To have had it up to here with Apple!

[AlecOrAlonzo]

Just back from the Apple Store where a bearded, loafer wearing, tattooed youth has informed me that not only is my less-than-2-year-old MacBook totally goosed but also as the OS is wiped my chances of selling it on are probably nil. £800+ to fix he said without so much as a blush. He was unsympathetic to my squawk of horror.

Also, the iPad mini I have is so old I have to start it up with a crank handle and it just puts wee black squares for emoticons because they hadn't been invented when I bought it. A new one is £400! What the hell?! I've owned cheaper cars! What will it do for £400? I'd want it cleaning the loo and making my tea for that money. I only use it for pricking about on here and listening to The Archers.

Also, the iPhone I have is second hand and old - 5 possibly? - and in danger of giving up the ghost.

What's the score? What do I replace my aging tech with that isn't going to put money in the pockets of these robber barons? I'm not going to held to ransom by these fuckers. There's no way their stuff is that much better, is there? Surely there's good, reasonably priced tech out there?

Apple!! 😂😂

Tale of woe

The MacBook I bought in 2017 has never really worked properly. I bought it from them direct online and I've had online support where they maintain they've fixed it but that's just nonsense. It's always been slow and not updating properly. I tried to update to Mojave recently and the computer just wouldn't do it. The camera stopped working and it started over heating. Big long saga of phone calls. They refused to let me send it back to them. I HAD to take to a Genius Bar* even though the nearest one is a couple of hundred miles away and I bought it online. They posted it to me! Eventually I was coming to the city for work so took the Mac with me. Beardy#1 opened it up and said it looked like a fault not my error so they'd fix it. All fine. Went back a few days later and they said that on investigation there was liquid so it was my fault and the bill would be be £800+. Beardy#2 was impassive in the face of my pain at this revelation. It has never had liquid on it to my knowledge and when I took it to my local guy he didn't find liquid either. Who knows.
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Upshot*

The point is I feel cheated. I loved my old Mac but the new one was rubbish and the price was painful for the functionality. The new iPad mini is really expensive compared with other iPads and although the iPad mini 1 has been good for a long time I'm personally out of love with Apple. I'm totally scunnered with them. I'll not be their bitch any longer. They can jog on.

*who called it that? Of all the smug, aggrandising, cocky bullshit names. Wankers.

" It has never had liquid on it to my knowledge and when I took it to my local guy he didn't find liquid either. Who knows."

A consumer rights programme did a piece about this. I seem to remember that there are sensors inside that change colour when exposed to liquid, so that they know when a phone has been dropped in the bath or whatever. Except they were so sensitive that they changed colour if taken outside on a misty day, or carried into a steamy bathroom.

Another Motorola phone fan here. I've got a Moto 5?S, the camera is great, I can make calls, use the calendar, Whatsapp and Mumsnet on it and do my Tesco shop. Probably a load of other things too, but that's 98% of what I use it for.

Tablet wise we had a Galaxy which was fab, but I just use my phone now.

Avoid Amazon tablets, everything is geared towards you spending more on Amazon a bit like Apple. We got the kids them for Christmas, they love them. Fine for a first tablet at £80 or whatever, slow and clunky if you've experienced anything else.

Laptops are worth putting some proper research into. It depends what you need it for.

We do own some Apple products (iPad mini, iPod, shuffle) but I honestly don't get the hype. The iPad languishes under the sofa and only comes out if everything else is short on charge!

I've never bought an I-product, only used ipads at work but I hate them. Someone said to me once that, " You don't own an Apple product, Apple owns you" and it sounds like this is correct from reading these comments!
You must be so fed up OP! I'm not particularly brand loyal but I have a Samsung phone which I love and can't imagine straying from Samsung. Also have a first generation kindle fire tablet still going strong and despite having a newer one, I still choose the 5-6 year old thing.

Lenovo laptops are quite good I hear.

Just out of curiosity, Do any of you have the iPhone SE? We both have the 4s, love the small size but a lot of the newer apps wont work on our phones. Is the SE as reliable as the 4s ?

Apologies to OP, not trying to hijack your thread.

I always buy Apple because of their fantastic repairs/replacements! I've had Apple products over 10 years now (iPhones, iPads, MacBook Pro's) and whenever something has gone wrong I've always had a free replacement/repair done. I took my almost 4 year old iPhone in last year and got a brand new one by asking for a repair under the consumer rights act (products should last 5 years or a reasonable amount of time and a MacBook should definitely last more than 2). The only time I've had to use my home insurance is when I broke the product myself. Although I did have an iPhone that set off every shop security alarm, they didn't believe me so I made them walk into shops with it and they replaced that too

Leslie are you for real? I don’t know anyone in IT security who would touch anything Chinese made with a barge pole. Like it or not, the iPhones are far more secure by design.

We've 3 SE's brilliant basic phone, are still popular 2nd hand.

My DD lost her SE recently, it was super easy to make sure anyone who tried to use it couldn't and went for a 2nd hand iphone7, which she says has a better camera and obv bigger screen.

Never had any issues with Apple products, i like the security, our works Android devices are always having problems with updates for malware etc.

HP laptops seem to be student proof, DD has a HP Ryzen 3 SSD for £400, does exactly the same job as her friends mac pro.

YANBU Current phone and Laptop will be the last Apple ones.

We had the sensor issue with a Samsung tablet as well and they would not repair it (a month after purchase) because we got it while on holiday in America. We used the consumer goods act to argue our case with Barclays and got our money back. No matter what device you get next you could have the sensor issue (even with no water or mist, same as us) so I really suggest only purchasing with insurance and buy with credit card, not cash so you have more protection.

As a coder I've never met anyone in the IT world who likes iOS. And Apple's policy of obsolescence is criminal. I used to have an iPod that was in perfect condition apart from the headphone socket had a loose connection. It was 'beyond economical repair'. Quel surprise. My son uses my late husband's iPad for his games and I absolutely hate it.