Apple Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over 'Defective' Keyboards in Recent MacBook, MacBook Pro Models

[newellj]

I had to pay 1400 cdn a month after I got my MacBook Pro last fall since the number 6/7 key were acting up like they detailed. My AppleCare didn’t cover it. Would have been nice to not have to pay for that....

Why was that not covered by AppleCare?
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I suspect a repair extension program will be announced, covering the replacement of the top case assembly for 3, 4 or 5 years from the date of purchase, where owners can take their computer to an Apple Store or Apple Authorised Service Provider to have the keyboard assembly replaced.

History suggests that you're correct, which is highly annoying and in my opinion flagrantly unethical. Not that business entities themselves have ethics, but the people who run them certainly do. In any case, treating your customers well is simply good business. But the pattern here is years of denial followed by a grudging acknowledgement and limited remedial action, *after* most owners have already paid out of pocket for these defects to be repaired and/or have sold or replaced the computer. Thumbs down...

 

[curtvaughan]

Yes, I'm in the same boat. I have an MBP '13 that I'm looking to upgrade in the near future, but I don't want to purchase one of these machines with a risk that something as basic as the keyboard will malfunction. I wish Apple would just use the equivalent of their Magic Keyboard for the MBP. The latest Magic Keyboards presumably wouldn't suffer from this design defect since they use a scissor mechanism. They are advertised as having increased stability and a lower profile than previous models, so they should also be comparable to these butterfly keyboards with regards to slimness--and likely quieter too! I'm holding out for WWDC to see if the MBPs get upgraded, but I'm not too hopeful. I've thought about just buying an older '15 MBP that they still sell to avoid the keyboard issue altogether (not to mention for the ports and MagSafe), but I'll likely just keep using my '13 for another year or two.

Beware the Magic Keyboard. I have a friend who purchased one with a new iPad Pro 12 back in December. She went through 3 defective keyboards within a month before finally giving up. She bought a 3rd party bluetooth keyboard which so far works fine - AND - it is backlit. The Magic Keyboard, which works fine with my iPad Pro, btw, has no backlight.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

The keyboard sucks, no doubt about it. The wife got one from me as a gift, and it was plain that the keyboard was nothing like the old and trusted MacBook Pro that I type this on right now.

The sound is different, the 'feel' is different, the touch of the keyboard is different. She hates it. At one point, because it's so noisy, took to carrying a small wireless keyboard to use in lectures and meetings because of the hideous noise of that keyboard. THAT is the same keyboard that people are having reliability issues with now.

It 'feels' like a large part of this issue, from Apple's standpoint, seems like 'hold gate'. It's not the iPhone of that year, but the way people were holding it. Steve Jobs' at that point hotly denied there was a problem. So sure of the technical magnificence that they created, there could never be a problem with their 'gift to humanity'. Now, it seems that there is no way there ever could be a problem with their keyboard either.

I have heard of people that have returned those computers early on, and exchanged them for older models still in stock.

Apple has a problem, it seems.

Apple has a problem relating to their USERS, and their issues with these 'genius' gifts to humanity. The keyboard SUCKS! It's awful, for many people. She uses this 'thing', but if she had a choice, she'd have returned it for an older model. After using it, this New MacBook Pro, I soon, very soon, took a dislike for the 'new' keyboard.

This isn't the 'Old Apple', the 'Think Different' Apple. This is a 'You will LOVE LOVE LOVE this New Keyboard, and be damned glad you have it!!!'

Yikes...

And as they fail?

Will there be a new new MacBook Pro keyboard in the future?

 

[Russlush3]

Count me as one of those with persistent keyboard issues. I've had to change the way I type (basically banging on the keys) just to ensure that all my keystrokes are registered. The worst (and most frequent) is the spacebar, the autocorrect function has no hope. If nothing else, hopes it provokes Apple to finally change one of the worst aspect of their product in recent years.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Beware the Magic Keyboard. I have a friend who purchased one with a new iPad Pro 12 back in December. She went through 3 defective keyboards within a month before finally giving up. She bought a 3rd party bluetooth keyboard which so far works fine - AND - it is backlit. The Magic Keyboard, which works fine with my iPad Pro, btw, has no backlight.

