My 14" M1 MacBook Pro screen repair cost was $809. Supervisor refused the waive the fee. The screen cracked for no apparent reason and then completely stopped working.<p>Some firm already filed a class action complaint, and I submitted my details: <a href="https://classlawdc.com/2021/08/04/m1-macbook-screen-crack-investigation/" rel="nofollow">https://classlawdc.com/2021/08/04/m1-macbook-screen-crack-in...</a>
Really interesting to hear so many people having had experiences with Apple support.<p>I recently bought a 10 year-old iMac second hand from Cash Converters, which I promptly softbricked the day after purchase (bad Bootcamp install + firmware password).<p>I took it in to the Apple Store, and despite the fact that it was 10 years old and used, they contacted the engineers in Cupertino to get the firmware unlock key, reformatted it and updated it to the latest supported macOS, and didn't charge a cent for the service.<p>I was blown away and told people I knew about the experience. Apparently they did something similar for a friend's iPhone 6 a couple of years ago. Didn't charge a cent to service a 5 year-old smartphone.
> it is frustrating that apple doesn’t believe its costumers.<p>What's notable here is there is 49 pages of seemingly mostly "me too". It should give Apple at the very least pause for reevaluation of their stance. One guy saying "I didn't do it man" is not evidence, but a clearly non coordinated global trend of people claiming the same thing? Pretty compelling.
My 10 day old Macbook with M1 Pro died suddenly last week. In India we don't have Genius bars like in the States, what we have is a franchise model where in small repair shops are given the right to repair (only part to part replacement) and they probably get some commission. The guys in these shops are very afraid of Apple and its policies. Even things which normally would get fixed in Genius bars without any second thought, these shops will outright refuse to repair with the fear that Apple would revoke their license. Now this has directly affected the customers like me. Moreover, the staff in these shops are highly incompetent and do not have good knowledge about Apple in general.
In my case, the shop lady put a big scratch on the top of my Macbook while she was rotating it after putting it upside down on the table to take pictures from all angle. Apparently it is required. Not sure if they have this procedure in the US when you go to submit the laptop. Now, the staff at the shop told me they do not want to involve the management and they would do something about it. Had this been completely managed by Apple, this wouldn't have made a single dent in Apple's profit if they just decided to give me a new laptop but since its a franchise model, they behave differently, and do not want to lose a single rupee and hence refuse to replace or even change the top case having the scratch caused by them.<p>Moreover, they will take around 2-3 weeks to replace your logic board / battery / screen / keyboard. Just about anything. I don't know if Apple will survive if they did this in the US.<p>Apple support informed me that they are waiting for a reply from the shop, about the scratch and status in general before they could take any action - its been 5 days (including the weekend) already.
I still don't understand the appeal of aluminum/glass construction. I couldn't think of a worse set of materials to make a laptop out of.<p>For comparison, nearly every other ultrabook manufacturer has moved onto magnesium or carbon fiber for chassis construction. Both materials are much physically stronger, lighter, and (most importantly, imho) offer more intrinsic shock protection.<p>I know people enjoy the "luxury" look and feel of a Macbook and criticize other manufacturers for using composite materials. But I don't think most people understand that for other manufacturers, moving to aluminum unibody construction at this point would probably be a <i>cost-saving measure</i>.<p>Apple does not offer a single product that is MIL-SPEC tested, despite nearly every other manufacturer having some or all of their product line submitted to standardized endurance testing.
A friend just had this happen to their M1 Air under warranty and Apple quoted him $400 for the repair claiming it was "accidental" damage, even though he didn't do anything to it, like the 50 pages of people who replied in the thread.<p>Wanted to make a quick PSA against purchasing one of these to save a few hundred bucks vs the M2 Air which hopefully won't have this problem, and possibly put some pressure on Apple to take care of their customers for what is clearly a widespread hardware defect.
Earlier this year I threw my son his USB earbuds container. Not a heavy thing. I threw it in a high arc, and on its way down it glanced off the edge of his MacBook screen. It seemed like the lightest of touches, but it must have hit in just the right (or wrong) spot, and the screen ended up with a large crack, and stopped working. I was super surprised how fragile the screen was, especially given how tough iPads and iPhone seem to be. When it happened, I couldn't believe such a light glancing blow could have done it. I was definitely responsible for cracking the screen through my actions, but it did highlight to me that macbooks are not robust at all, not the high quality I had come to expect.
First rule of a longtime Apple user: Never be an early adopter.
Second rule of a longtime Apple user: Always use AppleCare+.
