Macintouch has done a hardware quality survey among owners of PowerMac G5s (3000 PowerMacs) regarding hardware quality, support quality, and more. The conclusion: "The Power Mac G5's 17% first-year failure rate remains far higher than the industry average of 5%. If Apple is to maintain its premium pricing, it should provide premium reliability. As things stand, high Power Mac prices must include high warranty service costs built-in. With an overall failure rate of 23%, a quarter of which occur outside of Apple's 1-year warranty, and an average of 1.29 repairs per affected unit implying repeat problems, Power Macs are neither cheap for Apple to service after the sale, nor cheap for buyers. Power comes at a cost." Ok. Run Forrest, run!
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Member since:2006-02-16
dont bash apple care to much! maybe buying the mac though some one other than apple was more of a mistake! (the apple store will register the AppleCare at time of purchase!!!!)
I have had my powerbook totally replaced with a brand new one, TWO years newer! AND... do to a similar paperwork issue that you had mention... i had my apple care plan extended for and extra 30days!
apple is a large company... with lots of humans! errors happen... but i have NEVER (knock on wood) witnessest apple NOT stand behind there products!
now... there are some dumb asses at the apple store.... i brought my iPod in because it waould not boot. the Genius told me it needed a new battery! i was shocked... and when home... googled the issue... and found a fix for it my self! so... they are not perfect by any means!
but i would still recomend the extended warrenty plan on EVERY laptop ...apples... or other wise!
Member since:2006-01-22
Member since:2006-03-14
"I cannot understand why Aple sticks to Intel, when they could have pushed VIA C7 also for their minis? They consume less heat and can give lower price points."
I think you mean "produce" less heat 
- VIA prolly can't supply Apple with as many chips as Intel can pump out of their fabs.
- Using the C7 would mean different socket, different chipset, again would have to be supplied by VIA.
- It still wouldn't affect the price of these machines. If you look at the price patterns as far back as the G3s, Apple has always had a pricing structure based on the model (entry-level, medium, high-end). A lot of people thought the switch to Intel would mean cheaper Macs. That's not the case. The CPU is only a small factor in the overall price.
Member since:
2005-07-04
As the owner of a Mac Mini Core Duo, I'm telling you that this survey clearly is a bloody lie, Macintouch is a joke that simply mustn't be taken seriously and it is pretty obvious that Bill Gates funded this survey :-P
Seriously though, I like Macs and all, and just bought a new Mini, but Apple needs to either cut their prices or else learn some quality assurance. Luckily for me, the Minis seem to have a much lower failure rate than the Powermacs.
However, with all of the heat issues with the Apple laptops, it is clear that problems will continue to plague the Intel line.
I have my own experiences with Apple Care, and they are not good to put it lightly. My Mom purchased a 20" Intel iMac from a local Apple dealer. The Applecare wouldn't register online because of a mess-up with the date. So she phoned Apple, gave them the numbers, they told her to fax in the receipt. She did that, and two weeks later hadn't heard back, so she phoned again. They said, sorry fax it again. So she did....again. The receipt had the DOP circled, the prices circled and the name of the retailer circled, because that is the info they needed the receipt for. The next day, she got an email back saying the documentation was insufficient because it didn't include a DOP, Retailer info or total price. It finally took my Mom phoning, talking to them like babies while walking them through how to find the information, insulting their intelligence (which they clearly deserved, as they obviously aren't all that bright), threatening to take the unit back and buying a Dell instead, before they told her it would be done in a week. I'll know in the next day or so if they actually bothered doing it.
I fear the day I have to deal with these fools if something happens to my Mini...I wish Apple would license OS X to a more competant hardware vendor, as I use their hardware for the software, not the hardware itself. And if they are going to charge way more than anyone else for extended warranties, why can't they hire some workers to deal with their customers that can actually speak some english? I doubt a very high percent of their customers in the US and Canada request support calls in punjab (not to be racist but jesus christ Apple).
My 2 cents, take 'em or leave 'em.