Consumer Reports: Antenna Issue Extends to Verizon iPhone 4

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Engelsstaub

February 27, 2011 at 12:48am

I find it interesting (as a Windows-user) how obnoxious other Windows-users are in their little online spats with Mac ppl. cpuking2010's comment is just a much "calmer" version of this. What other Apple products are so crappy that the company consistently and annually ranks at the top for customer service and satisfaction??

Some PC manufacturers come close, like Asus, and should be commended for giving a rat's-ass about their customers after the sale. The hard truth is the "big players" like Dell and HP are notorious for outsourced phone support that sucks cock'n'ballz. Such companies are also notorious for ignoring and not acknowledging known issues and design flaws. My Alienware m15x (which I paid much more than ANY MBP in any configuration for) has hundreds of pages of threads in forums devoted to its known latency-issues. Sound-problems that will never be addressed.

Mine also has a screen (probably not a widespread issue) that bleeds its backlight well into the top and bottom of the attached monitor. Did they ever fix the hinge-issues with the m11x? Here's a company who bought the most respected name in PCs and dragged it down into Dell and HP hell.

So anyway, we as Windows-users (mostly irrational little fanbois crying about someone else's product choices like raving evangelists,) feel this pressing need to kick Apple and it's consumer base around at every online opportunity. Ridiiculous. People will use what they like regardless of what some 15 year old types at them online.

Back OT: "What other crappy products??" Apple does once or twice what the major PC producers do to their customers over and over again and we're going to call it stupid crap like Antenna Gate? My take is this: I don't need a smartphone at the moment. If I did, based on my experience with my 64 Gb iPod touch, I'd get a Verizon iPhone in a freaking heartbeat. A cover'protector is something I always put on such gadgets anyway.

I'm actually considering my next expensive-assed laptop purchase to be a 17" MBP w/ bootcamped Windows. Maybe soon companies with Windows and Android based devices will start producing quality products or at least treating their customers with a modicum of respect after they dumped $2500 each into their CEOs bank accounts. ///END OF RANT///

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TechJunkie

February 27, 2011 at 4:00pm

Good point, but I think your missing a few facts here. As for antennagate on the AT&T version, what did apple do to adress the problem? First they told you that you were holding it wrong. Then it was a software problem due to how AT&T displays the signal bars. THEN....they said that there might be a problem so we will offer free bumpers for a limited time. If that's not considered horrible customer service to you, then I don't know what to tell you. Apple is like every other company out there, to make money, period, especially at the expense of the customer. So if there is actually an antenna problem with VZW's version, then this would be considered "bad" engineering. But let's see how they handle this before bowing to them as a god.

Also, apple doesn't make 100% perfect software and hardware 100% of the time. They have "bad" batches just like every other manufacturer. Speaking of manufacturer's, most of apple's hardware is outsourced. They don't make thier own to say the least. Foxconn is one of apple's outsourced manufacturer's and they have problems as well. So to say they are superior to others is assinine because it all boils down to your individual taste. But remember, if you do get a bad apple product it's because your either holding or using it wrong.

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Engelsstaub

February 28, 2011 at 1:20am

I didn't really miss those facts. I do think the way Apple handled the issue of the antenna was a bit ridiculous. My personal thinking is that the cover alleviates the problem. That's not an excuse for an obvious engineering oversight on the part of Apple. (So I agree it certainly was bad engineering. It's just not as egregious as my experiences with nearly every PC I've owned.)

If there was more than one or two examples of this coming from Apple, as opposed to the endless ones from the "big-players" in PC-Land, I'd happily retract my opinions here.

I was actually talking about the outsourced phone support. I don't even want to get into my experiences there with Dell and HP. 

Apple does do a lot of "placement" in movies and stuff like that so I'm skeptical of the press when they rank customer service. But in reading it seems unanimous. Even from the (few) sources I trust to not just get paid off.

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TechJunkie

February 28, 2011 at 2:31am

I agree that Dell and HP's CS and quality have pretty much gone down hill. That's why I stay away from them as much as possible. I buy Epson for printing, Samsung for monitors, and I build my own PC's. My netbook is an Acer and use it here and there as a toy but it has been flawless. But I try to stay away from players that make everything. Like Epson, they make printers (and a few other things I'm sure), but not PC's, media players, speakers, etc.

Yeah, outsourced phone support sucks ass. Especially when they have a heavy accent and you can barely hear them. Not to mention they pretty much have no clue as to what your talking about.

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nHeroGo

February 26, 2011 at 7:29pm

This is a non-issue.

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cpuking2010

February 26, 2011 at 12:43pm

"Should you be concearned? " No I shouldn't sense I'm an android user and this confirms my belief that APPLE made another crappy product not AT&T.

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