______________________ APPLE COMPUTER RIP-OFF ______________________ In March of 1999, I bought a new Apple IMac computer from Mac Mall. After 3 weeks of very little use the monitor broke. I called Mac Mall and they told me that there were no refunds on IMacs, a point they forgot to mention when they sold me the computer. American Express and I had very little luck changing their minds. So I turned to Apple Computer itself. I told them that they had sold me a lemon, because it had died after 3 weeks, and I wanted it replaced. They said they had a 1- year warranty and that it would have to be taken in for service. I brought it to the nearest service center. 2 MONTHS LATER it was returned to me and it is still not working. There are technical problems and the blurriness of the screen it still prominent. So again I called Executive Consumer Relations at Apple. I said that it's obviously a problem that can't be fixed. I am a consumer, I paid almost $1,000 for the computer. If I had wanted a refurbished computer, I would have bought one. But they stood firm on their story. They, specifically Tiffany Mitzel head of Apple Customer Relations, told me that Apple "deserved another chance to fix the computer." As a consumer whose business hinges on this computer, I didn't feel that they deserved another chance, they had their chance and it was unsuccessful. I wanted a replacement. After hours of arguing myself blue in the face, there was nothing I could do. Tiffany said that Apple would "bend the rules" and send a service call to my home to service the computer on-site so I wouldn't have to be inconvenienced by taking it out again. With very little recourse, I had to agree. It's taken 2 weeks for them to call me with a time for the service call. They finally called this morning and said that they would have to take the computer out of my home YET AGAIN to try and service it. This is so totally unacceptable. I don't know what to do in this situation. Obviously the computer is a lemon. And even if it's not, it doesn't work properly and I'd like a replacement. I didn't go out and spend $1,000 to get a computer that has to be in the shop from almost the minute it was delivered. Can anyone help me with this situation? My hands are tied and my frustration level is reaching a dangerously high plateau. kshjb@aol.com

A fine day to make a purchase... I mail ordered my computer near the end of the summer, in 1996. The prices I saw in Ultinet's ad in the computer paper seemed quite good and I decided that they would be the place from which I would buy from. After I placed my order, I eventualy received a large package several weeks later. To my dismay, upon opening the box, I found that Ultinet had forgotten to include many crucial parts of my order. First of all, they had given me a video card with only 1 meg of RAM, when I had ordered 2 megs. Not only that, but they had neglected to include power cords for me to plug the machine into the electrical socket. And as if that wasn't enough, our friends at Ultinet forgot to include the driver disc for the CD-ROM, video card, sound card, modem, etc. Since my computer was purchased without an operating system, none of these drivers were on the hard disc drive. A phone call to Ultinet resulted in me being told by an Ultinet employee that they had simply forgotten to include the missing parts and that they would be on their way shortly by courrier. I thanked the man and hung up, in a false sense of releif. Little did I know that this was actually the first case in a string of many problems seemingly caused by what I can only refer to now as "Ultinet Amnesia". A week went by and still no package had arrived with my missing components. I decided to give my old friends at Ultinet a call. After all, their cheery employees seemed more than happy to give out plenty of good ol' fashioned customer service. After dailing up their number, I was told by a seemingly shocked service employee that due to some unexplainable circumstance (sun spot activity, perhaps?), they had ONCE AGAIN forgotten to mail out my missing (yet paid for) parts. After some profuse apologizing on his part, he told me that he would personally see to it himself that the package would be shipped out that very same day. After another week and a half (I guess it must have been a slow courrier they used) the mising parts finally arrived. "Well", I said to myself naively, "Thankfully this is finally all cleared up!" I had never been more wrong in my life. Ignorance is Bliss Two months went by and I decided to purchase some extra memory for my now functional computer. The thought of buying RAM through mail order momentarily crossed my mind at the time, but thankfully a few functional neurons in my head sounded an alarm that forced me to reconsider the foolishness of such an act. If only I had been as wise two months before, this web site would probably be filled with boring pictures of my cats. Aren't you gratefull! After buying