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

The old credit card (see the photo from before) works for me like a charm. I am able to swing back and forth, never have any issues. Don't have to run to the store, and it will never break again unless the old plastic credit card will crack, (have been using it for over a year). And if it cracks, I am sure you can find another old card, LOL

I had the exact same problem with my 27" 2013 iMac. I was using it and it just went crack in front of me and tilted forward. Took it into the Apple store on 4 March and the Genius there made remarks like, "I've never seen this happen before. Are you sure you didn't drop it?" I said no and he conceded that there would have been more damage or bending to the stand and said that it'd be a repair inside the warranty. They said 3-5 days. After 1 week I phoned and was told they were waiting on a part that should arrive today or tomorrow. Two days later I called and got the same reply. I asked to speak to one of the repairers and he said that they were having trouble finding the rear housing and that no one in Australia had any in stock so they had to source one from another part of the world. I finally got my iMac back on 20 March.

I got it home and I noticed that I could not insert my thunderbolt display into the rear port or couldn't connect the lan cable. It appears that the housing is slightly askew and is blocking entry to these ports. Also there is a strange burn mark on the bottom left hand corner of my screen that was not there before the repair. Lastly they didn't take OSX out of diagnostic mode so when I booted it up it flashed the globe icon and took ages. I found a fix for this myself however.

I've called the Apple store to relay my dissatisfaction but they want me to bring it back in again. I use the iMac for work (self-employed) and its absence has impacted me quite a lot in the past two weeks.

Is this standard?

Hello, as of last night this has happened twice (2x) to me within a 4 month period, I have a genius appt. later today and am so frustrated by this that I may try to go another route. I was told they would work with me to find a better solution, possibly just go for a macbook pro or a different display setup Idk... I did not hear any cracking noises as previously described with my first stand failure however, last night I did hear what sounded like someone dropping a box of matches on the table, lo and behold my monitor will not stay up now. I hope Apple realizes they have an issue, however small.

I think we agree on this, the 1 year warranty begins at the date of purchase, the owner also receives 90 days of complimentary AppleCare which includes the telephone support. During that first 90 days AppleCare's warranty is overridden by the 1 year warranty so the owner really only gets the free telephone support. Anytime during the warranty period AppleCare may be purchased, When this option is executed, AppleCare's telephone support is extended to 3 years. When the original 1 year warranty ends then AppleCare extends the warranty 2 additional years.

If you have AppleCare's protection plan and you're within 50 miles (80 KM) of an Apple repair station, you might be eligible for an onsite repair since yours is a desktop machine (depends on where you're located). BTW, the AppleCare Protection Plan's the best warranty policy available for desktop machines. Get it if you don't have it before contacting Apple.

DegzFX wrote:

Want to add another to the list,

I just went out shopping for about 3 hours come back and my iMac 27" was flopped forward, i tried pushing it back and just tilted back,

my iMac is about year and half years old never gets moved used for graphic design.

how can these be fixed?

If you have AppleCare this will be very simple, call them explain the situation and if you are within 50 miles of an AASP you can request in-home service. If you do not have AppleCare take it to your local Apple Store and take it in for service.

Took my 4 month old failed iMac to apple store - should be fixed in 3 - 5 days... they charged me $28 to fix this!!! I told the guy - I bought a mac for $3000 and now have to carry it in and out and be without my computer for 3 - 5 days and he charges me $28!!! Poor service.... It is like buying a business class ticket and getting charged $1 for Coke...

I had the same problem 20 days after my 1 year warranty. I called Apple and they set up a service call at the Apple store. From the stories above, I'm dreading that it is going to take a week to get this fixed 😟

But they are covering it under warranty. I hope that it doesn't come back with more problems that it goes there with. My appt. is later this week. I'll post more once I know more from them.

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.

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.

Same problem here and I extended my AppleCare before it expired.

But the citified repairer informed me "Apple does not regularly cover housings for warranty repair, so we’re currently waiting on the approval for an exception."

Is it true this problem is not covered??

Hi all,

The exact same thing happened to me yesterday. I was watching TV and was surprised by an amazingly loud cracking sound.

I thought someone threw a stone through the window. 😮 Couldn't find anything until I saw my 1 year old 27" iMac facing down.
Tilted the display up and it just tilted back down. I was nowhere near my desk when this occured!
I could not believe this was happening and immediately started a Google search and now I'm here... joining the club. Hi everyone!

A 2200€ iMac not able to hold it's own weight? Does Apple even recognises this as a Design fault?

I'm lucky to have a valid Apple Care plan and the Apple store took the iMac back for repair, covered under warranty.

It might take 5 days to get it back.

Good luck to all of you and your depressed iMac's

I noted the $28 charge on my initial repair order when I took my iMac to the Apple store as well, but the Genius assured me that I wouldn't have to pay it. It didn't show up on the final receipt.

So you're right, there still seems to be a disconnect when it comes to the front-line folks knowing what to do. Apple really needs to address this known issue system-wide ASAP.

Glad that we didn't have to pay anything though.

The exact same thing happened to me. Nothing was touching my screen and suddenly a loud snap and my monitor leaned forward.

The sorry part of this (which I believe is a design flaw) is that at the same time this flaw was introduced (with the thin version of the iMac), Apple made it practically impossible to replace the stand with a Vesa mount (must choose which when purchasing this computer). Even the third party repair shops I talked to in San Francisco said to forget about it, the cost would be many hundreds of dollars and it would tie up the machine over night, minimally. I'd rather buy another computer than to sink $600 into a 2.5 year old one, but this one's resale value has fallen with the failure of the bracket.

It is irritating that the richest company in the world can change their design in some flawed way without any responsibility. Were this an automobile, I'd be getting a government-mandated notice of recall.