Action
From Scratchpad
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[edit] Minimum Action: the ABC of remedial action
For reasons dealt with in more detail below, owners of a PowerBook with the "Bridget Riley" vertical lines display defect should, at the very least, take the following actions.
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[edit] (A) Joining the notification list at the PowerBook G4 Vertical Lines Resource Center
To stay up-to-date on current news, possible lawsuits, etc, join the free notification group (Yahoo Group) being run by the PowerBook G4 Vertical Lines Resource Center. This also offers an avenue for discussion on the topic without Apple censorship. The site also lists many more ideas of actions to take.
[edit] (B) Registering at the 17inch “Bridget Riley” Powerbooks database
(Please note: The David Hudd site may no longer be accepting any updates. If anyone knows how to contact David Hudd, please contact the owner of the discussion Group at the PowerBook G4 Vertical Lines Resource Center)
The best evidence we have that we're all suffering from the same manufacturing defect arises from all the folks who have entered their defective PowerBook's details and photo into David Hudd’s exemplary 17inch “Bridget Riley” Powerbooks database website.
So please take the time to increase the weight of this evidence by registering your defective PowerBook's details and photo there too. In preparation, you need to access your computer's Hardware Serial Number and a digital copy of a photo of your defective display (a black background works well) to substantiate your computer's defect. A screen grab won't work, since the line defects won't show up. Full instructions are available above the webform where you enter your details.
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[edit] (C) Contacting AppleCare
Despite the ever increasing mountain of evidence that Apple do NOT currently care, nevertheless over at Vincenzo Acinapura’s powerbook17lines.blogspot.com blog, Anonymous said...
- I just wanted to encourage everyone with this problem to formally log their complaint with AppleCare and get a case number. There is a recall on the 15 inch display G4 (on certain serial numbers) so if we all formally log our complaint I hope we too will get a recall.
- 04 May 2007 07:11:00 PDT
Good point well made. Although the censorship of their Apple Discussions forums, and censuring some folks who post there on this issue, would seem to indicate that one part of Apple Inc is so completely aware of the problem that they’re trying to silence public discussions of it, nevertheless the 15-inch PowerBook G4 Display Repair Extension Program may well have been triggered by a sufficiently large accumulation of case-numbered complaints about the “white spots” issue in national AppleCare centres.
Before your calls to your local AppleCare centre and to Apple Public Relations in the USA, you might like to take a look at Dell's Repair Program, and contrast it with Apple's response failure during your phone calls.
You can find the phone number of your local nation state's AppleCare centre on Apple's Contacting Apple for Support and Service page.
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[edit] (D) Contacting Apple Inc in the USA
On 21-22 May 07, stannard wrote:
- “Call your local Apple Care centre and talk with Customer Relations to get a case number, but this is not enough if you are outside the US. Offices outside the US are not obliged and have no mechanism to report these kinds of findings to the head (US) office.
- SO. You must also contact Apple Care US DIRECTLY to be counted as one of the many.
- There is a "General Comments" page here: http://www.apple.com/contact/feedback.html
- It is in fact for web page feedback but use the drop down menu to select 'general comments"... then let it rip (actually, probably better to keep your head and sound rational :-) ).
- I know it kind of feels like a message in a bottle, but it's the only web based option as they don't have product feedback for anything older than the current products!
- Follow it up with a phone call. Try this: Apple Public Relations (408) 974-2042
- We have to do all we can.”
- source
Stannard’s valuable insight was confirmed in a call to AppleCare UK on 22 May 07, when a Tier 2 representative clarified the situation as follows.
A report of the "Bridget Riley" vertical lines display defect on a 17inch 1.67Ghz G4 Powerbook to AppleCare UK does get you a Case Number, BUT does NOT get passed on to a centralised global AppleCare hub facility, from where a worldwide correlation of identical display defects happening at the identical time-after-purchase on identical computers manufactured in the identical factory in the identical timeframe would highlight the need for a global Display Repair Extension Program.
