Can you fix a soaked system board for $800? I assumed since the memory, GPU, and SSD are now soldered onto the thing it would be much more costly than that, especially for a 2 GB model. Given how liquids can get under surface mounted components and the acids and sugars cause corrosion for months and then fail, I would not accept a unit that was just cleaned and dried out. I would expect an entirely new system board and all attached components. Or an entirely new unit, like Microsoft provides.
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Can you fix a soaked system board for $800? I assumed since the memory, GPU, and SSD are now soldered onto the thing it would be much more costly than that, especially for a 2 GB model. Given how liquids can get under surface mounted components and the acids and sugars cause corrosion for months and then fail, I would not accept a unit that was just cleaned and dried out. I would expect an entirely new system board and all attached components. Or an entirely new unit, like Microsoft provides.
Apparently, you can. Rossman, Jessa Jones, and others seem to be able to do it. Hopefully, Apple does just replace a MacBook Pro if you do have liquid damage and AC+. I am not sure since I have only spilled liquid into that Dell I mentioned above. I let that dry in "tent mode" for a couple of days and continued using it for about 3 years before replacing it. Not sure how it eventually died
On my [2013] Mac Pro and the [2016' MacBook Pro I currently use, both have not seen service at all *knock on wood*. I don't even have problems with my keyboard on the MacBook Pro. The Mac Pro is going over five years now; it's a solid work horse; I do wish they'd update it though. I did buy AppleCare originally on both devices. I also buy AppleCare[+] for just about every iPhone I've owned and I'd say 1/5 ever needed actual service (not counting crack screens).
On the other hand I have this [2017] MacBook Pro that I bought for work, I accidentally didn't buy AppleCare, has all kinds of problems: loose hinge, constant failing keyboard, overheating. Of course out of warranty all this except the keyboard costs a lot to fix. Overheating I fixed myself with repasting, the loose hinge apparently requires a new display, so I've been living with it (well I actually I gave it to my girlfriend who doesn't care).
On my older 2009 Mac Pro, it actually worked perfectly fine for 2 years and 11 months. On the last month, it stopped working all of a sudden; I took it to the Apple Store. It spent two weeks in the Apple Store, where they eventually replaced the entire motherboard, the CPU tray, both processors, the heatsinks, and the power supply. That's basically the whole computer if you didn't realize. The whole ordeal cost nothing because of AppleCare. I did however pay them $100 to replace the whole case with a new one; that was a good money spent on AppleCare.
So not all roses, but I think overall things are working fine.
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Wow so glad I need AC+ on one of the most expensive laptop on the market. So glad I didn't choose a windows computer.
I don't tend to buy AppleCare, I try to rely on on speaking nice to the people at the Genius Bar. A couple of years ago I took in my 2011 MacBook Pro which had a faulty graphics card, I think it was a known problem. It also had a slight bulge in the battery which had pushed up the trackpad. Apple replaced the motherboard and battery for free, I was very impressed. I am still using the MacBook today. I believe in the EU/UK companies like Apple are meant to support machines for longer than the standard one year.
That's because the 2011 had a repair program for the 2011 MBPs. I'm not dissing Apple's customer support but I am pointing out that given the latest problems with the keyboard and flexgate, many people feel that apple care is a necessity especially since the 2018 MBP is not part of the keyboard repair program, that only covers the 2016 and 2017 model years. The 2018 MBP owners only have Apple's apology, that's it.
While I admit this made me laugh problems with high end laptops aren't restricted to just Apple. Laptops with dedicated graphics especially have been problematic across nearly all manufacturers since expansion and contraction on a large logic board causes the solder joints to become brittle with time. Reflowing wasn't created specifically for Apple.
Apple, albeit reluctantly, admits fault and typically honors warranties outside the warranty window. To the best of my knowledge many manufacturers will not, certain Dell XPS for example have dedicate GPU problems.
I've had AC+ on all my Macs however I never needed it. My oldest Mac is a 2013, still going strong with thousand+ hours of transcoding day in and day out (CPU at 90c).