The bottom bar of the MacBook Pro "cracked". Is it bad? Recommendations?

[ETechMaster2002]

I'm not sure how to call this damage. What happened is that one morning I woke up and opened my MBP and I saw the bottom bar where the words "MacBook Pro" is was severely scratched. It looks like I took a knife and carved into it. I don't know what could've caused a scratch this deep. I showed several friends it today and they had dramatic reactions (although I didn't think it was bad).

What caught my attention though is that it looks like it cracked. Although the bottom bar is premium piece of plastic or metal I assume, so there is no way it could've shattered. I looked this up online and found pictures worse than my situation stating that the whole screen would have to be replaced. I was wondering if that was truly the case because I'm not paying $400+ for something I can pass along as wear and tear.

Although the last thing I want is for the scratch to get worse, so I was wondering if tape is a good idea to remedy it. Also, if anyone knows, I want to know why the scratch looks like a crack because I'm 99% positive the bottom bar is not glass. What I'm also confused about is what made a scratch that deep because the point of impact doesn't really touch anything.

The picture is attached in the spoiler

Spoiler

 

[SDColorado]

I believe that bar is plastic. It appears that something got stuck between it and the metal deck based on that round splotch to the lower right of the"o" in Pro and splintered it. Hopefully no deeper than that bar.

What year is your MacBook Pro? Is it a new one and do you have Apple Care +? If not you may want to live with it and see if there are any other issues besides cosmetic. It will be an expensive repair just to fix that otherwise.

 

[internetrando]

I believe that bar is plastic. It appears that something got stuck between it and the metal deck based on that round splotch to the lower right of the"o" in Pro and splintered it. Hopefully no deeper than that bar.

What year is your MacBook Pro? Is it a new one and do you have Apple Care +? If not you may want to live with it and see if there are any other issues besides cosmetic. It will be an expensive repair just to fix that otherwise.

It is a Late 2016 or newer since it has a Touch Bar. If he purchased AppleCare+, he should be covered at least until October-ish of this year. If he just has regular AppleCare coverage that will be an out-of-pocket expense for accidental damage and (likely) require a full display replacement; won't be cheap. I would guess that's going to cost him $700+ to have repaired with the flat-rate depot "rape" pricing schedule.