Apple/Mac ripoff Discounted my complaint letter about defective products I purchased Austin Texas

I recently had a horrible experience with Apple/Mac! In my opinion, do not buy their products!

Not unless you don't mind defective goods, and a company that has no clue what good customer service is all about.

I wrote Apple a letter to explain to them that the laptop I have had for 13 months, and spent almost $1500 on has been giving me nonstop problems.

In addition to the laptop, I had bought an IPod Shuffle that also turned out to be defective. I started thinking it was something I was doing.

But I knew it wasn't me, it would work one day but not the next. The store I purchased it from even confirmed it was defective, and they had to replace it for me.

Since it was close to the Christmas holiday the store was out of stock I had to wait a week for when they had more in stock. This was after I'd already lost a week with the defective item.

After I explained all of the problems I have had with their expensive products, Apple wrote me a letter replying; "To help our customers use their products we offer free online training".

They didn't even apologize, or address my personal issues! They just turned the situation around, wording it as if it were my fault that my laptop wasn't functioning correctly.

They made it sound like I didn't know how to use my laptop. I have worked with Macs countless years. Not to mention, I shouldn't need online training.

Especially when they tout their products to be so user friendly. Classes aside, the fact is that my issues had nothing to do with online training!

They also wrote: "Apple provides various means by which you can obtain technical support, regardless of when your product was purchased".

They didn't even come close to explaining why I had a problematic latop after FOUR months! Again, they're just saying it was my fault I didn't use their customer service more.

My laptop was having performance issues from Day One! What they should have done was ship it free of cost, under warranty, to their service facility at their corporate address.

The customer service center I went to told me that the company does not do this. I was told I would have to foot the shipping bill, and that the cost can be pretty high.

My laptop has continuously frozen up so I have to reboot, sometimes causing a loss of information I am working on. When I tried to set up my Mac mail it locked up my laptop.

I had to schedule an appointment online to get into the Apple store's customer service area. I arrived on time but still had to wait over half an hour for my appt. because they were so busy.

I kept wondering, "If this is such a good product, why so many people with problems??" The service guy is the only one wonderful thing I have to say about the whole Apple/Mac scene.

He unlocked my laptop but even he couldn't explain why it kept freezing up, or why I had troubles crossing over to Broadband even when following the Mac instructions to the letter.

Several attempts later and I am still not on Broadband! Nor am I on Mac Mail, it wouldn't send my photos. It kept freezing up and couldn't even process the smaller photo files that it downsized.

The laptop freezes to the point that I can't shut it down at all. Music cd's stick inside the computer and continue to play.

When it freezes like this I try to shut down, but when I hit the Eject button to get the cd out it just turns the laptop and the music back on rather than ejecting the disc.

I've spent an enormous amount of money on Apple products, an enormous amount of money for me. I am the average consumer, and I addressed this issue in my letter to them.

All they responded with at the end of the letter were repeated referrals about trying their service and diagnosis facilities.

Pardon me, but I don't need to visit and pay a service or diagnosis center to tell me I've bought crap. I am smarter than that, too bad I wasn't smart enough to avoid Apple.

By the way, I dropped my laptop on the carpet and the whole LCD screen is now blown. I can no longer use my IPod shuffle as I cannot access my laptop.

To hook the Ipod up to the laptop you have to click a certain "Eject feature in ITunes or it destroys the data on your IPod.

Not that it worked in the first place. I had to buy a Hub Port for my IPod because my laptop wouldn't charge it when went into sleep mode.

So, I can either take my chances and be quoted up to $1200 or more by Apple for a new LCD screen. Or I can just get a different brand laptop which is exactly what I am doing.

Desiree
Escondido, California
U.S.A.

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