Apple Quality - Outsourcing = AppleCare
So, one of the reasons I haven’t been blogging much in recent weeks has been my lack of a laptop. All through the spring I was using an HP Pavillion that is now a paperweight on my desk in the office…it just failed to turn on one day. I suspect it’s the video card, as that seems to be a common problem with that model (zt3000), either unseated or in need of a replacement. I’ve downloaded the take-apart guide but haven’t yet had the wherewithall to get in there and check.
In the meantime, I took that failure as a sign and an omen — I needed to get a Mac laptop again. Indeed, there are more reasons than my simple desire for a portable, including the need to give presentations in Keynote instead of Powerpoint, work from home with the same tools I use at work, and the fact that a new laptop for me would free up an InDesign-capable Mac for someone else in our weekly newspaper office.
(Just an aside: Macs in the office exist on three different levels of functionality given that none of them is worth much of anything. The first level is “Internet-capable” meaning a sales assistant could use it to enter classified ads or an editorial assistant could use it to access the internal wiki and for updating the online calendars. “InDesign-capable” are Macs that can push pixels in InDesign 2.0, which is the version we still use for layout. It’s an update from our previous platform of choice just 18 months ago — Quark 4.1! The third level is “Photoshop-capable” Macs, which are the Macs on the desks of our ad director, art director and layout station — about which they whine pretty consistently. And just for the sake of comparison, there isn’t a single G5 in the office as of yet!)
So, unable to justify the budget for a brand new Mac — even a MacBook — I hit eBay. Ultimately, I want a deal for $600-700, which puts me in the range for a high-end iBook or a 1-1.25Ghz PowerBook G4, or just shy of the low-end of the MacBook spectrum. And that’s a real frustrating place to be for the following reason — each one of those models has deep quality-control pitfalls that the buyer of a used Mac can fall into.
Research has clearly shown me that it’s a crap-shoot to buy a white MacBook that is out of AppleCare warranty. Aside from the mooing issue, there’s the dreaded discoloration issue, which I’ve noticed some enterprising eBayers trying to hide by placing the shiny clean remote and re-install discs on the wristrest. Yes, Apple will replace the top portion while in warranty, which means making damn sure you buy a MacBook in warranty. Which I can barely afford. (Although that’s probably what I’ll save up for and end up buying.)
So how about a nice high-end 12″ iBook? eBay’s got them all over the place for about $600. Unfortunately, it turns out that many of them shipped with a number of different logic board problems, from an AirPort issue to a loose chip that causes the fan of death. I actually ended up buying an iBook that had this second problem — I got it for about $270, which the eBay seller describing it as having trouble with Kernel Panics. I figured it was a software issue and I could knock that right out. I was wrong. Put it back on eBay and lost $40 in the process.
And the PowerBook G4? Well, it turns out that of those in my price-range, many PowerBooks exhibit poor build quality, excessive heat and logic board issues. My earlier PowerBook, a 1GHz 12″ PowerBook G4, had a problem where even a tiny bit of pressure on the wrist rest would sometimes cause it to sleep instantly, which was annoying to say the least. I finally gave up on it when the DC board appeared to go bad; one day soon here I’ll either repair it or sell it for parts. Other problems with 12″ PowerBooks seem to make them similarly dangerous gambles when bought online — lots of questions on build-quality, the case pulling apart and so on.
For 15″ PowerBooks, I’ve heard of numerous instances (including a photographer friend who is rather meticulous) of overheating issues, logic board issues and a variety of general failures, not, perhaps as pronounced as the iBook and MacBook problems, but certainly enough to give one pause.
I used to buy used PowerBooks all the time, including my workhorse for years, a 500MHz PowerBook G4 that was pretty indestructible until it finally started exhibiting problems with the display; once the backlight went, it was still used for over a year by a reporter here at the paper who just hooked it up to an external monitor. In the past I’ve had PowerBook G3’s I could have thrown out of a window; Donna has been pecking away on a 12-inch PowerBook G4 1GHz machine for at least 36 months now, maybe longer, and it’s still humming fine.
