16’ MacBook Pro Dies - Only a year old - I have to pay $700

[geach]

Any advice for me….. I bought the 16’’ macbook pro last June. Worked absolutely fine up until this last week. I closed the screen after working friday, came back to a dead computer monday. Nothing would work to get it turned on. It’s never lagged, overheated, been dropped, no water damage. I brought it to an apple store and they said “your computer is in great condition, but hardware failure happens, you should have bought apple care”. So they sent it off and will be charging me $700. It was 2 months out from the one year warranty. How can I purchase their top tier laptop for $2400, it dies in a year, and i’m told “hardware failure happens”. Your top tier laptop shouldn’t die in a year. I had my last macbook pro for 7 years with not a single issue. I tried calling them today and I just got the same answer as the person in the store. “should have bought apple care”.

 

[rawweb]

I hear you, and it does suck.

I've always purchased it on mobile devices because accidents can happen. AppleCare+ is relative peace of mind for me. That said, I've been upgrading about every 3 years since the PowerBook G4 era and I don't recall ever actually using it. I had some issues with the old 2016 15", had multiple keyboard failures, but that was covered under a repair extension program.

At the end of the day, unfortunately things do break. The $700 is likely a flat repair cost and they'll probably replace the entire top case (logic board, keyboard, battery, etc). So in some regards, you'll be getting a nearly new machine. The repair will be warrantied. On the flip, the folks that work at the Apple repair depot in my experience are usually pretty honest. And if it suddenly starts working or they didn't need to replace anything, they'll ship it back and not charge you the flat repair. I'm finding the folks in the stores these days tend to set up a ship out/depot repair by default.

Either way, sorry this happened to you! Keep us posted on what ends up being the culprit.

 

[0128672]

Sorry to hear you had an out-of-warranty repair needed. The cost of the machine doesn't guarantee there won't be a hardware failure. A family member with the same machine has paid to have the logic board replaced twice. Never again will they skip Applecare.

Repairs are warranteed for 90 days.

Legal - Repair Terms and Conditions - Apple

www.apple.com

 

[Mayo86]

Any advice for me….. I bought the 16’’ macbook pro last June. Worked absolutely fine up until this last week. I closed the screen after working friday, came back to a dead computer monday. Nothing would work to get it turned on. It’s never lagged, overheated, been dropped, no water damage. I brought it to an apple store and they said “your computer is in great condition, but hardware failure happens, you should have bought apple care”. So they sent it off and will be charging me $700. It was 2 months out from the one year warranty. How can I purchase their top tier laptop for $2400, it dies in a year, and i’m told “hardware failure happens”. Your top tier laptop shouldn’t die in a year. I had my last macbook pro for 7 years with not a single issue. I tried calling them today and I just got the same answer as the person in the store. “should have bought apple care”.

Did you purchase it with a credit card in full? A lot of credit card companies double the manufacturers warranty at no extra cost. At least that is how it is in Canada.

 

[4743913]

Any advice for me….. I bought the 16’’ macbook pro last June. Worked absolutely fine up until this last week. I closed the screen after working friday, came back to a dead computer monday. Nothing would work to get it turned on. It’s never lagged, overheated, been dropped, no water damage. I brought it to an apple store and they said “your computer is in great condition, but hardware failure happens, you should have bought apple care”. So they sent it off and will be charging me $700. It was 2 months out from the one year warranty. How can I purchase their top tier laptop for $2400, it dies in a year, and i’m told “hardware failure happens”. Your top tier laptop shouldn’t die in a year. I had my last macbook pro for 7 years with not a single issue. I tried calling them today and I just got the same answer as the person in the store. “should have bought apple care”.

take the macbook pro to a repair shop and get an estimate and then decide whether or not to sell it. take that $700 and put it toward a new M1 Air (and buy apple care this time). I would be hesitant to give apple any more money on that macbook pro. because you did not buy apple care, this could be a yearly occurrence or worse, after 90 days when their repair "warranty" ends.

 

[FNH15]

It happens. I’ve always purchased AppleCare on my machines with a dedicated GPU as that’s definitely a failure point. It’s paid for itself many times over with my 2011 iMac, my 2012 rMBP, it’s warranty-replacement Late ’13, and that warranty-replacement’s 2018 MPB.