Third rule of a longtime Apple user: When you have a problem with your beloved Apple hardware, always have a pile of cash on you, just in case.
Sounds like another round of "you're holding it wrong" - <a href="https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/</a>
I can say without a doubt, the Mac minis are really good though.<p>It should be illegal to sell a desktop computer with a hard drive that can never be replaced.<p>All hard drives go bad eventually, and while my 2012 Mac mini allowed me to keep swapping out the hard drive. Which made it a great computer up until I kind of retired it when I bought a new m1 Mac mini.<p>The current m1 Mac minis are all guaranteed to die within 10 years when the hard drives fail. Sure, you can do an aftermarket replacement, sure, I guess you could weld a new hard drive in .<p>But most people are going to just throw them out and buy new ones. I imagine depending on your usage, you might blow out your unreplaceable hard drive even sooner. Won't surprise me if these drives start failing within five or even 3 years for people storing tons of large files<p>Say you make a lot of 4K and 5K movies, I can't imagine a tiny 256 SSD getting files written to it, and delete it from it over and over again will last that long.
I got a 14" MBP M1 recently. It felt so <i>incredibly</i> fragile that I was anxious moving it or opening it.<p>I'd really like to emphasize the word "incredibly". That is, I don't think I could <i>credibly</i> describe how <i>fragile</i> these laptops are without having one as an example.<p>I already considered Macbooks to be a fragile series of laptops, given longtime users insist their insurance-subscription "AppleCare+" is a necessity. (This is not normal for laptops.)<p>So, I searched to see if it had durability issues, and found this, and immediately returned it. Not worth the risk!
I stopped by Sony phones because of the same issue. Sony Xperia Z-series phones would spontaneously develop serious screen cracks. I thought it was a fluke, but it happened over, and over, and over. The last Sony phone I bought was in a padded case in a padded bag when the screen cracked.<p>Similar forum threads later appeared.<p>It'd be interesting to know the root cause.
My friends iPhone got <i>replaced</i> 3 times, every single time the same fault. Something to do with audio interface going missing and mic not working.<p>His next phone was an Android.<p>I remember looking it up and there were rumours that Apple had initially acknowledged this fault and replaced them with no questions asked but then withdrawn the memo.
Interesting... I recently had to take in my 2021 MacBook Pro for a cracked screen repair. Mine had a reason mind you, but one that I'd never seen before... My cat bit into the screen while relaxing behind it.<p>A very mild play bite. She does this whenever she wants attention but I'm in front of a screen. I heard a crack and immediately it went black. It was like a delicate pane of glass cracking.<p>She bit my previous computers (MacBooks) without issue, cell phones, etc. First time I'd ever seen it happen. On a two month old laptop too.<p>Didn't pay a cent for service luckily, it was covered. I didn't let them know what happened, and the crack was so subtle that I guess the tech didn't catch it.
"for no apparent reason" is valid, and will be extremely hard for an owner to prove. It's happened before in several television sets:<p><a href="https://www.avsforum.com/threads/samsung-s4253-plasma-screen-crack.808531/post-17199946" rel="nofollow">https://www.avsforum.com/threads/samsung-s4253-plasma-screen...</a>
digression: the linked URL seems to be using some internal apple domain. The "proper" link is: <a href="https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252794122?page=49" rel="nofollow">https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252794122?page=49</a><p>My guess is that the `origin-discussions2-us-dr-prz` subdomain refers to a set of servers which the main discussions.apple.com host would dynamically route you to based on IP location?
<a href="https://9to5mac.com/2021/09/16/class-action-lawsuit-screen-cracks/" rel="nofollow">https://9to5mac.com/2021/09/16/class-action-lawsuit-screen-c...</a><p>Filed in Sept 2021.<p>"A class-action lawsuit is being planned on behalf of M1 MacBook owners who say that screen cracks were occurring during normal use, with both the M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro affected.<p>Apple has mostly claimed that the cracks are the result of accidental damage, including in the case of the 9to5Mac reader who first contacted us"
I've had the same happened to mine because of the camera cover. When lid is closed - it rubs against the trackpad edge and a little pressure from the top, when it's closed, will cause it to crack.
There are many people that are complaining about this issue. But the total number of owners are way higher than the typical laptop. The MacBook Air M1 is allegedly the world's best-selling laptop.<p>I'm curious. How many screen cracks is too many, and should be considered a design/manufacturing defect? How is something like that determined?
I had an M1 Macbook Air screen delaminate for no apparent reason. I'm guessing that was the reason, but it looked like a giant bubble formed right in the middle of the screen. I'm guessing all the edges delaminated? It looked like water damage, but of course was never in contact with water.<p>The screen was replaced for free.
