Not just allergic to any hardware needing repair, Apple will go out of their way to make your life miserable. At the very best their repair is to replace most of your device for a hefty price, at worst they will flat out refuse to help even if you offer them to pay out of your pocket but also put their legal departments to work ensuring there is nobody else on the market to compete with the service they don't provide, stop shipments of parts that don't infringe on any trademarks or patents, and so on.
Between express shipping, in home techs, and parts, they spent way more than it would have cost to replace the unit. And, it never solved the problem. I have to underclock it before doing anything very CPU intensive.
This happens to my MBP every other month. With a classic Windows laptop you always have some sort of LEDs that indicate the state of power/charging when it is closed - with a MBP, nothing.
In 2008 I bought a new 15” MacBook Pro and two coverage policies: AppleCare for manufacture issues and Safeware for any accidents. One day in the first year or two the keyboard stopped working, I took it in they replaced it. Then about a week later it wouldn’t boot. I took it in and a tech at the Apple store (Emeryville Calif) insisted it must be some kind of liquid spill. Because there was “Schmutz” on the side of the motherboard. I guess their theory was I spilled colored liquid or soup or something on it (??). Now I was covered against accidents the problem is there was no accident. Apple refused to even examine the machine beyond glancing at the side of the motherboard which apparently could be done without disassembling the machine. Couldn’t file a claim against Safeware because that would be fraud. I get mad still just thinking about it. I bought a MacBook Pro 13 2010 like a chump.
Whether its laptop, desktop, phone, watch or tablet - there are mature "replacement" for Apple and they work many times even better!
Apple doesn't aim at the low end of the market. Users can think of this as another part of the cost of the device.
I have a Thinkpad that is 6 years old. I have spilled things on it twice, and fixed it both times myself (both times completely drenched, once with latte, once with mineral water). I would like it to die but it just refuses to give up. If I was MBP user the problem would have been solved for me a long time ago and I would be happy owner of succession of laptops.
Please. High DPI screens are old hat. And Apple continues to stubbornly refuse to put touch screens in their computers, because they know what's best for you.
The bottom line is that you can definitely deliver cargo of potatoes bags into your fries&cola stand in a shiny new Lamborghini and "wow" everyone around... you can also have a Nissan minvan to do so equally good or better.
Your accident was buying a computer from a company who didn't honor their warranty, or something that happened when you weren't watching.
Going through it with my HP zBook that is making a squeaking sound from the speaker. “I do hear a little noise but the speaker works fine. No problem here. -HP Support”
You’d think they could sacrifice some of that margin for a better customer experience when it comes to repair, otherwise what’s the point of buying an Apple device.
I'm never at fault for the issue though.
Anecdotally Dell and Lenovo will send technicians on-site to fix the issue. Easy when scheduled by appointment is table stakes; for stuff with iProduct pricing and positioning, they're not doing that great.
My last Mac was a Power Mac 6100/66 and at the time I couldn't have cared less about the Apple III, for instance.
I had an issue with my 2017 MBP where the speakers would conk out; I've had it fixed under warranty / recall, but because Apple sucks when it comes to repairability they had to replace the whole top cover, keyboard, touchpad, the works.
All of this in North Macedonia, with no Apple stores (but the fix was done at an authorized reseller). To be honest I was kind of amazed they did that and definitely left a lasting good impression of them.
https://support.apple.com/mac/repair/service
MacBook Pro Out of Warranty
16-inch MacBook Pro $199
15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display $199
13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display $199
15-inch MacBook Pro $129
13-inch MacBook Pro $129
17-inch MacBook Pro (Vintage) $179
MacBook Air Out of Warranty
13-inch MacBook Air $129
11-inch MacBook Air $129
MacBook Out of Warranty
12-inch MacBook $199I'm not in the US either.
Where I live Apple offers the same fixed-price battery replacement service but in local currency.
But if I go to a non-Apple store, but an "approved seller" of Apple products, they will quote a much higher price. I challenged them about this once, and they said it wouldn't be cheaper anywhere else, so I showed them the Apple page and they admitted that was much cheaper and I should go to the Apple store.
I told you about the Apple service in case you were being ripped off and would appreciate knowing about the Apple fixed price service, if you are in a country where they do that.
US $ prices were provided because you quoted $800, presumably US $. Other country prices are on the Apple website with a bit of searching. Look up battery service.
Refund method was asked for, which is rather dependent on country. If you're in a less-likely-for-HN country and asking how to get a refund it would make sense to say which country.
