I got a very pleasant surprise at work on Thursday when my iMac arrived! The estimated delivery date had been October 3rd, so I was very happy to have it early. I spent all day wanting to go home to play with it, and I also debated skipping the course I had that night. In the end I was good and went to my course, because it was the last lesson of term and I thought I should turn up.

I got home at 10 past 9, but had to wait until 9:30 to do anything because M wanted to be there when I set it up and he was watching something on TV. After the show had finished, we took the iMac upstairs and I disconnected my computer and cleaned off my desk to make room. I must say that it looked quite impressive sitting on my desk, and the power cable that plugs into the monitor even had a little round bit around it so that it sits flush with the back of the screen. Classy. A little while later it was all set up, and it was time for the big moment.

Me: “Are you ready yet?”
M: “No.” <mutes the tv and stands beside me again>
Me: “Are you ready now?”
M: <pause> “No.” <turns off the light so we’re standing in darkness>
Me: “Now are you ready?”
M: “Yes.”

I reached behind the screen and turned it on. Ooooh. Aaaaah. A beautiful, illuminated screen and a nice startup sound greeted us. And it even has a cool glowing light that shows up through the front casing when it turns on. I went through the setup process, and just when I was debating the level of personal information to put on the registration screen, it happened.

M: “If I had some bad news, would you want me to tell you?”
Me: “I guess.”
M: “You won’t blame me for ruining your night?”
Me: “No… what’s it about?”
M: “The computer.”

Uh oh. I tried to guess what the problem was.

Me: “They didn’t do the modifications?” (I upgraded the memory from the standard amount provided)
M: “Umm… I don’t know.”
Me: “Is there a dead pixel?”
M: “Yes.”
Me: :(

He showed me where it was, and sure enough there’s a bright green pixel there, and not in an inconspicuous place either. Bummer. I didn’t go any further with the setup as I didn’t think there’d be much point if I had to take it back. M said that turning the computer off and on a couple of times might fix it up, and we tried it although I wasn’t expecting anything to come of it. Nothing did - the pixel was still there. So that put a dampener on things.

We left it for the rest of the night, and M said he’d call Apple the next day to try to get it sorted out. When he called them, he ended up speaking to 5 different people, and the outcome was that it was Apple’s policy that they wouldn’t replace it for a single dead pixel. M said that for the price we paid, we have the right to expect that it’s going to be perfect straight out of the box, and that their policy wasn’t particularly good for their word-of-mouth reputation, but the person he was talking to didn’t care.

So that didn’t go very well, but it’s not over yet; we still have a couple of avenues to explore. It was pretty disappointing though, because it does look pretty cool, but now I know that pixel is there I can’t help but look at it. And for the money I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect everything to be perfect. I turned it on one more time when we got home after work yesterday just in case the bright pixel had magically disappeared, but it hadn’t, so we packed it back up and there it has stayed. So instead of being able to say that this is my first post from my shiny new Mac, I’m still using my old computer. Hopefully something good will happen next week and we’ll be able to get a replacement, but until then it’s just sitting in its box, teasing me with its coolness.