Blogger Wins Against Apple to Cover Nvidia GPU Failures

[Zingam_Duo]

[citation][nom]willard[/nom]It always baffles me as to how Apple gets such high satisfaction in their customer service (maybe because a high percentage of their users are fanboys?). They consistently screw their customers over.Your brand new iPhone 4 drops calls? You're holding it wrong, here, buy this overpriced rubber band to fix it (they only started offering them for free after this blew up in their face).Your iPhone literally exploded in your hand (isolated incidents)? You were holding it too tight.Your Mac got a virus that tricked you into giving away your credit card number? Apple gives its service reps explicit instructions to provide no help whatsoever, not even allowed to tell people where they could get help. Policy only reversed after this, yet again, blew up in their face.This simply isn't good customer service.[/citation]

My sister's shiny iPhone 4 broke within a year. Before that she used half a dozen of Nokia phones and even dropped them in the toilet and they all still work (my father gets them as spare phones). Some are nearly 10 years old. And I washed my old Nokia in the washing machine once and it still worked a couple of years after that.
Too bad Nokia went with Windows and started to copy North American designs and quality lately. I guess I will switch to Samsung now.

 

[zzz_b]

@zingam_duo

But using Apple and God in the same sentence is a must for you!

 

[tuffjuff]

[citation][nom]vxd128[/nom]Normally I'm not one to criticize articles, but I do feel that a lot of the articles on Tomshardware are more pro Apple. The comment that "This one sounds fishy" made me scratch my head. After everything I've read and seen over the past few years regarding Apple and their buisness pratices and lawsuits, this just seems par for the course about their customer service. I remember when the iPhone had the problem with the antenna they blamed the users for "holding it wrong" instead of accepting responsibility for a design flaw.This is just further proof of poor customer service.[/citation]

How would you read

"could it be that Apple simply pocketed the money and weaseled its way out of actually delivering the service? We don't know, but this one surely sounds fishy."

as pro Apple? They're basically accusing Apple of screwing around their customers, lol.

Perhaps this will set a precedent - that GPU degradation, in general, was one of those "won't be affected until it's had thousands of hours of use" type situations, which wouldn't have impacted too many people before they junked their laptop. That being said, I recall a few years back when the 8600m was prominent (back in 2008) and if I'm not mistaken almost ALL of Apple's dedicated GPU laptops used them. That would mean the couple hundred people who bought MBP's in 2008 might all have this happen to them!

 

[tuffjuff]

[citation][nom]Intel_Hydralisk[/nom]Wait, what? Apple was trying to dodge the guy... but since when was it common sense that the GPU is at fault when a computer/laptop doesn't boot? I guess Apple put the onus on the consumer to prove that it was a defective GPU rather than inspect it themselves? And $4000 for a 8600M GT Macbook Pro? Whenever did... oh nvm, it's Apple.[/citation]

To be fair, MBP's have always been (at least for the top end version) in the $2.5k plus price range. And you're not paying that cash just for a (at the time) mid-range GPU.

Currently, if you spent $3,500+ on a MBP, 25% of that cost would be attributed to either a huge, high quality stand-alone monitor or a 512GB SSD.

 

[freggo]

As upsetting as this is, it is not an "Apple" issue of course.
Once companies get to a certain size they will ALL get greedy and fudge over their customers.

 

[cinergy]

Nvidia GPU = Fail

 

[Supernova1138]

I find it hilarious that Apple chose to spend the money to fight this guy in court rather than do a repair that would have cost them nothing. They do seem to be more concerned with winning legal arguments than making money at this point.

 

[ang1dust]

wouldnt surprise me, steve jobs is dead. its like when mr walton died, walmart just began to be this bloodsucking store....yay another company to kill our economy. Think ill move to europe where their "dollar" is still valuable. Think mexico is slowly working its way into the states by decreasing its monetary value first lolz......Como? Maybe they were right in Demolition Man, Taco Bell is taking over!

 

[ang1dust]

HAHA first the "IMMUNE TO VIRUSES" get a virus and now the "NEVER LOOSE IN COURT" looses in court to a single man. Integrity of Apple is surfacing.

 

[rantoc]

[citation][nom]Supernova1138[/nom]I find it hilarious that Apple chose to spend the money to fight this guy in court rather than do a repair that would have cost them nothing. They do seem to be more concerned with winning legal arguments than making money at this point.[/citation]

They are more interesting to screw more customers since it earns them money, most will still not have the brains or balls to change brand after that and the company knows this all to well. Brainwashed, sheeps, less enlightened... i don't know but something is wrong when you first gets raped of your rights and then fall in love with the offender... Much like Stockholmssyndrome!

 

[upgrade_1977]

Who cares what failed on it? It's a damn product under warranty, it shouldn't matter what fails, the whole thing should be covered regardless of what was bad. The customer shouldn't have to bare the burden of a warrantied item. Hopefully that loss is registered with the better business bureau. They should make apple send a check to all the owners who own that model of macbook. Thats horrible customer service. Another reason to hate apple.

