Mac Mini fresh 10.4 install - can't install bundled applications.

Question

Okay so I just got my first Mac last week . It's a Mac mini 1.83 Core 2 Duo. It came with Tiger and ILife bundle, and a Leopard upgrade dvd.
I installed Leopard (erasing the original install) only to find that there is no iLife on it. I tried installing the bundled apps onto leopard using the original dvd's and that kept failing as well.
Now I'm trying to reinstall the OS X 10.4 + bundle (my original grey cds) so that i can upgrade to Leopard and keep the iLife bundle.
1. I erased the drive using disk utility on the Tiger cd's, and reinstalled Tiger along with the bundled apps. This didnt work completely - when it got to the bundled apps, it failed at the end saying install failed - try again. And it doesnt even give me an option to exit - just keep trying the install of disc 2 again and again. I tried this another time and it still didnt work.
2. I tried again from scratch- erasing the drive and reinstalling - this time installing only Tiger without the bundled apps. Tiger installed ok. I did a software update, then tried installing the bundled apps manually. Still it wont install them.
3. I tried installing bundled apps again after #2 failed - still no luck.
The install log says it failed when doing pre-flight check of iDVD. But the second time it failed it was doing a pre-flight check of iPhoto.
Does anyone have any ideas what I could be doing wrong with this thing? I've erased and installed this thing like 6 times already and it still wont do a proper install of the bundled apps!

Answer 1

Ah, apologies, for some reason I had thought you were in the UK. Apple Canada don't have quite the same issues of remoteness as Apple UK, so it surprises me further that you have suffered the support issues you have. One of what I would have always considered to be Apple's deficiencies however is that they generally channel their feedback and support via stores and phone contact, rather than providing email or internal corporate contact details. It makes it easy to call for help when needed, but not so easy to let them know what you think about the help you actually received. Calling the phone support line and asking for the call to be escalated up is probably the best approach, and if nothing else will give a better insight, since in my experience most of the customer support calls are handled rather more constructively than your experience so far would suggest.
Ultimately, only you know exactly what your objective is of course, but if you had reached the point that it was clear a Mac was the right system to buy for your parents, then I suspect that you're right, your objective would not be likely to be best served by returning this system and switching to something else. As such, the short-term frustration of having to deal with this now, but having a working and fully installed mini for them to use in the longer term would perhaps be better than extricating yourself from the frustration now and thus gaining in the short term, only to have your parents cope with a less ideal system, even one where instead of an emphasis on ease of use, they would need to focus rather more on security, virus protects etc in a Windows system.
It does, of course, leave a bit of a bitter taste if you were to keep the mini and effectively let Apple get away with such poor support. The only problem is, however, that reacting to it by returning the system hurts them very little, and in reality perhaps does more to impede your own objectives.
Whatever you decide, bear in mind that however poor some of the staffers on the phone can be at times, and how unhelpful some of the staff in the stores, Apple Discussions here is often a very good way to get help and support from people who are just ordinary Apple users. We're not always able to help - there are some questions asked here which don't get responses, but by far and away most do! There are also Mac User Groups in many areas where help can be found (and often a helping hand and a copy of an install disc to help alleviate the frustration of waiting on Apple to post one out). Local Apple stores typically also have 'genuis' bars where help can be obtained, even for equipment out of warranty, and while the quality of support isn't always what one might hope for, it can be truly excellent.
In the end of course the fact that the quality of Apple support may be typically rather better than you have experienced, it doesn't excuse the bad experiences. Often, however, their products go a long way to make up for it!
Best wishes in whatever you choose to do.