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Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty

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Re: Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty

#61

Post by hiram112 »

pault wrote: post #39
BitwiseFool wrote: post #35

I'll be holding on to my 2012 MacBook Pro until they switch to a different kind of keyboard. If they don't, then I'm getting a Surface instead.

If you don't care about the default telemetry and ads, switch to Windows 10 with WSL. I was a die hard Mac user for a decade and since switching I haven't looked back. Windows is a different beast than it was 10 years ago, and having the whole ecosystem of hardware and software at your disposal is fantastic.

I still am trying to figure out what WSL has solved for anyone. It works fine for the little tutorials they use to showcase it, but on any real project it is just as bad as what many of us have had to do for the last 10 years if we were stuck with Windows: use a VM with all the problems it brings like using extra CPU and memory, poor filesystem performance, duplicating tools and configs in both the Windows and Linux environments, etc.

Re: Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty

#62

Post by tdurden »

breck wrote: post #26
52-6F-62 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of refurb 2015 MBP's on the market since many people upgraded to newer machines. They're the last run before the butterfly keyboard, you can find up to 16GB memory and 512GB storage—some of them with dedicated video as well (if the 15" size is what you're after). And substantially cheaper than new models. Mind you I think this is t he run with the battery issue.....

I didn’t know there were 16GB options. I thought I got the best last generation MBA at 8gb and 512. It’s my primary machine and I still love it.

My mid 2014 15" MBP came with 16GB

Re: Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty

#63

Post by pault »

hiram112 wrote: post #61
pault wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't care about the default telemetry and ads, switch to Windows 10 with WSL. I was a die hard Mac user for a decade and since switching I haven't looked back. Windows is a different beast than it was 10 years ago, and having the whole ecosystem of hardware and software at your disposal is fantastic.

I still am trying to figure out what WSL has solved for anyone. It works fine for the little tutorials they use to showcase it, but on any real project it is just as bad as what many of us have had to do for the last 10 years if we were stuck with Windows: use a VM with all the problems it brings like using extra CPU and memory, poor filesystem performance, duplicating tools and configs in both the Windows and Linux…

I'm not sure what your threshold is for a real project, but I've been using it for multi-stack dev environments with no trouble at all for the past year. You shouldn't use it to host a production environment, but I'm not sure why you would want to. What it solves is you don't have to use the minority, poorly supported windows ports of your language runtime, if it even has one. Many smaller languages I've tried don't support windows at all, and many NPM libraries have terrible bugs in windows (hard coding posix paths/environment variables, etc). WSL allows you to skip all of that trouble and use windows without changing any of your workflows or having to learn a totally new shell. The upcoming 2.0 release should be even better.

Re: Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty

#64

Post by yborg »

admax88q wrote: post #27
rogerhoward wrote: post #10

After months of suffering with this, with an out warranty 15" MBP 2016 that was relegated to desk duty with an external keyboard, I heard about this program. I made an Apple Store appointment for the next day (a Tuesday); they checked it, warned me it could be a week or more because of a holiday that week. Thursday morning I had a call that it was ready. Total cost: $0 (according to the invoice the parts were over $8…

No questions asked after years of denying there was even a problem.

The reliability of these products was sacrificed before a golden idol of Jony Ive on the altar of Thin. I find it interesting that this program is announced more or less at the same time he announced his formal retirement from Apple.

He did many fine designs for the company, but like any superstar, at some point they can do no wrong and it becomes impossible to criticize them within an organization.

Re: Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty

#65

Post by fadisaleh »

yborg wrote: post #64
admax88q wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No questions asked after years of denying there was even a problem.

The reliability of these products was sacrificed before a golden idol of Jony Ive on the altar of Thin. I find it interesting that this program is announced more or less at the same time he announced his formal retirement from Apple. He did many fine designs for the company, but like any superstar, at some point they can do no wrong and it becomes impossible to criticize them within an organization.

This program has existed for over a year.

