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New height of Apple stupidity/selfishness

Tubamajuba said:
As people have been repeating over and over again, the rubber feet don't cost $300. You can keep trying to ignore facts as much as you want, but it's obvious that Apple either replaces more than just the rubber feet, or it's a labor intensive process to add new feet in. If you have a problem with that, plenty of other manufacturers sell more easily and cheaply repairable products.
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You are missing the point though, rubber feet is something that wears out and breaks over time quite easily, the fact that Apple didn't design them or didn't develop a process to replace them efficiently is the ridiculous part.

A quick search on eBay yields the ENTIRE bottom cover sheet with rubber feet for $15. It takes 5 min to replace yourself:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-MacB...339657&hash=item3f94fd0c11:g:~TEAAOSwl2FakKR~

So worst case scenario of replacing entire bottom, shouldn't still cost $300.
 
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trifid said:
You are missing the point though, rubber feet is something that wears out and breaks over time quite easily, the fact that Apple didn't design them or didn't develop a process to replace them efficiently is the ridiculous part.

A quick search on eBay yields the ENTIRE bottom cover sheet with rubber feet for $15. It takes 5 min to replace yourself:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-MacB...339657&hash=item3f94fd0c11:g:~TEAAOSwl2FakKR~

So worst case scenario of replacing entire bottom, shouldn't still cost $300.
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Used is ALWAYS cheaper than Original Manufacturer's Parts.

No-one ever said the OP HAD to buy from Apple. I wouldn't. Then again, I'd not whine incessantly on how Apple need to give me cheap parts for my out-of-warranty device either. I may comment on it whilst also telling people where they can get cheaper ones, but Apple's not a charity.
 
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TiggrToo said:
but Apple's not a charity.
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Not a single person in this thread has said anything of the sort..

In case you missed it here was what the OP said:

bunce66 said:
So, two of the black rubber feet on the bottom of my 2014 MacBook Pro came off after 3 years of use. What should be a super simple thing turns out that they claim they need to replace the entire bottom piece for about $300. Can you believe that?

This same thing happened to my 2009 MacBook Pro and I took it to the Apple Store and replaced them for about $10 a piece. No big deal. Somewhere along the line, they got greedy.

Is it just me, or has Apple become the most nickel-and-diming company on earth? This is an absurd instance of just stupidity or an attempt to rip me off.
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Where has the OP, or anyone for that matter, stated Apple needs to be a charity? Feel free to quote where it was said. I'll wait, no rush....
 
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TiggrToo said:
Used is ALWAYS cheaper than Original Manufacturer's Parts.

No-one ever said the OP HAD to buy from Apple. I wouldn't. Then again, I'd not whine incessantly on how Apple need to give me cheap parts for my out-of-warranty device either. I may comment on it whilst also telling people where they can get cheaper ones, but Apple's not a charity.
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No one is whining incessantly, not sure what you are referring to. The criticism is genuine, rubber feet is a disposable part that should be easy/cheap replace/fix, that's the right common sense thing to do.

Unfortunately there is a better chance of Apple changing 'ridiculous' policies whenever there is turmoil with user feedback, whether online in social media, news outlets etc.

I think $300 for 'rubber feet service' can definitely be improved, what about you? If so speak up. If not, chill and enjoy your $300 service with Apple. It's pretty simple.
 
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trifid said:
No one is whining incessantly, not sure what you are referring to. The criticism is genuine, rubber feet is a disposable part that should be easy/cheap replace/fix, that's the right common sense thing to do.

Unfortunately there is a better chance of Apple changing 'ridiculous' policies whenever there is turmoil with user feedback, whether online in social media, news outlets etc.

I think $300 for 'rubber feet service' can definitely be improved, what about you? If so speak up. If not, chill and enjoy your $300 service with Apple. It's pretty simple.
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You've not been reading the posts then - way too much of 'I can do this for $10, why does Apple charge $300'.

There are ZERO requirements for Apple to do anything on this. Since I've no intention of removing the feet from either of my MacBooks I can't state how they're attached, but according the the repair document I linked to earlier, the 2008 ones required more than just 'glueing them on'.

Y'all want super-svelte clamshell cases that look all groovy n sexy n stuff - then demand that they be super easy to repair.

Well, there's a reason y'all paid extra dollars for the groovy sexy clamshell MacBooks and why they are super-svelte...
 
trifid said:
I think $300 for 'rubber feet service' can definitely be improved, what about you? If so speak up. If not, chill and enjoy your $300 service with Apple. It's pretty simple.
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$300 is pure insanity. I wonder if a poll was taken of 100 normal people how many would think $300 is a fair price for a rubber foot replacement...

Using the previous remarks comparing labor to a car dealership and previous remarks about what Apple may incur in that area lets do a little math.

