Feeling Slighted

[mattopotamus]

This is more me needing to vent. I just had my first bad Apple experience. My one year and 16-day old MacBook Pro had the Retina display fail. The tech confirmed it’s definitely a manufacturer defect, and they won’t budge over 16 days outside the warranty period. $500 to repair, and for stubborn reasons I’d rather have a paper weight than pay to fix it. I’ll never buy another Mac and this saddens me.

 

[mtneer]

Have you tried another Apple Store? Or have a female partner/ friend try her luck? My wife successfully got a free replacement for a just-out-of-warranty iPhone 4 with a stuck home button, after I had been turned away gruffly by the "Genius"..

 

[Apple fanboy]

This is more me needing to vent. I just had my first bad Apple experience. My one year and 16-day old MacBook Pro had the Retina display fail. The tech confirmed it’s definitely a manufacturer defect, and they won’t budge over 16 days outside the warranty period. $500 to repair, and for stubborn reasons I’d rather have a paper weight than pay to fix it. I’ll never buy another Mac and this saddens me.

In Europe you'd be covered. But then we pay more in the first place!

 

[mattopotamus]

Have you tried another Apple Store? Or have a female partner/ friend try her luck? My wife successfully got a free replacement for a just-out-of-warranty iPhone 4 with a stuck home button, after I had been turned away gruffly by the "Genius"..

I have not tried another store. I talked to multiple people in that store, and now I am thinking about calling to see if that works.

I know a lot of people have luck with iPhones getting swapped out of warranty. I am pretty sure I have had that happen in the past. I am pretty blown away by this though. There is zero damage on the laptop and the screen actually looks worse than when I took it in. The tech tried to "reseat" the display, but it seems like it just makes everything look like it has burn in now.

 

[raqball]

This is more me needing to vent. I just had my first bad Apple experience. My one year and 16-day old MacBook Pro had the Retina display fail. The tech confirmed it’s definitely a manufacturer defect, and they won’t budge over 16 days outside the warranty period. $500 to repair, and for stubborn reasons I’d rather have a paper weight than pay to fix it. I’ll never buy another Mac and this saddens me.

Wow.... I'd be calling Apple and email Tim Cook. Yeah he won't read it and respond but someone from the executive office probably will..

Also I am sure the issue started before the 16 days gone past and you were out of town / to busy to have went in when it started flaking out right? I had a display fail on a non Apple machine a while back and it started acting goofy a few weeks before it actually died.

If it were me? I'd also file complaints with the BBB and your State Attorney generals office if Apple does not bend and fix it...

 

[mattopotamus]

Wow.... I'd be calling Apple and email Tim Cook. Yeah he won't read it and respond but someone from the executive office probably will..

Also I am sure the issue started before the 16 days gone past and you were out of town / to busy to have went in right in when it started flaking out right? (wink wink)...

If it were me? I'd also file complaints with the BBB and your State Attorney generals office if Apple does not bend and fix it...

I thought about the whole, issue started before the warranty expired excuse and the fact it takes like a week to get an appointment. I seriously did not think it would be a problem though. It is in flawless condition, not even a scratch.
[doublepost=1518651985][/doublepost]I have these thin horizontal lines all over the screen, and the screen has terrible ghosting. When I start up the computer it almost looks like burn in, but that is not what it is. I have never see it before.

It’s definitely the display becuase if connected to an external display you cannot see it.

 

[Audit13]

You could try another store but you may not have any luck if the previous tech made a note in the service log to indicate that it would only be repaired as an "out-of-warranty" repair.

 

[SurfaceBookUser]

Did you buy it on a credit card? Chances are you have an additional 1 year warranty through your CC company if you did.

 

[mattopotamus]

Did you buy it on a credit card? Chances are you have an additional 1 year warranty through your CC company if you did.

That was my first thought. I always use my Amex. For some reason I paid cash for it. I still have no idea why.

 

[groove-agent]

That sucks. Apple is pretty hard-assed these days with respect to warranties. AppleCare is a must and should be factored into any Mac purchase. I have always had to use it at least once with each machine I owned since about 2007.

 

[maflynn]

$500 to repair, and for stubborn reasons I’d rather have a paper weight than pay to fix it. I’ll never buy another Mac and this saddens me.

I'm not sure why you're unwilling to spend the money, it seems your cutting off your nose to spite your face. Yeah, its not cheap to fix the laptop, noneless you'll be spending more to buy a new laptop (that equals the class of the MPB). I can understand your dissapointment with apple not doing the repair for free, but it was your decision not to buy the extended warranty. You had a chance to have 3 years of warranty, and this is the end result. It doesn't matter if its two weeks out of warranty or two months. Its out of warranty.

