Rotten Apple!

slushy

Hi fellow moneysavers, been a while since I posted here but wondered if anybody could offer up some advice?

I bought an apple powermac (G5 2.7GhzDP) around Sep 05 from ebay. It was only a few months old & the guy was selling for what I considered at the time a good price, £2500 inc 20" Cinema display which retailed at £500 alone. The guy worked at the apple store & had bought it for a project, I’m sure he would have gotten a discount also, but he was a nice guy & like I said I felt I was getting a good deal. Anyways roll on to around Sep 09(4years) & my £2500 dream machine is no longer working. I had experienced some problems after a few months, the odd random freeze or crash, but after rebooting it always came back up & seemed fine. I didn’t purchase applecare as I felt I didn’t really need it as the computer wasn’t going anywhere but sat in my home studio. I actually tried to purchase applecare at a later time but was told I couldn’t as I had missed the deadline(exactly a year after the original owner purchased it). I’m going to skip over the next part(unless requested) but I basically had to take the machine in THREE TIMES before they could correctly diagnose the problem with their so called “geniuses”.
The main problem for myself was that I don’t drive & this was a big heavy machine so I had to rely on a friend to give me a lift to the Regent St store in London on each occasion. Their final diagnosis was that I would need a new Logicboard(motherboard) replacement which would cost £600! On top of that I would have to pay £80 for the labor. So that’s almost £700 to fix a machine that is barely 5years old. I know some people may be thinking that after 5years it’s reasonable to breakdown but I paid around x5 the price of a standard dell machine, which I am now typing on, and is still going strong! I spoke to customer support who say they can’t do anything about it but I have researched this problem on the net & it seems that people in America who are having the exact same problem are either getting theirs fixed for free by apple or are getting a replacement machine of similar value. I’m not sure if this is because us British aren’t complaining enough! I bought this when I was a student as an investment for my career, I’m a freelance audio editor, and I can no longer work from home due to this. I have thought about contacting watchdog etc. Do you think I should do this? It’s people like myself that have made apple into the company what it is today by financing their iPod/iPhone development through the purchase of their top of the range models. Additionally I have invested in over £1000 of software & peripherals for the machine. I feel really disappointed with their poor service & lack of quality of what I thought was an outstanding product & company. Comments please. (excuse any typos).

DCFC79

Have you contacted other firms to see if the price is cheaper

slushy

Thanks for the interest. Are you referring to sourcing the parts from another supplier? One problem with apple is that they rarely drop their price on anything hence why you can't get ipods/iphones etc cheaper elsewhere. I have seen the Logic boards floating around on ebay but I'm far too inexperienced to fit it myself(I think). My point is that for outlaying such a large amount of money I should really be getting a better return on my investment, don't you think? I have friends who are using older applemacs than my one. Their discontinued support for these particular G5 chips also seems rather suspect having moved over to Intel. Just google "G5 Logicboard problems" & you'll see what I mean. My particular argument is that our atlantic cousins are seeing results whereas on this side of the pond apple aren't putting up their hands & admitting there is a manufacturing/design flaw in their product.

Hintza

You bought a second hand machine. Your contract is with the guy you bought it from and he will say it was sold as seen.

slushy

I have no problem with the guy that I bought it from. It was working well when I bought it. My problem is that these machines have a design flaw in that they are not lasting as long as apples previous models & all seem to suffer the same fate. As stated previously, I have many friends/colleagues with older models which are running perfectly well. Apple are treating this case as if I bought the product directly from them, the customer support guy & I discussed this matter & he said I was still being treated as an apple customer. Let's say for example that Ford brought out a Mondeo in 2005 and in 2010 lot's of Ford Mondeo drivers were documenting cases of the steering starting to get very dodgy, all around the same time. It wouldn't be treated on an individual basis but as a potential recall. If you get my drift?

RadoJo

I would have thought that unless you can prove that the fault is inherent in the design or construction of the system you have then it will be difficult to get Apple to replace or repair your computer for free. It is not uncommon for issues to be recognised in the US, but not in the UK and Apple are known for denying UK customers replacements that they have been forced to offer to US customers (I believe this happened with the early model of the iPod).
Could you take it to another technical expert to see if they could prove that the fault is inherent - it might be worth asking Apple what they would accept as proof as I'm guessing they could just refuse to accept anyone else's opinion.

slushy

Hmmn. Yes, I am currently looking into this. I have managed to collate many links of forum posts from disgruntled mac users all over the web. There is even a video of some guy on youtube throwing one out of a window & several others with the above mentioned problem. I guess if I can present a well constructed argument stating the case whilst making enough noise about it hopefully they will look to help out their UK customers a little more. I just thought I'd put it out here to see what the rest of the community thought. I certainly don't have another £2500 floating around. Again my problem is that the same issue is being dealt with effectively stateside. So who should I see then? Watchdog, consumer complaints etc? Or maybe write to apple US?

pendulum

Apple don't need to do anything at all for you, if they do it will be out of goodwill. Your right to get a refund/repair/replacement from the private seller you bought it from 5 years ago is nonexistent. Even if you had bought it from a business, I doubt very much you'd get anywhere trying to exercise your 'rights' against the seller, after all you bought second hand goods which have lasted a respectable 5 years. The motherboard going after 5 years of heavy use in a home studio? Fair wear and tear most likely. Computers don't last forever without repairs!

You brought up cars as an example, but I really don't think a manufacturer would entertain a claim for a fault on a 5-year-old car which you bought second hand from a third party! In one or two very specific, very rare cases maybe, but I don't think that's relevant to your problem.

I know nothing of Apple computers apart from they're expensive and not as good as PCs, but I can't see a second hand motherboard costing anywhere near £600, you must be able to get it cheaper than that. I feel like trying to get Apple to take any responsibility here is very, very wishful thinking.

custardy

It’s people like myself that have made apple into the company what it is today by financing their iPod/iPhone development through the purchase of their top of the range models. Additionally I have invested in over £1000 of software & peripherals for the machine. I feel really disappointed with their poor service & lack of quality of what I thought was an outstanding product & company. Comments please. (excuse any typos).

you bought it 2nd hand,so how were you financing Apple?
If you want Apple service then you need to buy from Apple,had you bought new then you would have known when to pay for applecare

looking on eBay it appears your machine has reached its end of life in cost of repairs

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/APPLE-POWERMAC-G5-DUAL-2-7-20-APPLE-DISPLAY-/170485392057?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Computing_Apple_Desktops_CV&hash=item27b1b8a2b9

you could buy this and part out your old machine

or other options like

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Apple-Mac-G5-PowerPc-/120568947892?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Computing_Apple_Desktops_CV&hash=item1c127824b4

Chimpofdoom

Or, bite the bullet buy a new (slightly reduced machine) from apple directly!
http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac?mco=MTA4MzMxODk

custardy

Chimpofdoom wrote: »

Or, bite the bullet buy a new (slightly reduced machine) from apple directly!
http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac?mco=MTA4MzMxODk

thats macbooks though,wouldnt this be more in the region for todays specs?

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_pro