The Apple Store Genius Bar Broke My $5,000 iMac Pro

Buckle up because this: it's quite a story. Alright. Let me tell you a little history. I bought the five thousand dollar base model iMac Pro in January of this year. And for the most part, it's been a great machine. Yes, it is a little expensive, but it has performed well nonetheless. Now, always Since the iMac 5k came out in 2012, Apple has made you choose at checkout whether you want the classic iMac stand or a VESA adapter to mount on a monitor arm. Which is the option that many tall people like me choose. But they made you choose when I was setting up the machine because the end user couldn't remove it.

Whatever you choose, stand or VESA mount, that's what you're stuck with, but to my delight, this was changed with the iMac Pro. The stand is included in all iMac Pros by default and if you want the adapter VESA, Apple calls a user. one installable at Apple.com for $80 Unfortunately, this sucks and has been the source of my worst Apple repair experience. So in January I installed the stand for the first time and it worked fine. It comes with some credit. card-sized tool that lets you reveal the nine screws holding the iMac to the stand. Once you remove all those screws, the stem comes off very easily and you can then attach the VASA mount, which surprisingly only uses five of the nine available. screw holes, but I figured you know, whatever.

Apple is excellent at design. I'm sure it's not a problem. Well, let's fast forward to March. I'm shooting a video and want to take the iMac out of the VESA kit and put it back on the stand. Now look, I'm sure it's not designed to be put on and taken off over and over again, but it never says that you shouldn't take it off or that you can't take it off. And so I did and in the process when I was removing one of the five screws which, by the way, was not too tight. The screw had just come loose from the screw body, leaving it stuck inside the threads of the screw hole.

The final result. Well, this: I was never able to remove the VASA adapter. I considered using a screw extractor. However, the screw was so small that I just... couldn't remove it. So I called Apple on the phone, explained the situation and the representative told me that they could not provide support or warranty because the VASA adapter was not manufactured by Apple. And he was sure the guy was confused. This was a new computer. and I said no, look, the iMac Pro is different from the other iMacs. Apple sells an Apple-branded VESA kit on its website. I mean, it costs $80, comes in an Apple box with Apple documentation, etc.

It's Apple - It's an Apple product, and the guy says that even though it was branded as an Apple product, it was actually a licensed OEM that made the part. It was manufactured by another company and only had the Apple logo on it and only that company could provide warranty, replacement parts and support. I got irritated because I said, well, the support number inside this kit is for you, Apple. But whatever. If you give me the OEM support number, I will call them and resolve it with them. He told me that he couldn't give me the number and that he was alone.

I was so frustrated that I just hung up the phone. phone, grabbed a drill and turned off the computer. I was able to thread the screw in enough to be able to remove the VESA adapter kit from the back of the iMac. But then it had one of the nine holes. plugged in But whatever. I was able to successfully reattach the original mount with eight of the nine screws I shot my video with, and honestly, I forgot about it until I tried to reattach the VESA kit about a month later. Now when I tried to put it on I thought I would try using four of the five screw holes and see if it would hold.

But I didn't even get that far because the first screw went in and good. But the second screw while I was screwing it. - you guessed it, it

broke

, just like the first one. Now remember this is only the second time I've worn this and I was very careful to barely tighten those screws since I saw how, you know, easily. the first one

broke

, it's just that Apple includes the crappiest zinc screws ever made in this $90 kit for their $5,000+ machine. It's absurd, I don't know why they don't include stainless steel screws that cost like a penny more and are much more durable.

Obviously, I have a problem. I can't mount a 25 pound computer with three small screws. So I ended up finding a discussion thread on the Apple forum at Apple.com with a couple of other users saying they had also experienced broken screws. Consequently, I thought that surely Apple discovered a solution in the last 30 days because other people have the problem. Everything will be fine. No! Not only that, but the phone rep told me to go to the Genius Bar at an Apple

store

because I didn't even have training or access to support documentation for the iMac Pro, that's the only way to get support for the iMac Pro.

It was go to an Apple Store. I'm surprised no one at Apple phone can support customers who give them thousands and thousands of dollars for a computer, but whatever. Fortunately, unlike most iMac Pro buyers, I probably live near several Apple

store

s. So I thought it was no big deal. I went to one of the stores, it was very simple and everything was arranged in a jiffy, right? No. Um, no. So I got to the Apple Store five minutes early and had to wait almost an hour for the "main

genius

," which was a term I'd never heard of before, by the way, because he's the only one there. store that He was trained to work on an iMac Pro, a computer that has been out of service for almost six months.

Now, to give credit to my Apple store, once I finally met with the

genius

, he was very understanding of the situation and told me that even though their system said it was considered accidental damage It was not covered under warranty and would incur a minimum repair fee of eighty dollars Who saw it as a clear design defect and that the shop would do the repair for free in three to five days Great, not the most elegant repair experience ever, but we're finally making progress from three to five days. I can handle that Well, seven days went by and I didn't hear anything.

