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Comment by victor22 | Hacker News Reader

My 2018 Macbook Pro's screen failed. They replaced it for free, but damaged the webcam in the process. They told me I'd need to pay over 500 dollars to get it fixed since I could not prove it was damaged while switching screens.

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You need to escalate to a manager if you're being honest and really want your Webcam fixed.

Source: Work at a phone/computer repair store. Mess ups happen but even the technician might not know if they broke the camera, if it was working before, etc. They may just be too low to make exceptions for you and have to assume it was already broken.

Was it replaced for free because it was under warranty? If so, wasn’t the webcam under warranty?

Small claims court?

This is a completely appropriate use of small-claims court. It's the one place where a regular citizen can afford a fair trial against Apple in the U.S.

Unfortunately you generally have to sue where the corporate HQ is. That makes it impractical for most people.

No you don’t. And this is actually why a lot of people win them against corporations — it’s cheaper to just let you have the hundreds or few thousand you’re asking for.

No you don't

Yeah, my friend did that against Samsung in Canada and it was an automatic win. A few days before the court appearance Samsung bent and sent him the money.

Ask for the functional test that's performed before and after each repair, if they can't produce the results you should be able to escalate further quite easily.

Keep escalating. Try emailing Tim Cook if you can’t get results. I had to resort to that once and their executive team reached out and solved everything. I don’t abuse it, but it is needed sometimes.

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