I always percieved Apple products to be well manufactured and client service to be first class. I purchased an iPad2 for my father; this turned out to be dead on arrival. Applecare replaced this with a second defective iPad. Number three has just arrived and is scratched and dented. This has all happened in the month since purchase.
Is this an isolated occurance, or has anyone else had a similar experience?
iPad 2, iOS 5.1.1
I have seen reports of users that returned defective iPads several times - so is it not an isolated incident, but it is very rare to have this happen.
At this point, I would ask to speak to someone in authority, explain the situation and politely demand some reassurance that the next one will be in proper working order or I would want my money back.
These technological devices are still constructed by human beings that make mistakes, so things do happen, but that doesn't make your situation any better.
Interesting to hear. I have an iPad1 and a New iPad, both of which have been without problem. This led me to wonder if it was perhaps a 'dud' batch of iPad2s.
It is an arduous process trying to sort this out and Applecare haven't been particularly slick.
I tried 4 ipad 4's in a row before giving up. A couple had black stains that could be rubbed off. All had defects out of the box.
#1 - scratch on the back (didn't examine display)
#2 - dented on edge (didn't examine display)
#3 - dust under glass, uniformly pink tinted screen, scrolling not as smooth as others
#4 - no cosmetic blemishes, but has back light bleed on left and bottom right corner, greenish to pinkish color gradient (left to right), and blue tint on edges of screen.
I tried 5 ipod touch 5th generations in row before giving up. All had a hairline scratch on the apple logo. Most had black stains that could be rubbed off. All had defects out of the box.
#1 - nick where glass and chassis met, blue/yellow screen edges, screen started clicking after 1 month of use
#2 - nick where glass and chassis met (didn't examine display)
#3 - nick where glass and chassis met (didn't examine display), rounding on chassis edges uneven
#4 - nick where glass and chassis met (didn't examine display)
#5 - scratch near headphone jack (didn't examine display), uneven gap around the lightning connector.
Apple QC is a joke.
Over ten years of purchasing and using Apple products, I have one and only one issue out of the box: A hardware issue with an iPhone 5 which was immeadiately and cheerfully replaced. That is about a dozen items over that time span. My department purchases and distributes mobile devices throught the company (global). The defect/return rate for Apple devices is less that a tenth of what it is for other manufactures.
No Apple's QC is not a joke. They simply make a **** load of devices. No company is capable of a zero defect rate.
Since 1995, I have purchased 8 Mac desktops, 5 notebooks including a PowerBook, the White MacBook, several MacBook Pros, 2 iPhones, 2 iPads, 5 iPod Touches, 5 iPod Nanos, and 2 iPod Classics, Time Capsule, a couple of Apple Displays, and even a couple of Apple Writer printers way back in the day. Not one single incident "out of the box" with any of them - not one!
The hard drive went bad on one of the PowerBooks and I had an extended warranty on it. Apple backed up the old hard drive to save the contents, replaced the hard drive and loaded the newest OS on it and loaded the contents back into the drive. What a blessing it was for me since it was my son's school computer and all of his course work was on that drive and absolutely nothing was lost in the process. He got a little bit lucky on that I realize, but I would find it very difficult to say that Apple's quality control stinks.
I like Apple products, but I've never found their "out of the box" success rate better than anyone else's, and worse than some. Over the last few years, I've bought an iPhone 3, iPhone 4, an iMac, a Mac Mini and (at work) a MacBook Pro. Of these:
- The iPhone 3 developed a display problem in the first couple months. They tried to weasle out of the warrantee by claiming it was water damage (it had never gotten wet), and only an loud tirade in the store got them to change their minds.
- The iPhone 4 started shutting itself off right after I bought it. Even though I had *just* bought it at the AT&T store, they made me go to the Apple Store (much further away) to replace it - which they did cheerfully do once I got there.
- The MacBook pro developed a line across the screen in the first week. Our onsite Apple technician replaced the display under warrantee.
So, three out of five had problems, and I've had mixed experiences getting them replaced.
In contrast, I've bought too many Dell products to count, both at home and at work, and don't recall any out of the box issues. It's just too bad they run Windows.
ejpre wrote:
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In contrast, I've bought too many Dell products to count, both at home and at work, and don't recall any out of the box issues. It's just too bad they run Windows.
And my experience with Dell has been just the opposite. I wouldn't touch Dell products for personal use with a ten foot pole.
I should probably qualify "working". I had three generations of "dockable" laptops at work, each with its own special set of quirks, and one of my Dell home comuters came with Windows ME ('nuff said). Still, in all cases, I think mine were working the same as everyone else's 🙂
Well considering Windows ME probably isn't fair even to Microsoft (worse OS in the history of personal computing, although Windows 8 may be giving it a run - time will tell).
I don't want to believe Apple has big QC issues - i like IOS for it's exceptionally smooth user interface - but my recent experience and that of others clearly tell me otherwise. News of scuffgate and riots and the QC crackdown at Foxconn are not encouraging. I read an article about angry Foxconn works slamming iphone chassis on the assembly line. I also saw a video where a Foxconn employee showed photos of a purported iphone 5 before it was released. Turns out the photos were real, but moreover, his warnings that only 1 out of 100 iphones were defect free and that the aluminum casing was easily scratched also seem to have played out.
To the OP: No, it's not an isolated incident. Search the forums here and do some internet searches. Good luck on getting a scratch free unit with a good retina display (now made by LG too - Sharp couldn't make the cut - which reminds of the Mac book pro screen issues...).
I'll try buying again a few months. Hopefully I'll be happily proven wrong (or get lucky).
Alright, I can be very particular and perfectionist, too. For example, screen brightness and tint uniformity are very important to me and scuffs on the glass or back probably would be unacceptable to me. But your post reeks of OCD mental illness. Uneven gaps in the lightning connector and "stains that don't rub off"? What? I'm a perfectionist too but your expectations far exceed anything that could be considered rational.
The gaps are pretty big and unevenly filed. Looks like a hole a got punched in one of the corners. Stains and dirt on new products -- is it not a given that new electronics should be free of dirt and grime for any company, let alone for a company like Apple that brags about their quality and high standards (what the video of Johnny Ive talking about the iphone 5)? If you are surprised, why not take a poll and see if people expect premimum electronics to be dirty and blemished.
I got another ipod touch 5th gen. It has built-in scratches (scuffgate) on the bezel. The speaker buzzes when playing certains sounds (first one that does this). The lightning port lives up to Apple's tight tolerances on this one and the screen is perfect on this one.
What has happend to Apple's quality control?
