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

After referencing this problem on TechnoBezzI I found the following comment which after calling Apple for the second time about this, was confirmed.

But there’s a thing which not many users know. This issue is actually covered by Apple for 3 years from purchase. So, all we have to do is:

• Make sure your iMac purchase is not more than 3 years.
• Contact Applecare and tell your problem. If there’s an on-site service in your country, you are lucky because the technician can come to your house and fix it for you or if it possible they can change your unit.
• You can also take it to Apple Authorized Service Provider to change the mechanism for free. In some countries, you may just need to pay labor service and the mechanism still free.

The Apple person I spoke with said it's at the store's discretion to replace the hinge free of charge, but it is obviously an issue they are aware of and are at least willing to fix (at their discretion). I have an appt. with Apple Care on Friday, here in Spain. Good luck!

These hinges have a 3 year warranty from Apple (so I found out). Apple

Support will not freely offer this info. I had to mention it to them after

reading it somewhere). My 27" was almost 1 year out of U.S. warranty, I

called Apple USA from Spain, they confirmed and I had it repaired in Spain

at NO COST.

On Mon, Sep 28, 2015 at 4:08 PM, Apple Support Communities Updates <

Update: (Sorry for the delay):

Took my Apple 27" iMac with a bad tilt mechanism to a local (Orange County, CA) Apple Store on Labor Day. I had called on Friday for an appointment. Supposedly the part was in stock there. When I arrived Monday I was told they'd have to order the part and repair would take 3 to 5 days. I have to wonder if they ran out over the weekend? The people I dealt with were all very polite and courteous. No one would admit that this is a common problem with the iMac 27", though they all seemed to know it happens. I left the computer for repair and got the Work Authorization via email.

Interestingly, the Work Authorization was written for two 923-00151 "Mechanism,27"IMAC" at $28.41 ea. plus $39 labor. The total was $95.82, though it was fixed at no cost (I have AppleCare). A couple of other things threw me a bit on the Work Authorization. It showed my Mac with a mere 4GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive. (Actually 16 GB and 1 TB drive - and I was told they have to put something in those spaces). Also under Warranty Status were the words: "Variable Warranty(VW)". Tried to Google this but it reference a program in Australia??? Anyone know what this means?

My iMac was ready on the third day - Thursday morning. It was repaired and I was told the part has been improved. The iMac came back just as I had delivered it and I swear they cleaned the outside; the screen was spotless. I hope they blew the dust out of the inside too :-) Gotta say the person repairing it did good work.

Bob

This seems to be a rather strange argument. Are you saying that style means a sacrifice of quality? Not so with a few hundred luxery brands I can think of.

I called Apple, and there was no argument whatsoever, I was told to take it to an Apple dealer and three days later it was fixed.

The company is SO aware this is a manufaturing defect. I'm very happy to have it fixed!

I am happy to report that a repair appointment at my local Apple store has resolved this issue at no cost to me - even though I have owned the computer for a couple years now and I am not under any AppleCare program. The store employee acknowledged this to be a known issue. In my case they were able to complete the repair in two days.

@astrid dont stress apple definitely knows about the issue. Its apparent on all 2012 2013 models....I just got off the phone with the techs which were organised for me after a support call to apple, really fast...dont worry if the apple support person says they have never heard of the issue, that just shows how new they are at their job, apples 100% KNOWS and will fix any imac even out of warranty. its a failure on the hinge part and Ive just also been told the new Imac 5k retinas dont even use the same type of mechanism due to this issue they remodelled it. Your covered, and not sure about your area but i got them to come to me, Im not lugging a 27inch computer around!

<Edited by Host>

mine went in for repair last night, out of warranty and zero cost no hassle needed with the genius, it takes them 3-5 days as the whole iMac gets disassembled so plan accordingly.

VEry sad though that they also don't do any upgrades while it is open, even you are willing to pay them for a faster or bigger HDD Fusioon or SSD.

I took my iMac in on Wednesday and provided the Genius Bar attendee the information provided in this thread that other owners received a free repair as it appeared to be a design/part defect. I also provided the SKU's for the part and labor that was utilized by others on this thread. The Apple employee was appreciative for the research brought to him. I was cheerful but firm that I expected the repair to be completed at no charge. The Apple employee agreed. I got a call late on Friday afternoon letting me know that my Mac was ready to pick up. Good as new. No Charge for the repair even though my Mac was purchased back in February of 2014 and I never bought an AppleCare contract for this computer.

Thanks to the community for keeping this thread alive and providing the 'secret sauce' to getting this obvious design flaw fixed. Thanks to Apple Computer for making an insanely great computer and for great customer service!

can confirm, this is an issue apple will take care of.

i have a 27" iMac (2013) that I purchased refurbished 14 months ago. hinge broke out of warranty, i called tech support who bumped me up to a supervisor. initially, he said this would be an out of pocket repair, but when i asked for a quote he went to check and came back to let me know this is an issue with my specific model, and that apple will repair it.

YMMV, but worth calling to check before heading to genius bar.

I have a lab of 21 of the new 27" iMacs out of these I have had 7 of them show this defect. My onsite Apple repair shop was able to turn them around in about day once they had the parts. It seems like when it happens to that many maybe there should be some sort of recall in that particular part.

My 2013 iMac had the screen tilt down overnight. (March 25, 2016) Just contacted Mac Media in Peoria, Az (an authorized Apple repair facility) and they said there is a repair something or other from Apple and they can repair it for free. They verified this while on the phone using the serial number. All warranties are expired on this iMac. Just thought anyone looking here would like to know. Repair will take about 5 days as they have to order the part from Apple after I deliver the computer to them.

Tilt Mechanism on one of our late 2013 screens gave up overnight, having sat on the same desk since new. Apple store trinity, Leeds, UK, charged us £43+VAT to replace the mechanism, £19 for the part, £24 for labour in Feb 2016 (I referred them to this thread and suggested it was a design fault and should be repaired free of charge, they were not interested!!! ) 😠

The SNAP and tilt happened to my Late 2013 27 in iMac today also.

I called AppleCare, they put me on hold for a few minutes, then told me they are aware of the issue and will repair it for free at any Apple authorized repair center. Told me to make an appt at my choice of location and provide them the case number indicating there would be no charge.

I just joined the club too. Late 2012 27" iMac. Was sitting in my office last week and heard a loud bang - somebody previously in this thread describes it as rock hitting your windshield and that's a pretty accurate description. Monitor droops and won't stay in position. Called AppleCare, they made an appointment at my local Apple store which I had this morning.

Long of the short of it: the repair costs $28.41 in parts and $39 in labor for a total of $67.41 and takes 3-5 days. I went ahead and authorized it. A little annoyed that I had to pay anything, but I guess I'd rather pay $67 than wedge crap into the stand.

I dropped mine off on Monday morning and picked it up this (Friday) morning. When I did I showed the Apple genius this 41-page thread, explaining that it's obviously a design defect and many people are reporting that Apple repaired it free of charge, but the matter apparently needs to be escalated to a supervisor for that to happen. My guy was kind of dismissive of the forum, it's an unusual problem, not affecting many units, blah blah blah, and he said this is something I should have handled with Applecare when I had them on the phone. I said well look, I wasn't aware of the scope of the problem either, but I do think it's a design defect, there's a guy with a company on here who says half of his Macs have failed in this way, and I'd really like to speak to a supervisor about it. So he want to his boss who approved waiving the fee for the repair. So based on this experience I would advise people, when they call Applecare, to escalate the issue there rather than in the store.

But in the end, Apple did the right thing and I have my iMac back and the stand is working correctly.