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Comment by gjsman-1000 | Hacker News Reader

It’s very hit and miss. I had a pair of AirPods Pro which developed, in both ears, a very strange hardware issue. Almost like random high pitch shrieking noises blended with the audio; like the noise cancellation would go berserk.

Both failed Apple’s test in the store. There was a repair program for audio issues - but my pair was made supposedly 4 months after it was fixed, so I had to get a new set.

I also had a MacBook 2017 which clearly, obviously, developed the stage light backlight issue. Only to find out the repair program only covered 2016 models.

Thus, if I had a nickel for every time Apple had a repair program for the exact issue I was having, but only up to the model just before mine, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?

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I had my AirPods replaced under that program and the replacement pair was failing within 3 months. I am extremely gentle on my electronics, so it’s definitely not me that’s the problem. I’m never buying Apple headphones again.

Addendum to the above: For what it’s worth, the best experience I’ve had with a company that had a hardware screw up is Nintendo.

Fill out form, print their shipping label, pop into box, Joy-cons are back 2 weeks later without paying a penny. They’ve also repaired things that clearly aren’t stick drift - like broken shoulder buttons, torn joystick caps, and one I sent in that was completely unresponsive.

In my case Google recently replaced my years old pixel 4a for free because of a bloating battery. A phone that doesn't even get android version upgrades anymore and was waaay past warranty. I still can't believe this considering the usual horror stories with Google support

Logitech were like this for me. I had a problem overseas with a (more premium) mouse. I called, spoke to person, sent them a video of the issue, got a replacement.

Surely they sent you new ones and did not bother repairing yours?

Depends. Sometimes I got some that looked replaced - other times, it looked like a repair. I don't know for certain though.

Doesn't really matter to me though - because it's not exactly a secret that the "repair" pile, under times of stress, may turn into a LIFO queue. (I.e. take incoming repairs without question, mail out replacements from the previously repaired pile, have a separate team repairing what can be repaired and throwing out what can't.)

Nintendo also famously supported the Famicom for 24 years https://www.engadget.com/2007-10-18-nintendo-of-japan-callin...

I had a pair of Sony XM4s develop the same ANC shrieking issue. Would happen once every few hours. Sony sent them back saying they seemed fine to them :(

Mine too! Apparently it's a loose ground wire, I'm going to attempt a repair at some point.

My AirPods Pro have the same issue if noise cancellation/pass through is on. It’s a known issue, also weren’t covered .

Apple used to be known for covering things, but that changed over the past 10 years.

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