I have never understood how the company that gave us back-lit keyboards refuses to supply back-lit wireless keyboards.

How 'stone age' to put them in all of their current notebooks, and refuse to do the same thing in their wireless keyboards. EVEN using the same mechanism!

Why? Makes no sense... Sorry if that is blasphemy. HELLO, TIM COOK!!! Are you in there? Do you even care?

Tangent: I liked the cheap CEO model of Steve Jobs. He 'didn't care' about Apple's stock price as much as he cared about the actual product, and by extension, the consumer. Now that Tim Cook is being paid, what, 6 figures? He's gotten 'fat', lazy, arrogant, out of touch, haughty, insulated, entitled. He only cares about the cash, and doesn't care about the actual consumer, the person buying their defective and ill thought out devices AT A PREMIUM, and only cares about the stock price, and the return being shoveled into their pockets. Keeping deep pocketed investors happy keeps him installed at the Apple teat. He's not getting any younger, and I'd maybe be in the same boat too as I'm near his age, but that sucks for Apple's future.

 

[curtvaughan]

So people want physics-defying thinness, but when limitations arise in the form of crumbs and dust under keyboards, it's a class action lawsuit?

If your key gets stuck, get a thin card and a can of air and work it out. It has worked for me since the Powerbook.

Yeah, or buy a reasonably resilient laptop from a competitor. Old MBP keyboards didn't get "stuck". They bloody worked beautifully for many years. This isn't a $300 cheap laptop, and shouldn't require a "thin card and a can of air to work out" keyboard problems within a year of use.
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Here's what I want to know: was Apple getting a lot of requests from users of the 2015 and earlier MacBook Pros for thinner machines? Or did they just imagine that we all wanted that, no matter what the cost in terms of usability?

Jony IVE.
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I have never understood how the company that gave us back-lit keyboards refuses to supply back-lit wireless keyboards.

How 'stone age' to put them in all of their current notebooks, and refuse to do the same thing in their wireless keyboards. EVEN using the same mechanism!

Why? Makes no sense... Sorry if that is blasphemy. HELLO, TIM COOK!!! Are you in there? Do you even care?

Tangent: I liked the cheap CEO model of Steve Jobs. He 'didn't care' about Apple's stock price as much as he cared about the actual product, and by extension, the consumer. Now that Tim Cook is being paid, what, 6 figures? He's gotten 'fat', lazy, arrogant, out of touch, haughty, insulated, entitled. He only cares about the cash, and doesn't care about the actual consumer, the person buying their defective and ill thought out devices AT A PREMIUM, and only cares about the stock price, and the return being shoveled into their pockets. Keeping deep pocketed investors happy keeps him installed at the Apple teat. He's not getting any younger, and I'd maybe be in the same boat too as I'm near his age, but that sucks for Apple's future.

It's interesting - I find that Founder/CEOs of various enterprises over the decades, whether in business, tech, the arts, or whatever - have tended to have that magic love for their product which superseded their profit motive. Watching old interactions on youtube with Jobs and Bill Gates is fascinating - they both were founder/CEOs of their tech companies, and had a common ground for interesting discussion. Google search for "founder ceos" and see what you think.

 

[KGB7]

Actually, and unusually, mostly agreements, not arguments.

Agreements can be argumentative arguments too.
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Imagine how many pages we'd be up to if so many of the MBP users weren't struggling with defective keyboards.

My past experience tells me 2 pages or 50 pages. It could go both ways.

Years ago, my at the time spiritual guide asked me a simple question; “ do you want to be happy or do you want to be right?” The choice was simple, but hard to practice.

As much as I love a good argument, I don’t miss banging my head against the wall trying to prove a point.

 

[scottsjack]

Quality and usability continue to deteriorate under the non-Steve Jobs Apple. It is definitely time for some of the old guard to be retired. It is sad to realize that my three 2012 Macs are better, more usable machines than new ones even though their performance is lower than the latest releases.

