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Comment by brianpgordon | Hacker News Reader

> Negative public opinion, multiple lawsuits, and ongoing issues with all keyboards in Mac notebooks released since 2015 have led Apple to launch a keyboard repair program that applies to all Macs with a butterfly keyboard, including 2019 models.

Kind of glossing over the rather important detail that Apple's keyboard repair program entitles you to an exact replacement of the same broken-ass keyboard design that caused your issue in the first place. If I remember correctly, they won't even upgrade you to their later-generation butterfly mechanism; if you go in with a membrane-less 1st-generation keyboard, that's what you get as a replacement.

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That's not entirely true. The third-generation butterfly keyboards will be replaced with the fourth-generation keyboards. See https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/21/18634247/macbook-butterfl...

Pretty sure this is not the case. I recently had mine serviced and I'm almost positive I was told by the Genius that they were swapping in the latest gen keyboard.

Yeah, same. And the key presses on the new one feel noticeably different, too.

I think that because the keyboard is connected to the logic board it is literally impossible for Apple to give you a newer keyboard without also giving you a logic board for a later gen pro which won't work with the later gen MacBook. That's also (part of) the reason why repairs are so expensive, most of the parts are connected into a few large chunks that have to be replaced all at once.

Unless they redesigned the part, to fix the problem, which is what they should do.

They should not have constructed it this way in the first place.

For how long will they replace those keyboards for free?

They're covered for four years after first retail sale from Apple [0].

[0] https://support.apple.com/keyboard-service-program-for-mac-n...

Completely Apple's own fault, too. A rating of only 1 on iFixit's "Laptop Repairability Scores":

"The top case assembly, including the keyboard, battery, speakers, and Touch Bar, is glued together—making all those components impractical to replace separately."

https://www.ifixit.com/laptop-repairability

Apple was also one of the first companies to solder in the RAM so it couldn’t be upgraded. I miss being able to make my laptop significantly faster without upgrading it completely.

There are still companies which allow that. Support them instead.

Anti consumer policies should be punished, especially if it matters to you.

I could never handle this kind of abuse.

Connected to the logic board? On mine they just replaced the whole top case assembly. My understanding is that the replacement swapped out everything other than the display and the logic board, including the battery.

Same on my model from around 2016. One key cap came off. Got back essentially a new laptop (as far as I can tell) from repair with new body - the display stayed the same. I wonder how many people will scam them this way now.

How is this a scam? They made a defective product that is intentionally difficult to service. If Apple is the one being most affected by their own poor design decisions their finances surely don't show it.

I meant how many people will break one key in a trivial way to get a bigger replacement they actually would have to pay for otherwise. (because the warranty ran out)

Its a defective keyboard design, it will fail sooner or later. The only difference is whether Apple replaces the keyboard now or a few months down the road.

Alternately, Apple could make a keyboard that doesn't trivially break. Then they wouldn't be under class action pressure to repair and replace them.

To whatever extent it's possible for an end user to "trigger" a failure covered under the extended warranty; it's 100% Apple's fault for making it the way they did. If the keyboards could be trivially swapped (say tool less) and cheaply produced then this would be far less of an issue.

It's a bad keyboard, but it's issues are made far far worse due to the lack of a serviceable design. Hopefully this experience of shooting themselves in the foot will make them reconsider repairable hardware.

This is not correct, the top case replacement does not include the logic board.

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