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Apple - G4 Dual Processor

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Matt of Raleigh NC (12/22/03):
Purchased a new Apple in March 2003. Almost immediately began having problems from continuous kernal panics to faulty hardware issues. Fortunately, we purchased AppleCare so at first we were not worried. Wrong assumption. After monthly trips to Apple service and 100's of hours on hold and speaking with Apple service, (NO I AM NOT EXAGGERATING) we finally convinced them to replace the machine.

Because of the nature of my business, (music industry - I tech for some of the big names out there) we agreed to give them our credit card to hold against our return of the defective machine. We signed some legal forms and patiently waited. We waited WELL PAST the deadline they imposed on us - still no machine. We called, we left messages, we begged, we cried, we eventually just gave up and told them to keep the damn machine they were NOT shipping to us.

Customer Relations at Apple are LIARS on a good day. Lots of people use Apple computers because of us. I look past Apple's shortcomings because I believe in the product, but I have awakened to the new reality. They no longer care as far as customer relations goes. It is now almost Christmas and I have no machine to replace the defective one. Calls to Apple Relations get nowhere. I give up. More the 6 months of problems on one machine is rediculous.

John of Penngrove CA (8/5/03):
Two years ago I switched to editing video on a Mac, the high end G4 Dual processor with all that I needed to edit. But the promised land of the digital hub was never really fulfilled due to the fact that I was unable to burn disks or DVDs reliably (one out of 7). The Superdrive was replaced twice and there were countless reinstalls of the OS and upgrades which cost me almost $200 and were suggested to fix the problem. Never once did they, after saying it was a fix, offer to send me the OS for free.

I was reluctant to purchase additional software as my thought was that it should work based on the $3700.00 price I paid for a full working machine and not a paid reissue of the OS. But I needed to work so I did and I erased my disks and spent another $200 for a firewire drive to back everything up so I could install another OS. Since then they have issued 2-3 upgrades and to this day Apple refuses to burn a CD of these upgrades for me. I have a dialup and an 85 meg file will take a couple of days to download.

After 2 years of wrangling through fixes and upgrades and requests to buy Apple Care (that was an insult, "here give us more money to fix the warranty AND the machine") I demanded a resolution. Apple techs suggested I use Verbatim CD's (this does not address the DVD issue) so in consolation Apple Customer Care sends me 30 CD's and guess what? They're not even Verbatim. After two years I believe I have earned something besides: "Give us your machine for a week and the next fix may actually work". I cannot afford to lose a week and I cannot afford to buy a CD burner when I've already spent moeny on a SuperDrive that won't burn DVD's or CD's in a reliable manner.

I have experienced 2 years of diminished productivity due to Superdrive failures. I have loss of credibility due to being unable to complete projects due to inability to burn CD's abd DVD's for clients. This has hurt my business and delayed my film. Even if replaced I have now a less updated machine and have been deprived of the advantage (that I paid for) of having a leading edge computer giving me the ability to attract clients.

When I purchased the machine, DVD burners were somewhat unique and that would have been a huge feature had it worked, now they are relatively common and many filmmakers/videographers use this in their advertising. The advantage is gone, an advantage that I paid almost $4000.00 for was never delivered.

My film has been delayed by six months or more due to the fact that I could not reliably burn CD's with the audio files (OMF) and send them to the post-production facility. Finally, their failure to remedy this situation in a timely manner has reduced the general value of what was at that time the top of the line for Apple desktop video and it is my contention that the only remedy is to admit they sold me a lemon and replace it with a current top of the line computer.

John should sue the company in Small Claims Court.

Tom of Lakewood NJ (6/20/03):
I have been a loyal customer since 1980, when I bought my first Apple II (I believe it was) with a dot matrix printer, 2 external 5inch floppy drives and whatever business software I could find. In the 80's, when the Mac's came out, I was onboard. I've purchased Mac SE's, the Mac II, (by the dozen) the Mac IIFX (We lovingly called them Turtle Mac's) and on to the Mac II ci/cx the 7600's 9600DV, through the dark days until the iMac, the G3 Blue and White, the G4's, the Titanium and Quicksilver and now on to the Mirror Door Dual Processor models. Currently, in my studio I have as operating workstations consisting of G3, G4 QuickSilver, Mirror Door Dual Processor and Titanium G4 computers. We even keep an old SE around, although I don't know where at the moment. It is the world's best typewriter.