 

[hack1nt0sh]

1. I purchased the new MacBook immediately upon release as my other one was 6 years old and beyond the repair cycle.
2. Purchased the new Touch Bar MBP only to watch Apple release the newer ones with the Kaby Lake processor update a year later
3. Didn't buy "AppleCare" and when I went to do so the warranty time had expired
4. Took it back because many of the keys were starting not to register strokes
5. The space bar wasn't registering strokes. Took it to the Genius Bar who told me that there was "technically nothing wrong with the space bar because their system was saying that it worked"

I am in the same boat as you except that Apple had to replace my keyboard after months of compressed air duster cleaning advice as finally when i booked a cleanup with them, they couldn't fix it. They didn't admit and gave the MBP without fixing the keyboard first and I left the laptop with them for around a month. Not sure how long the replacement keyboard is going to last.

Another problem that I have with my MBP 15"/2.9GHz i7/16GB.460 4GB model is when I utilise the GPU fully for a few minutes, the clock speed of my CPU drops to 800MHz from 3.5GHz. This has been another ongoing problem and until I installed iStat with Intel Power Gadget, I wasn't able to explain what's happening under the hood. Without measuring the CPU speed, it just seems like some background processes using up all the CPU until the apps become unresponsive or crash. This doesn't happen on my old MBP or my iMac 2013 27". Has anybody experience this?
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I hope Apple gets punished for this. I’ve owned every redesign of the MacBook Pro over the past 12 years and my feeling is that I lose function over form with each iteration. My latest, a 2017 fully loaded 13in MBP is junk. I’ve had this issue with keys not responding intermittently.

I have always wondered about what issues were fixed in 2017 release and glad to know that the keyboard issue is not rectified in the newer version. The 2017 version was released 2 months after I got my Late 2016 MBP and if the issue is still not fixed in the current version, I am a bit more hopeful that Apple will provide a permanent fix to the current MBP owners.

 

[brbttyl]

Apple needs to fix this. When the complaints started in on the new keyboards I did not agree. I thought they felt great, and still do. But I've had 3 laptops with keyboards that fail. Totally un-Apple like and unacceptable. Apple messed up on this one.

 

[NovemberWhiskey]

Good. **** Apple. Recently, they've really snubbed their customers with well known defects.

I have a new 2017 MBP and the "B" key repeatedly either fails to register, or inputs multiples (e.g. "bb" "bbb")

They also replaced my iPad Pro (dead pixels out of the box) with 2 with bad casings, clearly used (smart connector was burnt). I called in, and the second tier support refused to return 3 of my calls.

First tier support via phone can still be great, but that next level of management sucks. As do many in-store employees and managers.
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I think it’s a mistake: the problem is relevant to the 2nd generation butterfly keyboard, which was introduced in 2016 with the 4th MacBook Pro generation.

I never had nor heard about this keyboard issue before the 4th generation introduction, but on my 2016 MacBook Pro had the TopCase replaced twice due to the “b” key registering multiple spurious keypresses. Last time it got replaced with the latest model’s TopCase and didn’t have the issue anymore until a few weeks ago, when I noticed it very sporadically still happens.

If the problem gets worse and persists I will request a repair free of charge again since it’s very clearly a manufacturing defect.

Same problem on my 2017 rMBP! "B" key registers multiple presses.

Do NOT buy this laptop for work/BAR exam/law school. This is absurd.

 

[Neepman]

I know you can sue for defective but can you sue just for suck?

 

[groove-agent]

I've stated in several posts that the only way the keyboard issue would be addressed is if a class-action lawsuit got media coverage. I'm glad someone had the balls to do it. Good for them.

I first hand watched Apple employees lie to customers saying Apple was not aware of any keyboard issues on the 2017 MBPs.

Customers who reported on MR that they had to shell out $600 for a keyboard replacement out of warranty should keep their receipts as they deserve to be reimbursed.

Apple, who claim to be so enlightened and morally righteous, should be ashamed of themselves for forcing customers to pay for a manufacturer's defect due to their unsolicited obsession for thinness.

