Switching to Apple - A Sorry Tale

Question

After many years as a PC user I recently decided to give the Apple experience a try and purchased a 20 Inch Intel iMac.
I eagerly received the machine on Tuesday 31st January to find with great disappointment that it would not boot up. On pressing the power button all I got was a solid white light in the bottom right hand corner. Eventually, after about an hour of powering off and on again with the keyboard and mouse in various configurations, the machine suddenly sprung to life.
Things then appeared to go OK for the next couple of hours until I made the seemingly innocent mistake of leaving the machine alone for a short period. Upon my return I found that the keyboard and mouse no longer functioned.
After some more frustrated experimenting, I discovered that I could temporarily fix this problem by unplugging the keyboard and plugging it back in again.
At this point I started to search the Apple forums to see if anyone else was experiencing the same problems. I was not really surprised to find several threads mentioning the keyboard issue.
On further investigation, I found the same errors in my system log that other users have experienced and also found (at a cost of about $35) that my keyboard was to blame. I picked up a new one and all of the system log errors and lockups went away.
I should mention that before I went out and spent money on the keyboard I discussed that matter with Apple support. They informed me that I could take the whole machine in to a local Apple store for investigation. If they found the keyboard to be faulty then they would replace it for me. Unfortunately this would have been very inconvenient for me and so I just bit the bullet and bought a new one
Over the course of the next few days I had many more problems with the machine not booting up, both from cold starts and from sleep mode. Again, I searched the forums and found other users with similar problems but unfortunately a solution was not forthcoming and so it was back on the line to Apple support.
A few conversations with them later and after trying many of the experiments detailed elsewhere on the forums it was determined that my machine was faulty and needed to be replaced. The options given to me were: (a) return the machine to the retailer (amazon) for a refund, (b) take the machine into an Apple store for repair or (c) return the machine to Apple for a replacement.
Since I actually still wanted the machine at this stage (a) was not really an option. I was not satisfied with (b) either, since this is a brand new machine I do not want it repaired, so I opted for (c). I was then told that I would be emailed fedex labels within a couple of days to allow me to return the machine. This was on the 4th February.
Two days passed and there was no sign of the fedex labels so I called Apple support once again to see what was going on. The original person I was dealing with wasn’t available and so my case was transferred to another product specialist who said that he would escalate my case as I had already been put to a lot of inconvenience. Once again I was assured that the labels would be with me in the next day or two.
Yet again they failed to materialise and so I tried to call my new contact. After several failed attempts to speak with him I left some phone messages and also sent a couple of emails expressing my concern over the situation and requesting that he contact me as a matter of urgency. He did not return my calls or answer the emails.
Fast forward to yesterday, 13th February, and I call Apple support again and this time, I end up having to speak to yet another case specialist. After going through the usual 15 minutes of recapping the situation I am told that he has no idea what is going on and he is about to leave work for a couple of days. He does however promise to email everyone who has been involved at Apple so far to try and elicit some kind of response. Needless to say, it didn’t work.
So here I am, 15 days after receiving my machine, 10 days after Apple determined that my machine needed to be replaced, $35 out of pocket, having spent countless hours on support forums, waiting on hold, having the same conversations over and over again with different case specialists and I still have not even received the fedex labels to return the faulty machine, never mind receiving a replacement!
This is my experience of switching to Apple so far. Think different indeed.
iMac (intel 20 Inch)   Mac OS X (10.4.4)  

Answer 1

Your experience is most unusual, so I too urge you to hang in there. Note that new machines get automatic support, even from external shops that are Apple certified. User groups often recommend going there first because they do their own repairs instead of shipping the machine out like Apple stores do. Some repairs are only an hour so you can get your machine back after waiting at the shop.
I have a new Intel iMac and have had no hardware problems at all. But do keep in touch with online forums. Remember that if 20 people report a problem there can be hundreds or more who do not have a problem (and so do not report anything) so do not be misled by the number of postings. Consumer Reports canvasses all types of users and Apple comes out on top every time for service and customer satisfaction. I think you just got some, er, Bad Apples
Here are some useful sites:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/faq_cd/index.html
http://www.macupdate.com/macintel.php
http://www.macosx.com/forums/
http://versiontracker.com/
And check forums for info on OS updates before you update. Some have their own glitches that might be more important to you than the issues they fix. Versiontracker is good for that info.
Good luck.