Why I owned a Macbook Pro for a day | Hacker News Reader

Why I owned a Macbook Pro for a day

hackernoon.com

The guy spends 3,000GBP in a laptop, and his bride buys an apple watch while he's chatting with the repair guy, but finds a way to complain about paying 2 tolls on the road :) I get the principle, but it made me laugh.

Other than occasional key issues, I've found the latest MBP to be the best overall and I've owned most generations. It's the only one to not set fire to my lap, not be noisy, not demand I use Apple's power adapters, works with portable powerbanks, has the best internal speakers by far, and which conveniently charges whichever side suits the location best. But.. this is why there are lots of models of computer, everyone's experience differs.

I'm pretty skeptical of portable powerbanks at the moment. I wish Apple came out with an official one because I would buy it in an instant. I left my power adapter at my home when I took a week trip to visit my parents. On the last night of my trip I had left my laptop plugged into my powerbank after discharging my laptop pretty low (probably ~15%). I did not pay attention to which way the power was flowing though, and came back to a laptop which wouldn't turn on or respond to anything. I ended up having to take it to an Apple store where they send it off. I'm unsure what exactly happened as Apple doesn't seem to provide such insight after repairs. However, I believe the powerbank fully drained all the power out of the laptop and some how damaged the power manager. The laptop would not charge for any reason.

Since the repair, I've also had issues with the laptop not waking up correctly, or turning the screen on, and frequently have to power cycle to get the screen to wake up after closing the lid for any extended period of time. I was rather shocked that the laptop would allow itself to be damaged in such a way by having it's power drawn down by some external device.

I now no longer use a powerbank with it.

The powerbank was a "USB C Power Bank RAVPower 26800 PD". Absolutely love it, still use it with other devices. Just not on my laptop anymore at the moment.

I think it can be safe to use, if one pays close attention and never let the powerbank charge from a laptop. Accidents do happen and I simply can't afford one at the moment again.

USB-C devices still seem to be notoriously likely to not entirely support standards when it comes to power levels, etc. So yeah, official stuff would be ideal, though I've had nothing but success sticking with Anker brand stuff so far both for chargers (I've not used the Apple one in months) and powerbanks. I am not surprised by your story though, sadly.

Apple used to have superlative customer care and their products are fully-warranted for one year after purchase without the additional purchase of Apple Care. What this poor chap went through is simply inexcusable. Of all companies Apple is fully cognizant there are manufacturing defects and what they owe their customers is top-notch customer care. That's what the "Apple Tax" is supposed to be paying for.

At least in the United States, I had my fair share of issues with my late 2016 MacBook Pro.

First issue was dead pixels on the screen. It was replaced in warranty for free with superb turnaround. Dropped it on a Thursday night and had it back Tuesday by lunch time.

About nine months later, the backlight on the screen died and I had just a black screen. Rather than wait for an Apple Store appointment, I got a box to send it in. The box was overnighted to me and the shipping to the repair depot was also overnight. I shipped it out Wednesday after work, it arrived and was serviced on Thursday, and back in my hands by Friday at 10:30am.

When I got it back, however, the keyboard had an issue that only could have been caused by the repair. I did a walk-in on Saturday morning at my local Apple Store and they started by looking into replacing the computer without me asking.

All of these repairs and replacements were done in warranty or under Apple Care free of charge. The replacement was amazing, too, because it was processed as a return and repurchase. So, I got a brand new Apple Care policy on an upgraded (better CPU, GPU, 1TB SSD) mid 2017 MacBook Pro that lasts the full three years as part of the return and repurchase.

They've more than made me whole and made me better off than before by replacing the computer. I'm definitely impressed with their customer support compared to any other computer vendor.

While I was reading this article I was wondering whether things are different in the United States. Most of the articles I've run across talking about poor Apple support seem to all be outside of the United States.

Things definitely appear to be different across the board for people outside of the United States. All lackluster Apple support stories I've heard originate from outside the US. Inside the US, customer service is great.

All of my support/repair experiences to date have been pretty underwhelming at best.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but are the options for small business support for Apple machines that don't involve either 8-10 days without a machine, or wasting time going to/waiting/from an apple store.

The contrast between business support for say, Dell, is staggering.

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