It's about time MR covered this issue. Previously they would delete any post even referring to the petition which was BS. There was a MR who posted on the deleted thread that "nothing would come of [the petition]" I wish I could remember his user name, as he owes us a selfie holding a sign saying "I was wrong".

 

[arnette]

Apple has been hit with a class action lawsuit over "defective" keyboards in recent MacBook and MacBook Pro models.

The lawsuit, filed in Northern California district court, alleges that the low-profile, butterfly-switch keyboards in 2015-and-later MacBook and 2016-and-later MacBook Pro models are "prone to fail," resulting in "non-responsive keys" and other issues, according to court documents obtained by MacRumors.

The lawsuit was filed by law firm Girard Gibbs LLP on behalf of MacBook Pro owners Zixuan Rao and Kyle Barbaro, residents of San Diego, California and Melrose, Massachusetts respectively.

The proposed class:The complaint notes that keys can become unresponsive when small amounts of dust or debris accumulate under or around them:The lawsuit alleges that "thousands of consumers have experienced this defect," and highlights over 20 complaints shared by users on the Apple Support Communities, MacRumors Forums, and Reddit. The complaint also cites a Change.org petition about this issue that currently has over 22,000 signatures.

One of the comments included from a MacRumors reader in May 2015:The lawsuit alleges that Apple is "aware of" the keyboard issues, either through "pre-release testing," customer complaints, or a combination of the two, but has "failed and continues to fail to disclose" the defect to customers:Apple is said to "continuously monitor" complaints on websites like MacRumors:MacRumors first highlighted keyboard issues with the 2016 MacBook Pro over a year ago, including non-functional keys, strange high-pitched sounds on some keys, and keys with a non-uniform feel. The issues are back in the spotlight again after AppleInsider shared data on failure rates of the keyboards a few weeks ago.

The lawsuit acknowledges that Apple provides a support document with instructions to clean the keyboard of a MacBook or MacBook Pro with "an unresponsive key or "a key that feels different than the other keys," but notes that the steps "do not fix the keyboard defect or prevent the keyboard from failing."

When a customer takes their MacBook or MacBook Pro to a Genius Bar, the complaint alleges that Apple "routinely refuses to honor its warranty obligations," or is unable to permanently fix the problem when it does.

One of the two named plaintiffs in the lawsuit:Apple is accused of, among other things, violating California's Unfair Competition Law and Consumer Legal Remedies Act, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, and fraudulent concealment.

The complaint requests that Apple pays punitive damages in an amount to be proven at trial, publicly discloses the defect, and reimburses customers for all costs attributable to remedying or replacing defective MacBook or MacBook Pro models. A jury trial has been demanded in Northern California district court.

Our Take: Apple has yet to launch a repair program for MacBook Pro keyboard issues, either publicly or internally, suggesting that the number of customers affected might not meet its threshold for doing so. But, given the increased attention and lawsuit, Apple may feel obligated to take action soon enough.

Article Link: Apple Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over 'Defective' Keyboards in Recent MacBook, MacBook Pro Models

[doublepost=1526361041][/doublepost]I love this top-down photo because it makes the Touch Bar to look so useful and informative. But no one ever looks at their laptop this way. Unless you're 7'6" and you have an extremely long torso. The Touch Bar is useless for all practical purposes.

 

[Oraichu]

I really hope this kicks Apple's ass and get them to start a replacement program for the 2016 MBP. I have this model and 2 keys have literally fallen off and are loose parts now (V and spacebar). I took it to an official Apple retailer / repair place to fix it, and despite just needing to make those keys stay in place, by replacing or gluing or whatever they have to do... I was told the repair would cost $600 since they couldn't replace two individual keys and instead have to replace the entire top of the computer (basically replacing both keyboard and trackpad).... for 2 loose keys! Crazy...

 

[MacMyDay]

I purchased a MacBook Pro TouchBar on the day of release, and although the Touch Bar (excluding TouchID) is a complete gimmick and waste of money, I've been happy with the computer.