Basically, Apple Silicon can’t come soon enough. All of the failures I’ve experienced have been a result of outside vendor’s chips (GPUs).

 

[Vazor]

Sorry to hear you had an out-of-warranty repair needed. The cost of the machine doesn't guarantee there won't be a hardware failure. A family member with the same machine has paid to have the logic board replaced twice. Never again will they skip Applecare.

Repairs are warranteed for 90 days.

Legal - Repair Terms and Conditions - Apple

www.apple.com

Crazy that people in the US need to pay a large sum of money to get a basic warranty. Not sure what consumer law is like in the US, but in Europe we basically get free Apple Care for at least three years, often more. Then again, we pay more for Macs so I suppose it evens out.

 

[0128672]

Crazy that people in the US need to pay a large sum of money to get a basic warranty. Not sure what consumer law is like in the US, but in Europe we basically get free Apple Care for at least three years, often more. Then again, we pay more for Macs so I suppose it evens out.

Here in the US with Apple there's a free one-year warranty, but it's not as comprehensive as Applecare+ because it doesn't include accidental damage and some other differences. Certain credit cards will provide a longer warranty, but that's not useful in the case of accidental damage (at least with the card agreements I've seen). I think it's great that you can get AC+ level of coverage for free in Europe, especially if you're saying that includes accidental damage. How many AD incidents are covered in Europe under the consumer laws there?

 

[turbineseaplane]

Crazy that people in the US need to pay a large sum of money to get a basic warranty. Not sure what consumer law is like in the US, but in Europe we basically get free Apple Care for at least three years, often more. Then again, we pay more for Macs so I suppose it evens out.

Your governments aren't fully captured by corporate interests in the way ours are in the USA.

American citizens are sadly just pawns.
(Speaking as one myself)

 

[leslieg]

You're absolutely right, your expensive laptop definitely should last more than a year. So glad we have Australian Consumer Law which requires minimum 2 year manufacturer warranty, which prevents people getting ripped off like this.

 

[willyx]

What a ripoff. You should really fight for more warranty period in the US.

It's laughable that commenters here seem to justify this ?

 

[turbineseaplane]

It's laughable that commenters here seem to justify this ?

We can insert SO many topics in place of "this"
Apple defenders are simply incredible sometimes

 

[diego.caraballo]

Any advice for me….. I bought the 16’’ macbook pro last June. Worked absolutely fine up until this last week. I closed the screen after working friday, came back to a dead computer monday. Nothing would work to get it turned on. It’s never lagged, overheated, been dropped, no water damage. I brought it to an apple store and they said “your computer is in great condition, but hardware failure happens, you should have bought apple care”. So they sent it off and will be charging me $700. It was 2 months out from the one year warranty. How can I purchase their top tier laptop for $2400, it dies in a year, and i’m told “hardware failure happens”. Your top tier laptop shouldn’t die in a year. I had my last macbook pro for 7 years with not a single issue. I tried calling them today and I just got the same answer as the person in the store. “should have bought apple care”.

If you live in the US, there are multiple board-level repair shops. They would charge around $290-350 for that model.
Instead of replacing the logic board (as Apple proposed solution), they will repair it.

 

[So@So@So]

It happens. I’ve always purchased AppleCare on my machines with a dedicated GPU as that’s definitely a failure point. It’s paid for itself many times over with my 2011 iMac, my 2012 rMBP, it’s warranty-replacement Late ’13, and that warranty-replacement’s 2018 MPB.

Basically, Apple Silicon can’t come soon enough. All of the failures I’ve experienced have been a result of outside vendor’s chips (GPUs).

I normally like Apple hardware because it's well build. My MacBook Pro 16" has sound problems (noise from speakers on the left side) and the fans make really bad noises.
But I won't bet that Apple Silicon makes anything better, while this Macs would probably run cooler they are all new designs (like the MBP 16 internally), so it may take some time before the new Macs are bullet proof.

 

[Synchromesh]

As someone who deals with Apple machines all the time this isn't the first time I hear of SMBPDS (sudden MBP death syndrome). This seems to primarily happen to 16" machines for some reasons, the 15" are somewhat less prone. I think there might be a flaw with Apple's design which isn't shocking considering how awfully engineered last few models are. I think it will take a lawsuit as usual for Apple to acknowledge this and get it fixed by replacing the bad boards with the new ones which have the same exact flaw again.