So what does that lead me to wonder? I wonder about build quality as Apple starts to move more and more portables out the door, having them built further and further away from the states. I take some of this personally — the Apple user group in Colorado Springs used to invite me in for talks (back when I was writing a higher percentage of the Mac books on the shelves because there were only a handful of us in that business) and I was, for a while, at least nominally a member. One time, I went with them to tour the Apple plant in Fountain, Colorado, where they built PowerBooks. I remember getting a sense that there was pride in the workers because they worked at Apple, and because, I assume, they made a living wage. We were walked through all of the quality control steps and learned quite a bit about how they made sure a high-end machine came off the end of that line.
Relatively soon after, the plant was sold to another company that kept it going for a while as a PowerBook shop, but then started making other machines. Eventually, all that stopped completely, at least as far as Apple was concerned. With Gil Amelio came a new emphasis on outsourcing; with Jobs at the helm, it continued in earnest.
As an “industry watcher,” Apple is really the only company in Corporate America that I’ve keep a solid watch on for over 15 years. That said, I think it’s a powerful stand-in for exactly where vast swaths of the American economy have gone. They’ve transitioning from a product manufacturing company to a service company to what might now rightly be called a “product marketing company” in the course of less than a decade. That also makes Apple an indicator of both the good and the bad of that globalization switchover, particularly in terms of the quality of American jobs that the company offers and the quality of the products offered.
Yes, Apple designs and engineers exciting products and, presumably, high-quality products. And, IF you’re in warranty, you’ll get pack-leading service. IF you’re in warranty. If not, you’ve got an expensive fix on your hands.
I haven’t done a qualitative study to know whether or not portable Mac build quality has gone downhill. But my general experience over the past five years and my recent experience shopping for a used Mac portable leads me to one conclusion that I will begin to enforce in life and work — buy only the latest machine I can possibly afford and absolutely make sure I buy it either with AppleCare or in time to add AppleCare to the existing warranty.
At this point, I’ve been burned too many times with the build quality on portable Macs myself not to buy AppleCare, which I have historically eschewed. (When I look around at all the 5, 6 and even 7-year-old Power Macs humming away dutifully in the office, it’s easy to understand why I’ve been complacent.)
Will I enjoy that only-barely-used or reconditioned white MacBook that I’m angling for? Probably…I imagine it’ll be nice to have something that’s “current” in my laptop bag. I’ll keep you updated. 
But, for now, one thing is for certain…I won’t be as cavalier about AppleCare as I have in the past decade or more. My days of buying well-used Macs and giving them a second life may be over; and I may be headed for my first AppleCare warranty ever.
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4 Responses to “Apple Quality - Outsourcing = AppleCare”
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You will be sorry!!!!! They do not speak english very well. The VoIP connection is terrible. And the problem in the laptop does not get fixed, the first time. If you have not gotten applecare and attempt a call after the 90 days , even thogh you have a hardware warrnaty, you will be required to go to a store after making an appointment. No matter how far you have to go.
Apple Care my eye! Give the third party repair centers your business, when you can.
I have been thinking hard of replacing existing machines: 1.25iBook, 1.8iMac, old 1.67PBs. But then I read your blog about 1Ghz PBs humming away without a hoot. I thought to myself, why waste the money? I can definitely find good use for these almost-retired macs. The cost difference is obviously astonishing. As for apple-care, my boss originally decided to buy CompUSA warranty to which I’m sure we all discovered to be ..non-existant. So now I have two iMacs on the floor with 4 broken logic boards simply because the folks at CompUSA simply don’t have any “NEW” boards. Buy applecare when you can, because like Benz, the repair on even a single nob is a fortune.
Happy Mac-hunting.
Thank you for the link to the take apart guide. I have a different problem and have the instructions for what to do once inside the machine, but nothing until now on how to get in there.
Every so often there are refurbished 1st gen Macbooks in Apple’s online store for $750. And some of the $600-$700 Macbooks on ebay are still in warranty–maybe 5%-10% of them.