That is, until 11 months in and my H key stopped working. First you had to push it really hard, but then it just completely stopped responding. I take it into Apple and they have to replace the entire top case, which they warn me would have cost £290.83 had I bought it in just a few days later as it would have been out of warranty. It took them a week to repair it.

This then happened a further 2 times, and even though it was out of warranty they at least had the decency to do it for free. All the same, I will have had an unusable laptop for 2 weeks in 1.5 years, having not had to send a laptop in for repair since the original MacBook Air release in 2007. I genuinely think this is the worst (with the original Air) computer Apple has ever sold. Between the keyboard issues, which sometimes still appear, but fade, and the overheating, and the lack of ports, and the lack of power and so on and so on. The sad thing is, there is nothing better available in their current line-up.

 

[MacBH928]

I am surprised the 2015 models are mentioned in the article. i thought the older keyboards were tested for many users without complaints from the users.

Apple must understand that they should make light and flimsy hardware like Macbook for those who want one and a sturdier more capable ones for people looking for power and function like MBPs . Not every hardware should be thinner, lighter, softer, underpowered.

 

[newellj]

I am surprised the 2015 models are mentioned in the article. i thought the older keyboards were tested for many users without complaints from the users.

Apple must understand that they should make light and flimsy hardware like Macbook for those who want one and a sturdier more capable ones for people looking for power and function like MBPs . Not every hardware should be thinner, lighter, softer, underpowered.

The 2015 MacBook had the new keyboard. The 2015 MacBook Pro models were the last MBP models to have the "old" keyboard.

 

[barmann]

So honestly, that is why I got the original retina 12" MacBook to start with - because it was much lighter and thinner than a MacBook Air - closest Mac to an iPad, perfect for travel, using in bed, for my wife to cary in her purse.

Being thin has benefits that go far beyond appearance.

I get what you a re saying, I got an MBA for the same reasons .
What I don't fully understand is the appeal of ultra low height .

When you carry a laptop - or a tablet - it can't be small and light enough .
But when you actually use it, a little extra heft and thickness is preferable to me .

Footprint ( length and width ) is a different matter, that makes a big difference to me for travel and fitting it into my bags . Height no so much .

And of course once functionality got significantly affected - butterfly keyboard, performance , loss of ports - slightly! lower height became a liability .

 

[Mr. Dee]

I dread getting that phone call from my brother who has the 2017, but my compressed air is ready.

 

[0837990]

All this for a little bit more THINNESS!!! F YOU IVE!

I owned two 2016 MBP's that needed to be returned (as new) because of defective keyboards.
Then I got the 2017 MBP, and have not had issues with it, yet. But I hate typing on it. And it's a loud and obnoxius keyboard to use, which is why I use an external wireless blueooth keyboard 98% of the time! (Which is maybe why I haven't had a technical issue with the built-in keyboard yet)...

 

[tubular]

Half a year ago I bought a 15" MacBook Pro -- the last of the old ones, with a real keyboard, real ports, MagSafe, no TouchBar -- because it seemed to me that there was a good chance it would be the last real MacBook worth buying. That model's apparently no longer available, so I'm glad I grabbed it when I could. I overshot the specs I needed, because I have a feeling I'll be hanging onto it for a long time.

Too many changes changed in the wrong direction with the 2016 models. It's just freakin' insane to rivet a crappy keyboard to a two-thousand-dollar-minimum device. Apple, what the hell?

 

[macjunk(ie)]

Half a year ago I bought a 15" MacBook Pro -- the last of the old ones, with a real keyboard, real ports, MagSafe, no TouchBar -- because it seemed to me that there was a good chance it would be the last real MacBook worth buying. That model's apparently no longer available, so I'm glad I grabbed it when I could. I overshot the specs I needed, because I have a feeling I'll be hanging onto it for a long time.

Too many changes changed in the wrong direction with the 2016 models. It's just freakin' insane to rivet a crappy keyboard to a two-thousand-dollar-minimum device. Apple, what the hell?

