I originally posted this on my personal blog, but it is about the iPad so I figured I would share it here.
I bought my iPad 2 on day 1, which I believe was March 11, 2011. I can't quite recall off the top of my head, but I am pretty sure that was the official release date. This time around I bought the 64GB 3G iPad (AT&T). I probably had the iPad for about 2 months before I noticed something on the top left of my iPad, LIGHT LEAKAGE. At first it was not that bad, it was a slight yellowish tint/light bleeding through the side of my screen. No worries, or at least I thought, after 3 more months or so I noticed more light leakage in several more spots going down the right side of my iPad, if you were viewing in landscape mode with the home button on your right when facing the screen of the iPad, I now had significant light leakage on my iPad 2.
In the beginning of December of 2011, I picked up my phone and called Apple Support to see what I could do about my problem with my iPad. At first I was told my 90 day complimentary technical support period had already passed and when talking on the phone with the Apple Support assistant I started to think that I was screwed. He was friendly but he kept trying to sell me Apple Care for an extended period of time since my "1 year limited warranty" was due to expire in about 3 months. I was told it would be best to take it to an Apple Store and have my iPad looked at and if it was a hardware issue then I could have my iPad possibly replaced, I was then given an Apple Support case number and asked if I wanted to set up an appointment to take my iPad in. My problem is where I live, the closet Apple Store is in Albany, NY, which is about a 1 hour and 45 minute drive. I told the Apple Assistant my situation and was told that I could hold on to my case number and if I wanted to set up an appointment a later date to just use that number as it was already on file.
At this point I am thinking that I am now the owner of a $829 piece of shit! This past week for the holiday my relatives come to visit me for a few days and it just so happens they want to go Albany for a day of shopping, I decide not to call the Apple Support number to set up an appointment and just decide to bring my iPad 2 with me on the trip and decide what I will do about my iPad when I get there. This is 2 days after Christmas and yes the Apple store was wall to wall with iFans. I walk up to an Apple employee for assistance and tell him problem, he tells me I need to see someone at the Genius Bar so he walks me over to a Macbook Air on display and has me enter my email address and name on a support page for a Genius Bar appointment. He tells me it will be about 15 minutes before anyone can see me, I wait 10 minutes and my name is called. I talk to the Genius and explain my problem with my iPad 2, I have a hard time really showing him the light leakage as you can only see it when you are viewing the iPad in a darkened room and when the screen is dark or black, it will really show up then. He tells me he has seen this problem before, which really surprised me to hear an Apple employee admit that an iPad has a known problem, or any Apple product has a problem for that matter. He takes my iPad into the back room and comes out about 3 minutes later and says he can see the problem areas on my iPad. He tells me that he can exchange my iPad for a new one but he can't promise that the new iPad 2 will not have this same problem, also tells me once he opens it for the exchange that it is mine, I am skeptical as I am thinking he is just trying to keep me from exchanging it, but I explained to him that I use my iPad 2 basically as my 2nd computing device behind my iMac and this flaw was unacceptable. He was very understanding and went into the back room again and returned with a brand new boxed iPad 2 in hand, opened it up in front of me, activated it, restored the new iPad 2 from a back up from my iCloud back-up data then proceeded to wipe my original iPad 2, hopefully my iMessage are not getting sent there still though.
I guess the moral of the story is I walked into an Apple store with a 9 month old iPad 2, no box, no receipt, no proof that I was even the original purchaser of this iPad 2 and I walked out of the Apple store with a brand new iPad 2 with ZERO light leakage from what I can tell so far. Let me see you do that with any electronic device or computer. It is the little things that make Apple products so great, the buying experience is one them, the design of the product down to the way the products are perfectly packaged, the craftsmanship that goes into every device is spectacular, but the customer's buyer satisfaction is 2nd to none. I have been an Apple fan for about 10 years now, ever since I bought my first iPod, I have now amassed 3 Mac's, 6 iPods, 3 iPads, several other Apple devices such as trackpads, magic mouse and keyboards. I have been satisfied with everyone of my purchases. Now I know if I do happen to get that rare dud that Apple will do everything possible to make it right as they did with my iPad 2.
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