Apple Exchanges My 560X MacBook Pro for a Vega-20 MacBook Pro After 29 Days

[PROFESS0R]

All,

I have had several people contact me asking for help, so I figured that I would outline the steps that I believe may lead to a successful swap:

1) Place an order for a new MacBook Pro configured the way you want it. Ideally, it should be configured identically to the computer you want to swap out, but with the Vega 20 (or Vega 16... but I would not choose this option personally).

2. Write down EXACTLY why you believe you need an upgraded graphics card. You will stick to this script when you call Apple.

3) Call Apple's customer service number: 1-800-myapple. DO NOT call AppleCare.

4). Indicate to the remote system that you want to return a product, and when it prompts you for a web order number, use the web order number for the NEW computer you ordered in step 1.

5). When an apple employee answers your call, tell them that you have ordered a new computer, and ask them if they can see the web order number. They can... but ask anyway.

6) Explain that you ordered a new computer because you need an upgraded GPU because (insert the script from step 2 here).

7). Tell the apple representative that you realize that this is a difficult request to fulfill, but that you would really appreciate THEIR help to resolve this issue. Make certain that they understand that you realize that you are making an exceptional request, and that you expect they will need to escalate this to a higher level.

8). Under no circumstances should you be angry, annoyed, arrogant, impatient, or in any way abrasive. This will not help your cause, and it is bad form regardless.

9). Post your results here so that others can see that not only is it possible (This is one of the reasons I wanted to help another forum member... to show that those who indicated there were hard time limits of N days (N=14, 30, 60, 90, etc. were misguided).

10). If you would like, after you have completed a successful swap, post the Apple support case number of the swap as well as the length of time between your original purchase and the swap approval by Apple.

If you have questions... post them here and I will respond when I can.

Joe

 

[mr.anthonyramos]

All,

I have had several people contact me asking for help, so I figured that I would outline the steps that I believe may lead to a successful swap:

1) Place an order for a new MacBook Pro configured the way you want it. Ideally, it should be configured identically to the computer you want to swap out, but with the Vega 20 (or Vega 16... but I would not choose this option personally).

2. Write down EXACTLY why you believe you need an upgraded graphics card. You will stick to this script when you call Apple.

3) Call Apple's customer service number: 1-800-myapple. DO NOT call AppleCare.

4). Indicate to the remote system that you want to return a product, and when it prompts you for a web order number, use the web order number for the NEW computer you ordered in step 1.

5). When an apple employee answers your call, tell them that you have ordered a new computer, and ask them if they can see the web order number. They can... but ask anyway.

6) Explain that you ordered a new computer because you need an upgraded GPU because (insert the script from step 2 here).

7). Tell the apple representative that you realize that this is a difficult request to fulfill, but that you would really appreciate THEIR help to resolve this issue. Make certain that they understand that you realize that you are making an exceptional request, and that you expect they will need to escalate this to a higher level.

8). Under no circumstances should you be angry, annoyed, arrogant, impatient, or in any way abrasive. This will not help your cause, and it is bad form regardless.

9). Post your results here so that others can see that not only is it possible (This is one of the reasons I wanted to help another forum member... to show that those who indicated there were hard time limits of N days (N=14, 30, 60, 90, etc. were misguided).

If you have questions... post them here and I will respond when I can.

Joe

Thanks for this Joe.

The only thing about my following these guidelines is that in Hong Kong. Apple has removed the ability to return your ordered item within 14 days. So if I purchase it, they will only do a full replacement should there be an issue with the item within 14 days, after that, it will be a repair.

Nevertheless, I will be visiting the Apple store tomorrow to follow up my case. I was away for a month overseas for work hence I was not able to follow up.

I hope to hear good news from others here. I also think that for those who have done successful swaps, it would be helpful to have your case numbers as a reference. I did this before with the Apple Watch when my 1000USD Black Stainless steel watch had peeling issues and when a bunch of us got together with case numbers they decided to stop blaming the customers for mishandling the bands which would cause peeling.

 

[PROFESS0R]

Here is the case ID for my successful swap: 100682473519
This swap was longer than 14 days and less than 30 days

 

[rsths12]

Just curious if anyone else has had any luck with this new protocol?

 

[LoveOSX]

China Mainland
14 days
no exceptions

disappointed

 

[Queen6]

Thanks for this Joe.

The only thing about my following these guidelines is that in Hong Kong. Apple has removed the ability to return your ordered item within 14 days. So if I purchase it, they will only do a full replacement should there be an issue with the item within 14 days, after that, it will be a repair.

Nevertheless, I will be visiting the Apple store tomorrow to follow up my case. I was away for a month overseas for work hence I was not able to follow up.

