Ziatron wrote:

Apple are you listening?

No. This is a user to user forum only.

I hope you are shadowing this forum.

They are not.

Steve if you are listening and watching.

Completely out of the question.

IF you want to contact Apple, below is how you do it (NOT here).

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

By the way, my iPad is perfect. I have never seen an iPad with the problems you are describing.

Message was edited by: Mason H. No delete option????

jnewell wrote:

Ok, just do a search on refurnished or refurbished and you will know what i am talking about. And check what William wrote about the Apple warrenty.

Second, I have an uncle working for Philips Electronics and he says that it is a standard of repairing the stuff they get back, repair it and sell it.

They do it even with all the cars that come on the boats/trucks. If they got some damage, tbey repair it and still sell it. It is normal that they do this. Otherwhise it would be impossible to win money. apple would be loosing and would be bankrupt already.

Hopefully these are enough sources for you

You're missing the point(s).

The warranty speaks about what Apple MAY do - it does not say what they are doing. In fact, it says they may do either.

What your uncle who works for Philips says is just great, if he knows about what Philips does. But it doesn't have even the slightest relevance for what Apple does.

What Apple does with warranty replacements is to give the consumer a new unit in a generic, non-consumer package. I don't know for a fact what happens to the defective unit, but I'll bet dollars to donuts that it goes back to China where it is repaired and then sold in the Apple "outlet" section as "refurbished."

Let us know when you have some facts that are relevant to this discussion, please.

The only facts are the experience and having a life I guess. Maybe you should just accept that other people have experience and want to share it with you. Reading is a great way of knowing more things. Maybe you should get more out and talk to people. You will see that refurbish of stuff is a commen thing in a consumer world. Every company does it. And if in the warrenty is stated MAYBE, it is written to protect the company, so people can not complain if it is done. Do you think really if you buy something at Best Buy and return it 2 days later, the SAME product won´t be again on sale 1 week later? If you realy think like that, than I feel sorry for you.

Just read more in this forum and you will see what I mean.

And I am just happy that my second Ipad is 100% working.

Bought this iPad 2 on may 7th... so the light leaking issue is still not fixed.

http://bit.ly/mJRtEN

It may not be glue but it's not light bleeding, do u no wat it is?

Just wanted to update this thread since i've been experiencing the light leakage issue since launch and i've been following this thread closely. I'm pleased to announce that my 7th IPAD is PERFECT now. It's been painful finding a good unit.......Below is the history..hope this help folks in this thread....

IPAD #:

#1 - dead pixel, light leakage - RETAIL BOX, purchased 3/20

#2 - light leakage - RETAIL BOX

#3 - light leakage - RETAIL BOX

#4 - dust speckle inside screen, no light leakage - BROWN BOX - 5/7

#5 - dead pixel, no light leakage - BROWN BOX - 5/10

#6 - dust speckle inside screen, no light leakage - BROWN BOX- 5/11

#7 - perfect - BROWN BOX - 5/11

Note that the brown box may look like it's refurbished, but the Genius bar assured they were new. I ran the manufacturing S/N decoder to find out when it was manufactured and mine 7th iPad says APRIL week 16.

Good luck everyone.....looks like no more light leakage exists, just watch out for the dust speckles inside the screen!

Where is this s/n decoder ?

Heres one i found and interesting i put my iphone 4 sn that i exchanged recently and it shows it was in fact a refurb from a china factory, but when i put my ipad 2 sn in it didnt show up as a refurb but did in fact come from a china factory as well.

http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html

This chipmunk s/n checker thing is a bit rubbish. It appears to be crowd sourced information rather than actual information sourced from the factories. All it really gives you is model type (capacity, colour, etc) which they've obviously figured out how the serial numbers are used (again, crowd sourced information, after one gets a large enough sample, one can deduce which parts of the serial number describes what part of the device). In other words, outside of being able to deduce the basic spec's as well as if it's a replacement stock unit or a retail unit (for the case of the iPad 2, the first few letters for replacement units is always DLX).

Long story short, until Apple starts selling refurbished iPad 2s, sites like the chipmunk site is NOT going to know what the refurbished units' serial number series. On top of that, nobody really knows if things like refurbished iPads (1st gen) really are refurbished or sold as refurbished when in actuality they are deadstock (excess and unsold inventory). We're not really going to know what the refurbished iPad 2s' serial number series are going to be for at least 6+ months to a year from now. There's also always the other problem with crowd sourcing information like this, if enough people assume that their replacement unit is refurbished and then noted that when using something like the chipmunk site, it's going to start showing up on the chipmunk site as the unit being refurbished (again, this is crowd sourced information rather than actual factory/internal database data).

Here's what I got when I put in my iPhone 4's serial number (keep in mind that my iPhone is a brown box replacement unit from week one of release):

Name: iPhone 4 (GSM - UMTS)

Model: iphone_4

Group1: iPhone

Group2:

Generation: 4

ModelCode: iphone_4

Model introduced: 2010

Production year: 2010

Production week: 24 (June)

Production number: 24611 (within this week)

introduced test: 2010 (0) 1

introduced test: GOED

CPU speed: 1.0GHz

Family name: A1332

Screen size: 3.5 inch

Screen resolution: 940x640 pixels

Colour: Black

Capacity: 32GB

Factory: 86 (China)

Pretty useless information if you're trying to figure out if you have a refurb or not. If you want to know if you have a brown box replacement unit, that should be quite easy without having to resort to using sites like Chipmunk because 1) you obviously took your replacement unit out of a brown box and 2) if you compared your original s/n with your replacement, the different serial number series is quite obvious.

hi
I do not know if you noticed, but some in France noticed that the window screen of their ipad 2 is off. Another problem that appears and shows another flaw of the "iPad. Please check if you have this problem.

A link to that source would b nice aka80???

#1 - dead pixel, light leakage - RETAIL BOX, purchased 3/20

#2 - light leakage - RETAIL BOX

#3 - light leakage - RETAIL BOX

#4 - dust speckle inside screen, no light leakage - BROWN BOX - 5/7

#5 - dead pixel, no light leakage - BROWN BOX - 5/10

#6 - dust speckle inside screen, no light leakage - BROWN BOX- 5/11

#7 - perfect - BROWN BOX - 5/11

sorry but returning for 1 dead pixel and a dust speckle is ridiculous. i really wish Apple would've refused your exchange after the 3rd one and just given you a refund. there are people with legitimate issues and you're going to be anal about a speck of dust?

It may sound crazy if there is dust getting inside means there's a opening inside that should not there.

It would get worse and more dust would appear, gradually making the screen unbearable too look at just like if you had light bleed.

Apple later products have really slipped in quality lately.

& why is there still no official apple statement ?