Apple Launches Quality Program for MacBook Pro Anti-Reflective Coating Issues

Just got off the phone with Apple. They told me I need to take a 250 mile round trip to first get the screen inspected, then book it in for a repair which can take 5 days (two journeys). They said it is not possible to pre-book a display replacement or have it in stock either. Also the fact that the screen has already been replace twice isn't a good enough reason for a complete replacement.

S*** service as usual and another reason I would never buy directly from Apple, but take out a third party warranty which provide instant replacements.
 
Better inform AppleCare of this! The screen on my MacBook Pro from November 2013 had turned completely opaque. Although the MacBook was less than two years old, I was informed by the official AppleCare in Amsterdam that repair would not be covered. I had to pay €650 to have a new screen installed. What are the chances that they will give me a refund now? I would say zero! Any advice?
 
They most certainly do touch. Mine clearly has wear from the trackpad and keys. If you close the laptop and leave it on a desk yes it's more than likely gonna be fine. If you carry the laptop in a bag or backpack (the entire purpose for which the machine is in existence) the display easily flexes past the 0mm gap the rubber line provides. In fact the whole chassis flexes, effectively grinding the keys against the coating. This was never a problem before because the lcds were glass and had no coating.

Camera lenses too have coatings but these last for decades with average use. I imagine the fact that the display is plastic means the coating can't be bonded in the same way as glass, perhaps it requires a certain level of heat to attain a good bond, and this is what they're struggling with.
 
MH01 said:
Rmbp = 2012.

Talking quite a few years, not months. Well done to the people who organised these online petitions , cause Apple was not listening.

Great result, people get thier displays fixed and Apple avoids a law suit.
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Yeah, I'd like to say that its surprising to see how long it took for apple to respond, but I am happy that they did. I now need to re-inspect my 2012 rMBP to see if I see the coating chipping off.

I've mentioned this before, but I really do think my 2012 rMBP has been the best laptop I've ever owned, and the last time I looked at it, the display showed no signs of the coating flaking off.
 
maflynn said:
Yeah, I'd like to say that its surprising to see how long it took for apple to respond, but I am happy that they did. I now need to re-inspect my 2012 rMBP to see if I see the coating chipping off.

I've mentioned this before, but I really do think my 2012 rMBP has been the best laptop I've ever owned, and the last time I looked at it, the display showed no signs of the coating flaking off.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. Battery life aside, it's still great in 2015. I got the top end model, geez it arm wrestled me for years with wifi issues, fixed in software updates , but still a great machine. I have no intention to update it anytime in the future.

Going to check the screen now :)
 
class77 said:
Distilled water! Regular water would be just as bad as anything because of impurities
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Again we must follow Apples guidelines for cleaning. Any deviation from this may cause other screen issues as well.

MH01 said:
Owning one, this is good news for me. And appreciate the efforts of those who rallied everyone to surface the issue. I don't use my rmbp too often so will have look if I have an affected model. Though having re-read the story, is not official. It's great that apple has "launched" the program, though it's not public knowledge and apple will not be putting it on its website/support pages . So unless you are a member of forums such as this or happen to read the news on the day, you will not know you are entitled to have it repaired.

That is not looking after your customers. That's trying to keep it low key as possible and only addressing the ones that come forward, hoping that most will think it's outside the warranty window and buy a replacement. You may even get into a situation where you visit a genius who has not seen the internal Comms for whatever reason, and you will have no proof this program has been launched. Anyone have experiences with these programs in the past that were not publicly acknowledged?
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It is official as the title indicates the launch of the programme and have attached a pic of the internal info about this for AppleCare staff. According to Engadget, Apple won't have a public website for this.

MBP : MBPR Coating Issue Internal document.jpg
 
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BSben said:
What happened to this forum? It feels as if something is missing, but I will try my best to change that.
Steve would have never allowed this, Tim has to go. Customers are just using it wrong, Safari not ****** enough.....
Apple are sorting out a problem, and loads of people are still moaning, and come up with completely unrelated
stuff (iPhones etc). Isn't it a good thing that something gets resolved, even if it took a long time?
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This is what MacRumors is today...
If you don't come here screaming and bashing Apple , even in a thread speaking about a positive news for customer, you will be classified as a blind fanboy.

Glideslope said:
Wow. Never thought I'd see this happen. :eek:

Tim must have had "vision." :apple:



There are numerous positive treads sown throughout this site. This simply is not a candidate. It's cuts both ways with Apple Apologists. :apple:
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Where exactly are the numerous positive threads ? Maybe you are speaking about AppleInsider forums...
This is a thread about Apple servicing defective/damaged products out of warranty, and people still come here to bash Apple. Unbelievable.
 
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Max(IT) said:
This is what MacRumors is today...
If you don't come here screaming and bashing Apple , even in a thread speaking about a positive news for customer, you will be classified as a blind fanboy.
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Explain how the customer is going to know about this??

https://www.apple.com/uk/support/exchange_repair/

Stop playing the victim. As you, yourself attack anyone who comes on MR and voices concerns as a hater / basher. The hypocrisy is getting annoying, and so is the victim claim.

The biggest problem on these forums is people lecturing, and being judge jury and executioner in regards to who is hater/fanboy.

The irony is thats its some of the oldest and most loyal fans that are debating with you.....
 
MH01 said:
I get its official internally. Though unless you inform the public officially, how are they to know?

Needs to be here

https://www.apple.com/uk/support/exchange_repair/
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How do you think I found it? I did a search for the issue - it was not hard.

