lemon law?

S

steve-ortiz

Registered
Howdy! I love my Mac and I really enjoy boasting how much better Macs are than PCs... but lately I've been silent because my PowerMac G4 is not behaving.

I posted earlier about a dissapearing volume that turned out to be a crashed hard drive. Well, that was the second hard drive to die in my G4. After the first hard drive died, I thought I was unlucky. After the second one, I thought it must be the particular brand, Maxtor. Well, Apple sent a replacement IBM hard drive and that lasted just two weeks before it died as well. Three hard drives in two years have died, so I think something must be causing this, perhaps a problem with the logic board?

I called AppleCare yet again and again we went through the same old tests and they agreed, it was dead. The AppleCare specialist I talked to said this was very rare... lucky me. This time they suggested I take it to the local Apple service provider for further examination, and so I did. A few days later a techie from the service provider called me and said the hard drive was dead and they would order a replacement for me. &$#$@#!! I couldn't believe this guy, knowing that this was the THIRD hard drive to die, would suggest this! I told them NO, that they need to find out what is causing these hard drives to die and fix that problem. He has to check with his boss and they will get back to me on Monday.

So, my question is this, what can I get Apple to do about this? I think they should replace the entire machine, but do they do this? Is there a computer lemon law that says they have had their three tries to fix the problem; it's time to declare it a lemon? Could they replace it with a dual G5 to try and make up for the incredible inconvinience the death of three hard drives has caused. Has anyone had similar frustrations?

Thanks!
 
I suppose, technically, they haven't tried to fix it three times yet, they tried to fix it twice and this is the third try. And I may be wishfully thinking about a G5... I'd be happy with a working G4. But still, has anyone else been through this with Apple?
 
I would call Apple and work my way up the chain as high as I could get, not settle for the techs you've been talking to. Supervisor, to the next supervisor, etc, and call everyday.
 
I've never heard of this happening, but there is always some faliure rate in consumer electronics. If everything worked 100% of the time, things would have to be a lot more money.

The next thing they will probably try and do is replace the logic board because the hard drive controller is built in.

I would tell them that every HD you put in dies, and they should hopefully listen to you. Also like bobw says, you will probably need to work your way up past the level 1 people to get someone who is more capable of handling your request. I have never had to call Apple about any computer I've bought, even with my G4 running for more than 4 years basically 24/7 and used every day with the CPU usage at 100% all the time due to SETI@home.
 
One of my friends told me what turned out to be the most useful advice. The customer relations group is who you want to talk to when you're not getting anywhere with the product specialists or other technically oriented AppleCare people. I didn't get the entire system replaced as I was hoping for, but they are replacing both the logic board and the hard drive this time. The product specialists insisted all they could do was replace the hard drive for the third time, so customer relations got me a step further at least. I hope that will fix the problem, and I'll be happy if it does. I still don't have fuzzy warm feelings for Apple right now since I will have been without my desktop for two weeks by the time they get the parts and service it. I think they should do something more to make up for the incovinience... throw in an iPod or a serious hardware discount on my next purchase? But, I haven't even heard a "sorry" from them, so I guess I'm not getting anything else. Thanks all for your advice and I hope your systems never experience problems like this.
 
Well, if it dies again, take it to them, and get them to look at it, and then absolutely refuse to pay for their service until they tell you exactly why the drive died, and why your computer is killing its hard drive. If you got a liver transplant that was supposedly compatible, but your body rejected it, it might just have been incompatible. But if you reject 3 livers, or 4 livers, then there's probably something else going on, like some sort of bug. Make them find that bug.
 
Kick some AppleCare a$$... :p

Still, I don't think that they have to give you anything else, other than a perfectly working PowerMac! :D
 
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