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Comment by ramijames | Hacker News Reader

My time isn't free. The fact that I have to deal with this at all makes me never want to buy another Mac and I have been a heavy user for at least 20 years. Super annoyed.

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This. I have 7 distinct repairs so far. Every one of these involves a back up, checking in at the Apple Store, explaining what the issue is, having the staff run “diagnostics” only to find nothing wrong with the computer, my having to tell them that this has become routine and that I want them to take my computer in for repairs, having them call me back a few days later with a repaired computer, retrieving the computer, reinstalling the image.

I just want my money back.

It sounds like the "diagnostics" are faulty. If they ended up fixing your problems (as suggested by your "distinct repairs" comments, so they can't have just sat on the device for a phone days then said "yep, we fixed it") then it sounds like they do further tests once they've accepted it for repair, and where those tests highlight a genuine problem, in which case they should probably do those tests initially instead, or at least not make you have to argue with someone at the store when you've already had to stop work, get it to the store etc.

The goal of their diagnostics is to a.) upsell/make you pay up for "repairs" you may or may not need b.) avoid doing work under warranty

Same shit for car dealers and other places involving consumer goods. This all driven by corporate setting quotas for employees to meet (knowing full well they can't be met unless certain non-spoken shortcuts are taken...).

No it's not. The diagnostics are just basic, front-level diagnostics that they do for all machines to check off a few boxes. It's unfortunate when you're in the small percentage of people that have an uncommon problem but their current diagnostic system lets them accommodate and repair 99% of the issues people come in for quickly with 1st tier repair staff. It's not ideal but they're not trying to screw you over. Apple has some of the best and most highly rated support in the industry.

I had a 2015(?) MBP with GPU issues, as (eventually) documented by Apple. On their support page they describe the error you might see in the console logs. There it was.

It passed Diagnostics with flying colors. So I showed the tech that I was able to reproducibly hard crash the laptop by playing a video on the Apple site in Safari, and after the force restart the same error would appear.

They still were "reluctant" to fix it under that program (though they eventually did).

I had my display start to go and I just called support instead of going into a store. The rep just next-day’d me a box with shipping label and I got it back in a few days.

All you have to do is convince the support rep that you know what you’re talking about.

Companies like Dell and Lenovo just ships fault element if it's possible to replace it yourself and in many cases it is possible to replace keyboard without to much hustle. Not to mention their on premise warranty which usually cost somewhere around AppleCare plan. If I am working on a hardware, 9 hours a day 5,6 or even 7 days a week I don't have time to sit in Apple store for hours. Even worst, in country where I am currently there is no Apple stores, period and that's in the middle of Europe not some remote island somewhere on Pacific. Here there are only third party services accredited by Apple to do fixed and they always say "14 working days for fix" which is unacceptable.

They do that if you paid for the premium warranty options, it's not included by default -- it's typically depot service for everything by default.

Yeah and premium warranty option from Apple aka AppleCare doesn't change anything apart from longer support and some discounts on parts. Time of service stays the same. For the cost comparable to AppleCare I can have premium service package from Lenovo with on premise service.

I paid for premium service from Dell (Alienware actually, but they were owned by Dell by then), which was around the same price as AppleCare. Someone came out to my house the next day and fixed the computer on the spot, replacing a part. This was for a part that failed because I was stupid and didn't have the computer plugged into a surge protector. After that, setting up an appointment, going to an Apple Store, waiting in the sea of people, and having to send in my computer, only to have to come back to the store later isn't exceptional in the slightest.

Both Dell and Lenovo are getting worse when it comes to easy repair though. Newer Thinkpads have been nightmareish for keyboard replacements.

It is even worse when there are no Apple Store nerby, only Apple certified resellers, which is my case.

The last time I had a problem with my MBP's screen, it took almost a month to be fixed.

A failing keyboard is enough reason for me to wait for a version which they fix all these issues. Even if it only breaks for a "small percentage of users", it wouldn't be nice to wait almost a month without my work machine...

It depends on your reseller. Here in Austin, we have Austin MacWorks (see https://austinmacworks.com/).

Apple actually sends them hardware to be repaired that is so old that they can't fix it themselves, because they don't have the necessary spare parts and experienced technicians on staff. Both of their hardware technicians have over 30 years of experience repairing stuff, and have every single certification that Apple has.

For everything Austin MacWorks can't fix in-house, they are very good about getting that stuff out to depot and getting it back ASAP, and they will do your backups and restores for you, if necessary.

If I have a simple problem, I'm happy taking that to the Apple Genius bar directly. For everything else, I don't trust anyone but Austin MacWorks.

Totally fair point. It is a hassle and a regrettable that the keyboards have this problem. It's a design flaw.

But at least they are doing the right thing. Hopefully the new keyboard design fixes the flaws.

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