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| - I'm not disappointed by the hour and a half it took me to talk to a technician, and I'm not disappointed by how anybody treated me there. What I am very disappointed by, however, is the new norm of an Apple product experience. About 1 year and 3 months ago I purchased a brand new Macbook Air. Previously I had owned a black Macbook and had no problems with it in 5 years of ownership. It was by far one of the best products I've ever owned
I spent a lot of money on the Air and expected it to be just as durable as my previous computer. Fast forward to today (90 days out of warranty) and I got the service battery notification- so either something was terribly wrong or the battery was just oddly low on juice in its lifetime.
After the wait, the technician told me that although my battery had only really used up one fifth of its 1,000 charge lifecycle that it was verging on failure and my RAM was not recognizing her OS and that could mean an entire logic board replacement.
Thankfully it only turned out to be the former after a 36 hour wait. I talked to someone at Apple on the phone and they told me it would cost $129 to replace the battery. I refuted that although this computer was 90 days out of warranty the technician told me it was the battery at fault and would prefer it be replaced for free (I also saw this was a very common issue for other owners of the same model).
Long story short, as nice as possible the person on the other end of the line told me they would not replace it for free. I tried again with another person, and they wouldn't budge either.
I told them I was disappointed they wouldn't stand behind their products as products that should last, and I am seriously considering not buying another Apple product.
Apple products used to stand for superiority in quality, service and reliability. But recently as they've made their lines increasingly proprietary and only serviceable under Apple they have no incentive to make things last. Now you just ditch the old and buy the new at ridiculous cost or have it repaired at an absurd premium by Apple, or spend way too much money on their warranty to get that extra piece of mind.
I had a similar issue with my iPhone 5, when the sleep/wake button stopped working. When I looked it up online, I noticed it was a common problem that is fixed even when you're outside of your warranty. So I went to the Apple store, and they claimed that because my phone had a dent it was not eligible to be fixed for free and wanted $170 for the repair. That's like saying because someone broke the mirror on your car it wouldn't be eligible for a recall for an airbag. Absurd.
It's really disappointing to see a company that used to be focused on the quality and durability of its products instead focused on extracting more money from customers and watering down the ownership experience It's a shame, really. I no longer think of Apple as a company that builds durable products.
I don't think I can give up the Mac experience, as I've had one for so long and don't like how PCs function, but I absolutely will not be buying another Apple tablet or mobile device. And while I am buying another Mac, the quality of Apple's products and support has seriously gone downhill. I've never had as little confidence in a product being long-lasting and durable. And with the horrible software issues they have with every release, like when the Wi-Fi on my Mavericks upgrade would stop working all the time, or my iPhone would reset with the new iOs release, you have to wonder, where is the Quality Assurance testing?
I think there are too many good options out there when it comes to mobile devices, and I'd spend my money elsewhere.
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