Apple Captured my 2015 MBP. Got a free new one.

MikeDProducer

MikeDProducer

macrumors member
This just happened to me. So crazy.

My 2015 15 inch MacBook Pro had the letter “I” on the keyboard stop working properly. When you push the rubber thing with a pencil, it worked. But not with the key.

The Mall or America Apple store said it would be a $310 replacement of the entire top case. I left kind of sad.

When I got to my car my phone rang. It was the genius at the store. He said Apple wanted to capture my old machine. I had no clue what it meant.

I ran back to the store. I turned in my 2015 machine and walked out with a brand new 2018 15 inch MacBook Pro. Didn’t cost me a nickel. The guy said he only recalls this happening one time in the 9 years he worked there.

I’m stunned. I feel like I am dreaming. Has anyone else ever seen this? Google doesn’t have much other than an old thread on MacRoumors from 9 years ago.
 
It may be that they are collecting MBPs in the wild that present KB problems for analysis purpose. The 2012-2015 retina models are supposedly reliable, where few if any KB failures have been reported. So my guess is your case of having a freshly happening of key failure of an active 2015, which is a rarity, is of interest to their study.
 
MikeDProducer said:
This just happened to me. So crazy.

My 2015 15 inch MacBook Pro had the letter “I” on the keyboard stop working properly. When you push the rubber thing with a pencil, it worked. But not with the key.

The Mall or America Apple store said it would be a $310 replacement of the entire top case. I left kind of sad.

When I got to my car my phone rang. It was the genius at the store. He said Apple wanted to capture my old machine. I had no clue what it meant.

I ran back to the store. I turned in my 2015 machine and walked out with a brand new 2018 15 inch MacBook Pro. Didn’t cost me a nickel. The guy said he only recalls this happening one time in the 9 years he worked there.

I’m stunned. I feel like I am dreaming. Has anyone else ever seen this? Google doesn’t have much other than an old thread on MacRoumors from 9 years ago.
Click to expand...
I’m so jealous man. I’d love it if they’d do that with my 2012 model. #dreams
 
I bought a 2015 15" MBP off eBay for $1000, had some noise issues, and they gave me a mid tier 2018 15" MBP with AC+.

/shurg
 
Are these only happening in the US? I got a 2015 15" that has slightly swollen battery that I never bothered to bring in. May try my luck for a 2018 exchange now lol.
 
2015 design is the one everyone wants. Magsafe, SD slot, USB slots, HDMI slot, good keyboard. A 2015 design with a 6-core 2019 processor and decent cooling would be ideal.
 
Same happened to me. I had 2014 13inch i5 retina MBP. I was using my computer normally. One night it stopped working and it did not open. I went to Apple Store in Germany and they made me change motherboard by money. After that, the problem is solved but it happened again. They say that it is working properly. I went home. Same happened 1 month later, I gave the computer to Apple Store in Turkey. they said we will change motherboard free of charge. They changed it when I got home, I realised that backlighting is not working properly. I called AppleCare even though I did not have the warranty at all. They said we will change your computer. They gave me 2018 13 inch i7 MBP.... That is not really a capturing but that's my case
 
MikeDProducer said:
This just happened to me. So crazy.

My 2015 15 inch MacBook Pro had the letter “I” on the keyboard stop working properly. When you push the rubber thing with a pencil, it worked. But not with the key.

The Mall or America Apple store said it would be a $310 replacement of the entire top case. I left kind of sad.

When I got to my car my phone rang. It was the genius at the store. He said Apple wanted to capture my old machine. I had no clue what it meant.

I ran back to the store. I turned in my 2015 machine and walked out with a brand new 2018 15 inch MacBook Pro. Didn’t cost me a nickel. The guy said he only recalls this happening one time in the 9 years he worked there.

I’m stunned. I feel like I am dreaming. Has anyone else ever seen this? Google doesn’t have much other than an old thread on MacRoumors from 9 years ago.
Click to expand...
I did receive a new mbp 2018 to replace my failing 2016 just a week ago but it took some negotiating. I think you got very lucky today. Congrats. The 2018 is a beast.
 
MikeDProducer said:
This just happened to me. So crazy.

My 2015 15 inch MacBook Pro had the letter “I” on the keyboard stop working properly. When you push the rubber thing with a pencil, it worked. But not with the key.

The Mall or America Apple store said it would be a $310 replacement of the entire top case. I left kind of sad.

When I got to my car my phone rang. It was the genius at the store. He said Apple wanted to capture my old machine. I had no clue what it meant.

I ran back to the store. I turned in my 2015 machine and walked out with a brand new 2018 15 inch MacBook Pro. Didn’t cost me a nickel. The guy said he only recalls this happening one time in the 9 years he worked there.

I’m stunned. I feel like I am dreaming. Has anyone else ever seen this? Google doesn’t have much other than an old thread on MacRoumors from 9 years ago.
Click to expand...
I had my 2017 MBP captured to help the software engineers identify a software issue that was causing my computer to have graphical glitches when it was woken from sleep. They sent me a replacement computer, and since I still hadn’t fully setup the original machine it wasn’t a bad deal for me at all. Sometimes they need to have live examples of a defective unit so they can duplicate the issue and more effectively identify the cause so it can be corrected in future designs.

You’re super lucky though, the new machine should be quite the upgrade.
 
This happened to me with my 2012 MBP, but it was with the battery top case fluke where they gave some of us brand new 2017 replacements for the cost of the battery (200 USD). Not free but pretty close :D
 
Eerriikkoo said:
I did receive a new mbp 2018 to replace my failing 2016 just a week ago but it took some negotiating. I think you got very lucky today. Congrats. The 2018 is a beast.
Click to expand...

What was wrong with your 2016 model? Did they give the equivalent spec machine?
 
baypharm said:
What was wrong with your 2016 model? Did they give the equivalent spec machine?
Click to expand...
The keyboard was bad three times. And the screen was replaced twice because of popping sound and flexcable sticking out of the chassis (that was just a bad repair job).
At first they offered me the baseline 2018 15 inch but my 2016 model had upgraded cpu, ssd and gpu. So I complained and eventually they matched my specs. I now have a six core 2.6 ghz i7 with 512 gb ssd and 560x gpu. Not bad at all.
 
My 2009 iMac wasn't captured, but they replaced it under warranty with a newer model with a few extra goodies. The funny part is I had left my third party RAM in it and they replaced that too.

Brought 2009 iMac to get serviced. It had four 2 GB RAM modules in it, two of which were third party. Kept the keyboard and mouse at home.

Got it replaced with a 2010 iMac with two 4 GB RAM modules, new keyboard and mouse, and they handed me my old hard drive from the other iMac too, since that was still working and had my data on it (already backed up before though). Since Apple had upgraded the RAM configuration, that allowed me to add yet more RAM to bring it to 12 GB RAM.
 
This happened to me once...





...then I woke up.


Congrats, OP, you are so lucky. Yes, it is crazy, indeed. :)

May the new machine serve you well for years to come. :)
 
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