I hope to hear good news from others here. I also think that for those who have done successful swaps, it would be helpful to have your case numbers as a reference. I did this before with the Apple Watch when my 1000USD Black Stainless steel watch had peeling issues and when a bunch of us got together with case numbers they decided to stop blaming the customers for mishandling the bands which would cause peeling.

Unfortunately Apple is inconsistent with it's return policy, had Apple HK offer the 14 day return policy in place I'd be inclined to pickup a MBP, however without it I'm not willing to proceed as there are too many inconsistencies with the current MBP and it seems the luck of the draw if you get a good one.

Being stuck in an endless loop of repairs and similar to yourself travelling internationally simply doesn't appeal for one second. Good luck and hopefully Apple will be receptive to your request

Q-6

 

[kevk74]

Can you provide examples? I am just curious as I don't recall anything similar to this, but I admittedly only tend to follow Apple when I need to buy one.

What if they had done this with the iPhone? Release in Sept, sell through the holiday business season, then release a new one with a significant upgrade (camera, screen, etc...something akin to the Vega improvement). My personal opinion is that there would be significant consumer pushback. It just wouldn't fly to have people pay so much for a phone then upgrade it only 3 months later. But these high end computers are a small segment of their business, so there really isn't too much noise about it even though a lot of us invested around $4K in these machines.

Yes, I have one of the 560X machines that is well out of the 30 day period. No, I don't feel like I should be able to return it, but I would have liked an upgrade path. And yes, I was aware Apple products are not-upgradeable.

As a 15-year Apple user, PCs will now be heavily weighed as an option in the future based on my experience with the 2018 MBP.

[doublepost=1543993706][/doublepost]

Can you provide examples? I am just curious as I don't recall anything similar to this, but I admittedly only tend to follow Apple when I need to buy one.

What if they had done this with the iPhone? Release in Sept, sell through the holiday business season, then release a new one with a significant upgrade (camera, screen, etc...something akin to the Vega improvement). My personal opinion is that there would be significant consumer pushback. It just wouldn't fly to have people pay so much for a phone then upgrade it only 3 months later. But these high end computers are a small segment of their business, so there really isn't too much noise about it even though a lot of us invested around $4K in these machines.

Yes, I have one of the 560X machines that is well out of the 30 day period. No, I don't feel like I should be able to return it, but I would have liked an upgrade path. And yes, I was aware Apple products are not-upgradeable.

As a 15-year Apple user, PCs will now be heavily weighed as an option in the future based on my experience with the 2018 MBP.

Hey consider the introduction of the new refresh in 2016. That design was MEANT for a KabyLake Quad Core, but Intel wasn’t ready and so I held off knowing this and know Skylake’s lack of 10 bit HEVC and a useless 8bit HEVC made it easy to pass on the entire year and enveryone SHOULD have done it THEN, not bought a 2016, sent the message and maybe we wouldn’t see this kind of thing, but we let Apple show them they could get away with it if enough ignorant people didn’t understand how necessary 10 bit HEVC hardware acceleration was going to be for 4K video, but also for people using pricey SSDs where $/GB was at a premium.

I actually felt sorry for anyone who bought a Skylake. Now take the 2018 13” Quad Core mac’s release when Intel dropped the Quad Core U processsor within 3mths of selling Dual Core 13” Macbook Pros. Wouldn’t you be absolutely SICK to realize had you waited your laptop would have literally DOUBLED in multicore performance which you dropped over $3k on a Dual Core 13” 2017 MacBook Pro?

THAT would have given me FAR more buyer’s remorse than Vega 20 vs 560x even though I bought my 2017 15” 2.9GHz Quad Core KabyLake I was well aware only the iMac 5K w/the RADEON 580 was the ONLY “consumer” Mac capable of the 5.5 Teraflops necessary for the VR they still had no qualms showing off at the WWDC during KabyLake Release.

I knew a Radeon 560 only managed 1.9 Teraflops while a Playststion Pro with an almost Macgyvered GPU “based on Polaris” managed to leverage 4.2 Teraflops with a little ingenuity, but I felt like “oh well” I guess no VR for me? What actually got me was screwing those 2017 13” Dual Core buyers when Intel 8th gens only meant waiting a few months the same way KabyLake vs Skylake in 2016 only meant waiting a few months!

PLUS... considering I deal in video conversion and was an early adopter of HEVC, I knew Handbrake and others did their encodes in software and a HexaCore would of CERTAINLY benefited me, and now realize the T2 chip can speed up HEVC encoding/deciding far faster that KabyLake hardware acceleration when I was originally just happy I waited until KabyLake which now suddenly make me feel like KabyLake was still “undercooked” and wasn’t the 10 bit HEVC powerhouse we only need to wait for and 6 core or not, the T2 Chip coprocessor’s role is insanely better for an overall result in time of export and by about any measurement related to handling HEVC (not to mention finally hit the SSD speeds promised by the 2017 model???