The inference was made that Apple pays $21 an hour and their labor rate is 3 times that. I rounded this ridiculous number up to $70 an hour for Apple labor..

Now lets say the book says the repair is an hour. I'll do the same for Apple as dealerships do and allow them to charge the book rate and not the actual repair time. One hour of labor @ $70 = $70 plus the price of the parts. Now there is no way the repair would take an hours but.. Apple can probably get 4 rubber feet for pennies but I'll boot the Apple cost up to $1 each so a total of $4. Now I'll even give Apple a profit on the parts sale and up the parts cost to $10.

Total repair cost, using the Apple defenders own numbers posted here in this thread, equals $80 which to me is still insane but not as absurd as $300..
 
maflynn said:
I think you're off target. Apple isn't looking to extract 300 dollars for a simple rubber feet replacement, but rather they may not have a defined workflow to change out the rubber feet (because it happens so rarely), so their only option is to replace the entire bottom case.
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The entire bottom case being the simple flat panel of aluminium held on by all of 10 screws? $300 for swapping that to a new one doesn’t seem just a little excessive? 😕
 
bunce66 said:
So, two of the black rubber feet on the bottom of my 2014 MacBook Pro came off after 3 years of use. What should be a super simple thing turns out that they claim they need to replace the entire bottom piece for about $300. Can you believe that?
Click to expand...

This seems to happen to many Apple laptops after a few years. When this happens to mine, I do not bother asking for Apple to repair, I just fix them using Sugru. Sugru is so useful for Apple laptop owners, that I cannot understand why it is not even available in Apple stores:

https://sugru.com/tech-gadget/14-apple-life-hacks
 
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TiggrToo said:
Oh no, Apple won't repair your OUT OF WARRANTY DEVICE? 😱

Way back yonder years ago I brought an HP laptop that came with a horrible defect that meant the GPU failed on them with alarming regularity. Even after admitting this was an issue then still did everything they could to prevent folk from getting repairs and even then, their solution was to replace the GPU with a much more inferior (and lower powered) version.

And that was still covered by the warranty at the time.

If you think Apple are the most Nickel-and-diming company on earth then please, do not think of flying. Or getting a cable service, or cell phone service or...
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This happened to me with a HP laptop as well.
 
raqball said:
Really? So tell me how long it would take Apple to slap a new rubber foot on? What is Apple hourly labor rate? $2,000 an hour?

Using labor for car repairs is just flat out silly, sorry if you can't see that..

Aside from that, you said you did your car repair yourself so was the OP offered the rubber foot for a few dollars where he / she could do the repair at home? NOPE>..
Click to expand...

Here ya go, you can call Apple and get a DIY kit
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202450
 
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Edit: See above.. Beat me to the punch.

$300 is still insane! I'll have to do some research on the bottom case plate and see if I can find out what Apple pays for them. Can't be much considering what it is.

Is there a material / parts build cost list for the 2014 machines somewhere?
 
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bunce66 said:
So, two of the black rubber feet on the bottom of my 2014 MacBook Pro came off after 3 years of use. What should be a super simple thing turns out that they claim they need to replace the entire bottom piece for about $300. Can you believe that?

This same thing happened to my 2009 MacBook Pro and I took it to the Apple Store and replaced them for about $10 a piece. No big deal. Somewhere along the line, they got greedy.

Is it just me, or has Apple become the most nickel-and-diming company on earth? This is an absurd instance of just stupidity or an attempt to rip me off.

So, I won't get it fixed. And after this, won't be buying another MacBook Pro.

Thanks, Apple.
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[doublepost=1519527627][/doublepost]They are not charging $300 for feet. They use a flat rate approach to out of warranty repairs. If you sent the computer in with a broken keyboard, missing feet and a bad hard drive they would fix it for $300

Just go to a service provider if you don’t feel comfortable doing it on your own. I’m sure they will charge a lot less.
 
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Weird, my roommate's 2013 15" MBP needed feet replaced (3 of them, one fell off, the other two were worn down), it also needed like 4 screws replaced. They charged him like $50 at the Westfarms Apple Store.


Edit: He reminded me it was a 2013 and not a 2014.
 
"Here's what $300 can get you from the Apple store"

>first two items cannot be bought for $300 from the Apple store
 
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bruinsrme said:
My apologizes I forgot to include the link for the parts with the instructions. Thank you...
https://www.amazon.com/Bottom-Rubber-MacBook-Retina-A1425/dp/B01BA2VNO8
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And this is all that the OP needed. Do Apple charge a Queen's fortune for what essentially comes down to missing rubber pads? When one considers the pads themselves, it would seem so. But Apple don't do 'Rubber Pads', they do a whole base section that includes the pads, hence the extra cost. This is the detail that the OP seems to be disinclined to consider.

So, thanks for posting this so others will have the option of doing it the cheap DIY way or the humongously expensive Apple way.
 
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