My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs • Hacker News Board

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#21

Post by avgDev » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 5:51 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #10

avgDev wrote: post #8

This honestly seems like a terrible machine. I own an XPS and had in-home service. I called dell and we agreed my keyboard needs to be replaced. A few days later a guy shows up at my door and replaces the keyboard. I never had to go anywhere. Obviously, the mileage might vary if you travel outside of the us. But......again....that many repairs are downright scary. There is also one anecdotal fact I want to add about…

> A few days later A few days ?! Is this not a major problem for you? The author is right - a great thing about Apple is I can pop into a store in many cities around the world and just get things sorted. In some random city in another country with a conference the next day? No problem.

No, I can just use an external keyboard. The service was normally the next day but they didn't have a keyboard for my machine available, so it needed to be shipped. No problem for me.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#22

Post by mgkimsal » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 5:51 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #10

avgDev wrote: post #8

This honestly seems like a terrible machine. I own an XPS and had in-home service. I called dell and we agreed my keyboard needs to be replaced. A few days later a guy shows up at my door and replaces the keyboard. I never had to go anywhere. Obviously, the mileage might vary if you travel outside of the us. But......again....that many repairs are downright scary. There is also one anecdotal fact I want to add about…

> A few days later A few days ?! Is this not a major problem for you? The author is right - a great thing about Apple is I can pop into a store in many cities around the world and just get things sorted. In some random city in another country with a conference the next day? No problem.

I had a US keyboard fixed in London same day (3 hours), no charge. I didn't even have AppleCare. I was a bit surprised, although... London ... big international city - having US keyboards probably isn't out of the realm of possibility. This was... 2009(?) - things may have changed a bit over the years, but that was one of those things that stuck with me.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#23

Post by PaulWaldman » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 5:52 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #10

avgDev wrote: post #8

This honestly seems like a terrible machine. I own an XPS and had in-home service. I called dell and we agreed my keyboard needs to be replaced. A few days later a guy shows up at my door and replaces the keyboard. I never had to go anywhere. Obviously, the mileage might vary if you travel outside of the us. But......again....that many repairs are downright scary. There is also one anecdotal fact I want to add about…

> A few days later A few days ?! Is this not a major problem for you? The author is right - a great thing about Apple is I can pop into a store in many cities around the world and just get things sorted. In some random city in another country with a conference the next day? No problem.

Dell, as well as the other OEMs, do offer better warranty SLAs for replacement hardware. I've had techs show up with replacement hardware within 18 hours of contacting support.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#24

Post by city41 » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 5:52 PM UTC

avgDev wrote: post #8

This honestly seems like a terrible machine. I own an XPS and had in-home service. I called dell and we agreed my keyboard needs to be replaced. A few days later a guy shows up at my door and replaces the keyboard. I never had to go anywhere. Obviously, the mileage might vary if you travel outside of the us. But......again....that many repairs are downright scary. There is also one anecdotal fact I want to add about…

Apple's software quality has absolutely tanked over the past 4 years or so. I've gone from 100% Apple devices (starting with a G3 in 1997) to zero as of about 2019 as I got sick of dealing with all the bugs.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#25

Post by seph-reed » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 5:53 PM UTC

xmprt wrote: post #16

avgDev wrote: post #8

This honestly seems like a terrible machine. I own an XPS and had in-home service. I called dell and we agreed my keyboard needs to be replaced. A few days later a guy shows up at my door and replaces the keyboard. I never had to go anywhere. Obviously, the mileage might vary if you travel outside of the us. But......again....that many repairs are downright scary. There is also one anecdotal fact I want to add about…

I think Apple are coasting on the brand perception that they built from back in the day. 10 years ago, Apple was genuinely ahead of competition in terms of reliability but today other software and hardware manufacturers have caught up or surpassed them.

At this point, the OS is the only thing I'm really hooked on.

