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To quote this article[1] mentioned in thread:

> The crack appears to be a sudden shear in the nose bridge, which would be the weakest part of the glass mold. Those with the issue speaking to Apple Support have been told to pay the AppleCare deductible of $300 for a repair.

> Without AppleCare a cover glass repair would cost $800.

Minimum "deductible" to the tune of several hundred dollars?! How is this obvious defect not covered in full by the device's basic 1-year limited warranty[2]?

If these claims are indeed true at face value, then I fully expect a massive class action lawsuit would be entirely in order.

[1] https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/02/22/reports-are-sprea...

[2] https://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/ios-warranty-d...

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If these do indeed turn into a pattern Apple is usually extremely good about free replacements/repairs.

But it generally takes them a bit of time to confirm that it's actually a manufacturing or design defect rather than people who just dropped it on the floor, and then ensure they have non-defective parts available.

I've personally had one MacBook screen and two AirPods replaced completely for free because of manufacturing defects over the past ten years -- all of which were out of the warranty period.

It’s very hit and miss. I had a pair of AirPods Pro which developed, in both ears, a very strange hardware issue. Almost like random high pitch shrieking noises blended with the audio; like the noise cancellation would go berserk.

Both failed Apple’s test in the store. There was a repair program for audio issues - but my pair was made supposedly 4 months after it was fixed, so I had to get a new set.

I also had a MacBook 2017 which clearly, obviously, developed the stage light backlight issue. Only to find out the repair program only covered 2016 models.

Thus, if I had a nickel for every time Apple had a repair program for the exact issue I was having, but only up to the model just before mine, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?

Addendum to the above: For what it’s worth, the best experience I’ve had with a company that had a hardware screw up is Nintendo.

Fill out form, print their shipping label, pop into box, Joy-cons are back 2 weeks later without paying a penny. They’ve also repaired things that clearly aren’t stick drift - like broken shoulder buttons, torn joystick caps, and one I sent in that was completely unresponsive.

In my case Google recently replaced my years old pixel 4a for free because of a bloating battery. A phone that doesn't even get android version upgrades anymore and was waaay past warranty. I still can't believe this considering the usual horror stories with Google support

Logitech were like this for me. I had a problem overseas with a (more premium) mouse. I called, spoke to person, sent them a video of the issue, got a replacement.

Surely they sent you new ones and did not bother repairing yours?

Depends. Sometimes I got some that looked replaced - other times, it looked like a repair. I don't know for certain though.

Doesn't really matter to me though - because it's not exactly a secret that the "repair" pile, under times of stress, may turn into a LIFO queue. (I.e. take incoming repairs without question, mail out replacements from the previously repaired pile, have a separate team repairing what can be repaired and throwing out what can't.)

Nintendo also famously supported the Famicom for 24 years https://www.engadget.com/2007-10-18-nintendo-of-japan-callin...

My AirPods Pro have the same issue if noise cancellation/pass through is on. It’s a known issue, also weren’t covered .

Apple used to be known for covering things, but that changed over the past 10 years.

I had a pair of Sony XM4s develop the same ANC shrieking issue. Would happen once every few hours. Sony sent them back saying they seemed fine to them :(

Mine too! Apparently it's a loose ground wire, I'm going to attempt a repair at some point.

I had my AirPods replaced under that program and the replacement pair was failing within 3 months. I am extremely gentle on my electronics, so it’s definitely not me that’s the problem. I’m never buying Apple headphones again.

Thats ironic to hear since every issue I've had with apple products over the last few years were only fixed due to class action lawsuits. Damn the Butterfly keyboards to hell.

I think this is the difference with Tim Cook’s Apple. I had good luck with Apple support many years ago where there was an obvious defect. The people at the Apple Store seemed empowered to do the right thing. These days it feels more like the math formula in Fight Club.

I don't think it was Tim Cook who claimed that you were holding it wrong...

Every other phone in its class had the same problem; people seem to forget they part. They gave out free bumpers to mitigate it, which I didn’t see other companies do. Of course it was only Apple in the headlines, because they get the clicks.

