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Apple Facing Class Action Lawsuit Over Lack of Filters in MacBooks and iMacs Causing Trapped Dust

wozmatic said:
Easy solution for Apple, just fix them for free.
Click to expand...

I wish it was that easy!

I've had problems with dust and something like screen burn on my MacBook screen.

They replaced it for free. It happened again on my second screen. They replaced it for free. It happened again on my third screen. They replaced it for free. It happened again on my fourth screen. They gave me a new MacBook.

My friend has had the same issues, too. They had to replace her screen. It happened again on her second screen. They replaced it for free. It happened again on her third screen. They replaced it for free. It happened again on her fourth screen. They gave her a new laptop. It happened again on her new laptop. They gave her a free upgrade to a MacBook Air.

We're now at almost £7,000 worth of repairs and replacements between the two of us. Thank god they've all been on warranty.

Here's hoping it's over for me and this laptop lasts but... I think the 12" MacBook is just a poorly made product.
 
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Surely Apple desperately needs more money from those repairs and that's the reason Apple Care is a money making machine.
 
Brandhouse said:
Maybe, if this is a problem, that the people making this claim needed to keep their work area cleaner in the first place?

Dear Apple,

I live next to a dirt road and my Mac is being affected by it. I'm not responsible for what I may or may not do, so what are you going to do about it?
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ah, another "you're using it wrong" argument.

No. Dust shouldn't NOT get under screen. That's poor design...
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MacRumors said:
Several plaintiffs are named in the lawsuit, including a photographer who was plagued by dark spots on her Mac's display, a user who had smudges on his iMac who was required to pay $600 for a replacement after five months, and a third iMac owner who saw dark smudges soon after making a purchase and subsequently had his display and motherboard replaced multiple times, leading to high repair bills.
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Isn't "five months" and "soon after purchase" well within warranty period?
I get that you get business "losses" because you have to deal with faulty equipment and you're a small business (i did too in a recent 15" fiasco), but everything that's not your fault and happens under warranty has to be repaired/replaced at no cost...
 
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alphaod said:
Perhaps these people need to stop smoking.
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You know, I was told this exact same thing when I had this happen to 2 iMacs a few years ago. I don't smoke, and lived in a non-smoking house. Only after when I worked for Apple was I aware that the smokey grey patches on iMac screens was a fairly common issue and they didn't want to do a mass replacement. Whether it's still a problem with the bonded screens, I can't tell.
 
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I have had this exact issue on a late 2013 imac for a couple of years now, and its housed in a clean environment.

It's very disappointing for a $2,500 computer that I plan to keep using for a couple of more years at least.

Not economic to fix.

I hope Apple does the right thing and offers a free screen replacement.
 
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Fugabutacus said:
I wish it was that easy!

I've had problems with dust and something like screen burn on my MacBook screen.

They replaced it for free. It happened again on my second screen. They replaced it for free. It happened again on my third screen. They replaced it for free. It happened again on my fourth screen. They gave me a new MacBook.

My friend has had the same issues, too. They had to replace her screen. It happened again on her second screen. They replaced it for free. It happened again on her third screen. They replaced it for free. It happened again on her fourth screen. They gave her a new laptop. It happened again on her new laptop. They gave her a free upgrade to a MacBook Air.

We're now at almost £7,000 worth of repairs and replacements between the two of us. Thank god they've all been on warranty.

Here's hoping it's over for me and this laptop lasts but... I think the 12" MacBook is just a poorly made product.
Click to expand...

I dont think it’s a problem that will remedy itself with replacement or even new unit. It’s a faulty design that will keep failing until Apple redesigns the hardware or simply buy another type of computer.

I had an iMac with dirty smudged display after only 3-4 months of normal usage. Apple replaces the screen but the problem keep coming back and in the end I live with it.

Just fix it for one last time, and put it on sale afterward. That is my suggestion.
 
Every iMac I've owned has this - within 3 months of purchase. As a designer it's really frigging annoying...

How do we get in on this?
 

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I think I will sue Apple because my MacBook isn't waterproof and when i dumped a cup of coffee over it, it stopped working. Even running it under the shower didn't fix it....Apples fault. Defiantly Apple fault.


