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Apple - Think Twice

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Re: Apple - Think Twice

#371

Post by yardie »

Retric wrote: post #103
yardie wrote: post #82

> As a loyal customer of apple for almost 11 years (iMac G4) my loyalty has been shaken. I really hate bloggers that do shit like this. Apple isn't an airline so bringing up your Apple mileage isn't helping. Really, 11 years and this one problem shakes your loyalty? Not their DRM, custom screws, custom cables, EOLing still powerful Macbooks, making free services paid (iTools), or the $1000 price bump when they introd…

The goal is to show you don't already have a problem with the company in question. So, the issue must be really annoying.

The issue is annoying to him because he should have known better. Apple always does A/B testing on their v1 products. Early MB Airs came with SSDs from 2 different suppliers, iPhone 3G came with glass from Corning and a few other suppliers. He has the write to complain and I hope he gets a solution, but the writing is just so damn...smug.

Re: Apple - Think Twice

#372

Post by karolist »

keeran wrote: post #107

I had a similar dance with Apple tech staff. I took in a 27" iMac which had a faulty video card fan which made a horrible high pitched whine at low brightness settings. First visit they couldn't hear it (in loud store environment..), I was sent home. Second visit they agreed to take it in for testing - returned with a chipped display, scratched glass and a report that the problem didn't exist. Finally gave up with th…

If the whine correlated with what's displayed on the screen, for example, during mouse movement or when displaying high FPS content (you having said it was brightness related has me making this assumption), I think it was not the fan, but the so called "coil whine" which seems to be more apparent on ATI cards. On my desktop 7970 it's quite annoying, but considered normal. People fix it by applying nail polish on certain parts, but I'd rather play with headphones than mess up my 500 GBP kit in such a stupid way. I haven't had an nvidia whine on me, I assume all iMacs are equipped with ATIs now.

Re: Apple - Think Twice

#373

Post by Zr40 »

bilbo0s wrote: post #291
konstruktor wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most markets, the law does not allow beta products and caveat emptor. Warranties against product flaws are mandatory. Personally, I would consider ghosting as shown by the OP a defect covered by warranty. In addition to that, a premium brand should treat early adopters well, especially those who bought the flagship product. This is the point OP seems to be making. However, due to their own design decisions, they h…

"...Warranties against product flaws are mandatory..." If that were true... the software industry would be in REAL trouble.

Most open source software licenses contain all-caps legalese disclaiming all forms of warranty. See [1] and [2] for example.

[1]: http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

[2]: http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause

Re: Apple - Think Twice

#374

Post by kang »

kevinalexbrown wrote: post #150

My perspective here is in no way Apple-specific, but I was reminded of something quite interesting in this story: if you pass a test and you still have problems, it probably means the test isn't good enough. Worse, passing a test doesn't magically change the state of the world and make these problems disappear. Turning to the customer and explaining, "there is no problem because you passed the test" does not alter th…

Having worked in customer service I can tell you that sometimes you have to draw a line where boundaries are not very discrete. Customers can tell me that "their connection is too slow". The only proof I can give them is "it passes the speed test". This usually happens when the money paid for the service exceeds the service provided.

Although, what I have said is a general reply to general comment above, but i think this does not apply to apple here because they certainly charge enough.

Re: Apple - Think Twice

#375

Post by Ygg2 »

cmccabe wrote: post #369
mistermann wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think I agree, but there's still a tone in your and OP's words that makes it sound like you're appealing to some objective measure of a "high quality product." > It's quite possible that 99% of MBP buyers would never even notice that ghosting problem. Here's my takeaway from this incident. This problem doesn't affect 99% of users. If Apple needed to ensure this particular problem (almost) never occurs, it would c…

1. The guy who posted TFA is not a "professional"-- at least, not a professional graphics designer, professional photographer, or any other profession where ghosting would be an issue. 2. Apple has always been a consumer-focused company, not a company focused on businesses or professionals. 3. For as long as Apple has existed, there have been "Apple has jumped the shark this year because of X" posts. Always. They're…

1. Yes, but professional in usability have deemed Apple aesthetics as flat[1] i.e. good for beginners but not for power users/professionals. This might seem strawmany but if you design your UI for flatland, there is a good chance your hardware is designed to be flatland as well.

I assume that GP meant professionals as power users or the top percent of Apple's audience.

2. They have failed to solve a rather serious problem of their long-time customer, I don't know of better way to alienate your other customer than that.