Apple is pretty hard-assed these days with respect to warranties

Maybe where you're at, but that's not been my experience. I found them pretty flexible on a number of matters that would go against the grain in terms of customer support, i.e., helping.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I've had similar issues with newly-out-of-warranty items and I know how you feel...but the word is "slighted" if you plan to use it again.

 

[Falhófnir]

I have to say Apple have always done right by me when I have gone to them with an issue, I am surprised they have taken this stance on it.

 

[c0ppo]

If you really want to ditch Apple coz of this, it's understandable. But then again, I would fix the laptop for 500$, sell it for way more, and then purchase something else.

 

[AZhappyjack]

I'm not sure why you're unwilling to spend the money, it seems your cutting off your nose to spite your face. Yeah, its not cheap to fix the laptop, noneless you'll be spending more to buy a new laptop (that equals the class of the MPB). I can understand your dissapointment with apple not doing the repair for free, but it was your decision not to buy the extended warranty. You had a chance to have 3 years of warranty, and this is the end result. It doesn't matter if its two weeks out of warranty or two months. Its out of warranty.



Maybe where you're at, but that's not been my experience. I found them pretty flexible on a number of matters that would go against the grain in terms of customer support, i.e., helping.

Agree with the comment on Apple's flexibility. They replaced one of my AirPods at about 13 months due to the unit separating at the glue seam. Just called them up and asked. The key is to be polite and ask... don't go into the store with your guns blazing and demanding that they fix the out of warranty item. Conversely, I was denied a repair on an iPhone 5 that had a swollen battery... again, I missed the warranty cut off by about a month... it is what it is, but overall, I am extremely satisfied with Apple's attitude and approach to warranty repairs - even when the item is just outside the warranty period. Obviously, YMMV, but I guarantee that your attitude when presenting the issue is a pretty big factor in the equation.

 

[raqball]

Agree with the comment on Apple's flexibility. They replaced one of my AirPods at about 13 months due to the unit separating at the glue seam. Just called them up and asked. The key is to be polite and ask... don't go into the store with your guns blazing and demanding that they fix the out of warranty item. Conversely, I was denied a repair on an iPhone 5 that had a swollen battery... again, I missed the warranty cut off by about a month... it is what it is, but overall, I am extremely satisfied with Apple's attitude and approach to warranty repairs - even when the item is just outside the warranty period. Obviously, YMMV, but I guarantee that your attitude when presenting the issue is a pretty big factor in the equation.

I do agree with this BUT... In the case of the 2016 MacBook Pro (I assume this is what the OP has) they have been problematic and Apple has to be well aware of the issues. I personally think Apple should do what Google recently did with their Pixel 2 phones and offer a free upgrade from a one year warranty to a 2 year warranty. If Apple does not want to do that, then they should at the very least be overly flexible with warranties on the 2016 machines. 16 days out of warranty should be a no-brainer considering they are known to be problematic machines.

 

[Fishrrman]

Apple fanboy wrote:
"In Europe you'd be covered. But then we pay more in the first place!"

I sense that that's one of the primary reasons that Europeans have to "pay more"...

OP:
Try another store.
If that doesn't work, try calling or emailing Apple and pleading your case.

 

[mattopotamus]

Thanks for the advise. I did end up calling Apple and they are going to replace it for free. I’ll just avoid that store in the future.

The main reason I did not want to pay the $500 to fix it is because the laptop had a logic board replacement in July for a different issue. They would only honor the new repair for 90 days, and the last thing I want is to pay and fix a laptop that is likely to fail again within the year.

It is the 2016 Retina Pro that people are saying has issues. It has easily been the worst laptop I’ve owned in terms of reliability.

I’ve never felt the need to buy AC with a laptop, but I guess with the new designs it is a must. I have it on my phone, Apple Watch, and iPad. I guess you live and learn. Hopefully I get another year out of this. I think it helped that I really emphasized the fact it takes over a week to get a genius appointment where I live, so I was really about 8 days outside the warranty period.

 

[jerryk]

Thanks for the advise. I did end up calling Apple and they are going to replace it for free. I’ll just avoid that store in the future.

The main reason I did not want to pay the $500 to fix it is because the laptop had a logic board replacement in July for a different issue. They would only honor the new repair for 90 days, and the last thing I want is to pay and fix a laptop that is likely to fail again within the year.

It is the 2016 Retina Pro that people are saying has issues. It has easily been the worst laptop I’ve owned in terms of reliability.

I’ve never felt the need to buy AC with a laptop, but I guess with the new designs it is a must. I have it on my phone, Apple Watch, and iPad. I guess you live and learn. Hopefully I get another year out of this. I think it helped that I really emphasized the fact it takes over a week to get a genius appointment where I live, so I was really about 8 days outside the warranty period.

Glad you got a great resolution to this issue. Hopefully the new machine will be trouble free.

 

[groove-agent]

Could you give a specific example?

