About midnight on Monday I ordered an Azus 22" LED Monitor through a very well known internet retailer specialising in electricals. Paid extra for next day delivery which was indicated by a clock on the website. The monitor is to go as an extra monitor with the Mac the kids are getting for Xmas.
Anyway it didn't turn up the next day but arrived today. I'll concede to that considering the time of year.
So the manufacturers suitcase type box was sealed with their printed sticky tape. I opened it to check it over. Immediately I noticed that the polystyrene packiging was cracked where you would pull it out of the box. The plastic bags containing all the leads where not factory fresh although everything was bound up as you would expect. Forensic examination of the monitor revealed very minor scratches near to the cable plugs. Some minor scratches underneath the base. Bubbles in the protective plastic base covering. No film on the screen and sellotape stuck round the frame of the screen. Overall not pristine as new.
This was a used monitor! I'm guessing faulty return and manufacturer repair by the fact of the use of Manufacturers selloptape on the box.
The pfd's! So on the phone and arrangements made for return collection when they will then arrange refund/replacement.
All in all not a good experience. Can't see it will be sorted out until well into the New Year.
Had it happen once before with a portable TV bought as a present from a national retailer. Stii part of the repair docket on the box with the address of the original purchaser whom |I visited. Went to Trading Standards. Even provided official statements from myself and the purchaser. Apparantly they were warned. Fat lot of good that was.
They are extracting the urine by trying to pass off the product as new but I suppose someone would fall for it. Next thing is reclaiming the original fast postage which ultimately it will not be if I accept a replacement in Jan. Rant over.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 22 Dec 11 at 01:39
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I can beat that, ordered a brand new hard drive on Friday, received it on Monday, it the date on it was June 2005, I did a SMART test and it came back as 38,800 hours :( The hard drive was very very old.
Returned at my cost with a very threatening letter saying I want a full refund on the delivery otherwise I will be taking legal action for fraud. The best thing is they put the serial number on the receipt so they can't get out of it.
Been using online shopping a lot lately but just had too many issues like this, so it is probably going to be back to old fashioned way for me.
PS If you were talking about a DSGi firm the used to be well known for this but a lot of it was down to genuine error. Even when I worked there back in 2005 our store did a lot to ensure that any returns were sold as such.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Wed 21 Dec 11 at 22:09
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Rattle I worked there back in the late 70's !!
Issue was and probably is that the manufacturers don't offer new exchanges to the stores on returned faulty items so the store is responsible for repairing and then re-selling the item. Its in their interest to get the original price and not discounting item as 'refurbished'.
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Its legal though isn't it? Thats why our store was very careful about it, as we were well aware of trading standards issues. That said this was a flagship store so standards may have been higher.
This dodgy practice goes on with RAM too, as its more less impossible to spot second hand stuff.
I have noticed now a lot of new laptops I get have a manufacturers seal on them, so you can spot it a mile off if its a return.
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My wife had a "return" laptop from PC World. Dishonest bunch.
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As I said shouldn't have happened, do you think it was a mistake or a deliberate act? One major problem with DSGI is they seem poor at diagnosing faults, in the case of a laptop they will just reset it (i.e do a recovery install) and send it out to a new owner (hopefully being sold as a refurbish or open box) but the original faults often still exist.
I have lost count the amount of call outs I have had for PCWORLD's refurbished laptops which have a blatant hardware fault causing the windows issues.
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In future, you could state your name as PC Fullchat (or Inspector/DCI etc.)
I always use Right Hon. Dog - works for me ;}
(right on dog!)
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Didn't need explaining Towser.
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>> About midnight on Monday I ordered an Asus 22" LED Monitor
Did you also get the right lead for a Mac to connect with it? I know it's going back. But PCs tend to use D-SUB, DVI or even HDMI and Macs come with mini DisplayPort.
Would it have worked without an extra cable to convert from mini DisplayPort to something else.
As for sending out a refurbished item - who's accept that if you bought it as new.
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Adapter lead to source from an Apple shop to connect to DVI port lead. No rush now :-(
Soz couldn't decipher last line.
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...Adapter lead to source from an Apple shop to connect to DVI port lead...
The adapter leads are much cheaper on Amazon, and work just as well.
I bought one for a tenner to convert one of the MacBook's ports to HDMI, so I could connect it to my new telly.
The same lead from the Apple shop is about £30.
There's also the question of sound to sort out.
I'm told it can be done easily in the computer's settings menu, but I've not bothered.