 

[Guest]

For you guys who aren't aware of this lawsuit, NVIDIA GPU Litigation, it affected all laptops on the market, not just apple. Its worse with HP owners, instead of replacing the defected GPU, they received a new $250 CQ56-115DX Compaq laptop with a single core AMD-V cpu and 4250HD graphics with no features at all, besides "101-keyboard" and wifi as advertised feature of this laptop on the lawsuit website. They promised equal or greater value replacement. Many had dual-core cpus, webcam and 17" screens on their $800- $2000 laptops. I talked to HP about this and they were trying to convince me that i can get a good deal on the phone by buying a "new" hp laptop that i just previously owned with the defected gpu. Overall, the consumer got shafted by everyone (lawyers, companies and biased judge). Right now i am using this very Compaq laptop they gave to me:
http://www.amazon.com/Compaq-Presario-CQ56-115DX-Laptop-Refurbished/dp/B0048IFW9Y/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1313277522&sr=8-4

 

[ang1dust]

[citation][nom]bunnywanny[/nom]For you guys who aren't aware of this lawsuit, NVIDIA GPU Litigation, it affected all laptops on the market, not just apple. Its worse with HP owners, instead of replacing the defected GPU, they received a new $250 CQ56-115DX Compaq laptop with a single core AMD-V cpu and 4250HD graphics with no features at all, besides "101-keyboard" and wifi as advertised feature of this laptop on the lawsuit website. They promised equal or greater value replacement. Many had dual-core cpus, webcam and 17" screens on their $800- $2000 laptops. I talked to HP about this and they were trying to convince me that i can get a good deal on the phone by buying a "new" hp laptop that i just previously owned with the defected gpu. Overall, the consumer got shafted by everyone (lawyers, companies and biased judge). Right now i am using this very Compaq laptop they gave to me:http://www.amazon.com/Compaq-Presa [...] 522&sr=8-4[/citation]
who cares the fact that it put apples name in the red, that is funny. Everyone knows HP / Dell / gateway dont hand pick their gpu's and make exquisite items like apple puts apple in the same catagory as the indian employers

 

[sp0nger]

[citation][nom]cinergy[/nom]Nvidia GPU = Fail[/citation]

u mad u bought an inferior AMD gpu?

 

[dreadlokz]

who cares? all I care is about the 7990 and 690! gimme gimme =D

 

[shafe88]

[citation][nom]g00fysmiley[/nom]hopefully he used that money to buy a good windows laptop[/citation]
Why buy a good windows laptop when you can buy an excellent Linux laptop.

 

[zybch]

[citation][nom]bunnywanny[/nom]For you guys who aren't aware of this lawsuit, NVIDIA GPU Litigation, it affected all laptops on the market, not just apple. Its worse with HP owners, instead of replacing the defected GPU, they received a new $250 CQ56-115DX Compaq laptop with a single core AMD-V cpu and 4250HD graphics with no features at all, besides "101-keyboard" and wifi[/citation]

Still a LOT more than this guy and others ever got off apple without a fight.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]freggo[/nom]As upsetting as this is, it is not an "Apple" issue of course.Once companies get to a certain size they will ALL get greedy and fudge over their customers.[/citation]

Amazon's doing a pretty good job of NOT screwing their customers over. Of course, they have businesses that rely on customer satisfaction being high, so that might be why Amazon tries to keep its customers happy. However, that seems to do much better for the customer than this crap that Apple and others pull (although Apple might be among the worst with this crap). Google does okay too, except with their privacy invasion issues.

[citation][nom]shafe88[/nom]Why buy a good windows laptop when you can buy an excellent Linux laptop.[/citation]

Linux still can't do everything that Windows can and especially not with the same programs as Windows. It's gotten much better, but Linux is NOT for everyone.

[citation][nom]sp0nger[/nom]u mad u bought an inferior AMD gpu?[/citation]

Go ahead and tel me that AMD is inferior when the 7970 has almost six times the dual precision compute performance of the 680 for slightly more power and is never more than 15% or so away from the 680 in gaming. The 7970 also wins in a few games, has better multi-GPU scaling, and more VRAM, so the 680 is only better than the 7970 for single/dual GPU configurations and even then, not for all games. Two of the most common games, Crysis 2 and Metro 2033, prefer the 7970. Other common games such as BF3 have the 7970 and the 680 as more or less equal. For some other games, the 680 wins (the 680 wins, even if only by a little, in most games, although the two cards are usually the closest in the most common games).

So, you simply buy the card that wins for your specific situation(s).

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]zybch[/nom]Still a LOT more than this guy and others ever got off apple without a fight.[/citation]

True, but that doesn't justify HP's actions. That only demonize's Apple's all the more, although since it's well deserved as evidenced by this lawsuit and how many other times where Apple simply refused to give it's customers their proper dues, there's nothing really wrong with pointing that out.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]ang1dust[/nom]wouldnt surprise me, steve jobs is dead. its like when mr walton died, walmart just began to be this bloodsucking store....yay another company to kill our economy. Think ill move to europe where their "dollar" is still valuable. Think mexico is slowly working its way into the states by decreasing its monetary value first lolz......Como? Maybe they were right in Demolition Man, Taco Bell is taking over![/citation]

Are you trying to tell us that you thought that Apple was a shining beacon of good business ethics and the correct ways to treat their customers when Jobs was at the head of Apple, or am I misinterpreting your post?

 

[kajabla]

If it WERE common sense.

 

[magicandy]

So how much did Apple pay you to get that "editor's note" at the end?

 

[shin0bi272]

Aww I guess no one here wants to admit that a bit of troubleshooting would find the root cause of the issue and render this guy's claim's invalid... so sorry to hurt your feewings.

 

[applegetsmelaid]

It's a sad day when a 600 billion dollar company is fighting over $4,000.

 

[Guest]

[Ed. note: a MacBook Pro belonging to one of our staff refused to display video when turned on and was replaced free of charge at an Apple retail store.]

No surprise here - Apple wouldn't want to risk giving bad service to such a prominent technology review business like Tom's.