Lately I've seen a lot of complaints on the forum that Apple isn't very flexible, particularly the ones involving 2017/2018 keyboard issues which really is a design flaw that will likely end up in a class action lawsuit.

Maybe where you're at, but that's not been my experience. I found them pretty flexible on a number of matters that would go against the grain in terms of customer support, i.e., helping.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Thanks for the advise. I did end up calling Apple and they are going to replace it for free. I’ll just avoid that store in the future.

Here in California it can be night and day the difference between Apple Stores. We avoid several closer to Los Angeles for this very reason. Nice to see that you got what you wanted!

 

[lpolarityl]

I have to say Apple have always done right by me when I have gone to them with an issue, I am surprised they have taken this stance on it.

I'm not. It's 16 days out of warranty. Unfortunately, out of warranty... means just that, its out of warranty. If it was one day out of warranty, I could see how the OP would feel "slighted", but but two full weeks and then some... its out of warranty bud.

Moral of the story, always buy AppleCare.

It's not Apple's fault that a customer doesn't buy an available warranty option, especially when they have a year from purchase date to add it. If all companies were as flexible as Apple when it came to out of warranty customary service, people would be taking 4 year old cars into Honda asking for a new engine and have a feeling of entitlement, even though the warranty expired a year ago.

For a potential silver lining, @mattopotamus should try his luck at another Apple Store. Maybe another store would be more lenient.

Edit: OP got it replaced for free... that is awesome. Another kudos to how good the support is and why I never recommend any other brand to family and friends. I've never heard these kind of success stories from other brands when customers want help outside of the warranty period. Imagine calling Microsoft informing them your Surface Book's screen stopped working and you were out of warranty... the only assistance you would get from them is directions to the nearest store to purchase another Surface Book. Microsoft would never repair a screen that is out of warranty for free.

Even if you have/had a bad experience with a Apple product, just think about how easy it is to get resolved. You go to a Apple Store, you can make an appointment, its local/state side, and if its too much of a hassle they will sometimes just give you a replacement on the spot. I can't think of any other computer company that has this kind of service. All day.

 

[hallux]

If it were me? I'd also file complaints with the BBB and your State Attorney generals office if Apple does not bend and fix it...

Because Apple is sticking by the published warranty terms? It'd get tossed, there is no leg to stand on. The warranty is 1 year, that 1 year was up.

Thanks for the advise. I did end up calling Apple and they are going to replace it for free. I’ll just avoid that store in the future.

The main reason I did not want to pay the $500 to fix it is because the laptop had a logic board replacement in July for a different issue. They would only honor the new repair for 90 days, and the last thing I want is to pay and fix a laptop that is likely to fail again within the year.

Good to hear they're going to cover it. As for only getting 90 days on the MLB repair - that's pretty standard. They're not going to cover it for another year because it was repaired, it'll be covered for 90 days or the remainder of the original warranty, whichever is longer.

 

[raqball]

Because Apple is sticking by the published warranty terms? It'd get tossed, there is no leg to stand on. The warranty is 1 year, that 1 year was up.

Sure there is... I agree that taking those steps may not result in a favorable resolution to the OP but it can't hurt to try. In my experience companies will generally try to resolve BBB and Attorney General complaints as long as it's not something ridiculous. The OP was 16 days out and I could see Apple taking care of it to clear the complaints. It's moot now as Apple is taking care of him so all is good again..

 

[Falhófnir]

I'm not. It's 16 days out of warranty. Unfortunately, out of warranty... means just that, its out of warranty. If it was one day out of warranty, I could see how the OP would feel "slighted", but but two full weeks and then some... its out of warranty bud.

Moral of the story, always buy AppleCare.

It's not Apple's fault that a customer doesn't buy an available warranty option, especially when they have a year from purchase date to add it. If all companies were as flexible as Apple when it came to out of warranty customary service, people would be taking 4 year old cars into Honda asking for a new engine and have a feeling of entitlement, even though the warranty expired a year ago.

For a potential silver lining, @mattopotamus should try his luck at another Apple Store. Maybe another store would be more lenient.

Edit: OP got it replaced for free... that is awesome. Another kudos to how good the support is and why I never recommend any other brand to family and friends. I've never heard these kind of success stories from other brands when customers want help outside of the warranty period. Imagine calling Microsoft informing them your Surface Book's screen stopped working and you were out of warranty... the only assistance you would get from them is directions to the nearest store to purchase another Surface Book. Microsoft would never repair a screen that is out of warranty for free.

Even if you have/had a bad experience with a Apple product, just think about how easy it is to get resolved. You go to a Apple Store, you can make an appointment, its local/state side, and if its too much of a hassle they will sometimes just give you a replacement on the spot. I can't think of any other computer company that has this kind of service. All day.

Surprised as it’s so different to what has been my own experience, not shocked that they’ve done no more than they are contractually obliged to. It seems like in the end the sort of great service I have always received won through.