And ElementaryOS has been coming along fairly well, so I'm hopeful than in ~5 years they'll have something I can fully switch over to for my work computer. Right now, I just use it for my gaming/media pc.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#26

Post by outworlder » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 5:54 PM UTC

avgDev wrote: post #8

This honestly seems like a terrible machine. I own an XPS and had in-home service. I called dell and we agreed my keyboard needs to be replaced. A few days later a guy shows up at my door and replaces the keyboard. I never had to go anywhere. Obviously, the mileage might vary if you travel outside of the us. But......again....that many repairs are downright scary. There is also one anecdotal fact I want to add about…

> This honestly seems like a terrible machine.

It does, doesn't it?

My company has thousands of Macbooks. I've never heard of anything remotely similar.

My current laptop is a 2016 model. No repairs needed, ever. Only now the battery is complaining. Not even the butterfly keyboard gave me any issues. It's likely the only repair it will ever need is the battery. Or maybe not even that, it's overdue for a replacement due to age. But works just fine.

I also have a 2015 model. Also fine. Dropped it in concrete. A small dent. Totally fine.

Unless quality has significantly degraded, this sounds like a bad unit/batch.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#27

Post by mgkimsal » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 5:54 PM UTC

pqvst wrote: post #11

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #7

I've never quite seen a repair history like this! Does your MacBook get crushed inside of bag/backpack often? Subject to unusually high temperatures, cold, or sunlight? Any weird power issues at your home? Very curious :D Thule's Gauntlet cases are great but in your case, maybe a Pelican laptop box could work too.

Haha, nope. It's perfectly fine and undamaged. I work remote a lot, coffee shops, cafes, coworking spaces, airplanes. So it moves a lot. No unusually high temperatures. I always use a soft case when I put it in my backpack for extra protection. Heat might be an issue though, especially if the laptop is hot and goes into my backpack directly. Maybe I should consider a Pelican case now that my APP has expired... and ma…

> especially if the laptop is hot and goes into my backpack directly.

I'd found MANY times that simply closing one of the more recent MacBooks (2019?) would not actually put it to sleep. I would close it, put it in my bag, then... hours later, find it was overly hot, still running, perhaps with 10% battery left. 2008 MB, 2012 MBP, 2015 MBP - never ever had this problem. I'm sure I overheated my 2019 MBP far more often than it was designed for.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#28

Post by sandGorgon » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 5:54 PM UTC

avgDev wrote: post #8

This honestly seems like a terrible machine. I own an XPS and had in-home service. I called dell and we agreed my keyboard needs to be replaced. A few days later a guy shows up at my door and replaces the keyboard. I never had to go anywhere. Obviously, the mileage might vary if you travel outside of the us. But......again....that many repairs are downright scary. There is also one anecdotal fact I want to add about…

same experience in India FYI. Dell XPS support is unparalleled.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#29

Post by egypturnash » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 5:56 PM UTC

Damn, and I thought I've had to take my 13" 2016 Pro in for a lot of repairs. There's a design flaw that makes it chew through batteries every 8-16 months and I just had to have a week-long involuntary vacation while they shipped it off to a repair center in another case, where the entire top half of the case got replaced for the third time.

This is the most expensive Mac I've owned in like 18y of using the things, even before I count the fact that only one of those battery replacements happened before the extended warranty ran out, and estimate the cost of several unplanned vacations.

My next machine will probably be a 2022 Air; I had a succession of Intel Airs that gave me very little trouble before this battery-devouring Pro. I'm hoping their solidity has survived the transition to Apple silicon.

Re: My MacBook Pro had over 10k USD in repairs

#30

Post by yummypaint » Wed, Aug 25, 2021, 5:56 PM UTC

S_A_P wrote: post #12

I have a 2018 Macbook Pro that had 1" of the touchbar stop working. I was quoted 1500 to replace it(did not have apple care as the 4 previous macbook pros never needed it) So I instead bought a new macbook pro and gave this one to my son. 6 months later the touchbar magically fixed itself... I really really really hate the touchbar.

It sounds like Apple's poor build quality directly netted them an extra sale. Why build better hardware when they can cultivate brand loyalty?