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Brand new MBP 16" motherboard toast help!

I

ianh44

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2022
7
10
I've had a brand new, top-of-the-range Pro 16" Max, 8TB drive for 2 weeks. It stopped charging from any of the ports on the weekend and now the local Apple Service Centre is telling me the entire motherboard needs to be replaced and there is no ETA on a new motherboard. This after paying up front (international customer) and waiting 6 weeks for delivery.

Already a week of no work and at this stage the service manager said he had no positive news for me and it may be 6-8 weeks or worse for the parts.

Does anyone have any advice on getting some better response out of Apple? To sell a $5700 machine and have no parts on stock to fix them seems absurd and borderline fraudulent. Pretty desperate here...
 
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Ask for a loaner machine. Apple doesn't have a quality control department anymore it seems, they figured they'd save money by firing them... letting customers work for free as the QC department. Lie to the customer and tell them they have a 14 day "No questions asked" return window... when in reality, the customer is a QC employee working for free within those 14 days. Really makes you wonder.
 
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ianh44 said:
I've had a brand new, top-of-the-range Pro 16" Max, 8TB drive for 2 weeks. It stopped charging from any of the ports on the weekend and now the local Apple Service Centre is telling me the entire motherboard needs to be replaced and there is no ETA on a new motherboard. This after paying up front (international customer) and waiting 6 weeks for delivery.

Already a week of no work and at this stage the service manager said he had no positive news for me and it may be 6-8 weeks or worse for the parts.

Does anyone have any advice on getting some better response out of Apple? To sell a $5700 machine and have no parts on stock to fix them seems absurd and borderline fraudulent. Pretty desperate here...
Click to expand...
Some have emailed Tim Cook directly and gotten results: tcook@apple.com. He typically doesn't personally answer, but someone from his team might reach out to you.
 
Should you be able to request an exchange within 14 days? It seems that the manufacturing and delivery are in Shanghai, China, and I am also in China. I have experienced 2 exchanges due to quality problems. The first exchange took a week to get a new machine, the second exchange took nearly two weeks, and the new machine I got yesterday. equipment.
 
ask for a brand new one. or demand it. 2 weeks old. that kinda money.

They should let you reorder a new one free of charge.

Let your old machine be their problem. let them fix it and sell it as a refurb.
 
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Demand a replacement and don't take no for an answer.

Apple charge a premium and as such should offer premium customer service.

No one spending thousands on a laptop should be without a machine whilst Apple investigate - many of us need a machine to do our jobs with.
 
Update... Adorama will refund and sell me a new machine but that's 2x international courier at my cost with insurance... another $700, so not ideal.

But mailed Tim Cook last night and just had a call from a senior product guy in Ireland who is investigating and will hopefully deal with it. That's a decent start. I guess I should get really snotty with them and demand a replacement but let's see what he can do.
 
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rgarjr said:
I don't know, could be his return window has closed up.
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Doesn't matter. Even a few days past the return deadline, Apple will still work with you. A DOA computer three weeks after purchase is a deal breaker and even Apple knows that. Take it to a store, refund it. Don't settle for a repaired computer three weeks after you bought it.
 
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lambertjohn said:
Doesn't matter. Even a few days past the return deadline, Apple will still work with you. A DOA computer three weeks after purchase is a deal breaker and even Apple knows that. Take it to a store, refund it. Don't settle for a repaired computer three weeks after you bought it.
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still,he'd be computer less for one nay 2 months ,which is wha seems to annoy him the most
 
ianh44 said:
Update... Adorama will refund and sell me a new machine but that's 2x international courier at my cost with insurance... another $700, so not ideal.

But mailed Tim Cook last night and just had a call from a senior product guy in Ireland who is investigating and will hopefully deal with it. That's a decent start. I guess I should get really snotty with them and demand a replacement but let's see what he can do.
Click to expand...
Crapping on the person trying to help you out is the quickest way to get the absolute minimum required customer service.
 
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Well, so your new computer get a failure and you want the CEO to step in and solve that.
Well, whats wrong with the standard warranty process?
Are you aware that there is a global chip shortage right which can delay some standard TAT times?
 
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fa8362 said:
Anyone who needs a machine to do her/his job should have a backup machine.
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I generally agree with this. You have to account for the unknown to prevent downtime if your machine is used to make money. Note that this does not mean you need two $6,000 MacBook Pros. A backup can be anything. I have a Windows laptop laying around that I can use just fine; may not like it as much, but it at least keeps the wheels moving.
 
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GumaRodak said:
Well, so your new computer get a failure and you want the CEO to step in and solve that.
Well, whats wrong with the standard warranty process?
Are you aware that there is a global chip shortage right which can delay some standard TAT times?
Click to expand...
Yes of course I literally expected Tim Cooke to step in and solve my broken computer.

No ETA on parts. As in… good luck, no idea if/when we can fix this. No even that perfunctory 6-8 weeks.

Very unreasonable of me to expect a massive global company selling $6000 computers to ensure they have parts to fix them when they break after a few weeks, or not sell them in the first place.
 
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Update from Apple so far, 10 days after taking it in for repair... Apple Executive Relations have stepped in to try and resolve it but after 4 days they still can't tell me if, or when, they can get parts... and aren't willing to make any commitment on replacing the laptop - which they don't know if they can get stock of anyway.

Beginning to wonder how they became the world's biggest company. Pretty shockingly poor service, chip shortage or no chip shortage.
 
I had my entire logic board replaced last week in 2 days total. Shipped overnight by Apple to the Texas service center, replaced the same day, and shipped back direct to my home overnight. Couldn't ask for quicker service - I was expecting it to take a week. Perhaps because mine is a stock config (base 14" MBP), not a BTO.
 
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I wish you nothing but good luck in this but Adorama and B&H along with others like them have terrible returns on laptops. I bought all my camera equipment at B and H and have been for 2 decades but would NEVER EVER by a computer from them just because their policy is the worst with computers.

Good luck you deserve a brand new unit no questions asked.
 
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