Re: Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty

#66

Post by 52-6F-62 »

breck wrote: post #26
52-6F-62 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of refurb 2015 MBP's on the market since many people upgraded to newer machines. They're the last run before the butterfly keyboard, you can find up to 16GB memory and 512GB storage—some of them with dedicated video as well (if the 15" size is what you're after). And substantially cheaper than new models. Mind you I think this is t he run with the battery issue.....

I didn’t know there were 16GB options. I thought I got the best last generation MBA at 8gb and 512. It’s my primary machine and I still love it.

Yessir. I'm typing this comment on one such model.

I've also been eying up some refurbs for my own personal purposes that a local shop is hosting. I'm just hoping they don't vanish before I decide to take the plunge.

Spec: https://ibb.co/r3Q9bmt (workplace-owned machine I've had since 2016, so not sure the price at the time of purchase)

Re: Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty

#67

Post by burlesona »

kolbe wrote: post #37
rogerhoward wrote: post #10

After months of suffering with this, with an out warranty 15" MBP 2016 that was relegated to desk duty with an external keyboard, I heard about this program. I made an Apple Store appointment for the next day (a Tuesday); they checked it, warned me it could be a week or more because of a holiday that week. Thursday morning I had a call that it was ready. Total cost: $0 (according to the invoice the parts were over $8…

Apple really is good about taking care of problems. It's easy to complain about the price, but when my Samsung screen stopped working, I had to buy a new phone. When my iPhone screen started glitching, I got it fixed for free in less than two hours. Things like that make paying the "Apple premium" a little more palatable.

We had a similar experience with my wife’s iPhone 5s, which she has held onto for ages because she loves the small size.

The screen developed a glitch where a few rows of pixels were inverted. We went to the Apple store to see if the screen could be fixed, and they found and gave her an identical new unit for no charge. “This way you’re also getting a fresh battery and everything will last longer.” They hooked up the old phone to the new phone and has everything copied over, we were out in less than an hour with “her phone” made brand new for free.

This was after the 5s was no longer on sale in the US. Maybe we just got lucky and they had some leftover inventory, I don’t know.

Whatever the reason, I felt that was impressively good customer service.

Re: Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty

#68

Post by 8draco8 »

t3rabytes wrote: post #31
8draco8 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies like Dell and Lenovo just ships fault element if it's possible to replace it yourself and in many cases it is possible to replace keyboard without to much hustle. Not to mention their on premise warranty which usually cost somewhere around AppleCare plan. If I am working on a hardware, 9 hours a day 5,6 or even 7 days a week I don't have time to sit in Apple store for hours. Even worst, in country where I a…

They do that if you paid for the premium warranty options, it's not included by default -- it's typically depot service for everything by default.

Yeah and premium warranty option from Apple aka AppleCare doesn't change anything apart from longer support and some discounts on parts. Time of service stays the same. For the cost comparable to AppleCare I can have premium service package from Lenovo with on premise service.

Re: Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty

#69

Post by bradknowles »

bilbo0s wrote: post #53
fmjfkd wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think so? I remember back in university, Apple would overnight ship my laptop to fix it. The last time I went to Apple, they wouldn’t even replace my faulty charger without me complaining to the manager.

My daughter was in the Apple store the other day with a faulty charger. (It wasn't the problem she went to ask about.) They wouldn't even speak to her about the problem she wanted to talk about until they went and got a new charger for her. They said it was just better to get that out of the way first. So her experience was excellent. How is everyone's Apple store experience so radically different?

Different stores are different.

Different people are different.

My experience with Apple hardware repairs has been top-notch, but your mileage may vary.

Re: Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty

#70

Post by unicornfinder »

bilbo0s wrote: post #53
fmjfkd wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think so? I remember back in university, Apple would overnight ship my laptop to fix it. The last time I went to Apple, they wouldn’t even replace my faulty charger without me complaining to the manager.

My daughter was in the Apple store the other day with a faulty charger. (It wasn't the problem she went to ask about.) They wouldn't even speak to her about the problem she wanted to talk about until they went and got a new charger for her. They said it was just better to get that out of the way first. So her experience was excellent. How is everyone's Apple store experience so radically different?

I reckon it's at least in part down to how busy the particular store is. The one near me is always absolutely rammed and to be honest the service there isn't exactly great.
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