Okay, so I haven't posted yet, but have been following this thread for the past 3-4 weeks. I had a gorgeous rMBP (and we have 5 Macs in our home, including a Macbook Pro, an LED Cinema Display, a Time Capsule, an Airport Extreme--you get the idea) and I told my wife (a professor) that this was by far the most amazing Mac I have ever owned.
Until IR started showing. I returned it through AppleCare and got an advance replacement, after spending hours on the phone. That one was also an LG. Returned them both, then starting going down to Apple Stores in my area, explaining exactly what was going on, telling them I'm willing to pay $700 more than I wanted to (to save myself the time & trouble that Apple manufacturing seemed unwilling to do for me), to purchase a 2.7/16GB/768GB, instead of getting the 2.6/16GB/500GB that I'd BTO'ed--*twice*--previously, but that I'd be returning it within the 3-5 min it would take to boot it up and determine whether or not it was a Samsung or LG.
Did that twice, at two different Apple Stores (both were LGs, unfortunately for me and them--and Apple--lot of time wasted for them & me!), then finally got to a 3rd store with a technician who would check Ripley to see if any of their fully loaded models had Samsungs (no: Apple Corporate, even if you look up my Apple ID, I *did not* get anyone at the stores where I *purchased* them from to do this--so no way to punish that store or employee who was simply doing their best to satisfy a customer--because this was all verbal between me and them!!) ... No luck, they had no LGs in the batch of the fully-loaded ones they had. I tried another store who said their Ripley system seemed to be 'down' at the moment.
Waited a week and called back the Apple employee at the original store who'd checked, to see if they'd gotten in a new batch of fully loaded rMBPs. He said he'd check and call me back, "Hmmm, he said, Ripley is down, or doesn't work now to check what the hardware is in it."
So, I assume some dipsh*t in Apple Corporate figures they'll try to nip this in the bud by updating Ripley to disallow the stores to determine what kind of hardware a unit contains.
Sounds like the end of the Steve Jobs era. I own more than $200k in Apple stock. The company has made me a very wealthy man, but I'm selling it now (well, after the runup to the iPhone 5 launch success anyway).
I still believe the rMBP is an awesome machine. I'm personally going to wait until the Haswell machines come in, hopefully by this Spring. I think the iPhone 5 is a very slick update (not revolutionary), but much better than my current 3GS! So I'll continue to be a customer, but I will be reducing my holdings in the company.
Clearly Apple has seen its glory days. Reminds me of the fall of Microsoft in some ways. Sad to see.
Anyone else contemplating buying a rMBP: Wait. If at all possible, wait. Stretch that current laptop's life out as long as you can. They will eventually fix it. But the methods they are choosing to employ to deal with current, loyal customers are so clearly showing a company that no longer cares, and has executives who care little about Apple's reputation. Tim probably cares still, but it seems clear that whoever in either PR or manufacturing, or whoever's fiefdom is threatened by this, is covering their own *ss and not doing right by customers. Ultimately, Tim (and Steve before him) is responsible for setting up an environment where these types of executives act in these ways, so in the end the buck stops there anyway.
Good luck Dr. Sly and everyone else who feels they must own one of these clearly flawed machines (thanks Canuck1970, even though you're banned now this week--perhaps I will be too after this post--but I have no interest in spending any more time on this issue)... See you all around.
mittense
Level 1
(1 points)
aut0maticdan
