M1 MacBook Screen Crack Investigation
classlawdc.com
classlawdc.com
(IFixit even said “internally, they could hardly be any more similar to their predecessors. The new 13” MacBook Pro looks so familiar inside, we had to double-check that we didn’t accidentally purchase the old model.”):
https://www.ifixit.com/News/46884/m1-macbook-teardowns-somet...
Were there any changes to the display or case on the M1 models that might have caused them to become more fragile?
Yes, this is a genuine question. In every case I've seen, the payout for the class members has been too low to even bother getting it paid out - but perhaps there are exceptions?
Any case has more goals than restitution to the victim.
And I think it is actually good lawyers get well paid here. They are representing public interest and fighting large organization.
That's hardly something you or I can do, even assuming you had time to put your life on hold to fight Apple over broken LCD.
In a class action like that usually, if it is won, judge orders the company to right the wrong, depending on some estimate of culpability. If they just made an honest mistake they would probably be punished much less than if they did it knowingly.
A lot of times it is difficult to show they knowingly deceived customers and that's why you might see those seemingly unfair payouts.
Apple seems to have learning difficulties then.
It is probably cheaper for them to absorb these than improve r&d and production and pay in delaying product launch. And it seems the market is quite inflexible - most people seem to absolutely have to buy it even if it breaks if you look the wrong way at it.
Normally repeated class actions should discourage customers, but Apple seems immune to it.
Though I would like to see honest numbers of how many units are affected with which fault, then compare to competition.
Maybe it is just the case that Apple customers are louder with their demands because the loss was more financially painful to them.
It's like the old debate of who's responsible for forcing change on plastic production. The consumer buying veggies or the regulators? It's clearly the regulators and companies, even though people like to blame the consumer for not making the right choice.
It's how we justify the bad actors behaviour, just because they're more powerful and we want to rationalize it somehow.
In the UK one concern is a lot of trading standards offices have been gutted locally over the past 10 years due to austerity cuts hitting local councils hardest meaning consumers have some difficulty getting action without going to court when it concerns local businesses.
Actually going to court is an act of last resort for exceptional cases or when a regulator fails in their duties (and even then regulators have their own regulators, ombudsman, often times for escalating complaints).
The source of the issue seems to have been lead-free solder, which was adopted in the mid-2000s and seemed to cause problems for a decade or so.
[1] https://9to5mac.com/2014/10/28/apple-class-action-lawsuit-20...
[2] https://www.cultofmac.com/482762/apple-no-longer-repairing-2...
To me it shows what class actions are for -- a serious pollution incident which effected many people, but required a huge court case against a huge company to deal with. Many people recieved 6 figure sums, enough to move away and pay for medical care.
It isn't a prefect story -- PG&E should have arguably paid even more, given the fact they basically poisoned an entire town, and knew about it for years.
Created Tech made a good video about this. This doesn't seem to be a big Issue with the M1 MacBook but more of a money scheme of a Law Firm...
The dang thing is falling apart like an old farm truck held together with baling twine. Battery has swollen up, the touch bar is 75% dead and blinking like crazy, battery warnings whenever I disconnect power, overheats all the time and throttles to a crawl...
This is compared to my budget $600 ASUS which is happily chugging along 10 years later with the original battery and I treat it like a rented mule. Toss it in a backpack and set a bunch of junk on top and it's like "Psh!"
Apple has used up all it's credibility with me with regards to their MacBooks. Their stuff is fragile. No amount of care seems to keep it running properly. They gaslight the heck out of their users too which makes them seem shady too.
Frankly, the fact that they're only showing one picture, despite their claims that there's a lot of people having this problem does not inspire a lot of confidence in their case.
Unsurprisingly, Apple did not believe me, and I had to replace the screen at my own cost.
My current Macbook probably has a problem with the ribbon cable connecting the screen with the rest of the device. It costs too much to have it fixed, because they have to open up the whole thing + the screen to replace it.
And this is after they already replaced the whole top section (keyboard, speakers, etc) because of another warranty issue with speakers only outputting mono sound.
Here in Australia, we have consumer laws that protect us from this kind of defect. They will ensure that as a consumer, I would receive a complete and full refund for an event like this- many times over if necessary. This kind of cost to the manufacturer creates the appropriate motivation to remedy.
You win some, you lose some.
Those two duds were enough to slightly sour my relationship with Apple, but look at the alternatives.
Might be it was just little dust or sand, but it bothered me.
Very small cracks started appearing around the camera and in the next couple of days white bars started appearing over the whole screen until the display completely blacked out.
No AppleCare+ and not covered by warranty as I was considered responsible for the damage: 800 EUR repair with just 3 months warranty for the new display
This reminds me of a problem I had with the cord on my MacBook Pro charger circa 2012. I bought an MBP new in 2010. This was, I believe, a time when Apple had been trying new formulations on their cables to eliminate BPA and PVC.
Less than 6 months after I bought my machine, the sheathing on the power cords started cracking and fraying at both ends. Same happened to my iPod/iPhone cables. It was a very dry winter indoor environment that destroyed pencil erasers, but other than that, I did nothing unusual to the cords. Eventually the sheathing almost entirely fell off and several feet of the cable was exposed, looking like twisted metal rope. It didn't seem imminently dangerous, though worrisome, and I was nowhere near an Apple Store so I ignored it.
My system was 18 months old when I was traveling and found myself near an Apple Store. I showed them my charger, expecting they'd agree it was obviously flawed and give me a discount on a new one. Instead, the employee was rather surly with me and told me it as clearly my fault. "You must have rolled an office chair over it." I did not own nor had ever used a chair with wheels. I explained that it started fraying at both ends for no apparent reason and I'd done my best to wrap it carefully every time. This was a $2,400 machine (in 2010). However, the warranty was one year and it had been 18 months. He told me absolutely not, it was clearly my fault and I could buy a power adapter at full price or take a hike.
I felt sufficiently abused to call and complain to a manager. The manager apologized and said they'd give me a 50% discount on a replacement. I thanked them and set it aside. Dealing with the surly employee had been somewhat upsetting and I had little desire to rush back to Apple. I ended up going in 2 weeks later, telling them the manager had approved a discount for me. The manager at the time said "WHO? I'M the manager on duty NOW and I didn't approve that." They proceeded to take me through the exact same process in which they told me it was entirely my fault, basically saying I was lying about not damaging it, and was SOL and could buy a new adapter at full price or leave. I was not happy about this.
I think I ended up getting a 20% discount or something, which is all I wanted in the first place.
My husband and I scrimped and saved for so many years.
We did our best to build a nest egg so that we wouldn't be a burden to our family.
After Ronald passed, I moved to an assisted-living facility... a nice place.
They told me they'd take care of everything, but then, one day, they said all my money was gone.
How could that be?
Where did it all go?
[voiceover] ...is a resident of a Sandpiper Crossing facility or other associated retirement community, you may be eligible to receive compensation.
For a free consultation, call the law offices of Davis & Main at 505-242-7700.
That's 505-242-7700.
Meanwhile I'm enjoying the best laptop I ever had.
Perhaps we'll hear more about it now.
If that is the case, for $600 you can get a decent non-Apple laptop. Apple is consumable jewelry, not computing.
Well, the M1 is one of the most impressive computing chips ever sent into mass production, so your remark is rather inaccurate.
Even Google is so impressed that they are trying to do something similar for the Chromebook, following Apple's model.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/09/01/google-making-its...
All the same if you're more productive on MacOS the cost of a Mac is likely dwarfed by the benefits. These days Macs also have hardware that's in a bit of a class of it's own, show me a completely silent Windows laptop that competes with the m1 air.