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Comment by konstruktor | Hacker News Reader

When batteries for my 2006 MBP's model had problems, Apple issued a recall. I got a new one in a UPS box that I could use to send the old one back. This cost apple parts and shipping, not even a technician's time. Service like this is much harder to provide if the computers you build are not repairable at all. They created a situation where fixing one problem means exchanging the whole unit. That is their own fault. Are you seriously blaming the customer for wanting a fault fixed in his 3kUSD computer with paid warranty extension?

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From my understanding of the comment, he wasn't blaming the customer. Rather, he's trying to say that people shouldn't rush to buy the revision A (or version 1 or 1st generation or whatever) of an Apple product. Instead, wait for the initial (and what are now expected) flaws to be fixed and then buy them. However, I think this is a problem that is likely to happen with any company, not just Apple.

In most markets, the law does not allow beta products and caveat emptor. Warranties against product flaws are mandatory. Personally, I would consider ghosting as shown by the OP a defect covered by warranty. In addition to that, a premium brand should treat early adopters well, especially those who bought the flagship product. This is the point OP seems to be making. However, due to their own design decisions, they have made this very expensive, which incentivizes them to provide shitty service, which is damaging their brand image.

"...Warranties against product flaws are mandatory..."

If that were true...

the software industry would be in REAL trouble.

Do you agree to an EULA when buying an MBP or another laptop, implicitly or otherwise? Serious question.

AFAIK, as a consumer, you cannot sign away these rights for physical products. For software, which you license, i.e. acquire usage rights, the situation seems to be different.

Most open source software licenses contain all-caps legalese disclaiming all forms of warranty. See [1] and [2] for example.

[1]: http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

[2]: http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause

For an example, see this summary of the baseline for warranties in the EU http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/shopping/shopping-abroa... I suppose the reason why the software industry gets around this is that you can't buy software but only license it.

The suggestion of avoiding gen 1 products isn't to blame the customer, but warn them of trouble before purchasing. Whether you get a timely recall/replacement or the problem is ignored still means you have to go of your way to discover, troubleshoot, and resolve the problem. It's nice in many cases they've gone out of their way to fix the issue, but I would rather not have it in the first place. So I generally avoid gen 1 Apple products.

I had the same issue with a 11" MBP back in the day and had the same great fix, although I was told to throw the old battery away.

I also had an issue with a 1Gen time capsule, which when it broke got replaced in store no questions asked.

I guess I have been lucky?

I hope you disposed of it in an environmental sound manner roblem.

I have no idea where it is, so guess not Mat ;)

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