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hajime

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
8,219
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Hi, over the past few years, I have purchased two MacBook Pro 16" and a MacBook Air 15" from Costco. All three of them have 1-2 black dots on the surface of the computers. Bought over 10 MacBook Pro/Air from Apple stores and as I recall, none of them has such issue. The Pro sold in Apple Store (not in Costco) just have the issue that white hair-like things stuck on the rubber-like thing around the bezel. Does Apple sell less-perfect machines to Costco?
 
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(Serious question, not trolling)

Costco has a good reputation for customer service. It is highly focused on making sure its members have good experiences. Why don’t you think Costco will give you a better answer than random people on an Internet message board?
 
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Another relevant response would be to ask if you returned Macs that you bought at a Costco, particularly after you discovered those items to be defective. Pretty sure that Costco has a return policy for defective merchandise - probably very similar to what Apple provides - basically no reason neeeded for returns in the first 14 days from purchase.
 
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Costco will take back. If they are selling less than perfect Mac, then I just don't buy from them as it will look bad on my record. All three have such issue shouldn't be a coincidence (one bought 2-3 years ago, one bought last month and one bought yesterday). I double customer services people know if they are selling the same products sold in Apple stores. They will just say I can return it.
 
Why there are black dots on the cases? Poor paint job by machines?
 
Agreed, let's see some pix. I can't think of any way that Apple could benefit by dumping problem computers to Costco. A low volume third world country, maybe (and that's a stretch), but not Costco.
 

Here are four images. What caused these black dots? When I opened the boxes, they were there already.
I have been using Apple products for many years. Never had such QC issue until the Silicon Mac era.
 
Just faults in the anodization process -- It's not paint. Should have been caught in Apple's QC, but it was not.
Just a coincidence that you purchased more than one through Costco with what you say were similar finish faults.
Costco has no part in Apple's inspection process - They are just a reseller (with a good return policy. Use it! )
 
Some of us are more sensitive to these imperfections than others. Dead/stuck pixels I won't tolerate but a couple of small dots on the case I never thought to look.

I go by the CarTalk's Guys of buying pre-scratched cars so I won't obsess about it :)
 
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Hi, over the past few years, I have purchased two MacBook Pro 16" and a MacBook Air 15" from Costco. All three of them have 1-2 black dots on the surface of the computers. Bought over 10 MacBook Pro/Air from Apple stores and as I recall, none of them has such issue. The Pro sold in Apple Store (not in Costco) just have the issue that white hair-like things stuck on the rubber-like thing around the bezel. Does Apple sell less-perfect machines to Costco?
People don't realize it, and Costco doesn't admit it, but I believe they do sell "less than perfect" batches. Haven't noticed it with Apple products yet, but over the 20+ years of my membership I've seen it with numerous items from that area of the store. Dyson vacuums are one example. Bought 4 over the years, returned 2 defectives, kept 2. The 2 I kept clearly were factory seconds, but were OK enough for me to deal with. Clock radios are another one.

People will say "you can just return it" and that's true. And so they continue to, maybe, get away with it.
 
Only Apple product I have had faulty out the box was an iPad Pro from Costco. It had a chip in the metal.
 
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