I had it happen to me ten days ago, just before going on vacation. I'm going to the shop where I bought it tomorrow to see if any warranty is available. The first quote I had (from a close by shop) was half the price of the brand new thing (for a 30 min job: the guy tells me it's simply the part that's super pricey).<p>We went to sleep, woke up in the morning: open the lid, was all messed up. It looked exactly like several pictures/videos I saw on the net.<p>I'm super pissed off: lasted 10 months of very light use.<p>On the other my old LG Gram which, granted, is military grade rated (whatever that means), is still going strong. It doesn't have a retina display but it has the benefit of still working.
It’s possible that there are some issues here, but the fact that these comments talk about a wide variety of laptop models with completely different screens, form factors, manufacturing processes, etc, suggests that there may not be a systematic issue.<p>One model having the issue would suggest a manufacturing issue. However it’s unlikely that completely different models all exhibit the same issue in the same way.<p>More likely, screen damage is a common form of accidental damage, and anyone googling for support will find threads like this and pile on with their own experience despite no actual link.
I've replaced two screens now on my 2019 MBP. The first one happened when I was cleaning the camera before a video call. Apparently I pressed just a bit too hard with the cloth and that pressure broke the connection to the screen and it went black with intermittent white lines. It was under AppleCare so Apple fixed it for $99.<p>The second time it happened my cat lightly bit the right edge of the screen and that was all it took to kill the entire screen. Again, repaired under AppleCare.<p>There's clearly a fragility problem with Apple's recent screens. My hypothesis is that in Apple's zeal to make a borderless screen, there's no longer any protection for the connectors at the edge of the screen. A little bit of pressure on the edge could never have killed the older MacBook screens because they had a border of metal around them.<p>The lesson is that one must be <i>extremely</i> careful with the screens on late-model Apple laptops. Any pressure near the edge beyond a very light touch can completely destroy them. Any dirt or debris on the keyboard deck when you close the laptop can destroy the screen.<p>I'd love to find some kind of case for the laptop that protects the edge of the screen to make it a little more robust, but it seems like any such solution would be too thick to allow the machine to close.
Sounds like a manufacturing or sourcing issue. I can only imagine Apple hasn't recalled or notified customer support to be on the lookout for this because Apple themselves isn't even aware of the issue. How would they know? Techs writing up these issues are probably attributing them all to user damage. Unless someone is actively looking for a noticeable uptick in user damage cases I doubt it even comes up.
$800 for screen is ridiculous. This issue is not limited to Apple products. My Asus laptop's screen cracked overnight. My laptop was out of warranty period. But the new authentic ASUS display only cost me $100. So I got it repaired and its working fine since then. The point is expensive doesn't always mean good.
This also happened to my own 2019 16" Intel MacBook Pro, and an acquaintance with that same model laptop even had it happen twice - to both the original and the replacement screen.<p>In all cases it wasn't a full crack but rather some sort of depression/fold mark, starting near but not touching the bottom edge, and all shared a similar bendy shape.<p>We both individually got the standard "first time we're seeing this" when first contacting support, and also both felt there was some sort of unnatural/forced tight-lipness or non-responsiveness in response to any speculation as to the cause.<p>To me this behaviour indicated that they were not particularly happy with either the responses they were giving, the nature of the request, or whatever obvious or non-obvious consequences any of this would have for either party.
Latest comment is very telling at the level of apologism that goes on in Apple's userbase:<p>> Aug 15, 2022 3:01 PM in response to Iau88<p>> Isn't this what happens when you shut any laptop when an object is sitting on the keyboard?<p>Not when it's imperceptibly small, people are not putting bricks in their laptops.
I had a brand new MacBook Air M2 whose trackpad arrived cracked. Didn’t even know there was glass in the trackpad. For the first few hours of using it I thought it was a hair or something that had fallen on it. Kept trying to wipe it away and triggered all sorts of gestures.
I know someone who put a square of gaffer's tape over their Macbook Pro's video camera (in theory to protect their privacy) and one day they lifted up the screen and it was cracked. It seemed like that little bit of tape might have been the culprit.
Has anyone tried their hand at replacing a cracked screen/display themselves?<p>I've looked at the ifixit videos and it's just a lot of screws to remove, but seems doable. The main thing is that for spending $300, I cannot tell on Ebay/Amazon which sellers are actually selling legit display assemblies versus those that are "offbrand" or have some issue where the Truetone setting is no longer available (to name one issue they point out).<p>It's even hard to tell whether the unit you order will have the Apple logo on the aluminum cover.<p>Anyway, it's $300 + potential aggravation do it yourself versus $600 have the Apple service "genius" do it.
