Buckle up because this:
is quite the story.
All right. Let me give you a little background
I purchased the five thousand dollar base model iMac Pro back in January of this year
And for the most part, it's been a great machine
Yeah, it's a bit overpriced but it's been a good performer nonetheless
Now, ever since the 5k iMac came out back in 2012
Apple has made you choose at checkout whether you want the classic iMac stand or a VESA adapter to mount onto a monitor arm
Which is the choice that a lot of tall people like myself choose
But they made you pick when you were configurating the machine
Because it was not removable by the end user. Whatever you chose, stand or VESA mount,
That's what you were stuck with but much to my delight, This was changed with the iMac Pro
The stand is included on every single iMac Pro by default and if you want the VESA adapter
Apple cells a user installable one on Apple.com for $80
Sadly, this thing sucks and it has been the source of my worst Apple repair experience ever
So back in January, I installed the mount for the first time and it went just fine
It comes with a little credit card size tool that allows you to reveal the nine screws that hold the iMac onto the stand and
Once you remove all of those screws the stem comes off very easily and then you can put the VASA mount on
Which surprisingly only uses five of the nine available screw holes, but I thought you know, whatever. Apple is great to design
I'm sure it's not an issue
Well, fast forward to March
I'm filming a video and I want to take the iMac off of the VESA kit and put it back on the stand
Now look,
I'm sure it's not designed to be pulled on and off and on and off over and over and over
But it never says that you shouldn't take it off or that you can't take it off
And so I did and in the process when I was backing out one of the five screws
Which was not over tightened, by the way
The screw had just broke clean off from the screw body and had left the screw stuck inside of the screw hole threads
The end result. Well, this:
I couldn't remove the VASA adapter, ever. I considered using a screw extractor
However, the screw was so tiny that I just- I couldn't back it out. So I called Apple on the phone, explained the situation,
And the representative told me that he couldn't provide support or warranty because the VASA adapter was not manufactured by Apple
And I was just sure that the guy was confused
This was a new computer and I told them no look the iMac Pro is different from the other iMacs
Apple does sell an Apple branded VESA kit on your website. I mean, it's $80, it comes in an Apple box with Apple documentation, etc
It has Apple- It's an Apple product, and the guy says that even though it was branded as an Apple product
It was actually a licensed OEM that made the part
It was made by another company and just had the Apple logo on it
and that only that company could provide warranty, replacement parts and support
I was irritated because I said, well the number for support inside of this kit is to you, Apple
But whatever if you give me the OEM support number, I'll call them and figure it out with them
He told me that he couldn't give me the number and that I was just on my own
I was so frustrated that I just hung up the phone, grabbed a drill and went ham on the computer
I was able to thread the screw
Just far enough so that I could pull the VESA adapter kit off of the back of the iMac
But then I had one of the, you know, nine holes plugged up
But whatever. I was able to successfully put the original stand back on with eight of the nine screws
I filmed my video and honestly
I kind of forgot about the whole thing until I tried to put the VESA kit back on about a month later
Now when I did try to put it on I figured I would try
Using four of the five screw holes and to see if it would hold
But I didn't even get that far because the first screw went in and fine
But the second screw as I was screwing it in- you guessed it, broke clean off, just like the first one
Now remember this is only the second time that I'm putting this thing on and I was super careful to barely
Tighten those screws given that I saw how, you know, easily the first one broke
it's just that Apple includes the crappiest zinc screws ever on this $90 kit for their
$5,000+ machine. It's absurd
I don't know why they don't include stainless steel screws that cost like a penny more and are way more durable.
Obviously, I've got a problem. I can't mount a 25 pound computer with three dinky little screws
So I ended up finding an Apple discussions forum thread on Apple.com with a couple of other users saying that they've also experienced broken screws
Consequently, I thought well surely Apple's figured out a solution in the last 30 days because other people are having the problem
It's gonna be fine. Nope!
Not only that, but the phone representative told me to just go to the Genius Bar at an Apple store
because he didn't even have training or even
access to the support documentation for iMac Pro,
That the only way to receive support for iMac Pro was to go to an Apple Store.
It's flabbergasting to me that nobody on the phone at Apple can support the customers who give them thousands and thousands of dollars for a computer
but [sigh]
Whatever. Luckily, unlike most iMac Pro buyers, probably, I live near several Apple stores. So I figured it's not that big of a deal
I went to one of the stores, and it was a breeze and everything got fixed in a jiffy
Right?