the SIMMs from a local computer store, I gleefully opened my computer to put the new memory into the fresh empty simm bank, which lay there on the motherboard like a virgin waiting to be deflowered. I felt so happy, after inserting the SIMMs, I didn't even wait to put the case back on before turning on the computer. Yet upon pressing the pearly off-white plastic power switch, my machine began to sqeal an opaque shreik of noise from it's tiny little PC speaker lung. Filled with fear and horror, my eardrums pounded by the inscessant BEEPs, my mind filled with a horrid thought. "My new memory is bad!" I exclaimed. And wouldn't you know it, I was wrong! After a thorough examination by several competant technicians, it was revealed that the new memory was fine. But the empty SIMM bank on my motherboard was about as good as a legless soccer player. To really drive the point home that I was in the possesion of a lemon computer, the CD-ROM feebly opened it's tray for the last time that evening, finally giving up the ghost. So, in accordance with my Ultinet warranty, I paid a courrier to ship the computer to Ultinet's Toronto location for servicing. Since this thing cost me a bundle, I decided to pay for isurance, after all, I need the ol' lemon back in one peice! The shipping bill came to about $75.00. A sum I ended up paying more than once! A week later, the computer came back, seemingly repaired. Thankfully, when I sent them the computer, I hadn't included any small parts (like, say, a keyboard) for them to loose. They had replaced the motherboard and the CD-ROM, and everything seemed in order. That is, until I had to save something to a floppy disc. "That's funny," I said as I tried to save my file. "I didn't know that this floppy was garbbled..." I foolishly inserted a different diskette, then another, and then another. I pretty soon found myself in the possesion of a box full of garbbled discs. I quickly realised that the discs were not the problem. "Oh No!" I shouted, my arms thrown in the air in a fit of desperation. "My floppy drive must be broken!" Would you beleive I was wrong again? To my surprise, the "new" motherboard I was given had a fried floppy drive controller. I shook my head in disbeleif as the technician explained the details. "But... how could Ultinet have made such a mistake? Surely they test their products after servicing them!" I cried. Slowly, I began to wonder if all these problems really were just the "isolated incidents" the friendly Ultinet techs explained gleefully over the phone whenever my hardware failed. Hey, I never said I was a quick learner! I had a friend lend me an old ISA multi-I/O card so that I could use my floppy again. Unfortunately, the card conflicts with my CD- ROM, which dosn't always work when the multi I/O card is plugged in. But this was a necessary arrangement, as I had some pressing work to complete. A few weeks later, when time permitted, I sent the computer back to Ultinet in Toronto for "servicing", along with a detailed letter explaining the problem. You know, this computer has more frequent flyer miles than I do! "How long will it take to fix?" I asked the Ultinet tech over the phone upon shipping the computer. "Not more than a couple of days!" replied the tech. So I awaited with baited breath, my heart so full of confidence in the skills of the zealous Ultinet service department. "I know those boys'll prove to me just how talented they are! I'm sure my computer will come back better than ever!" My faith in Ultinet was as unshaken as that of a 14th century peasent's belief in the Catholic Church. A couple of days went by, and the computer never arrived. A week went by. Two weeks. Three weeks. Worried, I called up Ultinet and asked what was up. "Oh, we just fixed the computer today!" replied Waris Abdul, the man who "fixed" my computer. "You'll receive it in a day or two." Would you like cream and sugar with that? Well, ol' Waris was right about the part that it would arrive in a day or two. Unfortunately, to my dismay, upon opening the box, I found that the computer was in exactly the same condition as I had sent it. Nothing had been done. I opened the case and saw that the same motherboard with the same faulty drive controller was present. I turned on the machine, and inserted a fresh floppy and tried to save a file. The diskettes came out garbbled. I realised that 1930's boxing matches were more fixed than my computer. Nothing had been done at all by good ol' Waris Abdul. I can tell you one thing about Waris, though. He drinks his coffee black. How do I know? I can tell by the large dried up coffee spill on the back of the computer's case. In disbeleif, I dialed up Ultinet and asked to speak with my old pal Waris. I told him that my computer had not been fixed. I asked him how this happened, and all he could tell me was that he had "forgot" to fix it! Another case of "Ultinet Amnesia" I guess. When I asked him why he sent it back to me if he had