JasonFear, your comment should be "Heck, who can forgive the 10 hour claim on the MacBook Pro". You're partially correct that the problem is perception, but you're incorrect that people should know better because you say so & have the proof or know how to back it up. I am clapping for you, but if you're here to help, you need to lose the tone. With all the experience of thousands of complaints, nothing can or would take away from the fact that the way Apple handles this matter and similar ones undoes every ounce of 'goodness' they have done at an individual consumer level. It's legitimate, whether you agree or not.
And, yes of course I spoke with management. Or should I say spoke AT management who neither listened nor replied to the issue. It seems to be that complaining is no longer the in thing these days, perhaps things would've changed had I twittered it. The Apple Geniuses are notoriously arrogant. When things are okay, they do a great job to make you happy - but only when their company can afford to, to keep you from finding a deficit in a product you won't likely keep throughout its lifespan. When things aren't right - say build quality, customer service, etc....everything suddenly becomes your fault! I found this out the hard way when my first MBA was stolen before it reached me. Apple replaced it without question but refused to tell me what happened to the first (with all my billing and address details attached to it).
The second replacement had the strangest issue I'd ever occured - the trackpad around the mouse had indented itself into the monitor screen, leaving scratch marks. This laptop went through 7 recharge recycles in no time, not suiting its purpose as a portable. At times I was concerned it wouldn't make it through basic usage. The trackpad issue occurred after the Genius kept it overnight to run whatever 6-hour tests he had supposedly achieved - still an anomaly for me. My fault of course! Because I supposedly must have put something heavy on top of it - but the fact remained there was a build quality issue they refused to acknowledge despite my advising them of that. "It's a cosmetic issue likely caused by putting something heavy on top of it" they say. "I thought you built a superstrong aluminium unibody casing?" I say. "You shouldn't be using a keyboard cover as it blocks venitlation" they say". "Why are you selling it in your store then?" I say.
And so it goes with the Geniuses. "Our products are untouchable and perfect - leaving no room for faults because of people like you".
When bringing issues of build quality & battery life to 4 separate Geniuses, using support pages to highlight and support what I was showing them about my own laptop, I was:
1) Told Macs are like cars, and not to expect the mileage claimed - to which I replied I wasn't driving at 5000rpm at 100km/hr.
2) Told "I'm not interested in other peoples complaints, I'm interested in how I can help you". Then given the incorrect management details by a smiley-assassin Genius bar rep who found it amusing that I even had the gall to raise the issue of battery life.
3) Had 3 seperate Geniuses try to take my 'escalated' complaints rather than direct them to management.
Two promises and 2 email attempts later, I gave up trying to be nice. I walked in and tried the Darth Vader approach, though this time, disingtegrations were allowed and happening. They quivered and gave me what I wanted, though I was displeased at having to be forceful about it.
But deviating off course here. Having said all the above, I don't think it's a perception issue. I think it's a company integrity issue. Had this laptop been advertised at 5 hours, I'd have thought twice. I'd have known I'd get a realistic 3.5hrs and for my travel purposes, it'd have remained on the shelf. I'd be a few grand richer. Had I figured beforehand that a customer would be blamed for the trackpad casing indenting on the monitor, I'd have bought a Sony. I'd know build quality isn't going to be an issue. Had I known I'd have to return 5 times to the store, make 10 phonecalls, and deal with arrogant staff who totally ignored complaints about real world usage (regardless of lack of CPU activity, flash use, or otherwise), I'd not have bought one. It was 2 months before I could realistically start using the laptop since it stayed in its box after its second week. If you're asking me to now praise the outcome of the experience I won't do that, nor would I give a **** about what type of tests were run, or what application siphoned more battery life than another. All I cared about is that it didn't meet the manufacturers claims and they did a poor job covering that up by using intelligent/knowledgeable people like you to deliver a technical message consumers don't want to hear. Apple's meant to be about user experience, and here, the people meant to support that failed dismally. They failed to listen to the customer - that's what matters the most.
As for my replacement laptop - it runs fine but part of that's because I now treat it with baby fingers. It's got a special hard-case, scratch protector, and God save anyone who happens to put anything on top of it lest it bring back the Darth Vader in me. I've learnt to live without seeing flash (something I tried before but still wouldn't explain the dismal battery life...). And I keep it plugged in most of the time to save myself from being alarmed by those recharge cycle figures.
As for the battery life issue, there is an interesting article here those of us with similar gripes can read up on:
http://maccrazy.com/macbook-air-battery-life
I suppose it all means if you compromise a few things, you might learn to appreciate the machine, but don't believe it's the power-user portable it attempts to be.