No
Mm, no
So I got to the Apple Store five minutes early and had to wait nearly an hour for the "head genius"
Which was a term
I've never heard of before by the way
because he's the only one at that store who was trained to work on a iMac Pro,
A computer that has been out for nearly six months
Now, to give my Apple store credit, once I did finally meet with the genius
He was very understanding of the situation and he told me that even though their system said it was considered accidental damage
Was not covered by warranty and would incur an eighty dollar minimum repair fee
That he saw it as a clear design flaw and that the store would do the repair for free in three to five days
Great, not the most elegant repair experience ever, but we're finally making progress three to five days. I can handle that
Well seven days pass and I've heard nothing
So I called the store and I asked him what's up
The guy on the phone tells me that they had already attempted the repair but quote failed to perform it correctly
End quote whatever that means so additional parts and tools that were needed for the repair had been ordered
But they had no ETA on when those parts would arrive or when the repair would be finished
All right. Well not five minutes after hanging up the phone
I get a call from the store manager who tells me a completely different story
That the repair is going fine that the parts have already arrived and then the genius who started my repair isn't working over the weekend
But that they've prioritized the repair the other geniuses know what to do and it will be done by Monday
Finally on Monday morning
I get a call telling me that they need the iMac stands that I had here at the office and I told them that
They could put it on the stand if they needed to but I would prefer them to just install it on the base amount
It'd be easier for me easier for whatever and they said that they would but they need the stand to finish the repair
Okay, so Monday afternoon, I dropped the stand off at the Apple store and they told me that would probably be done by Monday evening
Monday evening passes nothing Tuesday passes
nothing
I call Wednesday morning day 13 of this 3 to 5 day repair, and I'm told the following quote
This iMac Pro is new and some of the geniuses were confused
They didn't know that the vase amount was removable. But our head geniuses back today says he knows how to fix it
And hopefully it'll be done by tonight end quote. Ok. First of all that vase amount is the whole entire repair
Secondly, how can the genius not know that that's removable trained on the iMac Pro or not?
That's literally something that's told in the store. I mean, they should know that
But whatever
Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m
I'm delighted to see an email that says the repair is complete and I'm just ready for pickup the next morning, huh?
Now the story's over
No
It's not I went into the Apple store Wednesday morning picked up my computer and as I'm getting in my car
noticed that the stand that they requested on Monday was
Completely chowder not only were there scratches all over the thing
But the aluminum anchor points were so warped that I didn't even know if I could ever put the stand back on the iMac
So I went back into the store said hey
What's up, and here's a recorded snippet of the event
I
Don't know what happened like we had document like we had documentation of the scratches being there
But not this there weren't even scratches brand-new. Oh really? It's I mean, it's fine. I don't even care about the scratches
Cosmetically, but if I can't even know
Okay, so I get a new stand but now I'm kind of curious to see if the stand was so screwed up
He's my iMac damaged below the vase amount. So let's take a look
Okay, so I'll remove the iMac from this protective sleeve II
See if they take the screens over, okay?
Yeah, that's good. They didn't break the glass. So we're off to a good start
Okay now I need a
Torx TR ten screwdriver
And we'll just remove these
And good, that's not very tight so I have high hopes that the genius didn't well yeah, that's okay
Okay one screw comes out, okay?
Two screws come out, okay
And now we get to the trouble part. Okay, so hopefully the genius didn't over tighten these
We're gonna just back him out one by one very gently and Wow ya know he was he was nervous. These are barely
Finger tight even look at that
So he was he was even spooked just careful not to over-tighten, which was good
Okay, we've got two out successfully
No way are you kidding me?
Look at that that's broken clean off look
That's broken I don't I'm not gonna be able to get this thing off again
This is the worst designed Apple product I've ever ever laid my hands on. Okay, that one came out fine
Here comes the last one. Hope it doesn't break -
All right that came out. Okay
You've got to be kidding me
This is a joke, I mean, I guess at least it broke to the point where I can pull it off
But look at that, that's one of the screws broken
We're already back to square one
Okay
It's not messed up as badly as the stand but almost got a nick there Nick there Nick there this whole
Bottom row is like shaved off
You gotta be kidding me
so
We're back to square one. It's broken again
I'm probably just gonna leave it on the VESA mount
I'm sure if I went back to the store and really complained they'd fix it again for free
but how first of all can Apple sell an $80 adapter for a
$5,000 plus computer with screws that break off every single time. It wasn't just mine adapter that had a bad batch of screws
This is a brand new one that Apple shipped three days ago to the Apple store already broken. It's bananas
Not only am I flabbergasted by that, but I am just so surprised at the sheer lack of training
From both the phone reps and the geniuses in the Apple Store with Apple's flagship $5,000 plus computer
Now look sure
Very few consumers are actually going to go out and buy an iMac Pro
so it doesn't really make sense to train everyone on iMac Pro, but I've been buying Apple Pro machines for years and I have always
always received top-tier support
In fact Apple has historically gone above and beyond to make sure that their pro users are happy
when my out of warranty Mac Pro GPUs burned up
They replaced them back when I had my trashcan Mac Pro every time I called for support
I immediately got to a high tier advisor. No phone tree. No, wait required but not anymore
I'm just a regular customer with a machine that nobody knows how to fix and I don't know about you but
That doesn't sound very Pro to me. Well folks that's all for me
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