Apple's service program for butterfly keyboard MacBooks, even out of warranty • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by andrewmunsell » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 4:19 PM UTC

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.

This was my experience. My battery was having issues and indicating service was needed, but they refused to only replace the top case since they claimed there was a "logic board failure" that caused my A and S keys to skip and repeat. It took hours of escalations and phone support to finally convince them to replace the affected parts, and of course we now know (and I always suspected) that it was never the logic board in the first place. Not sure where they came up with that conclusion originally.

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

#82

Post by rgovostes » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

I have two generations of the butterfly keyboard and I can say that the version with a silicone membrane is vastly superior. The keys feel much better, they rattle less for virtually silent typing.

iFixit found that the membrane also made a big difference in terms of limiting the impact of dust: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/7/19/17592138/i...

I have sent two of the pre-membrane keyboards in for repair, but haven't had an issue with this new one. I haven't tried the one or two revisions since the membrane has been added, which are reported to be better still.

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

#83

Post by luckydata » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 4:28 PM UTC

I'm a little surprised anyone is surprised by this story. Apple has a long history of making questionable engineering decisions that end making their products nigh unusable and then steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the issue until evidence becomes too hard to deny. It happened with the iMacs multiple times, with the phones multiple times, with the MacBooks multiple times... By now we should know and not give them the unreasonable amount of credit we, but I should really say the tech press, gives them.

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

#84

Post by nwienert » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC

rgovostes wrote: post #82

I have two generations of the butterfly keyboard and I can say that the version with a silicone membrane is vastly superior. The keys feel much better, they rattle less for virtually silent typing. iFixit found that the membrane also made a big difference in terms of limiting the impact of dust: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/7/19/17592138/i... I have sent two of the pre-membrane keyboards in for repair…

My silicone membrane keyboard has broken twice already in 6 months.

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

#85

Post by luckydata » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

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.

Unless your product is affected by an issue they decided to never recognize, which in that case you can merrily go fuck yourself because Apple won't lift a finger. Happened to me with an old iMac that developed dust smudges inside the LCD panel due to faulty sealing of the screen.

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

#86

Post by whalesalad » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

rgovostes wrote: post #82

I have two generations of the butterfly keyboard and I can say that the version with a silicone membrane is vastly superior. The keys feel much better, they rattle less for virtually silent typing. iFixit found that the membrane also made a big difference in terms of limiting the impact of dust: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/7/19/17592138/i... I have sent two of the pre-membrane keyboards in for repair…

This is good to hear. I resisted for a long time then finally upgraded at the end of last year to a 2018 15" MBP. I happen to really enjoy the keyboard.. I'm glad I missed out on the previous revision.

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

#87

Post by dpkonofa » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 4:30 PM UTC

X-Istence wrote: post #80

pathartl wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that Apple has often been replacing logic boards when this type of thing happens as well. Some people see it as a good thing, but it usually results in the complete wipe of data. Also there's obviously the idea where a keyboard shouldn't be failing after months of moderate use. Somehow, this seems to be a fairly modern problem as we've been making keyboards for 40+ years now.

> The problem is that Apple has often been replacing logic boards when this type of thing happens as well. Some people see it as a good thing, but it usually results in the complete wipe of data. You should have backups anyway. Especially with Time Machine it's dead simple to keep good backups.

Dead simple and 100% free. I seriously do not understand how every person with a Mac is not using Time Machine. It is the best, easiest, and most dummy-proof backup solution I've ever seen. The world somehow made a better dummy.

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

#88

Post by dpkonofa » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 4:33 PM UTC

jonplackett wrote: post #77

panzagl wrote: post #74

My daughter wants a Macbook when she leaves for college next month- no Apple store within a 8-hour drive. Does anyone have experience getting this type of stuff fixed through whatever arrangement Apple has with a typical University? Is Applecare an absolute requirement in this type of situation?

If you can wait until September that’s the month some people predict there will be a new MacBook Air with a new type of keyboard that goes back to the original design.

Don't make recommendations based on predictions. That's a terrible reason to wait for a necessary purchase.

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

#89

Post by scarface74 » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 4:33 PM UTC

luckydata wrote: post #83

I'm a little surprised anyone is surprised by this story. Apple has a long history of making questionable engineering decisions that end making their products nigh unusable and then steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the issue until evidence becomes too hard to deny. It happened with the iMacs multiple times, with the phones multiple times, with the MacBooks multiple times... By now we should know and not give them…

The “tech press” - even the Apple press were complaining about the quality of the keyboards from day one. In John Gruber’s initial review when they first came out he said he didn’t like them as did Marco Arment. They are two of the most well known Apple pundits. At least Marco slso complained about the iMac monitors before he got the iMac Pro.

Gruber doesn’t upgrade his computers as often as Marco but he does usually get review units. So he doesn’t get to comment on long term issues with them. He famously still uses a 20 year old Apple ADB keyboard.

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

#90

Post by wanderfowl » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 4:33 PM UTC

skue wrote: post #41

On a related note, has anyone else had issues with the iPad Smart Keyboard after 15+ months? Bought mine for the 10.5 iPad Pro and at some point I started getting Accessory Not Recognized messages, then it would stop working unless I removed and reattached it, then it finally died entirely. There are reports of similar experiences in the Apple Support Communities and on Reddit, and Apple reportedly created a program…

Yes, my wife and I have gone through three keyboards among our two iPads. The first two I had to pay to replace, the last one, failing less than 6 months after purchase, Apple replaced themselves. Not been a great experience.