I have another issue. Randomly my M1 Macbook Air's frames drop below 20fps and I can see a trail behind the cursor and when I swipe between diff apps. Happens quite regularly with cpu idling at 97% and 6-7gb of memory left unused
It almost sounds like they’re cheaping out in build quality to compensate.<p>I can’t help but hope this is the beginning of Apples commercial decline. That consumers will finally see them for the mediocre culture hoarder they really are, but I dream.
I own an M1 mac and, although I haven't exactly abused it, there's been multiple times where it fell pretty hard both flat and on corners, and it's held up extremely well.<p>However, it being a very thin laptop I think puts it at greater risk of catastrophic damage, which is why I back up most things in my home directory and treat the Air as something that will either break or be traded in. That way if anything goes wrong, I can get a new laptop and be minimally affected.<p>This isn't to say that Macbooks should crack so easily, but I think this is the right way to approach basically any consumer grade device.
What's with all the comments on that Apple thread where people are saying "I didn't have a grain of cereal, rice, etc between the screen"? Are Macbook screens that fragile now?
This is obviously a serious issue, perhaps with manufacturing or a batch or two in the supply chain.<p>Thankfully my M1 Air has been fine (aside from one fully dead pixel from day one), and it has traveled around the world with me.<p>Apple should take responsibility for this, but for this current risk and possible owner-fault risks, I do find AppleCare+ worth it. There's almost no repair that can be done which would cost less than the plus warranty costs, so it's a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.
This was posted on reddit awhile back, took me awhile to find it. There's was this gem of a comment [0] that thoroughly debunks this thread.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/vx9ysa/theres_a_47_page_thread_on_apples_forums_about_m1/ig1i6xp/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/vx9ysa/theres_a_47_p...</a>
This has been going on since 2017, when they first started thinning their laptops to the limit or maybe beyond as far as the LCD glass reliability is concerned. My Macbook pro 2017 screen also cracked for no apparent reason and had to pay Apple the full price for a screen replacement for no fault of mine. <a href="https://youtu.be/Z--7YRRhCWg?t=38" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/Z--7YRRhCWg?t=38</a>
This is the dark side of dealing with Apple. They won't take responsibility for anything. I bought my partner and iPhone 11 Max Pro and shortly after the warranty period ended a vertical band of light appeared spontaneously on the screen. No concession from Apple so £309 for a repair. Gouged doesn't come close.
Maybe it's a quality control issue?.I ordered a fully spec'd macbook pro and it had a small dent in the frame of the screen. It's really small but still piss me off that I paid 4k+ for a device that was not pristine when I opened the package
Yikes! I've noticed the lower left corner of my M1 Macbook Pro 13" is brighter than it should be - I only noticed it when watching a movie and what should have been black, wasn't. I'm not looking forward to that getting worse.
Louis Rossman's take from September 2021: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JcBpgIFf6k" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JcBpgIFf6k</a><p>Spoiler: everybody lies.
This is a widespread issue, it's almost like the computers are designed for this to happen. I've seen Windows laptops without any glass protection at the front with better durability.
The current macbook air body is pretty poor. I had one of the late intel ones for a spell before overheating killed the logic board, and it developed an outline of the keyboard on the screen within a few months just from the clamshell being closed daily. I wasn't even carrying this thing in a bag, it just sat on a desk.
Owned a 2015-2016 MacBook for college. It shit the bed 2-3 years later. The cost of replacing the motherboard vs buying a brand new one was nearly identical. Ended up just splurging for a 2017 MBP.<p>Besides the butterfly keyboard going to shit (fortunately, replaced under warranty) 2 years ago. It has worked wonderfully for me so far.
Apple has always tried to blame customers whenever they can.<p>I remember when my MacBook pro 2015 started glitching and Apple voided the warranty by saying there was liquid spillage/fluid damage.<p>So apparently macbooks have these small stickers inside them which change color upon contact with liquids to help detect liquid damage but the issue with those stickers are that they also change color if you live in a humid area.<p>They made me pay for that repair even though the customer support guy at the store agreed that the color could change because of humidity but it was company policy to charge for those repairs.
Dear Apple,<p>Its okay to not have to make your laptops ultra skinny if it means you avoid these sort of issues.<p>Sincerely,
A customer waiting to buy a decent laptop that is sturdy and comfortable to type on.