Our newest workstation consists of a G4 Dual 1GHz Mirror Door with Dual Apple LCD displays, 1 super drive, 1 CDRW, 3 HD's and 1.2 Gigabyte of RAM. This unit has become the bane of my existence. My first concern was the unusually loud fan noise the unit generated. The fan would cycle from high to low in drastic sequences, irregular and unpredictable. When I called Apple technical support to inquire about the condition (everything I knew told me this had to be wrong) I was told that it was normal, and not to worry about it. I explained that it sounded like a vacuum! Nonetheless, my concerns were dismissed by the technician I spoke to. I hadn't heard these levels of noise or fan fluctuations out of the other dual processors in my shop. But I have trusted Apple for over 20 years and my trust, once gained, is not easily shaken.

I examined the inside of this unit and was VERY impressed. It is a work of art. Compared to the G3 B&W (for example) it had evolved into a masterful layout and I could see how the air flows of the various fans channeled cooling streams over and around the appropriate components. Adding HD's is a pleasure compared to the G3. I tried to ignore the noise. However, the drastic highs and lows could not be ignored and followed no reasonably explained pattern so I called in again and this time, a tech led me through a series of input commands that brought the situation of the fluctuating highs and lows under control. Overall, this unit was still considerably louder than any of my others. But remember... I trusted Apple and so, I was willing to live with it.

Part of my purchase agreement was that I would receive Adobe In Design with the purchase of this unit. We used Quark and had since the early 80's when the printer who handled our Coca-Cola account print production, introduced us to his $5mm Scitex (which required a new climate controlled addition to his building). That machine was marvelous and could actually do many of the things our desktop Macs do today. It offered a proprietary software called Visionary which led us to Quark when it was developed. We suffered as did all designers, with the limitations of Quark and were thrilled at the offering Adobe made with In Design 2.0. I even traveled to NYC and attended the Adobe/Apple seminar on In Design 2.0. I have attended numerous Apple seminars. However, my In Design 2.0 from Apple never came.

When I called in, I learned that it had been delivered, but to the wrong address. Further checking revealed that Apple sent it to the wrong address. Apple had my correct address on file, but the numbers were confused on the shipment and a wrong address was used. This wasn't my fault, but I was the one to suffer. I asked, no pleaded with Apple to just send me another copy while they worked this out, but they refused. During the UPS investigation, I was contacted by UPS and that investigator questioned me repeatedly about my address, the wrong address (which I have no idea where it is) and my possible "associations" with persons at that address, making me feel as though I was involved in some kind of a fraudulent scheme to get a free copy of In Design! I was highly insulted and blame this on Apple.

Weeks turned into months, my copy never arrived. Due to promises I made to my clients (and unlike Apple, I feel a duty to honor my word) I purchased a copy of In Design 2.0 to complete projects which couldn't wait. Subsequent calls to Apple revealed that the item was now on back order. The representative I spoke to from Apple's premium department told me, well, it's a free premium to you any way. I was insulted and reminded her that it was part of a purchase agreement, part of what was freely offered by Apple to me, the customer, when I agreed to purchase the computer, and that I felt it part of something I had paid for, and that Apple's end of that purchase agreement was not met. Still, Apple felt no obligation to refund me any money. Instead, I was told that, when it did arrive, I could sell it to recover my money. How absurd is that?

It still sits on a shelf, unopened, useless to me, (we have a multi user set-up on the item we purchased) except to remind me, every time I look at it, how Apple did not live up to their agreement and would not offer any compensation, it "was not in their best interest" Never mind the consumer's best interest. Apple was giving me an education. Do you like what it is teaching me?

I've had other problems with this machine. There was the issue of no other addresses on our LAN being able to "see" this unit. This unit could see the others fine. When Apple technical assistance could not resolve this issue, their advice was a reinstall of the OS. This is VERY inconvenient for the customer but it seems to me to be the place Apple technicians go to when they can't figure out an issue. A fallback convenient for them. This did not resolve the issue but, instead, cost me many down hours. Apple's next "solution" was to take the unit in for hardware replacement. Didn't seem like a hardware problem to me and I could live with that small inconvenience easier that I could do without my workstation so I did what I felt was in my best interest and ignored that advice. Subsequent OS updates cured the problem. Humm, I'm wondering how OS updates repaired hardware?

