I’ve been on the road for nearly a week, but before I left I made sure I sent my wife’s iMac in for its second warranty repair service.

I also sent a nasty-gram to the retailer expressing our disappointment with the 17″ iMac and all of the issues it has had and asking what it would take to get a fully functional replacement computer. Their response was:

I have reviewed the history of your unit and it appears only the single part has been replaced which I replaced the last time your unit was serviced. Unfortunately, Apple will typically only replace a customer’s unit if 3 or more parts have been deemed defective, as well as replaced. If you call Customer Relations at Apple, you can explain your frustration and explain what you would like to see happen, as having your unit replaced is beyond our control or authority.

As per your described symptoms, when the iMac shuts down randomly, it is usually a case of a malfunctioning power supply over a case of the unit overheating. When I receive your iMac, I will confirm which issues it has, and which parts are faulty, and will keep you posted.

Obviously, I was not quite happy with that response. However, I have not had the chance to chase up this issue as I sent the iMac off last Friday and have been quite busy since.

I got an e-mail earlier today regarding the status of the repairs:

The repair of your iMac G5 is now complete. The logic board and power supply were replaced and the unit extensively tested thereafter. I can assure you that your unit is functioning fine now and will be when you come to pick it up. If, for any reason, the iMac G5 fails again in the future, the failure will not be relevant to work done today. This brings the total number of parts replaced in this unit to 3, which authorizes a replacement from Apple (based on their approval, of course), if it suffers a hardware failure again in the future.

I’m hoping that the third part’s a charm, but it will take several days both for me to get home and for the iMac to be shipped back. I hope to have my wife do a proper test sometime next week.