Not sure which type of lead you will need, but this is the one I bought for the MacBook:
www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-Mini-adapter-cable-Neet%C2%AE/dp/B001PLIS6Q/ref=pd_cp_ce_3
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>> There's also the question of sound to sort out.
How old is your MacBook? DisplayPort has only recently had the ability to send audio over DisplayPort (HDMI has always handled it). So you might have to run a 3.5mm audio cable to the TV as well as this cable.
Basically it should just work. This has nothing to do with it not being an Apple cable either. DisplayPort did not originally support audio.
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Apple apparently added audio to the Mini DisplayPort of the Macbook's in mid 2010.
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I once ordered two 17in monitors from a well known online retailer, one being for an offspring.
His was brand new but mine was clearly a returned item - it even had the return slip from a Cotswold computing firm in the box.
I didn't bother contacting the retailer involved, getting straight on the phone to the manufacturer (iiyama). The person I spoke to was, to say the least, most unimpressed, arranged for a brand new monitor to be sent immediately and subsequently got in touch with the retailer.
I know that because the retailer's CEO contacted me in very annoyed mood, wondering why I hadn't given his firm the chance to make amends first. Pity he didn't understand why...
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I bet you haven't given them another penny since :). If a CEO did that to me I would make sure they never got a single penny of mine.
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>> I hadn't given his firm the chance to make amends first. Pity he didn't understand
>> why...
I dont understand why either. Surely its common decency to allow the retailer one chance to resolve the issue?
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>>
>> >> I hadn't given his firm the chance to make amends first. Pity he didn't
>> understand
>> >> why...
>>
>> I dont understand why either. Surely its common decency to allow the retailer one chance
>> to resolve the issue?
>>
Simple to understand, like me, Stuartli only gives anyone one chance to rip him off.
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Still not heard anything from my supplier. I got an email yesterday (standard one) saying the return is being processed. I will give them a week to reply otherwise trading standards will become involved.
Already lost £95 of my business this week so over the year if I don't get a decent response it could be £1000's they loose not they will give a stuff about a lowly customer like me.
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The saga continues. For Petes sake!!!!!
Due to family committments yesterday thought I would unpack and set up the kids Mac.
Carefully opened the exterior brown cardboard box and removed the Mac box. All carefully unpacked. Screen on desk. Looks to be a scratched on the protective film across the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Lift the film. Oh no the screen is actually cracked!
Very little evidence on any of the packaging to suggest some sort of trauma other than some slight bruising on the bottom edge of the exterior box. This has got to be some sort of delivery handling issue with weight transference onto the polystyrene corner packaging which has then pushed onto the screen.
Another Christmas present to be returned with all the hassle that goes with it. What concerns me is that whats to say Apple cant alledge that me the customer caused it? Boy am I cheesed off.
That Fedex guy may have delivered it.
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I've had some luck with my supplier, they sent a very long reply full of apologises and are going to give me a full refund. They have also pulled all hard drives from that supplier, it turns out they had a few returned last week, all with the same fault, they were second hand.
It seems somebody is trying to con somebody. So if anybody needs to buy a hard drive read the SMART data to check it is new.
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The MacBook aluminium construction should mean the type of flexing of the exterior of the laptop should not damage the screen. Maybe someone dropped it - like that Fedex guy!
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Mac screens are renown for cracking in transit. Or thats what Apple said anyway - transit.
When they got to a 50% return rate they had to admit its part design issue and part manufacturer issue. Dont be too hard on the courier.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 26 Dec 11 at 19:02
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>> Mac screens are renown for cracking in transit. Or thats what Apple said anyway -
>> transit.
>>
>> When they got to a 50% return rate they had to admit its part design
>> issue and part manufacturer issue. Dont be too hard on the courier.
>>
Another brilliant Apple design then.
A friend of mine has had an i-phone a week now.
The screen on it is broken - out of all the people I know with an i-phone that makes 50% that have broken screens - one of them went through 2 i-phones in a month!
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Thank you. That's some comfort. May not be a battle then.
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50% of all Mac machines are returned with a cracked screen ?
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at one time - yes. It caused a shortage. Note the past tense
Edit point being that its not an unknown occurrence still, and shouldn't be a cause of agro.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 26 Dec 11 at 22:36
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Design is still the same, if its the screen I think it is where the glass goes right to the edge, and they still have a higher than industry transit failure rate. In this case transit means from factory door, before the courier company even gets hands on it, so it should get changed no questions asked.