One day, while speaking with a rep, she asks, what's that noise, do you work in a factory, my boyfriend's work sounds like that. The noise she was hearing was my G4's fans. My office is otherwise quiet, not even a radio. Later I find a recall has been issued and a new power supply and system of fans offered. A catch! Costs $20! Way to stand behind your products Apple! Charge the consumer to fix your mistakes. My education with Apple is on-going it seems.

After my most recent OS update to 10.2.6 I had another issue. A small but irritating one. A file folder that I use to store PDF's of our portfolio of graphics, art and photography, suddenly has some locked folders which I am unable to unlock! This is a folder I have been using and growing for years. I don't have privileges to trash it, or add files to it and so, I'm stuck! I wait until a day when I have 45 minutes to burn (underestimate of the year) to call Apple Technical support. When I did, it began my 2 day oddesy, 10 hour phone conversation and my trip to Apple hell!

I've spoken with over a dozen Apple representatives to my total frustration and no solution. My system has gone from bad to worse and I blame the degradation of the situation on inept Apple Technical support that gave me conflicting, inaccurate instruction. Technicians who have lied to me, technicians who have yet to return my calls, and technicians who, when they are stumped do not go to a higher authority but, instead, direct the customer to re-install, and even erase entire HD's! An honest evaluation of the records (if they exist) will bear this out. I say "if they exist" because it will depend upon what the individual technicians were willing to record of their direction (or lack thereof) themselves, unless those phone calls were recorded. I hope they were and are available for an investigation if it is in Apple's realm on consideration to initiate one. The Fox guarding the Chicken Coop arrangement that it is.

The first technician was on the right track, taking me to a re-boot in OS9 to resolve the issue. One small detail neglected prohibited a resolution. She never instructed me to take the Item out of the trash in OS 10 and, therefore, we could not find it in OS9. I alerted her to this, but we went on to other alternative medicines. Throughout the course of the next 5 hours on the phone, I was instructed to perform an archive and restore which I protested. I protested specifically because of my past experiences with these tactics and the resulting loss of data. Most specifically (and I clearly stipulated this) with MS Office, Entourage and emails, contacts, etc. I was PROMISED by ROBERTO that this would not be the case, that ALL information would be archived and saved and he would be able to direct me how to recover it all. He gave me his call back number. He has yet to return any of my repeated calls. End of story, data was lost. VITAL data that could have easily been backed-up if I would have been afforded the opportunity.

More so, Suitcase, the program by which we manage our 65,000+ font library, was lost, and when reinstalled, no longer recognized suitcases, font allocations, locations, etc. Information we had been building for years! Apple technicians tell me I have to re-do all that information. MORE DOWN TIME! I believe the problems that snowballed into the catastrophe I now face are a direct result of improper instruction given to me by inept Apple Technicians.

OH. By the way, the solution to the initial problem IS simply to go into OS 9 and resolve the permissions and locked folders issue there. The other drastic measures (making me root user, entering commands through the terminal app, repairing permissions, re-installing, entering code directly and the final erasing of the entire 80GB HD and Re-installing everything from scratch, was ALL UNNECESSARY! I've asked repeatedly for this machine to be replaced. I've asked for something as simple as another 80GB HD to use in the restoration process as an alternative to Erasing the existing one. This is in MY best interest as there is information on that disk I cannot recover at the moment, but DO NOT WANT TO LOSE. Apple has refused these considerations and have no solution to offer me that will not leave me minus my workstation.

Therefore, my alternative was to purchase another HD myself. That was inexpensive and easy and yet, too much for Apple to offer. I am slowly recovering information and preferences as possible. I have been set back days and this has cost me $1000's. I was to purchase another G4 yesterday evening. Instead I have purchased the first Windows-based PC of my life. I am studying the feasibility of transitioning to this platform for all my employees and workstations as a direct result of Apple's refusal to help me in a way that considered my best interests. I think it ridiculous that we would, instead, spend over 10 hours on the phone. That had to cost Apple a bundle! The resulting frustration may have caused Apple a 20+ year loyal customer and all the purchases I may make in the future as well as all the purchases those I can sway with my opinion may make.

Is this good corporate strategy? I know MY business wouldn't survive if I behaved like this. I can't believe that there is no one at Apple in a position of authority that is willing to correct this situation. And that is who I am trying to reach. The moment I believe I cannot reach such an individual, I will consider my education by Apple complete any you may consider me a lost customer. I am addressing this message to Steve Jobs and a number of People at Apple whom I feel may be inclined to help.

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