LED Cinema Display Manufacturer Defect Woes

I LOVE the Apple LED Cinema display ( thunderbolt and mini display port versions.. but mini display port in this case ).

Unfortunately, so did the the theives that broke into my house and stole a bunch of my equipment ( including a hardly used, ~2 month old, puchased from apple, LED Cinema Display ).. :/ Luckily! I have renters insurance! 🙂

So after waiting a couple weeks, I got my brand new in box replacement LED Cinema Display. State Farm Insurance decided to purchase it from BH photo in New York ( who occasionally, will save you 10$ on an apple product ).

Much to my dismay, upon opening the box, there was a tiny piece of paper on the screen ( quarter inch diameter, right in the middle of the screen ). No big deal.. Ill just wash it off... Nope, its not coming off.. It quickly became apperant that there was a piece of paper stuck between the LCD and the glass!! ***!

Welp. No bother.. Apple has the world class Apple Care program that will totally get me taken care of! So I make an appointment for 1:30 at the new Apple Store at City Creek here in Salt Lake City. Apple Care has helped me loads before and never fails!!

After waiting til 2:20 for my 1:30 appointment to take place, I finally get some help, and explain the issue at hand. The "genius" scoffed at me pretty hard when I told him that there was a piece of paper between the glass and the display ( Hey I don't claim to know everything, but **** if this retail employee didn't make me feel way dumber than him regardless of any amount of Computer Science degrees I may have.. 😝 ).

After the "genius" tried to rub off the paper ( just like I did upon opening! ), he came around that maybe I was right. But hey! They have an in store process for this that involves ripping off the glass panel and removing the paper and then putting it back on! After explaining to him about how weary I was about this process, and about how I would prefer to get a new NOT DEFECTED AT THE POINT OF MANUFACTURE unit ( keep in mind, this is not a used Cinema Display, this is a BRAND new one, that still had the bottom half of the plastic screen cover on, one that had YET TO BE TURNED ON!! ), he grabbed the monitor and took it to the back room. "Ill see what we can do" he says as he walks off with it.

20 Mins later, he comes out with the monitor, the paper has been removed!! But there are smudges all over the screen!! I tell him again how uncomfortable I am with this, about how a new product should feel like a new product and not a bastardized floor model. He says he asked his manager if he could replace it and the manager declined.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

* Apple continues to increase their count of Manufacturer defects.

* Apple Care, as advertised as a world class Customer Service team, is dead. It is not what it used to be just a handful of years ago.

* If you pay 1000$ for a monitor that many competitors charge ~500$ for their equivielent. Maybe think twice because even if you think that extra 500$ is worth it for the clean, new feeling of an apple product, Apple themselves do not recongnize it as an asset. And if you are the unlucky 1% with a manufacturer defect, congratulations! You just paid full retail for a product that is essentially refurbished.

* While Apple has made me very happy in the past, I have never felt like my opinion didn't matter like this with ANY company that I have paid money for their products ( including Microsoft, who is notoriously not that great ).

* This will affect my purchasing future Apple products. 😟 Which ***** cause I really do love them, but I can no longer trust my money with a company that will not own up to their Manufacturer defects, and instead will make me pay for what feel like a floor model. 😟

Thanks for listening to my sob story, and good luck with your future Apple purchases.. You might need it.

-Tim Rawcliffe