forgotten to fix it, he could supply me with no answer. At least he apologized for spilling the coffee all over the case. He told me he would ship me a new motherboard (number three in case you havn't been keeping count) via overnight courrier. I received the motherboard the next morning. I thought it was unusual that there was a big scratch across the board, considering Waris had promised me that the replacement part would be brand new. I got a professinal to install the new motherboard. I was completely NOT surprised to be informed by the tech that the new motherboard was defective. The keyboard controller on the new board is fried, rendering the use of a keyboard impossible. Maybe Ultinet feels that keyboards aren't essential to proper use of a computer, but I guess I am just from a different school of thought on the matter. Needless to say, the replacement part was usless. This fact I have had verified by several computer professionals. So I phoned my friends at Ultinet. I had been speaking to them so often, they were begining to become my second family, and a very dysfuntional one at that. I told them of the situation, and they told me that I had to send them the computer back at MY expense. I protested; after all, their "technician" had admitted that he had been at fault when he had forgotten to fix my computer. Shipping the machine again would have resulted in me spending more money than the cost of simply buying a new part (from a reputable dealer) and I felt I should not be punished for THEIR mistake. I demanded a refund, and I was put through to the manager, a man who goes by the name Mike Rousardi. The Biggest Jackass that Ever Was If ever the word "JACKASS" could be used to describe an individual, I would have to nominate Ultinet General Manager Mike Rousardi for the title. I described the situation to him, and though he agreed that I was not at fault, he told me it was still up to me to ship the computer at my expense for repairs, and that he refused to give me a refund. When I told him that wasn't fair, he actually laughed and said, "It's not my problem, it's yours!" I have never been so rudely treated by a business establishment, before or since. I tried to argue, but Mike "JACKASS" Rousardi quickly cut in and said, "Oh, hold on a minute, I have another call. It'll only be a minute!" But instead of being put on hold, the man hung up on me! This geneticaly deficient excuse for a sub-human was TOO COWARDLY to tell me he was hanging up on me, and spinelessly had to come up with an excuse to do so. I repeatedly tried to call back over the next few days, only to be met with the man's voice mail. He never returned my calls. I sent several registered mail letters, which were also never replied to. Mike Rousardi, you are not only a JACKASS, you are a SPINELESS COWARD! I have more respect for the dog excrement stuck between the treads of my sneakers than I do for the sorry DNA-impaired abberation of evolution that you are. You are a miscreant toad, and you knowingly RIPPED ME OFF. So why don't I sue? Well unfortunately, since I live in Quebec and Ultinet is in Ontario, I would have to file my claim in a Toronto courthouse, because the sale is legally considered to have taken place in Ontario, so the case is outside of the Quebec court's jurisdiction. The expense of going to Toronto and going through the whole legal proceedings would be far, far greater than just buying a whole new computer, or even several new computers for that matter. I would end up spending far, far more than what I would get back, even if I got a full refund. If I was loaded, I would make the expense to teach them a lesson, but I can barely pay my rent as it is. However, I did contact the Gazette Probe, a consumer awerness column published here in the local Montreal english daily newspaper. The kind folk at the Gazette tried repeatedly to try and get an explanation from Ultinet, to no avail. They published the story on Tuesday, November 25th, for all those who are interested. The Gazette Probe eventualy got a letter, in which Mike "Jackass" Rousardi claimed that it was all my fault because I had supposedly refused to ever send them the computer for servicing in the first place. Seems like ol' Jackass has a pretty bad memory... I have since complained to the Better Business Bureau of Toronto, but sadly, they are unable to help me because Ultinet is not a member of their organization. I have been trying to find out if Ontario has a Consumer Protection Board, as we have here in Quebec, but I havn't had any luck finding out if one exists or not. If you have any info regarding this matter, please e-mail me! Well, that's the end of the story. I still have a broken computer, and no refund or repairs are in sight. I have grudgingly accepted the fact that I will never see any restitution from Ultinet. I fear my only satisfaction in the matter will be this web site. If any new developments occur, they will be posted here as soon as possible.