4. And I used BASIC on commodore 64, where you had to plug it into a TV and used a cassette player. That doesn't mean you are lucky you can have a real dedicated 13 inch monitor and should stop complaining about not having a 15 inch monitor or a CD tray. It is a real problem, that would make me reconsider buying a MBP or a monitor for that matter.

[1]http://asktog.com/columns/075AppleFlatlandPart1.html

Re: Apple - Think Twice

#376

Post by antoinevg »

ripperdoc wrote: post #360
j-b wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the old adage that reality is 90% perception. If your customers "think" they have a problem, that in itself is an issue that needs to be dealt with. My customers don't care if their system issues are actually a problem in my software or not. "Not a problem" doesn't work if you want to keep paying customers around.

That's true about "customerS" but not for "a customer". There will always be a percentage of customers that expect more than the norm (for good or not so good reasons). The company cannot treat everyone's opinion the same, as they'd then need to design a product and customer support that makes the most picky person happy - which would be nice for all customers but very costly. In the end, the company has to decide wh…

All it takes to make 100% of the customers happy at low cost is to give the other 5% special consideration when they aren't happy with the quality control that satisfies the other 95%.

Or to put it another way:

The cost to Apple's reputation of an angry blog post about ghosting problems on their flagship notebook is considerable.

On the other hand, the cost of simply swapping this fellows machine out would have been negligible.

Re: Apple - Think Twice

#377

Post by ak39 »

koide wrote: post #282
personlurking wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This also works in personal relationships. If your SO feels hurt by something and you say "oh, grow up!", that doesn't help, even if you think some 'tough love' was needed/adequate. You have to deal with her as someone who is feeling hurt and until she perceives that you understand her, you'll just be sweeping the issue under the rug. I suppose this can be classified as listening but not really hearing.

On the other hand, sometimes tough love is indeed the adequate response and makes the SO to notice (s)he's being childish. Especially if said SO is generally mature enough to notice.

I disagree.

The reason why we are often too eager to dismiss is because kindness takes effort. Empathy, and certainly sympathy, is hard work. We get lazy, we become exhausted and our reactions become snappy. Almost always the "dry your eyes" advice is inappropriate and insensitive. And it never really achieves its intended objective.

I'm not saying we should all participate in crying orgies whenever someone shows signs of weakness (though, as I've aged, I think that is better than showing a cold shoulder) or that we readily invest in "idiot compassion". What I'm saying is: we are all trapped in this existential reality together and we all need to show kindness with all forms of suffering. Being cruel to be kind as a philanthropic philosophy has never worked (for me).

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5um8QWWRvo (RSA Animate on "Smile or Die" a talk by Barbara Ehrenreich)

Re: Apple - Think Twice

#378

Post by damian2000 »

crag wrote: post #160

It's not just Apple. It's all companies. When was the last time you tried to repair your washing machine under the warranty? Good luck. And it's software too. I can't remember the last time I installed a piece of software that wasn't filled with bugs. Some of them just glaring. Companies mantra, "Oh we'll fix that in an update". Six months down the road. Meanwhile they already have my money. This especially true with…

Best experience I had recently was to repair a 3 month old Lenovo laptop under warranty. At purchase I'd stumped up the $50 dollars or so for onsite service. So within a few days of the call I had an IBM technician turn up at my workplace and swap out its motherboard, no questions asked.

Re: Apple - Think Twice

#379

Post by _b8r0 »

msy wrote: post #10

Revision A Apple projects have had issues for as long as Apple has been making products. Second gen Macbook Air's had Logic board issues, 2007 era RevA Macbook Pros had video card issues, dodgy graphics cards on the early Mac Pros, the iPhone4 antenna, the list is endless. Often it's taken years for the issues to be resolved and Apple to pay for repairs, if at all. It's simple, if you want the shiniest tech, buy what…

This is the reason why I bought a top end early 2011 MBP rather than the newest widget version. I knew that was the end of a long line, but should last a fair amount of abuse for some time to come.

Re: Apple - Think Twice

#380

Post by manmal »

iyulaev wrote: post #206
meaty wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called solder mask and it doesn't cover the entire board... Compressing the bottom of the case will short. It's badly designed.

I think he's talking about conformal coating, not solder mask. Conformal coating can help but it's mostly there to prevent shorting across component leads from condensation. If you smash the Al casing against the board there's a good chance you can chip the coating and short things out.

Exactly, that's what I meant. Good point about the chipping off!
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