I’m not saying Jobs was perfect, but I had a lot of experiences in the Apple Store where they would fix stuff they had the power to fix, because it shouldn’t happen. I had a spec of dust under my screen and they replaced the screen no questions ask, at no cost. I was having a logic board replaced in my MBP and they replaced the screen clutch, just because they noticed it felt loose (I didn’t even notice before they replaced it)… no deductibles or anything.

Modern Apple Care feels much more like health insurance than an extended warranty.

> Every other phone in its class had the same problem; people seem to forget they part

No, they aren't forgetting anything. The magnitude of the issue with the 4 was significantly worse than with other contemporary devices, to the point of rendering it incapable of making a call if you were a lefty with sweaty hands.

AnandTech did a reasonably scientific comparison of the 4 with a few other devices at the time, if you don't believe me.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/2

This is just not true; the 4 went on to be one of Apple’s best-selling devices, long after the free bumper program ended. Its design was never changed; the media furor just faded and the phone worked fine and sold fine. I had one for years, for what it’s worth.

Also, they denied the problem for the longest time, even though they fired the antenna designer.

> Every other phone in its class had the same problem

Very wrong.

Anecdotal, but I’ve had an Apple Pencil replaced for free on the spot well outside of its warranty because it was defective and I hadn’t realised (don’t ask) I’ve had a Apple Store employee hand me a brand new iPhone when I brought in my phone that wouldn’t turn on one day - no questions asked. I’ve had friends with very similar cases. It’s always felt like “against policy” which might be their actual policy so it doesn’t get abused or something? They mentioned that the manager made an exemption for me with the Pencil. It’s very hard to track and very hard to advertise but their customer service in my experience has been exceptional.

Yes they are extremely good with free replacements/repairs after getting sued with a class action. Such a great company

Even after that, they don’t tell customers they qualify for a repair. The first ever Retina MacBook Pro had a kernel panic issue. It doesn’t manifest right away but Apple was sued and had to repair them.

Mine gave out a year after this and I only found out about the repair after reading online. Apple knew this MacBook is under my Apple ID and could’ve let me know about the issue, but chose not to.

I go to the Apple Store and they recognize the issue. Except they tell me the laptop is “vintage” after 2-3 years and even though it has an inherent flaw, they would not service it.

Do you think they refunded the people that had to get their butterfly keyboard replaced or repaired?

Vintage is 5 years after end of sales: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624. If the people at your store told you 2-3 years after you bought it they were not only very wrong, but also completely out of their mind given that just AppleCare alone would have put your coverage at 3 years.

I bought the Macbook second hand in 2013 and went into the Apple Store in 2017 when the kernel first panicked. It was a very close cut-off on the "vintage" designation, but I think that's besides the point. If there is a inherent flaw in a computer that can manifest much later on, the company should replace it or offer some sort of compensation. Otherwise, any company can retire a product and escape all responsibility.

If you think that's being unreasonable, just search 2012 Macbook Retina kernel panic and you'll see hundreds of threads from 2021 and onward about the issue. Those people paid for a product with a defect that manifested decades later and are now left to hang dry.

But there has to be some statue of limitations here.

If a product that most probably most people use for 4-8 years develops a problem 9 years later, then as long as it wasn't an intentional defect, I think you just have to chalk that up to bad luck.

I mean, what would the compensation even be? In theory, it would be capped at the resale value of a 9-year-old MacBook. Which is essentially nothing. Apple products hold their resale value far better than other electronics brands, but that's really talking about devices 2-5 years old.

At some point you just have to say you got your money's worth out of the product in the time you used it. Nothing lasts forever, and in laptop terms, 9 years is pretty close to forever.

(Obviously it depends on the product category -- things like washing machines are meant to last far longer, and come with things like 10 year guarantees on their motors.)

Even then they have some discretion... A few years back my mother gave me her old MBA she wasn't using, she windows on it but no MacOS for some reason... it wouldn't recover via network recovery because the latest os that model supported was so old it wasn't available via that route anymore.

Popped into my local Apple Store and they were more than happy to connect it to their WiFi where they had access to all the old OS versions and let me sit there whilst it restored.

That experience was to their benefit - 12 months later with a nice bonus from work I went back their and ordered 10 grands worth of stuff when my wife and I decided to move completely over to their ecosystem. Had nothing but great experiences in both support and usability/reliability since.

Yeah, in my experience they're happy to help with "vintage" hardware if it's just a matter of software assistance, like in your case.