Excerpt from Engadget "Apple has quietly launched a program that will replace the screens on Retina-equipped MacBook and MacBook Pro models for free until either October 16th, 2016 or three years from when you bought your system, whichever is longer. You'll get compensation if you've already had to pay for a fix. Apple reportedly won't advertise this program like it does in other cases, but that's fine as long as it keeps your premium computer looking pristine."
 
ArmCortexA8 said:
How do you think I found it? I did a search for the issue - it was not hard.

Excerpt from Engadget "Apple has quietly launched a program that will replace the screens on Retina-equipped MacBook and MacBook Pro models for free until either October 16th, 2016 or three years from when you bought your system, whichever is longer. You'll get compensation if you've already had to pay for a fix. Apple reportedly won't advertise this program like it does in other cases, but that's fine as long as it keeps your premium computer looking pristine."
Click to expand...

You did a search were? On apple website or google? Big difference cause once it drops off the news, it drops down the search results rankings in Google.
 
MH01 said:
You did a search were? On apple website or google? Big difference cause once it drops off the news, it drops down the search results rankings in Google.
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I did a search for the coating issue, received results from any forums, found a FB group regarding this issue and read the most common outcome. I then contacted AppleCare myself who offered to replace the screen for free.
 
I had this happen to mine on a 2012 rMBP. I must admit, I used a paper towel and water mostly when cleaning mine so I figured it was my fault. I also had a power supply and main board failure. I took the laptop to the Apple Store to get a quote on cost of repairs vs buying a new one. They replaced everything, no charge and 2 years out of warranty.

This is why I keep buying Apple stuff.
 
A lot of years to take responsibility and yet people are praising Apple. They tried to pull a fast one and sloppy shoulders b the looks of it. They got found out and are only now sorting to the issue. Don't know if Id consider an MBPr now. After seeing MS's Surface book and how powerful that is compared to a MBP for once in a lot of years MS has really grabbed my attention once again in their Surface Book. Maybe its just a phase but that thing seriously impressed a lot of people.
 
CplBadboy said:
A lot of years to take responsibility and yet people are praising Apple. They tried to pull a fast one and sloppy shoulders b the looks of it.
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I think Apple's track record for their laptop line has taken a hit in recent years, including issues with the dGPU and this.

With that said, I think these sort of problems take time to bubble to the surface, that is new laptops will rarely exhibit the issues that caused apple to address the problem. Not every laptop is seemingly suffering from this and so I think it wasn't until people were uniting to voice a problem that made apple re-address the problem.

I have no idea of Apple used shoddy methods in applying the coating or what the cause was, and while I think they could have reacted faster, I don't think they were purposely dragging their feet.
 
Mine certainly isn't that bad but I have marks on the screen from the key corners and the spacebar. I'll certainly get it replaced at some point
 
nitropowered said:
Mine certainly isn't that bad but I have marks on the screen from the key corners and the spacebar. I'll certainly get it replaced at some point
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My only $.02 is not to wait too long

MacRumors said:
Apple will replace affected Retina displays at no cost for MacBook or MacBook Pro models with Retina displays within three years from the date of original purchase, or one year from October 16, 2015
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For me, that means the repair program is only good until Oct 2016
 
sambwker said:
They most certainly do touch. Mine clearly has wear from the trackpad and keys. If you close the laptop and leave it on a desk yes it's more than likely gonna be fine. If you carry the laptop in a bag or backpack (the entire purpose for which the machine is in existence) the display easily flexes past the 0mm gap the rubber line provides. In fact the whole chassis flexes, effectively grinding the keys against the coating. This was never a problem before because the lcds were glass and had no coating.

Camera lenses too have coatings but these last for decades with average use. I imagine the fact that the display is plastic means the coating can't be bonded in the same way as glass, perhaps it requires a certain level of heat to attain a good bond, and this is what they're struggling with.
Click to expand...

Some ThinkPads used to do this too - one example I recall is the T21 - nice little uniform key marks ALL OVER the LCD. Superb! :/

Adithya007 said:
You are cleaning it wrong!
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You are paraphrasing a stale meme, wrong :p

CplBadboy said:
A lot of years to take responsibility and yet people are praising Apple. They tried to pull a fast one and sloppy shoulders b the looks of it. They got found out and are only now sorting to the issue. Don't know if Id consider an MBPr now. After seeing MS's Surface book and how powerful that is compared to a MBP for once in a lot of years MS has really grabbed my attention once again in their Surface Book. Maybe its just a phase but that thing seriously impressed a lot of people.
Click to expand...

"Sloppy shoulders" ? LOL, what?

As a fellow Brit, I find your grasp of our fine language... a bit confusing, with that. As for which brand of laptop you choose, it's not just a collection of hardware slapped together - people make an informed choice, and that choice involves which OS you need. If you've no preference, then superb. There's more to choosing between Microsoft and Apple than a hardware spec sheet, surely that's obvious?
 
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I read this story Saturday. Friday afternoon I took my 2012 MacbookPro laptop to the Apple store for the exact same problem. They told me they would be happy to send it off and repair it for $300. No one at Apple mentioned the content in the Mac Rumors article nor did they say come back in 16 hours. I help support about 850 macs (mostly laptops) at my organization and we have only had two computers with this problem, one of which was mine. I only use a damp (water) microfiber cloth to clean the display.
 
fenderbass146 said:
But they never issued one for image retention, popping pixels, and mara spots....I'm giving up home. Why would they issue a fix for this and not the image retention issues.
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You mean the ghosting that the first models were subject too? They did, I got mine replaced for that very reason.
 
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