Apple offers hush money for dodgy iMacs Apple is offering cash payments to customers still having grief with their 27-inch iMacs, which have been plagued with various screen problems. In the UK there are no 27-inch LCDs screens available to fix the iMacs so instead Apple is offering full refunds plus 15 per cent, Gizmodo reports. Some of the machines have suffered …
as its probably a "goodwill"* payment. If they cannot deliver the ordered goods within a "reasonable time" (usually 28 days for mail order) Apple's obligation would be to refund the customer's money in full as they haven't provided the goods as ordered. This done immediately with a smile would be the good customer service.
The 15% extra (so we're talking at least £200 a 27" iMac starting at £1378) - well if its in Apple store vouchers then again its good customer service as its saying "please order again when we've fixed the problems, sorry order backlog is resolved, and use this to buy some accessories for it".
If its in cold hard cash then its hush money because it comes with no obligation to spend it with Apple. You could take the cash and buy a Windows system if you *really* wanted! :o You could define it as good customer service too and I wish more places were like this when the bugger you about but its still hush money.
Either way - free cash? Mines a pint I think :)
* Good will payment = "We've mucked up, but we'll give you this cash if you acknowledge that we haven't"
Apple promotes itself on selling a premium product. The only premium thing about this whole fiasco is how stupid Apple look for rushing out a faulty product in the week Windows 7 was released.
After cracked screens, flickering screens and yellow tint - you would expect excellent customer service but I would rather have my money back.
Man, I'd hate to be the screen supplier for Apple at the moment.......I'm guessing they weren't able to ramp up production and keep quality at the same level as the 'test' batch that would have been signed of.
Jobs will be chewing them out on a daily basis no doubt.
Perhaps the new delay is Apple finding themselves a new supplier? Risky though.
I bet he's chewing them out a bit more frequently than ONLY 7 times a week.
I'd say the owners/bosses of this display manufacturer should watch out - they could vanish never to be seen again for this balls up! Steve's upset you know.
I wonder if they're funding this 15% bonus refund to apologise to his Steveness in the naive thought that if they do he wont ditch them as soon as he's lined up someone more reliable to get screens from...
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As the 27" iMac you'd want * (rather than the base model, as usual) comes in at £2300, that's a nice £345 bonus to sweeten the grief. Not enough for a i-want-one-of-those-Pad though ; (
* (A 2.8Ghz i7 with 8GB of RAM, 2TB HDD and AppleCare, for those who don't find playing with the Apple Store Configure page 'stimulating'. Blush.)
hush money is paid on condition of silence - guess that's the "hush" comes in, d'ya think?
Apple's paid that before (spontaneously combusting ipods) but there don't seem to be conditions this time.
"compensation" seems to be the best description - consumers are reimbursed and given some extra money for the failure of the testing process.
How sneaky for Apple to try and make amends and compensate disgruntled customers. Obviously the right thing to do would be ignore these customers, offer them nothing, and refuse to fix their machines as well. Because, well, Apple customers need to learn the company's actually evil, right? How are they going to learn they've made a mistake in buying from Apple, if Apple keep tricking them with, you know, decency...
I had a screen problem on my iMac 27 inch dual core. It was immediately replaced some months ago and the computer is the best thing that's happened to me. Vista was the last straw for Windows as far as I was concerned and the iMac (and Apple's service) are a breath of fresh air to this old computer bod.
Say what you like the kit is quality and the user experience amazing.
No, I don't work for Apple.
So what, big company cannot deliver on brand new product, people get disappointed. Where's the story here? It happens to us all, we want the latest and greatest whatnot and 'cos it's bleeding edge it has problems. Fact of life!
Sorry, but irrespective of product or company, if you decide to get the latest major incarnation of the product, due to rapid development and rush to market, it will almost always go wrong, not work properly, breakdown, etc.
Good system and database admins always abide by the mantra, 'Never install GA point release of any software! Always wait for at least .1 or more preferably, .2 release, before upgrading!", this applies to hardware gadgets too!
@20legend: It's better to let people think you're stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
I just don't get all the vitriol aimed at Apple by the microsoft masturbation brigade. So Apple screwed up with a product then did the right thing to apease their customers. I'm not aware of any other hardware or software manufacturers that have extended this level of courtesy, certainly not to the tune of 15%
By comparison, Microsoft admitted that Vista was a lame duck, despite that, we didn't see any level of compensation to their customers, not even a cheap upgrade to 7 despite the fact that they give their software away to the "right" people for free (or peanuts, I got Office 2008 Mac for £18 on the NHS scheme).
I'm not having a go at Microsoft, I use and buy both, but let's give credit where credit's due.
C'Mon guys, Apple are doing the right thing.
Think of the majority of customers that will buy an iMac 27". Designers, Graphic Houses, business customers that will be p**sed off that their new piece of hardware has a fault and to make sure that they stay a customer apple are giving them compensation, just like any company should, but if they give compensation to business customers, domestic customers should too.. and they are.
Its all in good spirit, I only wish Microsoft had done the same with WIndows Vista.
"Is there anything Apple can do that WON'T get criticised?"
No. The fanboism *towards* Apple is so rampant, with Mac fans spouting off about them constantly (and about IPads now), and using the most circular and twisted logic I've EVER seen anywhere to make out design flaws, defects, and omissions into features... and even worse, bringing it up in threads that have nothing to do with Apple... that I think people just like to rally back against this.
I see nothing wrong at all about what Apple did, but I think that's what goes on.
And after the *many* years of being told by PC owners that they didn't have 'proper' computers because they preferred a GUI to commmand lines and autoexec.bat files, can you really blame them?
FWIW, in 20-odd years of technology journalism, I've heard *far* more boasting from PC owners - faster, bigger, more games, more applications na, na, na-na, na - than from Mac users.
At least the Mac is a vibrant platform, which is more than you can say for Amiga, Risc OS, etc, etc.
If anyone's ever been smug arrogant or plain annoying, it's Apple users; and I say that from a position of knowledge - as an ex-Amiga zealot ;)
I'm surprised that there are stil screen problems though, sounds like the same sort of problem they had with the old Performa 5200/5300 all-in-one. A problem that they never seemed able to get a handle on.
have to take issue with this one;
As the 27" iMac you'd want * (rather than the base model, as usual) comes in at £2300, that's a nice £345 bonus to sweeten the grief. Not enough for a i-want-one-of-those-Pad though ; (
The sweet point model, that I am typing on btw is the quad core 27inch. Comes in at £1700 flat. (you get discounts when you phone them, unless you are a muppet that pays asking price for a new car in the show room) I also got 2 extra mice and a back up full size keyboard thrown in for FREE. The screen is jaw dropping, I got it on release day, and it has had no trouble what so ever.
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