 

[4743913]

Crazy that people in the US need to pay a large sum of money to get a basic warranty. Not sure what consumer law is like in the US, but in Europe we basically get free Apple Care for at least three years, often more. Then again, we pay more for Macs so I suppose it evens out.

my thoughts are the same on the crazy prices that Euros pay for stuff we pay pennies for. It probably doesn't even out but this definitely helps you guys in the consumer rights department.

 

[turbineseaplane]

my thoughts are the same on the crazy prices that Euros pay for stuff we pay pennies for. It probably doesn't even out but it this definitely helps you guys in the consumer rights department.

Of which "healthcare" sure isn't one -- lol

Man oh man do we get screwed on that here...
Dealing with that now and some bills that are simply staggering (on the scale of "buy a small house")

 

[4743913]

Of which "healthcare" sure isn't one -- lol

yes it is expensive, but there is a reason that when the "elites" of europe or the people of canada need treatment, they come to the USA. its a difficult situation for lots of people living in the USA though.

 

[turbineseaplane]

yes it is expensive, but there is a reason that when the "elites" of europe or the people of canada need treatment, they come to the USA

We're off topic - could go all day on this (particularly as a dual citizen)
It's mostly a farce that people hold up to defend the American extortion system

Besides that - real healthcare benefits for society come from comprehensive, affordable, preventative care.
In the States it's too expensive to do too much basic stuff that would help immensely.

Relatively simple stuff here bankrupts folks.
This forum skews towards those with good/great coverage and its' a bit of blind spot for many well off in the USA.

 

[4743913]

We're off topic - could go all day on this (particularly as a dual citizen)
It's mostly a farce that people hold up to defend the American extortion system

Besides that - real healthcare benefits for society come from comprehensive, affordable, preventative care.
In the States it's too expensive to do too much basic stuff that would help immensely.

Relatively simple stuff here bankrupts folks.
This forum skews towards those with good/great coverage and its' a bit of blind spot for many well off in the USA.

I agree, it's just that we see lots of people here making $500/month car payments instead of paying for health insurance. its not a problem easily solved but educating people helps. but yeah we are off topic. lets talk about macbook pros.

 

[Fishrrman]

This sounds like one of those bootup issues that can be fixed by using the Apple Configurator, but it requires another Mac to do so, and the OP already handed it over anyway... so... too late now.

 

[0128672]

This sounds like one of those bootup issues that can be fixed by using the Apple Configurator, but it requires another Mac to do so, and the OP already handed it over anyway... so... too late now.

What I know from my family member's same machine experience is that Apple (in-store at least) uses Configurator to test whether it can be booted as part of the diagnosis process.

 

[nathan_reilly]

I'd just pay it. doesn't seem likely that the machine will fail twice the same way in the same interval. But next time, buy a warranty! And if you think the warranty is too expensive, buy a cheaper laptop with a warranty! Expensive lesson.

 

[chrono1081]

Any advice for me….. I bought the 16’’ macbook pro last June. Worked absolutely fine up until this last week. I closed the screen after working friday, came back to a dead computer monday. Nothing would work to get it turned on. It’s never lagged, overheated, been dropped, no water damage. I brought it to an apple store and they said “your computer is in great condition, but hardware failure happens, you should have bought apple care”. So they sent it off and will be charging me $700. It was 2 months out from the one year warranty. How can I purchase their top tier laptop for $2400, it dies in a year, and i’m told “hardware failure happens”. Your top tier laptop shouldn’t die in a year. I had my last macbook pro for 7 years with not a single issue. I tried calling them today and I just got the same answer as the person in the store. “should have bought apple care”.

It literally does just happen though. I worked in IT for a long time and sometimes brand new computers out of the box fail, sometimes they fail after a few days, and sometimes they go strong for 15 years. What you paid for the laptop literally doesn't matter, any component can go at any time. It's unfortunate but it does happen.

 

[calliex]

I have owned nothing but Apple computers from 1986 till the present. I have never bought Apple Care and have never needed a repair. My current machine 2012 MBP retina is still going strong. I guess I am lucky. I keep machines more then five years and then pass them on to a friend of family member. Because of the problems of recent MBPs (keyboard, over heating, etc) I will probably spring for AppleCare this time. Will probably buy the new MBP in Oct.