:idiot mode off:
 
I had dust in the screen of my Early 2008 iMac. I noticed a dark grey patch perhaps a year after we bought it. This patch would always leave ghosting artefacts. About four years ago I got fed up with the distracting splotch and disassembled the LCD unit. I gently cleaned the LCD film and the backlight before reassembling it. No more splotch, no more ghosting.
 
Brandhouse said:
Maybe, if this is a problem, that the people making this claim needed to keep their work area cleaner in the first place?

Dear Apple,

I live next to a dirt road and my Mac is being affected by it. I'm not responsible for what I may or may not do, so what are you going to do about it?
Click to expand...
Whilst some the claimants are likely pulling a very fast one indeed, that's not how life works, what a ridiculous post.
For a start, some of the affected devices are notebooks, (ie portable devices - you know, ones that might not spend their whole lives on a desk in a sealed chamber. They are not expected to withstand abuse but they are expected to handle what 'life' throws at them.
As a parallel, I'd expect my car to be able to ride a reasonably deep pothole without tearing the suspension off and having Director Brandhouse turn round and say, Well you should be driving on smoother roads.
 
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I’m a bit lost. Do you guys in the US have no consumer protection in the warranty period? Is that why there’s so many class actions?

Why would anyone pay $600 within 6 months to fix something like this. Here in Australia, I doubt Apple would even try to ask the consumer to pay. If they did I’m sure they lose pretty quickly once the ACCC got involved. Which I’ve used and only cost me $5 (being a student) normally $25.

Which is also refunded if you win.
 
Dust filters aren't really going to do much here anyway. I used to work in a desert doing IT work and let me tell you, pretty much every screen had this exact issue. You also sometimes see it in laptops and monitors from homes with lots of smoke in them.

If you can disassemble the screen you can clean it but you can't do that with most modern laptops.
 
Not defending Apple, but why does everything end in lawsuits with Apple? I don‘t see other companies getting sued for releasing bad products.
 
MacRumors said:



Apple is facing a class action lawsuit that accuses the company of failing to install vent filters in MacBooks and iMacs, leading to lower processor speeds and screen smudges from trapped dust, which result in expensive repairs for consumers.

News of the lawsuit was published today by Hagens Berman, the firm handling the case.

imacscreensmudges.jpg
According to the lawsuit, some iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Air users have experienced dark smudges and spots on the interior of the screens of their computers as well as excessive slowness due to heating issues because of the lack of a filter in these devices.Dust accumulating from the air allegedly impacts the screen and the motherboard, causing spots on the display and heat regulation issues.

Hagens Berman says that Apple has been charging customers with machines out of warranty upwards of $600 to fix these problems. The lawsuit says iMac and MacBook models from 2013 to 2018 are affected.

Several plaintiffs are named in the lawsuit, including a photographer who was plagued by dark spots on her Mac's display, a user who had smudges on his iMac who was required to pay $600 for a replacement after five months, and a third iMac owner who saw dark smudges soon after making a purchase and subsequently had his display and motherboard replaced multiple times, leading to high repair bills.

The class action lawsuit is seeking monetary compensation for Mac owners, including compensation for screens that "did not perform as advertised," reimbursement for out-of-pocket repair costs, and compensation for those who sold their computers at a loss due to dark smudges on the display or poor performance.

Article Link: Apple Facing Class Action Lawsuit Over Lack of Filters in MacBooks and iMacs Causing Trapped Dust
Click to expand...
 
I know what's coming for next year's Mac lineups. IP68 so your computers will be dust free and water proof!
 
Another frivolous lawsuit in our over litigious society. We should sue them for not making them waterproof so I can’t use it when I’m in the bathtub. I am so tired of the greed, at the individual and institutional level. It has become all about money, all the time. I have owned many MacBooks and this has not been a problem. The dust gets into my towers, so I dust them out.
 
These images are from January 2016 when I had my first instance of this issue on my fully loaded 2014 Retina iMac, purchased December 2014:

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These images are from May 2016, when it happened again (not as easy to see but it's there):

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