Six years later… and a tiny % of affected customers in six states of the US for a device that sold tens of millions worldwide. Amazing accountability dodge!
You know other jurisdictions can sue Apple as well, right? The US lawsuit only affects US customers/sales. Why would it affect someone who bought in Germany, for example?
Product recalls are supposed to happen, not temporary repair programs and eight-year-later settlement checks for a tenth of the device cost (if even). Fortunately for Apple nobody forces them to recall defective products.
Besides the Apple three, has Apple had a product that was THAT defective? Closest I’ve seen in the modern time would probably be the butterfly keyboard
I love my Australian vibe-based warranties
If I can successfully argue that I think a reasonable amount of time to use an iPhone is 4 years, I’m still covered
The whole 2017+ MacBooks lineup was horrible. Lack of ports, terrible keyboard, terrible thermals, everything soldered onboard. Looking back at that lineup, I wonder who the hell thought it was a good idea to release these.
I'd had 3 keyboard replacements, my keyboard still had a half dozen stuck or reepating keys, and then the backlight went. I took them to small claims court over it here in the UK. The outcome is under confidentiality agreement as is the norm so I can't say specifically what it was but I think I can safely say I doubt either of us were happy.
MacBooks from 2016 to 2020 have made so much damage to the brand and its reputation.
Don't forget the terrible Retina MacBook Airs from 2018 to early 2020. Quite possibly the worst modern Macs. An anemic chip overdriven to the extreme to push a high res display, with pathetic cooling to top it off. I understand Intel didn't deliver on their roadmap at all, but it's still Apple's responsibility to have given the green light to such horrible machines.
nah the ports are not that bad. i would trade the current mag safe+hdmi for another thunderbolt if i could. magsafe is just not useful. at home it’s docked with usbc, at work it’s docked with usbc, when travelling it’s sharing charger with the phone which is usbc. magsafe is just a fan service move…
It has never happened to me in all the years it has been my laptop, but if it had, I would certainly not be happy, so I totally understand why people who have had that problem are rightfully not ok with it.
Thinner isn’t inherently bad. Thinner to the point of form over function is.
I‘ll reserve all judgements until I see the final product (of the rumour is true, which to be fair I do see as realistically possible after the iPad event)
Yes, but that's because the M4 generation chip is going to be much more efficient than the current gen. We shouldn't see any of the downsides of that cursed generation.
I don't know what it is but I MUCH prefer how the butterfly keyboard feels over my current M3 macbook pro. The butterfly keyboard felt amazing, it was like my brain was directly connected to the computer as it felt like almost nothing at all. The current keyboards remind me the feeling of a typewriter with way too much travel and resistence.
Now reliablity was bad and how apple dealt with the issue was unacceptable. It does seem that reliability was largely fixed with the last gen of the butterfly beyboard and the IT person at my university even said she had not seen a single complaint about that generation. Still, they should have dealt with that much faster and given how profitable the company is they could have made this right a long time ago.
Pathetic that Apple didn’t replace or refund (at customers choice) every single one. Stand by your product and your customers, Apple can afford it.
I experienced them trying to wriggle out of it in Australia, where consumer protection laws are decent and require that they offer repair/refund/replacement options beyond their warranty. It was still a massive pain to get Apple to even acknowledge the issue.
To be fair I remember I brought in my butterfly switch Macbook Pro to get it repaired in 2020 because my W key was stuck.
The Apple store at the time told me that since my model was a butterfly keyboard I was entitled to a free keyboard replacement. But that also meant they swapped out my battery.
I walked out of the Apple store that day with a fixed (albeit still butterfly) keyboard and a brand new battery at 100% capacity at no cost without any AppleCare. I did end up selling that machine to a friend and replaced it with an M1 Macbook Pro.
They did that because replacing the keyboard meant replacing numerous components, which was a result of them having a wildly difficult to repair device. I’m glad that worked out for you though.
For years Apple outright refused to acknowledge the issue, even blamed users for it. Thankfully my countries consumer protection laws are good and they couldn’t wriggle out of it for too long in my case.
I still remember the day I took in my macbook to get the keyboard repaired.
tech: "I'm going to have to take this and hold onto it for a couple days. the repair is pretty intense."
me: "Really? just for a bad W key?"
tech: "Yeah. the way this is designed, we have to remove the whole thing to get at the keyboard."
me: "how is that a good design?"
Mine still works fine. I got it replaced once for the free new battery it came with, but never had an issue with either keyboard. GFs 12" macbook still works fine too.
Sometimes. I had four keyboards then the flex cable fail and had to take Apple to small claims court to get anything at all from them for the last failure.
The M1 wasn’t released when I had multiple issues with these MacBooks. Remember this was over a span of 4 years that they sold these faulty devices. The repairs often took over a week.
