DOA iMac - Apple "Lack of" Care

Question

My 24" 2.8 GHz iMac arrived on Wed 8/22. I was disappointed to find that it had a malfunctioning fan and Tech Support deemed it DOA and needed to be returned. I was informed that shipping labels would be overnighted to me. Apple would not send a replacement until the original was returned.
Two days later....no labels.
Another call to technical support...20 minutes on hold and then a helpful guy who says he'll call Returns directly and solve my problem (no useful info had been recorded in my case file). He calls me back later and says HE CANNOT GET THROUGH TO ANYONE IN RETURNS but has "escalated" my issue via e-mail. What a joke.
Apple seems content to hang on to my money (maybe I should ask for interest?!?!), but meanwhile I have no indication of when I'll receive a working unit and no way of contacting anyone with the ability or willingness to do something about it.
Any suggestions for cutting through the red tape?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, not all machines will arrive in perfect working order, some do get rough handling during transit. This is true of all makes not just Apple.
However, from my own personal experiences of Apple Customer Care, the treatment end users recieve from Apple is awful. I recently had 2 replacement Mac Pro's sent out the first of of which was damaged in transit. While I did eventually recieve a replacement unit, it took over 8 months for Apple to decide my original unit was beyond help and agreed to a replacement being sent out.
During the 8 months, the original unit was not useable and so was packed back up awaiting a solution (fortunately I had a trusted PowerMac G5 Quad to use as a back up so I was able to get some work done but did however build up quite a backlog of work and eventually had to turn work down in an attempt to ease the amount of backlog. The work I had to decline cost me several thousands of pounds in lost income which Apple gave no consideration to or compensation for.
I purchased the extended warranty which Apple transferred to the replacement machine but decided to dock the original 8 months from the warranty period. Hardly good customer relations. Apple agreed the original machine was in effect a lemon and agreed it could not be used yet the penalised the replacement machine from having the full 3 year warranty period.
After this episode and experience, having had to fight to get anywhere with technical support, eventually I escalated the problem to their Executive Relations Deprtment, 8 months on I get a solution which should have been offered immediately. Not happy. Apple just adding insult to injury.
The replacement Mac Pro has so far worked without issue and is a joy to use, unfortunately Apple's after care leaves a very bad taste in the mouth. They really do need to get it sorted out.
When it is time to replace my current network of systems, in light of my experience with Apple since the Intel switch, I doubt I will be replacing any system with another Mac. I will have no choice but to switch back to Windows based systems unless Apple really get their game and build quality back on top form. OS X is a joy to use, I just wish the machines Apple provide to run this platform on were up to the same high standard as the OS.
Hardly as Apple state on their web site "absolutely flawless integration of hardware and software", "Macs just work". The jury is still out on that.
This is not an Apple hate post, just an honest post from an Apple customer sharing my experience with Apple so far. I have to admit when I was using PowerPC based machines I only ever had one need to call tech support and the problem was sorted out pretty quickly, however since I swapped to Intel based machines, the need to contact Customer Care has been increased significantly and the over all quality of the machines I have received has been poor.
Keep at it if you are unhappy, escalate the problem to Executive Relations if need be and when you do get your replacement machine I hope it is a better experience all round for you.