Design fault? 27" 2013 iMac stand just gave up!

Add me to the list as well!

I am fairly new to Apple products. I've been a PC guy my whole life and have both built my own custom machines for the last 15 or more years and have spent 10 or more as a desktop admin or technician repairing them.

Over the last 5 or so years, I've been consistently hearing about how much better Macs are than PCs. Well, after experiencing two Macs myself, I have to say I am not impressed with Apple products! And I am trying very hard not to go off right now!

My first Apple product is a 15 inch MacBook Pro that I received via school (I decided to become a software engineer and recently returned). That thing is basically a giant $2000 plus paper-weight that I've had nothing but problems with. Most of the time I can't run more than 2 slightly resource intensive apps at a time without constantly dealing with the spinning color wheel of death!

So, to get through school (in which I need to work with a Mac), I went out and spent more money on Apple and purchased a 27-inch iMac last December, 2013. It hasn't even been a year yet and already I've had to have the screen replaced, which was defective and now have this 'hinge' issue to deal with.

I've had PCs that I've built, that cost 1/3 of the price of this iMac, last 5 years or longer without any issues, while both my $2000 plus MacBook Pro and $2400 plus iMac can't even make it 1 year without multiple problems.

Thank God, I purchased Apple Care!

Not impressed Apple, not impressed in the least!

Add me to the list of people as well; purchased the computer in January of 2013 and it gave out within this month. Came downstairs and it was drooped; called Apple and they refused to do anything. I rarely moved the screen at all so am extremely disappointed all together; this sort of break should not happen in such a short time period. This needs to be an extended repair outside of apple care.

Guys, If you live in the EU, Apple will honour the repair under the 'fit for purpose' laws. i.e. if you can prove the product was substandard when it was manufactured, you can claim a free repair if the 'item' is less than 5 years old. Mine failed in the same way as many others on here and Apple stuck to their word and repaired my iMac for free even though it was out of the one year warranty.

I suppose that is one good thing about living in the EU, not that I want to spark a debate in this forum 🙂

Hello, EU has two year warranty for all electronics purchases, this all so apply to Apple products here in EU.

After two years you can claim a free repair still.

My story:

-iMac stand broken.

-EU warranty 24 months.

-Official Apple service repair line was 1 month long.

-Official Apple service took my problem at the one month service line, and let me keep my iMac home that time, so that my work does not suffer.

-Got message that it was my turn at the line, got my iMac to the service, Official Apple repair fixed my iMac "leg" one working day.

-This cost me nothing and was warranty issue, there was no any questions or arguing that was this issue warranty or not case, everything went smooth and fast and free of charge.

-My iMac 2013 is in working condition at my home now, all good.

-Finland 2014 (hope that this does not happen again after one year)

Add me to the list of broken stand users... bought the iMac in January 2014, and it caved in yesterday. Apple arranged for it to be collected today by authorised support specialist. Hopefully I will get it back within a week's time. Very annoyed as I recently had the hard disk fail. Lucky I still have warranty.

As a family we have a few apple products, iPads, iPhones, and I have noticed, all have had to be returned / repaired multiple times within the first year. My assessment of their product is: Looks good, works well until it does, but does not last long.

Mine just broke now. Same thing as everyone else. Loud snap, then tilted forward.

I found a GREAT temporary solution...a golf ball! Take the golf ball and lodge it between the hinge and the monitor. That's it! The material of the golf ball works great with the material of the iMac. Great thing with this solution is that you can adjust the tilt based on where the golf ball is AND you don't see it. Next step, take it to the Apple Store and pray you have AppleCare.

I received a call from the support technician and he confirmed this is known problem, and Apple is now fitting a stronger stand. Its going to take 5 days for them to fix it, as the replacement stand will only arrive on Monday.

Interestingly, he mentioned that UK customers can get this issue fixed for up to 6 years from date of purchase free of cost. Hopefully, this will help someone not under warranty if they try to call Apple and complain.

