So my iPad died...

[newfmp3]

Sunday morning. After 6 months use, it froze and went into a contant loop of rebooting. After a few hours trying to restore,reflash back to a new device I gave up and called Apple.

Not a scratch on it. It has left the house maybe 6 times in 6 months. We have no kids, and it is taken care of. Only issue I did have with it is that it takes forever to backup it up taking upwards of 24hrs with only 2-3 gig used on it. It's never felt warm, and considering where I live, heat is not an issue.

It locked up while just sitting idle with no apps running. Now all I see is the apple symbol and then it reboots. Strangely it does let me reflash it "IF" I can get it to talk to the PC at all. Most times iTunes will tell me that it can not connect to the iPhone, yes iPhone device due to unknown error.

So I'm waiting for a empty box to arrive, then it goes back. My question is, do I get the same one back or a refurb? and if it is a refurb, why didn't they just send the refurb to me in the first place and I'll send mine back in the same box. Not a very impressive return process imho. As of now, it's Thursday, I still have no empty box to arrive, then I'll send mine back, that will take another week for sure, and then send another back to me.....guessing 3 week turnaround at least.

So much for Apple reliability. My first Apple product dies in 6 months. With that said, I do miss it quite a bit.

 

[Superbike81]

With all electronics, there is a chance for failure. I wouldn't attribute this as a negative towards "Apple reliability" just bad luck for you in this case. Hope you get it back quickly.

 

[Diane B]

Not so great for you but great for us that this is so rare with the Ipad. Too bad you didn't live close to an Apple store. I expect you may have walked out with another. Electronics occasionally fail but usually within a year and its covered.

I think they don't send a new before getting one back is to eliminate the scammers who might keep both.

Diane

 

[gentlefury]

Sounds like you sadly got a bad apple....I have 2 iPods, 2 iPod touches, 2 iPads, 2 iPhones, a Mac Pro, and a Mac Mini and all have worked flawlessly....so don't let this spoil you for apple.

Good thing is their customer service is top notch, they will replace it since it's under a year old

 

[newfmp3]

If you knew my luck....this would make sense. The only luck I have is bad. Apple tech support, well, I only talked to the one fella but I had no complaints. I was concerned when I went online, as it states that once you were passed the initial 90 days that you will get charge for a phone call to tech support. I don't think I got charged, at least I wasn't informed of it. But I already did all the usual troubleshooting stuff beforehand.

the weather certainly isn't helping my shipping times either.

 

[gentlefury]

If you knew my luck....this would make sense. The only luck I have is bad. Apple tech support, well, I only talked to the one fella but I had no complaints. I was concerned when I went online, as it states that once you were passed the initial 90 days that you will get charge for a phone call to tech support. I don't think I got charged, at least I wasn't informed of it. But I already did all the usual troubleshooting stuff beforehand.

the weather certainly isn't helping my shipping times either.

No, it comes with 1 year of replacement support, yes I believe its 90 days for phone support..but that is more like, questions on how to operate the device, not tech support to get it working, that is covered under the one year.

And I worked at a studio a few years ago and we had a G5 go down on us and it was out of warranty...not only did they not charge us for phone support, when they determined the problem was a known issue they actually credited us $2500 for a replacement Mac Pro!! OUT OF WARRANTY! They are good.

 

[Diane B]

I only have Ipods, Touch and the Ipad was my first major Apple purchase. A lot of the folks on my photo forums are Apple/Mac folks (I'm a longtime PC user) and suggested I buy Apple Care since it was a totally new product and if I needed support (and they all say how great Apple support is). Everything has gone great, I've found it pretty intuitive and haven't needed any tech support and in fact since I've heard of so few problems I didn't buy Apple care for the second Ipad I bought for my husband. Its a funny thought, but guess you got the "bad Apple" in the barrel so to speak. All will br well though.

 

[scott_R1]

Hardware fails from time to time.

 

[newfmp3]

finally got the box today to ship it back. Took a week. Darn weather is killing me here, delaying everything. I want my iPad back ! It's amazing how much you miss it. I guess I'll have to go back to using my Laptop.....arrrrg

The box for sending it back in is actually quite small. Seems strong enough though. I figure I'll have it back end of Feb

 

[Itzxdjx]

They don't just send you one because they want to be able to determine for themselves what's wrong to see if they have to charge you or not. Like you said you didn't do anything to it or put it at risk so most likely it's hardware failure and they will send you a refurb one. Yes too bad you don't live near and apple store, like said before, you could go in and have it handled in an hour vs weeks. Apple actually has a whole production line to make replacement/refurb for the purpose of replacing broken iPad. They do that with all there products.

I feel your pain on not having the iPad. I hated not having it for a couple hours when I dropped my first and had to get a new one (330 BUCKS) don't worry you'll be back with your iPad soon enough.

 

[EODtech]

I had a MacBook die with in the first year. I called Apple on a Sunday the next AM I received the box, took it the same day ( Monday ) to DHL. Apple repair facility in Dallas, TX received it the 8 AM ( Tuesday ) , repaired my laptop ( no replacement laptop ) and shipped it that same day at 4 PM. I received my laptop at 10AM Wednesday. Can't beat that for service.

 

[newfmp3]

Well, I'm back in business. Feb 6th placed the call for repair, Feb 22nd got my replacement. The weather was a big factor in the Delay, but as expected, the replacement came from the States which was also a delay. I'm sure summer months would be quite a bit quicker.

I'm surprised they don't have an advanced replacement option like many companies do now. Basically, they take your visa, send you a replacment via air, and you put the old one in their box and send it back. If for some reason you do not ship old one back, or your broken one was damaged somehow that voids warranty, you get billed.

Anyways, new one is scratchless/mint. My old one was as well as I take care of my things. But I am at awe at how bad the iTunes backup is. Lost my favorites, wireless/email settings gone, and of course there is no single way to automatically list or download all of your applications again if they are not on your desktop/itunes already. Your purchase history in itunes is a un-organized mess that Apple should be embarrassed about, and when downloading apps again, it is far too easy to get re-billed for the same app you already bought. This happened to me when 4.2 messed up my ipad and I had to restore, and got charged again for the same apps I already had, and now it's happening again. ARG

Pathetic really. I just do not see this Apple quality and service that people keep hyping. Seems no different then any other average company to me.