So I called the store and asked what was going on. The guy on the phone tells me that they had already attempted the repair but the quote couldn't do it correctly. End of quote, whatever it is. It means that additional parts and tools had been ordered that were necessary for the repair. But they had no ETA on when those parts would arrive or when the repair would be finished. Very good. Well, less than five minutes after hanging up the phone, I get a call from the store manager who tells me a completely different story: that the repair is going well, that the parts have already arrived, and then the genius who started my repair is not working . weekend But they have prioritized the repair the other geniuses know what to do and it will be done on Monday Finally on Monday morning I get a call telling me that they need the stands for the iMac that I had here in the office and I told them they could put it on the stand if necessary, but I would prefer it to be installed in the base.

It would be easier for me, easier for whatever, and they said they would do it, but they need the support to finish the repair. Well, on Monday afternoon I dropped off the support at the Apple store and was told it would probably be finished by Monday afternoon. On Monday afternoon nothing happens. Nothing happens on Tuesday. I called on Wednesday morning, day 13 of this 3-5 day repair, and was told the following quote: This iMac Pro is new and some of the guys were confused. They didn't know that the amount in the vase was removable. But our main genius today says he knows how to fix it.

And he'll hopefully be ready tonight at the end of the date. OK. First of all, the amount of the vase is the entire repair. Secondly, how can the genius not know if that is removable on the iMac Pro or not? That is literally something that is told in the store. I mean, they should know. But whatever it is on Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m. am, I'm delighted to see an email saying the repair is complete and I'm ready to be picked up the next morning, huh? Now the story is over No, it's not like that. I went to the Apple store on Wednesday morning, picked up my computer and as I was getting into my car I noticed that the stand they ordered for me on Monday was completely soaked, not only were there scratches everywhere, but the aluminum anchor points They were so warped that I didn't even know if I would ever be able to put the stand back on the iMac.

So I went back to the store and said, Hey, what's up? Here is a recorded fragment of the event. Don't know. What happened was like we had documents like we had documentation that the scratches were there. But no, there weren't even new scratches. Oh really? I mean, it's okay. I don't even care about the scratches Aesthetically, but I can't even tell. Well, then I bought a new stand, but now I'm curious to see if the stand was that screwed up. It's my damaged iMac under the vase. So let's take a look. Okay, I'll remove the iMac from this protective case.

II Let's see if they take over the screens, okay? Yes, that's OK. They didn't break the glass. So we're off to a good start. Okay, now I need a Torx TR ten screwdriver. And we'll just remove them. And well, that's not very tight, so I have high hopes that the genie didn't do well. Yes that's fine. The screw comes out, okay? Two screws are coming out, okay? And now we come to the problematic part. Well, I hope the genie didn't tighten these too much. We'll just take it out one by one very gently and Wow, you know, I was nervous.

These are barely finger tight, even look at that. So he was, even scared, just careful not to push too hard, which was fine. Well, we got two out successfully. There's no way you're kidding? Look at that, that's broken, look at that's broken, no, I won't be able to take this off again. This is the worst designed Apple product I have ever held in my hands. Okay, that one turned out well. Here comes the last one. I hope it doesn't break - Okay, that's out. Okay, you gotta be kidding me. This is a joke, I mean, I guess it's at least broken to the point where I can get it out.

But look at that, that's one of the broken screws. We are already back to normal. one Okay, it's not as bad as the stand, but it almost has a cut there Nick there Nick there this whole bottom row is kind of shaved You've got to be kidding me, so we're back to square one. It's broken again. I'll probably leave it on the VESA mount. I'm sure if I went back to the store and really complained they would fix it again for free, but first of all, how can Apple sell an $80 adapter for a $5,000 plus computer with screws that break every time.

It wasn't just my adapter that had a bad batch of screws. This is a new one that Apple sent three days ago to the Apple store and it was already broken. It's crazy. Not only am I amazed by that, but I'm very surprised by the utter lack of training from both the phone reps and the geniuses at the Apple Store with Apple's $5,000+ flagship computer. Now, make sure Very few consumers are actually going to go out and buy an iMac Pro, so there's really no point in training everyone on the iMac Pro, but I've been buying Apple Pro machines for years and have always received top-notch support. .

In fact, Apple has historically gone above and beyond to make sure its pro users are happy when my out-of-warranty Mac Pro GPUs burned up. They replaced them when I had my trash can Mac Pro. Every time I called for support, I immediately contacted a high-level advisor. No phone tree. No, it is necessary to wait, but not anymore. I'm just a regular customer with a machine that no one knows how to fix and I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem very professional to me. Well friends, that's all for me. You should share this video with your friends, your Twitter followers and the intern.

I don't think so. I feel like more people need to know about this if you enjoyed this video. Please give it a like if not. . Oh, that other button seems to work. Okay, check out some other awesome videos I've made in the past. They are wonderful and you will learn a lot, but most importantly and as always, stay classy.