My iMac 27-inch, Late 2012 have the same problem 😢

Exact same thing just happened to me yesterday in our office on half year old iMac 27inch... That's so terrible design fault...

Add my iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) to the list here. This morning, a "snap" was heard and then screen just tilted full extent forward.

I love the 27" iMac but it's not even been a year and already I've had a power supply go (~3 months after purchase) and now this.

Suppose I am still under warranty but what a hassle to go without my main machine for 3-4 days (how long it took when the local Apple Store replace a power supply).

Now excuse me while I seek out a big pill bottle or tennis ball or Rubik's cube to level my display ;(

Update: I received the iMac after the repairs. Below is the timeline

01/10: Stand snapped.

02/10: iMac collected by the 3rd party courier.

03/10: Received a call from the technician stating a part has been ordered, and usually parts arrive the next working day, so expected by Monday.

09/10: Part finally arrived and machine repaired and QC.

10/10: iMac received in good shape.

It took 4 days for Apple to ship a part that is widely breaking, and this was after several escalations. I politely requested to be transferred to senior support over the phone, and to my astonishment, the person I spoke to didn't show any sense of urgency. It was like "yeah your iMac is broken, but I cannot do anything, if you like it sooner, I can cancel the repair". All I was asking off Apple was to tell when the part will arrive and they had no idea.

This was the second issue within 3 months (the hard disk failed before), and on both occasions Apple took 8 days to fix, in the earlier instance, I had to wait 5 days for the so called "genius" (idiot) appointment, and then 6 days for them to return it.

To conclude, every Apple product I had / have, has broken more than once, no wonder Apple makes billions selling their Apple Care.

Good luck to the current and future victims of this issue.

Add my 27" iMac (Late 2013) to the list.

As I was working on the computer in my office this morning, that sound ("pop!") that many on this string have described occurred. I am fortunate that my office is walking distance from an Apple Store, and I have an appointment set for tomorrow. I am within the first year from the purchase date (actually within 5 months) and the genius bar staff has already confirmed that it will not cost me anything (excluding the hours that I cannot work on the computer while it is being repaired).

I'll send an update if the results of the repairs or communications with Apple shed any new insights to the community. Thanks for the details; this string provided the Clif-Notes on the topic in a flash.

For those of you looking for something to prop up your monitor while you're waiting for an appointment to have your iMac fixed, I have found that a DVD or Bluray boxed set works great! I'm currently using the Indiana Jones and Star Wars boxed sets that I own and they're just the right size.

Unfortunately for me, the repair time is a little over two weeks at the moment and I can't afford to go that long without my iMac for school/work.

As for Apple, I only own their products because I'm a mobile app developer and therefore need them for building/testing purposes. However, I am not happy with Apple in the least. If you ask me Apple products are complete junk! Out of the several Apple devices I own, none have lasted one year without one or more repairs per device. Add to the fact that Apple products cost a lot more than the competition and you are required to carry Apple Care for the majority of repairs and you have the ingredients for over-priced junk for foolish spenders with too much money, IMHO. With Apple you are paying for the name and nothing more!

Please, someone tell me what Apple offers that you can't get from the competition at a lower price? Even most of the items for sale in the Apple ecosystem cost more than what you'd pay from Amazon or Google Play, etc.

I just don't get why so many people love Apple so much?!

I've been nothing but frustrated with the quality of their products.

So this happened to me as well. Interesting, I was in my office, not working on the computer and hear this deafening crack but had no idea what it was. I checked the windows to see if one cracked somehow, but couldn't figure out what it was. Well today, I go to use my iMac and the screen will no longer hold. I found this post and realized the crack was the stand breaking. What a huge pain and seems that there is an engineering or manufacturing defect given that it is not an isolated incident. Wondering if the screen is too heavy to be supported by the stand hardware they designed it with.

I just had the same thing happen to my mac and they can not tell me how much it will cost because its just out of warranty