I’ve been a card-carrying Apple fanboi for quite some time now. Every Apple product I’ve owned has been sturdy, reliable, a pleasure to behold, and a joy to use. But as good as my experience with Apple has been, it has not been without its share of problems.
Case in point: my iPhone. Although I have never had any hardware or software issues with my iPhone, it does have a significant problem: dust under the screen. I first noticed this about a week ago. I saw a few flecks on the screen and tried to wipe them off with my thumb, to no avail. My eyes bugged out as I realized that the dust particles were under the screen.
When I got home, I did some searching and found out that this a fairly common problem with iPhone 3Gs purchased on or near the release date. Also, to my relief, commonly afflicted iPhone owners report a 100% success rate in getting their iPhones replaced under warranty. Still, this is disconcerting, and a hassle.
The only other Apple-related problem I’ve had is with a recently purchased aluminum MacBook. I was very excited when Apple announced its current line of notebooks, and, even though I already had a MacBook Pro, nothing was going to keep me from taking the plunge on an awesome new MacBook. However, my new MacBook was less than perfect. The keys were mounted a little unevenly, the lid was slightly off-square, and – the kicker – it would not boot from the install disc, no matter how much the Apple tech and I tried. The keys and lid were minor issues that I didn’t really notice, but I needed to boot from the install disc. I was distraught, but Apple (very) quickly replaced my MacBook, and I was pleased to find that the keys and lid fit perfectly, and it boots from the disc as it should.
Maybe I could have avoided both of these issues by waiting a bit longer after the product began shipping to buy one. Regardless, there is no excuse for defects like those, and Apple is right to replace the products effected.
Despite the couple of problems I have had with Apple hardware, I will definitely keep buying from Apple and using Macs as my primary computers. I’ve certainly had worse experiences with PC manufacturers, both hardware- and software-related. In my experience, Apple trumps in both quality of product, and quality of customer service when a problem inevitably occurs.