Roger Fingas
Apple will issue refunds to some iMac owners who had to pay for recent hinge repairs, a report said on Tuesday. In Belgium and Norway, meanwhile, the company has added carrier billing as option for iTunes and App Store purchases.
Some 27-inch iMacs shipped between Dec. 2012 and July 2014 may stop adjusting properly and simply tilt forward, according to a service document seen by MacRumors. People who paid to get their hinge fixed may have ended up spending $100 or more.
According to various online complaints, the affected hinges can make a cracking or popping sound when they break. That would support a theory that plastic washers in spring mechanisms are suddenly giving way, unable to cope with the weight of the attached computer.
A connected repair program covering 2012- and 2013-model iMacs has been extended to five years from the original date of purchase, up from three. People with a faulty iMac should be able to get their hinge replaced at no cost, even if they're outside of their warranty period.
While Apple hasn't made any of these details public, first-party stores and authorized service providers have allegedly been informed. People should contact Apple itself if they need a refund, or any authorized location if they want a repair.
Carrier billing
While not popular in the U.S., carrier billing can be a method of choice in countries where credit card payments are rare. Aside from the two new regions, Apple also offers carrier billing in Germany, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates.
Only some carriers have partnered with Apple, however. When and where the option is available, people need to edit their Apple ID account settings via iTunes or the App Store, whether on a desktop or iOS device. Verification can be automatic on iPhones, but involves an SMS message when configuring through other devices.
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5 Comments
My iMac did exactly this, I spoke to Apple and got it repaired through an Apple Authorised Service Centre about a year ago for free. Excellent customer service from Apple, though Stormfront who carried out the repair did manage to scuff the screen. Would be nice if they made the availability of the repair program more easily accessible though.
I am from Sydney Australia, I called this morning about this issue and they asked me to take a video to them. They said mine one is "adjusting" problem, I told them "adjusting" mean I can't set the monitor in the angle I want, but as matter of fact the hinge is broken so I can't adjust the monitor except I put something to support the monitor. I am still waiting for their respond.
I'm not sure about the plastic washers, but I've seen at least two client machines where one of the two metal springs snapped.
Trivia: Apple makes two different spring mechanisms with different strength springs to balance the weight of machines with Hard Drives vs. machines with purely flash storage.
Yes they are. Had the problem with my late 2012 model and paid initially for he fix at the Apple Store. Just recently got an email from them saying they were sending me a refund. Got it last week. Good for them. Try getting that with some of the other hardware manufacturers.
I had the same thing happen to me and had it fixed a couple of weeks ago. I was given the option of taking my iMac to an Apple Store about 15 ㎞ (10 miles) from where I live, or have someone come out and take it in for repair. I chose the latter. My iMac is almost 3 years old and I have it on Apple Care. The person from the service company said that the problem was common and that Apple had extended the warranty to 5 years. They brought the computer back to my house and plugged it in to make sure that it functioned correctly.