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Bad AppleCare Quality Control?

D

dfilko

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 31, 2017
6
2
I just got my late'16 MBP back from Apple after a week of it being out for service to repair a blown out speaker (they replaced the entire top case).

Now I just noticed this awful looking crap under the speaker grills (big circle on the bottom and splotchy crap up top). It wasn't visible to me in the bright lighting of the Apple store but now that I'm home I can't unsee it.

Has anyone ever seen this before? Is that a sticker or something? My last top case definitely did not have this at all.

EDIT: I just noticed by change that the big circles are magnetic so they're the center of the speakers!! But still what the hell?? I know for certain that my last top case didn't have visible rings like this....
 

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dfilko said:
I just got my late'16 MBP back from Apple after a week of it being out for service to repair a blown out speaker (they replaced the entire top case).

Now I just noticed this awful looking crap under the speaker grills (big circle on the bottom and splotchy crap up top). It wasn't visible to me in the bright lighting of the Apple store but now that I'm home I can't unsee it.

Has anyone ever seen this before? Is that a sticker or something? My last top case definitely did not have this at all.

EDIT: I just noticed by change that the big circles are magnetic so they're the center of the speakers!! But still what the hell?? I know for certain that my last top case didn't have visible rings like this....
Click to expand...

Are you sure? I believe all 15" Pros have this - only visible under certain lighting.
 
Those holes aren't normally as visible as they are in your photo. Try a barely damp microfiber cloth to see if you can clean the grills with dabbing. Might have dust in there.
 
James.K.Polk said:
Are you sure? I believe all 15" Pros have this - only visible under certain lighting.
Click to expand...

It definitely seems like you should be 100% correct.

The best explanation I can come up with would be if some were produced with the speaker magnets painted black or something? I'm extremely obsessive about these things and it jumped out at me within 1 minute of opening my MBP since I got home with it... If it was there before I would have noticed it for sure over a period of 4 months.
 
Maybe they use a new speaker assembly now. There were all those issues with speakers getting blown out by Bootcamp installation.
 
Looks to me like they left a sticker on the underside of the top case. If not, some residue they should have cleaned up from a sticker that was there. I would bring it back in and tell them that isn't an acceptable repair. I have certainly never seen a round spot like that under any lighting conditions
 
SDColorado said:
Looks to me like they left a sticker on the underside of the top case. If not, some residue they should have cleaned up from a sticker that was there. I would bring it back in and tell them that isn't an acceptable repair. I have certainly never seen a round spot like that under any lighting conditions
Click to expand...

Hey SDC, you also have the late '16 MBP (15") and do not see circles like this? The circles are 100% the location of the speaker magnets since I can hold a paperclip over the circles and it attracts...

I'm planning to swing by the Apple Store Monday at this point and if I can't find any circles like this visible on their display units, I'm going to get pretty ugly. It'll be insanely frustrating if they want to ship this out for another full week after I just got it back.
 
Yes, have the late '16 MBP and no, definitely have never seen a circle like that. Looks to me like they left a sticker on the underside of that top case that is visible through the holes in certain light or else they removed a sticker and it left residue. Either way, it looks like something fell through in prep.

Hopefully they can just handle that in store, while you wait. They shouldn't have to send it out. No parts required.
 
Just to follow up, when I got home tonight. I took a super bright LED flashlight and a LED headlamp to put a lot of light on the speaker grill of my late '16 15". I tried varying the light direction and intensity. I could see no trace of anything that even remotely resembles that circle on yours. I would definitely have them address that. That would just bug me.
 
dfilko said:
It definitely seems like you should be 100% correct.

The best explanation I can come up with would be if some were produced with the speaker magnets painted black or something? I'm extremely obsessive about these things and it jumped out at me within 1 minute of opening my MBP since I got home with it... If it was there before I would have noticed it for sure over a period of 4 months.
Click to expand...

As Ifixit note:

This 15" MacBook Pro has a similar speaker grille when compared to its smaller 13 " counterpart. Most of the grille doesn't include full through-holes, prompting us to question why the dimples, Apple?

You could see similar markings on the MacBook under certain lighting may be your holes have some production process residue making them worse/more visable


upload_2017-4-1_13-28-7.png
 
I still can't create any lighting situation where I see that circle. It doesn't matter if I use direct light, indirect light, LED light, incandescent light, look at it directly on, tilt it at an angle backward, forward, side to side. I still can't see that.

So why is it so visible on some and not all?
 
SDColorado said:
I still can't create any lighting situation where I see that circle. It doesn't matter if I use direct light, indirect light, LED light, incandescent light, look at it directly on, tilt it at an angle backward, forward, side to side. I still can't see that.

So why is it so visible on some and not all?
Click to expand...

