A quick heads up for any Mac users in Brighton.

I bought my MBP on the 13th August 2009 from Cancom Brighton, on Queens Road.
I’ve had never-ending problems with it, as people following me on Twitter will be well aware of

Today I had a Genius bar appointment at the Apple store. The guy there was incredibly helpful, and agreed that there was either a problem with bad sectors on the HDD, or possibly the logic board. The manager was consulted, and I was offered a refund. Hooray! When I produced the receipt, and pointed out it was Cancom, they were unable to help.

So off to Cancom I go. The staff there are really nice, and very helpful. They offer to book my machine in for repair, however, I’d really like a MBP that works, and I’d rather not waste any more time waiting around, especially with the Flash on the Beach conference next week. So I ask for a refund or replacement, as I’m entitled to. The person I’m dealing with calls the manager – Mike – out.

I explain to Mike that under the Sale of Goods Act I’m entitled to a refund or replacement, which I’m requesting. He says that’s against company policy, and I’ll need to bring it up with a director of Cancom, Brandon Weightman. He says that Brandon is aware of the Sale of Goods Act. I point out that Apple had offered me refund, but it’s still against company policy.

Again I explain to Mike that I’m entitled to a refund or replacement under the Sale of Goods Act, but he replies that it’s against company policy. Is company policy more important than the Sale of Goods Act? He says that I’ll need to take it up with the Director.

At this point I decide that I’ll book it in for repair anyway, as I might end up punching Mike if I talk to him any longer. I then leave to go and read through the Sale of Goods Act.

So – anyone here know what I should be doing next? The last thing I want to do is end up taking it back for repairs again and again, which may be the case if it’s a logic board fault.

I’d even be happy to have a refund and spend a bit more on a better spec MBP..

Right, whinge over!

Over the last few years, a number of minds I respect have moved to OSX, and claim it’s superior to Windows in many ways. Thinking they can’t all be wrong, and wanting to try some iPhone development, I thought it was time to bite the bullet and get a Mac.

At first, everything worked beautifully, and I was rather hooked. However, since installing Snow Leopard, I’ve been plagued with problems; at first the current application would freeze, and clicking on other ones would cause those to freeze too, and I’d be left watching the spinning beachball of busyness. After a minute or so the system would suddenly start working again. Then two days ago, the machine wouldn’t wake up, and I was left staring at either a grey screen, a grey screen with an apple, a grey screen with an apple and frozen spinning thing, or at a blue screen with a cursor. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll be more than aware of these problems.

After trying various suggestions I managed to get it working again by formatting the disk, then installing Snow Leopard. Everything was fine for a day of use, but then this morning it’s decided that Time Machine can’t backup any more, and while it’s failing to do that, all of my open applications stop responding.

It looks like it’s probably a hardware problem, so I’ll take it back to the store tomorrow, and ask for a refund. If I was a less patient man I wouldn’t bother trying again, but I realise that I’ve had a ‘bad apple’ so to speak.

I hope that I’ll be in possession of a working Mac soon, and be able to write down some thoughts without them being sullied by what has been, quite frankly, a complete waste of my time.

I leave you now with a video and a few photos…