It is fine that you got the 2015 model (they still sell it by the way) but what's the point? What about your investment in the Apple ecosystem? The apps, phones, tablets, Apple TVs? Sooner or later you will have to buy a new laptop. Buying the 2015 model in the year 2021 for 2500 CAD would be insane (though I think some of us here might even swallow that pill).

The point is that it is very unlikely that Apple will go back to the old keyboard. They might reinforce the reliability of the butterfly keyboard but I have not seen Apple rolling back a change such as this. Ive will appear on yet another smooth-voice video singing praises of the new improved butterfly keyboard and people will fall all over it. The new keyboard will experience reduced failure rate but will still cost a bomb to fix. This is all conjecture of course but a believable one IMO.

Even the lawsuit is not going to get Apple to do the right thing. All they will do is announce a repair extension program and reimburse those that have spent money out of their pocket to fix the keyboard issues. But people will still get to experience those unreliable keyboards and still get to take the laptop to Apple to get it fixed for "free". People will still have to waste their time to deal with a successful result of the lawsuit.

This is exactly how the GPU related lawsuit went. Apple simply replaced the board with a refurbished one that could fail again, anytime. But for all legal purposes, they had "fixed" the laptop and were abiding by the repair extension program.

Like many people on this board have said, this lawsuit is a drop in the bucket. This will not change Apple's ways. It is going to take more than a puny lawsuit such as this to address the hubris and the rot in the upper echelons of Apple's management.

What is actually needed is to hit them where it hurts them most and that is their bottom line. Looking at the way Apple is defended by some in these forums (and even outside), unfortunately that will not happen.

 

[Val-kyrie]

Just my two cents - i want new macbook pro, but almost everybody I talked to has problems with keyboard, it seems like when macbook gets hot those keys melt and starts to stick to the base and you have to turn it off and wait for it to cool down (3 macbookpros 13" 2016 without touch bar) ...

The failure of these switches is likely a combination of three factors: (1) Apple has made the plastic supports for the keys thinner than is standard for scissor switches, (2) Apple has reduced the travel for the keys, and (3) Apple place the battery directly under the keyboard. IMO, the thin supports for the scissor (aka butterfly) switches in these machines lose their rigidity when exposed to extended periods of heat from the battery and lack the rigidity to withstand (over-) pressing the keys repeatedly. This might be why the keys eventually require increasing pressure to register if they do not just fail outright. The rubber dome Apple added to the 2017 MBP keyboard is meant to help support the keys by increasing resistance and thus putting less strain on the thin strands of plastic supporting each key. Any sound dampening from resulting from this revision would be a secondary benefit. Regardless, I won't buy (or recommend) any of these machines until Apple changes its keyboard design.
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Yes, I'm in the same boat. I have an MBP '13 that I'm looking to upgrade in the near future, but I don't want to purchase one of these machines with a risk that something as basic as the keyboard will malfunction. I wish Apple would just use the equivalent of their Magic Keyboard for the MBP. The latest Magic Keyboards presumably wouldn't suffer from this design defect since they use a scissor mechanism. They are advertised as having increased stability and a lower profile than previous models, so they should also be comparable to these butterfly keyboards with regards to slimness--and likely quieter too! I'm holding out for WWDC to see if the MBPs get upgraded, but I'm not too hopeful. I've thought about just buying an older '15 MBP that they still sell to avoid the keyboard issue altogether (not to mention for the ports and MagSafe), but I'll likely just keep using my '13 for another year or two.

Sorry to inform you, but the butterfly mechanism in Apple's keyboards is nothing more than anorexic scissor switches.

 

[Bacillus]

Count me as one of those with persistent keyboard issues. I've had to change the way I type (basically banging on the keys) just to ensure that all my keystrokes are registered. The worst (and most frequent) is the spacebar, the autocorrect function has no hope. If nothing else, hopes it provokes Apple to finally change one of the worst aspect of their product in recent years.

Initially, my b-key got sticking bbut that wasssn’t tthe greatest isssue as bbby now, sommme morre keyss seemm to gett sticckkky which isnt a problem as I transcendd mmyself into ani-/emmmojies but andmyspacebar isn”talwaysworking