The "vintage" designation is more about not being able to repair/replace hardware, because they simply don't make/stock the replacment parts/models anymore.

They often do replace/repair equipment for no charge even after a warranty is expired. It seems to be up to the local store manager.

I will chime in and say I also had a MacBook Pro screen replaced for dead pixels, no questions asked, no charge.

Even more fun, AppleCare is $499 at checkout; and comes with a $299 service fee per incident.

Guess how much a cover glass repair costs without AppleCare? To cite yourself... $800.

You literally save... nothing. It's like insurance that pays out your own deductible dollar-for-dollar. Maybe you save $1, depending on where you ask. You really only save money on the second accidental crack. But not the third, because AppleCare only covers 2 accidents.

Holy shit, what a scam.

Wait till you hear about auto insurance. They gasp collect more in premiums than they pay out!

The point with auto insurance (and why you'd use it rather than just putting the equivalent of your premium in a savings account) is that they win the bet most of the time, which means they can afford outlier events which your saving approach alone wouldn't cover.

This is different to the claim here AppleCare is profitable on every unit even if they do pay out.

>This is different to the claim here AppleCare is profitable on every unit even if they do pay out.

It's clearly worth it if you have butterfingers and manage to break it twice.

But only exactly twice. Not once. Not thrice.

1. You save $501 when you break it twice, but you still save $501 when you break it 3, 4, or 5 times. You don't get any additional benefits for the additional breaks, but you're still ahead overall.

2. all of the above analysis only covers glass breakage. More costly breakages also changes the equation.

Not to be that guy, but; actually, a lot of auto insurance companies regularly run their premiums below cost.

The profit from insurance comes from investing the premiums before they get paid out as claims.

Warren Buffet explains it in a lot of his letters to investors, basically the consumer insurance game is about growing the pot by discounting as close to cost of claims (or below) so you can make investment gains on the money paid as premiums.

You don't buy the car, the insurance, and the repair from the same company, however...

You can buy overpriced phone insurance from third party insurers as well. Apple doesn't have a monopoly on those.

In this scenario, you have to break your product twice to see a benefit. I feel like that's not true for cars.

From a person making claim? That's not a common scenario. It is expected that most people won't have any claim.

Then don't buy applecare. Nobody is forcing you to do so. It's not any different than say, booking a refundable airline ticket, which is the equivalent of "insurance for your plans changing". I checked a random US flight and it's about 60% more. Given that in the past decade or so of flying I never had to cancel or reschedule a flight, it doesn't really make sense for me to pay the premium, but I wouldn't call option of buying such a flexible ticket "a scam".

I have better idea that will save me $3500+299.

Ask me and you can save $2 :-) but can you imagine every pair that doesn't break while still having Applecare coverage - that $300-800 is just straight profit.

It's not profit, it pays for the ones that do break... The residue from that is the profit.

But remember AppleCare+ covers accidental damage. If the glass breaks due to manufacturer defect in the 1 year limited warranty period, you get a free replacement whether you have AC+ or not.

Except that it whether it’s a “manufacturer defect” or “user error / accident” appears to be a matter of interpretation and luck at the moment…

In the EU, literally every AVP sold direct is so new that the burden of proof is on Apple to prove it's the consumer's fault and not a manufacturing defect, and otherwise repair/replace/refund free of charge. I'm amazed their premium warranty is not even meeting their legal obligation.

Same for non-direct purchases, but for non-direct it's the retailer's problem.

(Well, actually, they were pretty slow to comply with faulty charging cables and home buttons on a iPod Touch a decade ago too)

The AVP isn't sold in the EU yet.

Now we know why.. jk :)

In New Zealand we've got the Consumer Guarantees Act which expressly covers goods which "break too easily"[0]. Are you telling me that in the US your only option is legal action?

0: https://www.consumerprotection.govt.nz/general-help/consumer...

And Apple are famous for fighting customers despite their rights. Try searching /r/newzealand for "Apple disputes tribunal", they're second only to PBTech for their poor behaviour in this country. The Australian consumer rights regulator has slapped them with fines several times but as usual our ComCom is asleep at the wheel.

Christ you guys, it's been like 12 hours since this was reported. You literally do not need to flip out yet.

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