People are still recommending second hand 2015 rMBPs as the "last good" ones. It would be a pity if they can't have batteries replaced.
[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2017/05/20/apple-ends-2011-macbook... [2] https://support.apple.com/exchange_repair
Was a definite change in the local market when Apple Store arrived.
There was the NVIDIA GPU flap, the thermal paste issue, the screen bleed, and even an iPhone - 3 MacBook replacements, and an iPhone, for free, because Apple took responsibility for having designed and shipped a shitty product (really, all were flaws in Apple's supplier/manufacturing).
If, however, I try to get a freebie for having gotten an iPhone wet, well .. bets are off there.
And I think that's only fair really.
If a device I buy fails for what I consider to be a design or manufacturing mistake, I'll be wary of the company. If it happens again, I won't buy more of their stuff.
The fact that you need to schedule an appointment in the first place is horrible customer service. When I buy a product from NewEgg, if there's anything wrong with it, they immediately ship me a new one and a box to return the old one in, no questions asked. When my ThinkPad started having issues eight months after purchase, they sent me a prepaid return box, fixed it, and sent it back quickly. When I've had problems with MacBooks, I've had to schedule an appointment, drive to the Apple store, wait in line, explain my problem, let them ask a zillion irrelevant questions (the equivalent of 'did you try rebooting?'), and then come back in a few weeks to pick it up. They are hostile to customers when it comes to hardware issues, and they almost never admit that their products are faulty. Look at how long it took them to fix the TouchBar and keyboard failures a few years ago.
Apple will fix your product if it's under warranty, but they won't make it easy, and they won't pull a defective product and re-engineer it until the bad press overwhelms them. They're not great at this aspect of customer service.
Screen design are all about tradeoffs, but some people got it right years ago.
The 5X in particular also made a bunch of other decisions that helped the glass survive, like having the frame raised slightly past the glass, so that the frame would absorb the impact rather than the glass itself.
That still means if there is a hidden fault in the phone or they brick it by sending an update, they are still responsible in my understanding. But no longer if I give the device to family member and he/she is careless enough to sit on it.
When you buy shiny sleek phone with edge-to-edge screen you should understand this is not a phone to be dropped or sat on. It is not possible to fit so much screen, electronics and battery into such sleek enclosure and make it drop resistant. If you need drop resistant phone, there are phones that advertise the feature (see: https://www.techradar.com/best/best-rugged-smartphones)
In other words, dropping an iPhone is not an intended use of the phone.
The hell starts when your AppleCare ends (unless you're lucky to be covered by an repair extension)
Some people do care about sustainable and environmentally friendly practices though.
Re-use beats re-cycling every time: Next time Apple crows about their “Green” recycling program ask how many of those devices are put back into use.
My current laptop is six and a half years old (T440s bought on the day it became available) and is still very competent machine (after I hacked it to support LTE). I will probably replace it in a year or two and I can imagine this could be given away to somebody with need and it could be used productively for many years to come. With 4 cores, 12GB of RAM and 500GB SSD not many people will find it lacking as a work laptop (with built in graphics it was never meant for gaming or graphics work).
Now, I think this is way more green than any recycling program. The laptop is built to last and in perfect condition.
Old PC laptops can have Linux installed to extend their life. Old Macs get scrapped.
The item was brand new and still sealed.
The hitch put a huge dent in my phone, broke the accelerometer and a bunch of sensors, obvious case damage though it was still working (remarkably).
I walked into an Apple store and they replaced it on the spot, for free, despite it being out of warranty and obviously my fault.
Just got my MBP keyboard replaced yesterday for free too (admittedly it is a piece of crap keyboard :).
What I look at is the apparent policy of the company. Claiming shipment of refurbished touchscreens (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kxzpy/apple-is-still-try...) or waiting for huge number of customers cry out loud for a long time to even acknowledge a problem is a policy problem.
(The problem was dirt “smudges” under the screen.
Just yesterday they replaced my wife’s watch by fedex within 48 hours. No hassles.
It sounds like this is more about how they apply policy per region outside of their stores.
This sounds more like the usual “Apple is too expensive and just cares about profits” trope.
Or send the pods to FL and then file the claim.
No iCloud for you, ever!
should be US non-mainlanders
I contacted them again a few weeks later and said I absolutely could not go to an Apple Store, as it would probably cost me $400-500 to do so. This time they figured out how to send a courier to pick it up from me and sent it back, repaired, within a few days.
It's possible there are many support staff who just don't know how to deal with these atypical situations.