Shattered iDreams

(listen to apple deny everything)

December 11, 2003

 Years ago I learned computing on an Apple IIe - a revolutionary  machine, a wonderful machine, and quite purposefully it was a high quality, well designed and executed machine. I remember it with great fondness. 

Eventually I moved firmly into the PC/Microsoft world, but was always nostalgic for Apple. As their ads seemed to imply - Apple offered a different, better - even a somehow purer computing experience. 

After all -- there he was; 2000 years old and still smiling - his holiness, the Dalai Lama. "Think different.", the ad said. 

I was a bit put off  by the lofty price and the aloof  Zen "mondo" dialogue that Apple has with its acolytes. And of course there was and is their storied Olympian file incompatibility with the rest of the world! All of which conspired to keep me away. But often,  the vaunted Apple mystique would pull my heart away from Redmond - for I coveted Mac's, Lisas, and G4's. Yet, it was many years before I got a chance to revisit Apple world; and it was just last year that I got the chance to try an Apple iBook® of my own. 

I got it because I was doing some work  for a client who was a huge Apple fan and his company supplied me with an Apple iBook®. I was very excited. I was ready to think different. I really wanted to think different. 

The Big Day Arrives

It was just over a year ago, or one "warranty period" that I got the Apple iBook®. I was very very happy. It sure was pretty!

Pretty yes,  but somehow a bit cocky in its celestial whiteness. It did connect to the net really well...  But it was slow! hmmm...   And why can't I maximise my windows?  And why is there still only one mouse button? I use the right click thing in Windows all the time, it's brilliant!  But for Apple it's still in the experimental stage!  My home wireless network proved to be impossible to network properly to the Apple without some store-bought software that I did not buy on principle (it should have just been able to talk to Microsoft).  And is that battery case door really not flush with the case? On a $1500 hundred dollar Apple? Most disappointing of all though was Apples insistence on forcing me to do it their way. 

For those reasons and more,  I was a bit disappointed with my former hero Steve Jobs - the one time Noam Chomsky of computing, the man who took on the beast from Redmond and survived! But hey, it was a pretty machine, light, the display was awesome, the batteries lasted a long time, and it seemed to work well enough. (barely)

The Glassy Knoll

Which brings me to my point. My Apple iBook® is dead. Thousands of iBooks® just like it lie dead all over the world, their logic boards decayed, burned, rotted into a non-functioning state. What has happened we cry? Nothing, says Apple, nothing at all. Logic board problems? Wow! Really? No, sorry, we can't fix that out of warranty, you must have damaged it.

It wasn't different, it was just a bad machine with a fascist OS and then it died an ugly death.

My local Apple store had told me that my logic board problem was repaired - that it was in fact just a power management IC controller problem. They had said it was "fixed"  and like a fool I believed them. In my innocence I  believed that  Apple certified technicians could tell the difference between a successful system boot and a total logic board failure, so I left the store without checking my system. When I got it home I could only get it to partially boot a couple of times - most often the display collapsed into the characteristic,  mosaic of death peculiar to the now well known logic board failure syndrome.

There was a time when Apple was "better", back in the days of Windows 3.1, Win 95, and up to Win 98 even. But by the time Win ME came around - Apple was getting behind the curve.

Now with XP Pro® you can do anything you want on a highly stable, powerful, fast and flexible system. With my PC I can do things my way!

Sorry, but yes, it's true. The Apple we thought we knew, the brilliant iconoclastic creatives who gave us "insanely great" machines - have left the building. The only ones left are the apostate marketers and snake-eyed lawyers who are trying to hush it all up hoping that it will go away. 

Well it won't,  people are fighting back! Have a look at blackcider.com if you want to learn more about the growing movement to get Apple to remember what it was that made them a great company and help us get our Apple iBooks® back - inside or outside of warranty.

Bill Owen
Eyestir, Ottawa
Canada

Update:
Friday, December, 12, 2003

I just called Apple Canada this morning. I told them my problem, but they would not discuss the case without my serial number which I did not have at the time. The rep I spoke to would not admit to being aware of the problem, told me that there was no "policy" on the logic board failures, and that they will decide if it is a warranty repair on a case by case basis.

1 hour later...

Just got off hold with Apple Canada after 20 minutes. The weekend is here and I have a life to live. Check back on Monday for round two! 

Meanwhile feel free to give Apple a call at: 1-800-263-3394 if you have the mosaic of death or if you were thinking of buying an Apple iBook® for a Christmas present... especially if it is for someone you care about. Ask them about their warranty policy on logic boards. Ask them how many have failed just past the warranty.

more later

Monday, Dec. 15

Called Apple support again today. They again denied that there is any problem with the iBook® logic board. I was told that Apple sells millions of computers and its normal for some to fail. He went to claim not to be aware of the growing clamor around this issue, so I directed his attention to blackcider and told him about the upcoming class action suit. The fact that the Apple service technician had misdiagnosed my problem as power management controller issue caused me a lot of problems as the rep felt he had to go with the service reps characterization of the problem. It was only after I described the problem in detail that he conceded it probably was the logic board. After some more discussion he told me he "might" be able to help me since the machine has never been serviced, and is only one month out of warranty. He promised to call me back the same day. He did not, even though I gave him my cell and my work phone.

more later...

Tuesday, Dec. 16

Just to be fair I should say that Apple did try and leave a message for me yesterday, but there were problems with my mailbox.

Of course they did not bother to try again today, one try is all you get with Apple. 

So I called them. After the usual wait, I was put in touch with a rep who looked up my file and told me that my claim had been denied as it was one month out of warranty. My argument about it being a known issue was completely rejected. I was told that information I found on the net was worthless. When I pressed her to admit that this was a known issue, she said that she was not allowed to comment.

I asked to speak to someone else and was transferred to a customer service rep who very busily entered the information I gave her about blackcider, the various chat groups, boards and pages detailing the logic board problem. But to no avail!  Yet again I was told that this not a known problem and that Apple was not prepared to do an out of warranty repair. I told them that they had definitely lost me as a customer. They did not care.

"No known issues..."  
excerpt of my conversation with Apple Canada... 

Transcript:

Me: It's not a known issue?  
Apple: It is NOT! There are no known issues with this computer. 
Me: Really? That's funny, because if I go on the internet I can find hundreds of references to this, and many, many people have this problem.

(Did she say, "lieBook"? No,  it must have been my imagination! Like the logic board problem.)

So there you have it, thousands of Apple iBook® logic boards from Japan to Canada are dead. There are chat rooms, entire web sites on just this issue, and hundreds of phone calls to Apple, but there are "no known issues" with the Apple iBook®. It's official, you must have dropped it or something. They don't need you. Beat it.

End of story.

Not.