To add insult to injury, I was so excited about KabyLake’s arrival I neglected to question Apple’s 2nd gen butterfly keyboard! So what was the result? The worst indecision, deer in headlights feeling where I couldn’t sell my mid 2012 15” Retina Pro 512SSD NVidia 650m 1GB DDR5 b/c I might NEED a 2nd laptop when keys FAIL on my 2017 15” Quad Core 7820HK w/4GB Radeon Pro 560 (WITH 3 years AppleCare+ at purchase) that has now sat UNOPENED for 1yr 3mths. Still in the cellophane waiting for me to decide if this is somehow the optimum CPU b/c this entire design was BUILT for the KabyLake that arrived too late for Apple that I still feel should of waited? Are the thermals of a Quad Core with existing (unchanged) cooling design BETTER for Quad Cord logic boards?

All I know is hexacore would benefit me personally for time for software encoding 10bit HEVC and Vega graphics would actually give me the 5.5 Teraflops I felt any pro laptop should be capable of at this price. So I sell and take a small hit and drop that $800 to get into a Vega 2018 15”? Would it let me (finally) sell my mid 2012 workhorse that has a brand new topcase and mint battery, new keyboard and body or is the 2018 still not enough to trust to dump that kind of money in while eating others and bet the farm selling my only other Mac? I’d appreciate thoughts, offers, advice? CLEARLY I have a new, unopened 2017 2.6GHz 15” MacBook Pro 16GB LPDDR3 w/4GB Radeon 560 sitting in shipping box in my family room over YEAR later caught in indecision from endless reading! ~Kevin (least be happy you didn’t by a Dual Core 13” MBP for $3K.) Those people have it FAR worse than any Vega buyers remorse. Don’t you think?

 

[mr.anthonyramos]

Unfortunately Apple is inconsistent with it's return policy, had Apple HK offer the 14 day return policy in place I'd be inclined to pickup a MBP, however without it I'm not willing to proceed as there are too many inconsistencies with the current MBP and it seems the luck of the draw if you get a good one.

Being stuck in an endless loop of repairs and similar to yourself travelling internationally simply doesn't appeal for one second. Good luck and hopefully Apple will be receptive to your request

Q-6

Didn't work for me. I laid down my argument but SOAs are SOAs according to the people and managers I spoke to. One of the managers said he would try to give a call to the higher ups if I can argue that I have been having 'issues" with my machine since day one, it might make a stronger argument. I'm not really hopeful or mad that they are quite firm, but at the same time wouldn't hurt if I tried.

 

[Ma2k5]

[doublepost=1543993706][/doublepost]
Hey consider the introduction of the new refresh in 2016. That design was MEANT for a KabyLake Quad Core, but Intel wasn’t ready and so I held off knowing this and know Skylake’s lack of 10 bit HEVC and a useless 8bit HEVC made it easy to pass on the entire year and enveryone SHOULD have done it THEN, not bought a 2016, sent the message and maybe we wouldn’t see this kind of thing, but we let Apple show them they could get away with it if enough ignorant people didn’t understand how necessary 10 bit HEVC hardware acceleration was going to be for 4K video, but also for people using pricey SSDs where $/GB was at a premium.

I actually felt sorry for anyone who bought a Skylake. Now take the 2018 13” Quad Core mac’s release when Intel dropped the Quad Core U processsor within 3mths of selling Dual Core 13” Macbook Pros. Wouldn’t you be absolutely SICK to realize had you waited your laptop would have literally DOUBLED in multicore performance which you dropped over $3k on a Dual Core 13” 2017 MacBook Pro?

THAT would have given me FAR more buyer’s remorse than Vega 20 vs 560x even though I bought my 2017 15” 2.9GHz Quad Core KabyLake I was well aware only the iMac 5K w/the RADEON 580 was the ONLY “consumer” Mac capable of the 5.5 Teraflops necessary for the VR they still had no qualms showing off at the WWDC during KabyLake Release.

I knew a Radeon 560 only managed 1.9 Teraflops while a Playststion Pro with an almost Macgyvered GPU “based on Polaris” managed to leverage 4.2 Teraflops with a little ingenuity, but I felt like “oh well” I guess no VR for me? What actually got me was screwing those 2017 13” Dual Core buyers when Intel 8th gens only meant waiting a few months the same way KabyLake vs Skylake in 2016 only meant waiting a few months!

