I just thought I’d share my first Mac experience with everyone in case you are considering buying the new i7 iMacs.

Apple iMac i7 Issues

I ordered my i7 in the first week of November 2009 through Mac1 Apple reseller in Brisbane, after waiting weeks and then being told that it won’t arrive till January as Apple wasn’t honoring i7 orders by resellers, I cancelled the order and put it through the Apple Store online.

It Arrived ten days after the order, instantly there was a visible yellow tinge at the bottom ¼ of the screen. I called up Apple care and let them know of the issue, which they said I am the only one that has experienced it (load of crap).

They eventually agreed to replace the unit but wanted me to give the broken unit back and wait another 2 weeks before getting the replacement. I had to take it all the way to Apple Public Relations until it was agreed that I could keep my yellow tinted iMac whilst they sent me a replacement and they would do a migration transfer.

3 weeks later.

New i7 iMac arrived at Chermside store in Brisbane, I drove out there, 50 minute drive each way, did the migration transfer, all was good… was happy the new iMac had no yellow tinting issues.

Got home, turned it on, went to Apple -> about this mac, realised that for some reason it only showed up with 4gb of memory and not 8gb which is what I had ordered and what my original machine was.

Call up Apple Care, they said it can’t have 4gb it has 8gb, I had to send them a screenshot and other info, finally 4 days later, they agreed that I can bring it back to the Chermside store so they can put more RAM into it.

By this stage the replacement i7 iMac’s screen was randomly going blue when it awoke from sleep. So everything would have a blue tint to it, it would only do this on its actual 27″-screen and not the attached 24″ LCD (second monitor).

I brought the i7 back in to Chermside (50 mins each way). They took it out the back to put in the extra 4gb of RAM, simple process…

10 minutes later the Mac Genius came out and said, the computer does actually have 8gb of physical ram but the last two RAM slot are not working. Great.

20 minutes later the Mac Genius came out and said they two ram slots are now working after the ram was taken out and put back in. Great!

I mentioned the blue tint issue (I really didn’t want to as I just wanted my iMac back as i need it for work). and they said they are happy to keep it overnight and see if they can replicate.

I thought well, one night and maybe they can fix the issue its worth it.

Next day I first called up at 10am left a message, no reply, 11 am left a message no reply. 12pm.. same thing. 50 min drive to and from chermside…

Eventually I walked in to the store and the Mac Genius came out and said, aww about to give you a call back (yeah, right).

Mac – Your iMac is dead.

Me – What? How is it dead?

Mac – It won’t boot, the motherboard failed whilst we ran tests on it.

Me – Oh ok, well can you give me back my original iMac whilst you get me another replacement?

Mac – Sorry we have already sent that back.

Me – “Ok, can you please give me a temporary machine whilst you get a replacement?

Mac – “Sorry, we don’t do that”

I called up Apple care and at this stage I wasn’t happy. I had no machine and all my data still on the broken iMac.

Here is where it gets funny, apparently I’d have to wait for 6 weeks to get a new iMac i7… OR… they will happily refund all my money and I can buy an i5 instore and thats what was recommended.

Better still, they won’t give me the money back for 7 days, and I had to pay for the i5 now. Wow! Go Apple.

Regardless, An i5? Why the f#$k would I order an i7 if I wanted an i5? I said no, I want an i7.

Third day in a row I drove 50 mins each way to Chermside. It’s now the 22nd of January, more than three months since I ordered my first apple product.

Walk inside the Apple store, be greeted by the apple techs. The head technician came out and said, okay you good to do the swap to the i5, I said no and explained to him that I want an i7 like I had originally ordered.

He said it will take up to a month to get a replacement. I said, why, shouldn’t they prioritise people who have ordered their machines 3 months ago and still haven’t got a working one?

Eventually he suggested that if I am happy, he can order a new motherboard to fix the iMac i7 that was broken instead of getting a whole new one and it would only take 3-4 days. I agreed and walked out of the store.

An hour later I realised that it most likely won’t solve my screen going blue issue, so I called the Apple store back to try and get a hold of the head technician, no luck, left a message, never heard back.

A day later, still haven’t heard back.

So at the moment I am using my old XP machine and wondering why I paid 3,200 for something 3 months ago and still using an old XP machine?

This was my first mac purchase I had always been a Windows user and I thought given how great my iPhone was I should move my work over to OSX and to be fair, OSX is fantastic and I love it, but if I could pick, I’d build my own computer and install OSX on it.

As it stands now I am Macless and minus $3,200 and chances are the replacement motherboard wont fix the screen issue (which as far as apple is concerned doesn’t exist anyway).

That’s my first Mac experience. Thank you Apple. You have waisted 3 months of my time and cost me tens of thousands in productivity.

Alborz.