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Quick Google search and into the Mac forums shows that this is indeed a regular occurance worldwide. Most of the reports seem to be the bottom left corner of the screen.
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Was toying with the idea of buying Macbook Air. Are we saying that some of the machines of the presumably millions shipped have had damaged screens - not particularly alarming or are we saying its a major problem and that at one time 50% of all the machines had this defect and its still not sorted?
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Its not the macbook air, its the desktop screens for macs.
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Ah!
Nothing to stop me getting an Air then! Have a Mac desktop already
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Thursday.
Contacted Apple on Tuesday. Replacement arrived first thing this morning. Damaged one will be collected tomorrow pm. ( Booked Fri collection as we were out most of day )
Now that's not bad service in my book.
Still awaiting the second hand monitor replacement, the returned one shown as arriving back at warehouse yesterday. Not good service.
Now working round this Apple thing. Internet seems to be much faster and smoother.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Thu 29 Dec 11 at 23:57
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...Internet seems to be much faster and smoother...
Welcome aboard.
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>>
>> Now working round this Apple thing. Internet seems to be much faster and smoother.
>>
It always does with a new machine.
Wait till you clog it with crap and it'll be back to normal.
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...Wait till you clog it with crap and it'll be back to normal...
My MacBook is as fast as when I bought it more than a year ago.
They don't tend to self-clog like Windows machines.
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My three year old MBP the same - One fault/feature that does slow it down is having dozens of tabs open on Firefox....some admin stuff resolves that. Not sure that Safari does the same thing.
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...One fault/feature that does slow it down is having dozens of tabs open on Firefox...
I've read other complaints of Firefox being slow with multiple tabs.
Never come across it myself, but 'multiple tabs' to me means four or five.
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I just keep on opening them iffy ! I won't tell you exactly how many lest I get a beasting from Zero !
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>> I just keep on opening them iffy ! I won't tell you exactly how many
>> lest I get a beasting from Zero !
>>
Currently he has 30 tabs open on Chrome. More and more get opened till chrome explodes with a "For heavens sake stop abusing me" error code.
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We've got a basic macbook (not, 'Pro', not 'Air' - the white one), at home which must be around 5 years old by now. Its definitely slower than it use to be, and is getting more tempermental in connecting to WiFi networks. Has a tendancy to 'hang' with the little whirly thing going round now too, and the battery life has reduced considerably. But it's been far less hassle than a traditional laptop I think. Cerrtainly the PeterS helpdesk has been pretty much redundant, which was not the case with the PCs/Laptops that preceeded it!
It's only really used for web surfing and a bit of email, so in theory an iPad would be an better (and cheaper) replacement than another Macbook; I have my doubts that an iPad will still be working in 5 years though, based on my experience of iPods!!
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PeterS, if this is an old MacBook with a G4 processor, take car of it. There is a fault on the circuit board for the graphic chip and the connection can snap. Pressure on the board causes but but also can 'cure it' with something between the cover and the circuit board (a bit of plastic).
I hope yours is not one of these but just a warning if it is.
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Just ordered a new imac meself as my dear old G5 croaked on Xmas day. Hope mine arrives in one piece!
Bit annoyed with apple as my 4 year old macbook has a cracked case and the select button is going dicky. 8 year old ibook is still completely intact.
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Unless I wanted to get a factory order Mac item (different CPU or hard disk) I'd probably pop to the Apple shop in the Trafford Centre (not at this time of year!). That's where I got my iMac. They upgraded the memory for me and threw in a full size keyboard. And I got a discount through my employer.
If there was a problem with it I could then take it back :-)
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...They upgraded the memory for me and threw in a full size keyboard. And I got a discount through my employer...
My local Apple shop price matched the MacBook to the cheapest available on Amazon that day.
Just under £100 off a £1,000 purchase.
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I got a bit more off than that. If you want a different spec other than RAM then you have to order online anyway.
The 20" MacBook is fairly heavy when your car is a distance away... glad I couldn't go for the 24" version at the time (shelf above the desk back then). I'd go for the larger one now if buying.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 30 Dec 11 at 16:00
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SiL bought an ASUS netbook for one of the kids for xmas. Screen problem - flickers when lid moved. Reported online on Tuesday (a bank holiday) courier arrived with new one on Wednesday and takes old one away.
Now THAT is service.
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Oh and pleased your screen was fixed with no argy bargy. Really think Apple should have sorted that by now, but clearly not.
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Internet Order Try On - RattleandSmoke
