Chances are you'll get a perfectly fine unit, as opposed to getting one that's already been returned by someone else for being flawed. I suspect this is what stores do. i.e. Cycle returned units hoping the next customer won't notice or mind the flaws.
Absolutely not. No longer work for Apple but being familiar with the culture behind their doors I can assure you this would not happen, at least not in the near future. Maybe 10-15 years down the road, but not sooner.
On an off-topic note when they "repair" these screens, is the aluminum on the top also replaced?
The entire display assembly has to be replaced. The LCD itself IS technically capable of being replaced by itself but due to the design (the collective "we" of the consumer market wants a thin design, right?) it's drastically more labor intensive and has a high rate for failure.
So after supposedly exchanging your MBP 4 times due to "various issues," you decided to pick up the 5 replacement and just walk out of the store without a care in the world? By the 5th replacement, 100% of customers would check every. single. inch. of their replacement, and scrutinize every small detail before they left the store. But you want me to believe that you didn't do exactly that AND that you received a dented MBP with the display starting to separate?? Riiiiiight.
This. I rarely saw people exchange Macs that were defective during the return window but on one or two occasions I did notice some truly anal people return three or four in a row. After the second one eyebrows were definitely raised, after the third we realized that they were looking for things to scrutinize. More often that not they'd claim "get on Apple's message board, everyone is having this problem" despite us only having said defect brought to our attention by a couple (out of literally thousands) of customers. Of those people that exchanged their Macs several times I can definitely recall that every single one of them would open and inspect it before leaving the store.
Clearly you don't know the situation. If you are paying for a $2600 you should actually receive a perfect device. Am I out of line by saying that? Please do correct me if I'm wrong. And if you knew the issues I don't think you would of kept any my macbooks. Heck one of them wouldn't even turn on it. (That's definitely not defective right?) Checking for cosmetic issues by my 5th replacement was the least of my concerns. As a matter of fact when I got my 5th replacement they didn't even give me the option to open it in the store since they were so busy, so no I didn't check it. I'm not asking for special service from apple, I'm asking for them to be a good company and actually test their products before releasing them. There is clearly something wrong in their manufacturing process if I've had this many issues.
I'm not calling you a liar, but what you describe is highly unlikely and would mean that you're a victim of some truly unlucky circumstances. Working at Apple for a few years I rarely saw any situations that came close to resembling yours. I find it hard to believe that you didn't open and inspect each Mac before leaving the store, busy or not, especially once you were past the first or second one. I have seen a couple of similar situations and each time the people would go over the machines with a fine tooth comb, visually, mechanically and software wise, before leaving. Because of this we rarely saw someone actually leave and come back with a second/third replacement request. The store could have been standing room only and they'd still find a small spot to inspect the Mac.
Apple DOES monitor the return process to make sure it's not abused. Otherwise people would make a habit of returning products every other week to avoid putting wear and tear on them. Each return costs Apple money, either a little or relative a lot depending on the product. Those returned MacBook Pro Retinas will be sent back to Apple to be refurbished, tested extensively then sold through the online refurb store.
You're not out of line for expecting a perfect device, regardless of cost (that's just kinda pompous and a very un-Apple attitude), but I suspect you'd have been happy with any of these Macs had you used them for a while. Aside from the physical dents and rubber gasket separation (I've seen the gasket thing in person once out of the box) it really sounds like you were/are on a witch hunt for imperfections. I can assure you that there are imperfections in every product (not just with Apple), if you look hard enough you can find trivial things to be displeased about. Changing this attitude will have a positive impact on how you go through life.
source - Worked as a Genius for several years, have worked for an AASP in both sales and as a technician, currently work as a Mac Admin for a large non-profit. Over the past 7-8 years I've unboxed literally thousands of Macs, repaired thousands of Macs, set up and deployed several hundred Macs, etc. In regards to MacBook Pro Retinas I've only unboxed and deployed a couple dozen of them, ordered sporadically through 3 month time span, since we've just recently switched from ordering the regular MacBook Pros to these. I have yet to see a failure or defect with any of them.
edit: I feel like I should add this. My original iPhone had a defect out of the box, the aluminum shell was bent out from the black plastic at one corner, by several millimeters. I called AppleCare and they sent me to the closest store (which at the time was about 90 minutes away) since at the time I couldn't return it to AT&T. Drove up there the next day, had it replaced (with a service product, so likely refurbished) and never had another bit of trouble with it. I could have pitched a fit and demanded a new one with new box, not a service part, but in the end would it have really mattered? Nope. I think this, along with all of my other experience having my personal or families' devices serviced makes me question the logic behind these situations.
Oh, and my iPhone 5 had a small nick in the aluminum near the lightning port out of the box. Didn't care.