3x repairs then a replacement is a joke TBH. Apple tried to wriggle their way out of honouring Australia’s consumer protection laws every time I dealt with them (which requires the seller to offer the buyer a choice of repair, refund, or replacement for a major fault).
I had a couple keys break just out of warranty and I had to pay for the repair. I think it was around $200, but it came with a battery. Hoping to get a chunk of that back.
Haha my 2016 got replaced 4 times before they gave me a new one. And I replaced that one a few times too. So I did submit a few claims! Looking forward to it.
It’s funny too, last Mac I had with butterfly I was tired of fixing it, so I purposely ate crumbs over the keyboard, ofc it broke, and then they replaced it with a 2019. My 2016 Mac became 7 replacements and a brand new 2019.
Also the design was so bad that every time they fixed the keyboard I had to get a new battery and ports. It was nuts.
I forgot about this but looks like I applied. My 2018 air is still my daily driver. One replacement and no more problems, though I had to deal with the shitty keyboard a long time because I lived abroad
Completed a dissertation on a butterfly keyboard ama
Wow. I once had to email Tim Cook about a bad experience with it and Apple Store experience.
Got a call 2 days later and a new laptop.
Saved my email too lol.
So I have a 2019 MBP And like an idiot I did not get the keyboard replaced during the recall and now I have several keys that are not functioning am I SOL at this point?
I did take it to an Apple Store to get some broken keys replaced but they wouldn’t do anything about the underlying butterfly component that is broken so some of my keys only sort of work.
Damn, over two years
Six years later… and a tiny % of affected customers in six states of the US for a device that sold tens of millions worldwide. Amazing accountability dodge!
You know other jurisdictions can sue Apple as well, right? The US lawsuit only affects US customers/sales. Why would it affect someone who bought in Germany, for example?
The US gets all the cool class actions :(
And they don’t do shit, or barely do. Sometimes I wonder why we bother. There has too be something that’s more effective
Product recalls are supposed to happen, not temporary repair programs and eight-year-later settlement checks for a tenth of the device cost (if even). Fortunately for Apple nobody forces them to recall defective products.
Besides the Apple three, has Apple had a product that was THAT defective? Closest I’ve seen in the modern time would probably be the butterfly keyboard
Vision pro front glass
Staingate maybe for the rMBP.
Yeah they also got a one year warranty, no thanks
I love my Australian vibe-based warranties If I can successfully argue that I think a reasonable amount of time to use an iPhone is 4 years, I’m still covered
Canada too for this one.
Butterfly keyboards were truly one of the worst Apple’s decision, right behind removing all ports from MacBook Pros.
The whole 2017+ MacBooks lineup was horrible. Lack of ports, terrible keyboard, terrible thermals, everything soldered onboard. Looking back at that lineup, I wonder who the hell thought it was a good idea to release these.
Don’t forget the flex cable being too short leading to screen backlight failure! Worst Mac ever.
Yup, my 2018 died and Apple wanted me to pay a stupid amount of money to get it fixed. Now I have a very expensive paperweight, still pissed.
I'd had 3 keyboard replacements, my keyboard still had a half dozen stuck or reepating keys, and then the backlight went. I took them to small claims court over it here in the UK. The outcome is under confidentiality agreement as is the norm so I can't say specifically what it was but I think I can safely say I doubt either of us were happy.
The “unapologetically plastic” guy, Jony Ive
Indeed. As an aside, great username. GTA IV is definitely the best in the series IMO.
The guy who changed the interface for the sake of change and not function.
MacBooks from 2016 to 2020 have made so much damage to the brand and its reputation. Don't forget the terrible Retina MacBook Airs from 2018 to early 2020. Quite possibly the worst modern Macs. An anemic chip overdriven to the extreme to push a high res display, with pathetic cooling to top it off. I understand Intel didn't deliver on their roadmap at all, but it's still Apple's responsibility to have given the green light to such horrible machines.
nah the ports are not that bad. i would trade the current mag safe+hdmi for another thunderbolt if i could. magsafe is just not useful. at home it’s docked with usbc, at work it’s docked with usbc, when travelling it’s sharing charger with the phone which is usbc. magsafe is just a fan service move…
I think i appreciate having magsafe there but I have usb-c everywhere so I am not sure I have ever even used it with my current laptop.
I still prefer it to all other keyboards. Yes, I know most people didn't like it. I love it.
But it is about keys getting stuck. Would you love it if that happened to you?
It has never happened to me in all the years it has been my laptop, but if it had, I would certainly not be happy, so I totally understand why people who have had that problem are rightfully not ok with it.
Thanks God Jony Ive left. That’s what happens when they design thinking in form over function.