PLUS... considering I deal in video conversion and was an early adopter of HEVC, I knew Handbrake and others did their encodes in software and a HexaCore would of CERTAINLY benefited me, and now realize the T2 chip can speed up HEVC encoding/deciding far faster that KabyLake hardware acceleration when I was originally just happy I waited until KabyLake which now suddenly make me feel like KabyLake was still “undercooked” and wasn’t the 10 bit HEVC powerhouse we only need to wait for and 6 core or not, the T2 Chip coprocessor’s role is insanely better for an overall result in time of export and by about any measurement related to handling HEVC (not to mention finally hit the SSD speeds promised by the 2017 model???

To add insult to injury, I was so excited about KabyLake’s arrival I neglected to question Apple’s 2nd gen butterfly keyboard! So what was the result? The worst indecision, deer in headlights feeling where I couldn’t sell my mid 2012 15” Retina Pro 512SSD NVidia 650m 1GB DDR5 b/c I might NEED a 2nd laptop when keys FAIL on my 2017 15” Quad Core 7820HK w/4GB Radeon Pro 560 (WITH 3 years AppleCare+ at purchase) that has now sat UNOPENED for 1yr 3mths. Still in the cellophane waiting for me to decide if this is somehow the optimum CPU b/c this entire design was BUILT for the KabyLake that arrived too late for Apple that I still feel should of waited? Are the thermals of a Quad Core with existing (unchanged) cooling design BETTER for Quad Cord logic boards?

All I know is hexacore would benefit me personally for time for software encoding 10bit HEVC and Vega graphics would actually give me the 5.5 Teraflops I felt any pro laptop should be capable of at this price. So I sell and take a small hit and drop that $800 to get into a Vega 2018 15”? Would it let me (finally) sell my mid 2012 workhorse that has a brand new topcase and mint battery, new keyboard and body or is the 2018 still not enough to trust to dump that kind of money in while eating others and bet the farm selling my only other Mac? I’d appreciate thoughts, offers, advice? CLEARLY I have a new, unopened 2017 2.6GHz 15” MacBook Pro 16GB LPDDR3 w/4GB Radeon 560 sitting in shipping box in my family room over YEAR later caught in indecision from endless reading! ~Kevin (least be happy you didn’t by a Dual Core 13” MBP for $3K.) Those people have it FAR worse than any Vega buyers remorse. Don’t you think?

I think you are comparing Apple's and oranges.

When you bought the 2017, you knew the 2018 will have upgrades and will be better but just not how much.

When people bought the 2018, they would never have expected a dGPU upgrade a few months later, after being annoyed at the 2018 being released with a rather dated dGPU. They at that time saw the option as buy now, or wait for the 2019 upgrade with a better dGPU.

Apple adding a better dGPU option a few months later threw them off - heck I think I saw one thread created by someone asking if there could be better dGPU options and everyone told them no chance, wait for 2019. It just isn't what Apple does.

I mean technically Apple could now start to add a new storage option to the iPhone XS that wasn't available at launch but they know this isn't good business practice. Many companies schedule upgrades etc to coincide with customer expectations rather than as soon as available.

 

[Queen6]

iPhone XS

Didn't work for me. I laid down my argument but SOAs are SOAs according to the people and managers I spoke to. One of the managers said he would try to give a call to the higher ups if I can argue that I have been having 'issues" with my machine since day one, it might make a stronger argument. I'm not really hopeful or mad that they are quite firm, but at the same time wouldn't hurt if I tried.

Disappointing, as they say "if you don't ask, you don't get" at least you had a go. I've asked previously if a return window was possible as I have several qualms with this iteration of MBP, even after illustrating a long history with the Mac, Apple Store just said no. Resultantly I moved to a different brand who offered me far more flexibility, as I felt enough was enough with Apple. My perception is very simple; First and foremost I'm the customer, nor is it an honour to purchase a Mac or anything else Apple designs.

TBH I've rarely seen or heard of Apple being remotely generous outside of the US, so in your case unfortunately not entirely surprising. On the mainland I've experienced far better service quality from Microsoft, Huawei & Asus ROG, no hardware issues just a better level of service & customer care and my mandarin is pretty shaky

Q-6

 

[Sterkenburg]

Didn't work for me. I laid down my argument but SOAs are SOAs according to the people and managers I spoke to. One of the managers said he would try to give a call to the higher ups if I can argue that I have been having 'issues" with my machine since day one, it might make a stronger argument. I'm not really hopeful or mad that they are quite firm, but at the same time wouldn't hurt if I tried.

Same here (not HK but Japan). I tried to politely argue for my case on the phone, and they were nice but pretty firm on that, having purchased at launch, I was outside of any reasonable return window. It might well be that they're not very inclined to make exceptions for folks outside the US, and honestly that wouldn't really surprise me.

 

[Kiteloop]

Hi guys if u can post successful case id numbers...I’m living in Israel and trying to make this swap for 2 month old MacBook pro

 

[anhdle14]

Just got off with the Apple Sales Team in Japan, it is a firm No. Even with a broken keyboard within 1 month.