Which seems to confirm that Apple“Care” doesn’t – Apple Inc cannot even detect the need for a global Display Repair Extension Program internally because defect reports go no further than technicians based in the local nation state! Given that Apple is a US based corporation, I guess stannard’s useful suggestion to make use of the “General Comments” (or better still “Management Comments”) option on the apple.com/contact/feedback webform AND to call Apple Public Relations in the USA (if you can afford to) is something we should all do.
Interestingly, the feedback webform's box for "Comments (Include any relevant URLs)" has a very limited capacity (880 > capacity > 300 characters), although that’s not even stated on the form itself, let alone counted down dynamically. And if you exceed its capacity and click on the [ Send us your feedback ] button, you’ll be erroneously told “We’re sorry but your feedback regarding Apple’s website was incomplete. [...] You must enter a Comment”! Fortunately, there is a fairly simple workaround, as follows.
[edit] How to complain to Apple Inc in the USA
- Put your complaint and a digital camera photo of your messed up screen (and others photos from crosspond.com/apple.php if you like) in a word processor, eg OpenOffice Writer, NeoOffice Writer (or as a last resort, M$ Word)
- Save as a Portable Document Format file
- OpenOffice Writer, NeoOffice Writer: pull down the File menu and pick “Export as PDF...”
- M$ Word: save as .doc format, use a free online PDF converter like PDF Online
- OpenOffice Writer, NeoOffice Writer: pull down the File menu and pick “Export as PDF...”
- Upload the PDF file to a free online file storage and hosting service
- For example: MediaMax
- If you use MediaMax, remember to move your uploaded PDF file into the Hosted folder, from where you can copy its web address URL
- For example: MediaMax
- Send Apple Inc the web address URL via their feedback webform
- (a) Go to Apple's Feedback webform
- (b) Fill in the form, setting "Category:" to Management Comments
- (c) In the “Comments (Include any relevant URLs)” box, put something like:
- Since a webform text box is not an optimal channel to communicate a detailed and structured complaint, I have created a [size]MB PDF file which I would ask you to download from:
- http://www.mediamax.com/[username]/Hosted/Display-Repair-Extension-Program-Complaint.pdf
- Thanks in advance for your time and attention.
Do please feel free to reference this Wiki in your complaint, copy as much of its content as you like into your complaint, and you may like to ask for answers to some relevant questions, such as:
- Why is there no centralised global AppleCare hub facility, from where a worldwide correlation of identical manufacturing defects* happening at the identical time-after-purchase on identical computers manufactured in the identical factory in the identical timeframe would highlight the need for a global investigation, as prequel to launching a worldwide Display Repair Extension Program?
- * information sources for detecting identical manufacturing defects would obviously include:
- collating customer defect reports from worldwide AppleCare centres
- Apple Discussions forums
- customer initiatives like crosspond.com/apple.php
- media coverage
- * information sources for detecting identical manufacturing defects would obviously include:
- How are decisions on the inception of a global investigation into a possible manufacturing defect made?
- How can customers with malfunctioning computers all over the world help Apple to instigate a publicly announced global investigation into the possibility of a manufacturing defect?
- What influence do worldwide media reports of a possible manufacturing defect have on decisions regarding the inception of a publicly announced global investigation?
- How long after the public announcement of such a global investigation can we typically expect the investigation results to be made public?
- How are decisions on the inception of a worldwide Repair Extension Program made?
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[edit] Further Action
Once you've completed the ABC of remedial action, you may be feeling motivated (by irritation, anger, outrage, determination or otherwise) to go further. In which case, please...
- consider reporting any news you come by or success you achieve by answering the QUESTIONS you'll find on some pages - look out for the yellow QUESTION boxes, often towards the foot of a page;
- taking the actions set out on the ACTION+ pages and elsewhere.
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[edit] Results
If so, please share your info, on this page, via editing |