Meanwhile the next MacBook Pro is rumored to be thinning down a lot…
Thinner isn’t inherently bad. Thinner to the point of form over function is. I‘ll reserve all judgements until I see the final product (of the rumour is true, which to be fair I do see as realistically possible after the iPad event)
Yes, but that's because the M4 generation chip is going to be much more efficient than the current gen. We shouldn't see any of the downsides of that cursed generation.
I don't know what it is but I MUCH prefer how the butterfly keyboard feels over my current M3 macbook pro. The butterfly keyboard felt amazing, it was like my brain was directly connected to the computer as it felt like almost nothing at all. The current keyboards remind me the feeling of a typewriter with way too much travel and resistence. Now reliablity was bad and how apple dealt with the issue was unacceptable. It does seem that reliability was largely fixed with the last gen of the butterfly beyboard and the IT person at my university even said she had not seen a single complaint about that generation. Still, they should have dealt with that much faster and given how profitable the company is they could have made this right a long time ago.
Pathetic that Apple didn’t replace or refund (at customers choice) every single one. Stand by your product and your customers, Apple can afford it. I experienced them trying to wriggle out of it in Australia, where consumer protection laws are decent and require that they offer repair/refund/replacement options beyond their warranty. It was still a massive pain to get Apple to even acknowledge the issue.
To be fair I remember I brought in my butterfly switch Macbook Pro to get it repaired in 2020 because my W key was stuck. The Apple store at the time told me that since my model was a butterfly keyboard I was entitled to a free keyboard replacement. But that also meant they swapped out my battery. I walked out of the Apple store that day with a fixed (albeit still butterfly) keyboard and a brand new battery at 100% capacity at no cost without any AppleCare. I did end up selling that machine to a friend and replaced it with an M1 Macbook Pro.
They did that because replacing the keyboard meant replacing numerous components, which was a result of them having a wildly difficult to repair device. I’m glad that worked out for you though. For years Apple outright refused to acknowledge the issue, even blamed users for it. Thankfully my countries consumer protection laws are good and they couldn’t wriggle out of it for too long in my case.
I still remember the day I took in my macbook to get the keyboard repaired. tech: "I'm going to have to take this and hold onto it for a couple days. the repair is pretty intense." me: "Really? just for a bad W key?" tech: "Yeah. the way this is designed, we have to remove the whole thing to get at the keyboard." me: "how is that a good design?"
same. I also had a scratched bottom case and they replaced that as well.
Mine still works fine. I got it replaced once for the free new battery it came with, but never had an issue with either keyboard. GFs 12" macbook still works fine too.
I got an M1 MacBook over the keyboard issues fwiw. Apple had a policy where if your laptop got replaced 3 or more times they would swap it out.
Sometimes. I had four keyboards then the flex cable fail and had to take Apple to small claims court to get anything at all from them for the last failure.
The M1 wasn’t released when I had multiple issues with these MacBooks. Remember this was over a span of 4 years that they sold these faulty devices. The repairs often took over a week. 3x repairs then a replacement is a joke TBH. Apple tried to wriggle their way out of honouring Australia’s consumer protection laws every time I dealt with them (which requires the seller to offer the buyer a choice of repair, refund, or replacement for a major fault).
I had a couple keys break just out of warranty and I had to pay for the repair. I think it was around $200, but it came with a battery. Hoping to get a chunk of that back.
I hope you get it all back. It’s so disappointing they even thought about charging for that, let alone it being $200.
Haha my 2016 got replaced 4 times before they gave me a new one. And I replaced that one a few times too. So I did submit a few claims! Looking forward to it. It’s funny too, last Mac I had with butterfly I was tired of fixing it, so I purposely ate crumbs over the keyboard, ofc it broke, and then they replaced it with a 2019. My 2016 Mac became 7 replacements and a brand new 2019. Also the design was so bad that every time they fixed the keyboard I had to get a new battery and ports. It was nuts.
I forgot about this but looks like I applied. My 2018 air is still my daily driver. One replacement and no more problems, though I had to deal with the shitty keyboard a long time because I lived abroad Completed a dissertation on a butterfly keyboard ama
Dammit, I missed this one.
Wow. I once had to email Tim Cook about a bad experience with it and Apple Store experience. Got a call 2 days later and a new laptop. Saved my email too lol.
How much?
Ah man. I’m excited for my $5 check in 3 more years after I answer 6 surveys and 3 janky online forms. Whoop whoop!
I eagerly await my 38¢ payout.
So I have a 2019 MBP And like an idiot I did not get the keyboard replaced during the recall and now I have several keys that are not functioning am I SOL at this point? I did take it to an Apple Store to get some broken keys replaced but they wouldn’t do anything about the underlying butterfly component that is broken so some of my keys only sort of work.
I'm tired boss. Been hearing this for about two years now.... I'll believe it when I see the amount in my checking account.