Dear Apple,

I own an Apple 14.1” iBook, which I purchased in December of 2002. This was, in many ways, the ideal computer for me: affordable, portable, expandable, and elegantly designed. This iBook was my first Apple computer purchase, and I was thrilled with it.

I realized soon after getting my iBook that OS X was truly the hacker’s dream operating system. Having the power of UNIX, interoperability with just about everything else, and features like Expose made this machine ideal for my purposes. I can’t think of a better environment for serious thinking tasks of design and programming.

I’m a computer engineer at a small transportation company in Cambridge, MA. Soon after buying the iBook, I started trying to persuade my boss to replace my Windows machine with a Mac at our office. He finally gave in a couple months ago, and I now have an eMac on my desk, which has worked out brilliantly. Unfortunately, we don’t have a G5 budget, but the eMac is a surprisingly good office machine, especially when coupled with an LCD monitor. I’m so pleased to have such a wonderful, functional, compatible, and virus-free machine at the office, and I’m hoping that our whole company can make the switch soon.

OK, now that I’ve buttered you up, I have to tell you that I’ve had some major problems with my iBook. I’ve suffered the dreaded iBook logic board video problem four times in the past year. My laptop moves very little from its place on my desk, so I don’t understand how this problem came up in the first place, especially with the frequency that it has. I’m beginning to think I purchased a lemon.

Dealing with the problem has taken a lot of time and patience on my part: waiting in long lines at the Apple store, working and living without a computer at home while mine is in the shop, and always wondering whether the problem was actually fixed or simply delayed for another few months.

This last point is the most important. I’m frustrated by having to send my laptop many times to your repair depot, and by the lack of any prognosis from you, beyond your acknowledgement of being “pleased that we could repair your Apple product.” Is it really repaired, or will I once again be waiting in line at the Genius Bar two months from now? Even your online FAQ for this problem does not mention whether you’ll fix the problem permanently at the depot, or simply continue to fix it each time it comes up. Is my iBook the bad apple among Apples—the machine nobody wants?

If you cannot acknowledge that the deeper problem is indeed fixed after my most recent repair, and that the symptoms will not return under the normal operating conditions on my desk, then I’ll have bought this computer in error, and I’ll know to avoid the hassles of owning Apple laptops in the future. Furthermore, if this problem isn’t truly fixed, I won’t be able, in good conscience, to sell my iBook to anyone without a major disclaimer and a considerable price reduction.

This computer was a major purchase for me, and I want to be assured that it the most recent repair of my logic board has irrefutably solved the problem. Please restore my faith in the reliability of your products and support (and the resale value of my laptop!). I await your response on this issue.

Sincerely,

Carl Tashian