I had to have the sun behind me at the correct angle to see them on my MB but that was a gold if your MBP is silver I suspect it's very hard to see them as it's probable the native Ali you can see drilled against the coating

rMB Patches.jpg
 
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I don't have any sun at this hour, but I couldn't see it using a 2000+ lumen flashlight at every imagined angle. But I will have another look in the sunlight. But the one posted by the OP and the iFixit teardown, don't look as though they would require nearly that much effort to find.
 
SDColorado said:
I don't have any sun at this hour, but I couldn't see it using a 2000+ lumen flashlight at every imagined angle. But I will have another look in the sunlight. But the one posted by the OP and the iFixit teardown, don't look as though they would require nearly that much effort to find.
Click to expand...
Its 2pm here and I just took my wifes MB in to the garden sun and could not replicate it LOL so it is hard
 
That is the place where the high-pitch speaker unit located of the speaker assembly.

for all the 15' 2016 I've seen and used, none of them looks like this.

I saw other people posting and saying that their 2016mbp 15' being exactly the same white-ish looking round shape on their speaker grill compare to the photo you have in the post, outta the box.

it is very likely that there is something like a mesh left under it, or other leftover stuck in the grill, you can ask Apple to open it up again and see if that is be able to clean up, since logically it should.

if that thing cannot go away, you can require another fix from Apple, since they are obligated to put you back into the position of the device is totally normal, which is having a circle on the case is definitely not, even thought its only cosmetic, they still need to fix it if you request them to.

and bad quality control for this gen.
I personally agree
 
I really appreciate everyone's input. I'm going to return to the Apple store on Monday with this issue and I'll update this thread with their response/handling of it.
 
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SDColorado said:
I don't have any sun at this hour, but I couldn't see it using a 2000+ lumen flashlight at every imagined angle. But I will have another look in the sunlight. But the one posted by the OP and the iFixit teardown, don't look as though they would require nearly that much effort to find.
Click to expand...
I can barely see mine at the moment, with a sunny window to the back left but no direct sun from it. Normally can't make it out at all. Surprisingly small.
 
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Sanpete said:
I can barely see mine at the moment, with a sunny window to the back left but no direct sun from it. Normally can't make it out at all. Surprisingly small.
Click to expand...

I still can't see it on mine. I swear I just had my eyes checked 3 months ago :). All I can make out is what appears to be a slight diamond shaped grid work, but that may just be an optical illusion from the hole pattern.

Just glad it isn't obvious like the OP's or that iFixit photo. That would be something that would bug me.
 
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The Apple Genius immediately saw the issue and agreed that it was not normal and should be replaced. They replaced my top case for a second time free of charge (first time was for the blown out speaker).

Unfortunately, I will be returning for a THIRD time because now they've given me a top case where the "9" and "0" keys are making a ridiculously loud clicking noise as compared to the rest of the keyboard.... This time I'm absolutely demanding a replacement if they cant fix the keys on the spot.
 
dfilko said:
The Apple Genius immediately saw the issue and agreed that it was not normal and should be replaced. They replaced my top case for a second time free of charge (first time was for the blown out speaker).

Unfortunately, I will be returning for a THIRD time because now they've given me a top case where the "9" and "0" keys are making a ridiculously loud clicking noise as compared to the rest of the keyboard.... This time I'm absolutely demanding a replacement if they cant fix the keys on the spot.
Click to expand...

I went to the Apple Store myself on Monday and got a top case fixed, came back home today with a fixed laptop and noticed the right speaker is not working so took it back and they've sent it out again. I seriously hope this doesn't mess anything else up, it's getting a little tiring driving out 45 minutes just to visiting the Apple Store several times a week.
 
medulla said:
I went to the Apple Store myself on Monday and got a top case fixed, came back home today with a fixed laptop and noticed the right speaker is not working so took it back and they've sent it out again. I seriously hope this doesn't mess anything else up, it's getting a little tiring driving out 45 minutes just to visiting the Apple Store several times a week.
Click to expand...


These new USB-C MacBooks must be impossible even for Apple to repair. After my 3rd top case, I just went in and asked for a full replacement. I've had a brand new 15" MBP for 2 days and I'm finally happy with what I've got after 2 weeks of driving back and forth to the Apple Store. (First speakers, then cosmetic defects in the speaker grills, then extremely noisy key presses when the laptop heated up a bit)
 
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The Genius Bar was supposed to replace the screen on my new 13 inch touch bar macbook pro - I was nervous because the computer was so new and they also hadn't replaced the screen on the new touch bar machines.

However there were some poor communication between the Genius Bar and myself and they ended up just giving me a brand new laptop.

So glad that it all worked out in the end.
 
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