MacBook Pro 2017 keyboard failure

[dontreadtoolate]

Hi there

I have a 2017 MacBook Pro 13 with the Touch Bar. It’s an i7 3.5 GHz, 16 GB of ram and a 512 GB SSD. Almost maxed out.

I bought it in July of 2017 for a bit over $3k. Last week, my spacebar stopped traveling (it sort of feels stuck) and a couple of days later my ‘b’ key started to act strange: sometimes it registers no input, sometimes I get two b’s..!
I called Apple about this and they acknowledged that this is a known issue. They even have a webpage on their website that discusses this issue and my laptop is on the list of affected products: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/keyboard-service-program-for-mac-notebooks
The representative I spoke with quickly passed me on to their manager, who then explained to me that because I am few weeks out of the 4-year coverage limit associated with the repair of these faulty keyboards, I have to pay $199 + HST (I’m in Toronto, Ontario) for this repair. The representative said that if I had called a few weeks ago, I would have been able to get a free repair… but a few weeks ago my keyboard had no issues, and I didn’t think that it would have any issues..!
I can’t believe that an Apple laptop that cost me over $3,000 and that is just over 4 years old, has an acknowledged designed flaw that has to be repaired at my cost.
What do you think I should do?

 

[chabig]

It sucks that it failed just out of warranty, but I'd pay. It's either that or be stuck with a useless machine (unless you want to use an external keyboard).

 

[matram]

One suggestion would be to try a bit of compressed air and carefully blow around the keys. Sometimes the cause is some small particle got stuck under the key and you would be able to dislodge it.

However the quoted price is good, the actual cost is about four times that amount if you have to pay the full cost and as a bonus you will get a new battery as they will swap the topcase which has the battery glued to it. If you intend to keep the machine for a few years more it is probably worth it.

 

[dontreadtoolate]

Matram, I wanted to thank you for your comment.

I just spent the better part of half an hour blowing compressed air on my keyboard, by using an air compressor that I had in my garage. Here is the technique that I used: I first leaned the laptop on its left side (opened up at a 90 degree angle) and I blew short bursts of air on each key at about 60-70 psi, moving from the top down (therefore blowing air from the right side of each key), spending more time on the problematic letter 'b' and on the space bar. I then leaned the laptop on its right side and repeated the operation, except this time I blew compressed air on the left side of each key, going from the top all the way to the bottom. I also blew compressed air through the underside ducts and at the back of the laptop.

Well, it's a huge success and I feel like I have a brand new keyboard now! Thanks again!