bocastephen

Has anyone else noticed their "butterfly" type keyboards are starting to fail with keys that stop working? Notably, I'm seeing reports of spacebars not working where half the spacebar will be unusable. Now the problem hit my own MacBook Pro, and while I guess I shouldn't be surprised, the response from the Apple Store is a grudging "we'll send it out for repair" which will take 3-5 business days.

How can I be without my work laptop for 3-5 business days? They will not replace the unit, claiming I had it for too long, and the unit was designed to be essentially unserviceable by the local store.

I am really furious, so that leaves me with two options:

1. wait for my company to put me in contact with their corporate level Apple sales rep to see if they will escalate and instruct the store to replace the unit or give me a loaner

2. buy a new MacBook Pro, restore from backup, give them the faulty one for repair, then after I get it back, return the "new" one within the 14 day allowance

How do they expect people to be without their computers for a week?

javabytes

Call up a local Apple authorized service provider and see what they can do. They can perform warranty service, and may be able to turn it around quicker.

bocastephen

Good advise, thank you. I will give that a shot.

WorldLux

Depends entirely on the issue. Repairs that can be done on location may be quicker. Anything else will be much slower. Changing a broken HDD took them 2 days or so and was done by the retailer. Repairing an iPod took 2 weeks (They do preliminary checks, send one large shipment of devices once a week to Apple, Apple does repairs or replaces the device and sends them back).

I have a back-up unit lying around. It's probably 16 years old and I have kept it going for years by doing the repairs myself.

deniah

ive had that issue since the first macbook retina came out.

it took a long time, but apple finally even published a home "fix" for it. basically hold the laptop upside down and blast compressed air under the keys.

usually the problem goes away after a while (only to affect other keys)

worst thing isnt this...its that with the new butterfly mechanism one can simply pop off the key and place it back in.... i did this and basically killed half the key

Error 601

The keyboard in my girlfriend's original 2015 MacBook was replaced under warranty when it was about six months old. The entire bottom row of keys intermittently became unresponsive.

I'm not sure what her turn-around time was.

chx1975

The keyboard replacement on my ThinkPad T420 after I broke the poor thing when upgrading memory took me less than fifteen minutes and only that much because I was very slow and cautious.

Another reason why noone should buy Macs.

DYKWIA

My 3.5 year old MacBook Pro screen had some staining. After taking it to my local store, the screen was replaced free of charge in about an hour.

Another reason people should buy Macs...

eeflyer

With my 15", the only issues I've had are the up/down arrow keys. Otherwise, no issues. This is a launch unit. I haven't decided whether to take it to Apple for replacement or not yet.

Need

But if you want to send it in for repair, how long would that takes? I had to mail in a few PC laptops (ASUS, Acer, Dell) back to manufacturers for repair and none of them took less than 10 days. I think my Acer took 3 weeks. The only reason this thread exits is because it is a Macbook. The same with iPhone.. people just so used to the same day turn around on a replacement unit at the store. If it was a PC or Android phone.. a 3 to 5 days turn around would be like a miracle!

KRSW

Actually, that's not how it works outside of AppleLand, at least for business-grade equipment & contracts.

We've used both Dell and Lenovo enterprise-grade laptops over the years. If something breaks, they send someone to us, on-site, in 24 hours or less. I've had them show up within 2 hours with parts in-hand. When I was out of town I even had a Dell repair tech meet me at a restaurant where we both had lunch, and he repaired the laptop on the table, and yes, the tech bought me lunch.

On the mobile phones, our Verizon rep brings us replacement devices to our office, same day. *BUT* They can't do this if it's an iPhone. In that case, we're stuck dealing with the Apple store. Our T-Mobile rep has been very helpful as well. I was out-of-state when I had an issue with my phone and they made all of the arrangements so the nearest store had everything ready for a swap. Not sure how they handle Apple-device issues as we've gone over towards Android since the iPhone fiasco.

Contrast this to our experiences with Apple:
1) Hope there's an Apple store nearby. When you're 2+ hours away from the nearest one, this is already a bad start.
2) Try to book an appointment. Good luck. The nearest two stores (both 60-90 minute drives from where I am now) don't have open appointments for another THREE DAYS. It's Wednesday 6pm as I write this, the soonest appointment is Saturday, 5pm.
3) Show up at the Apple store...wait around... eventually they'll see you, see your laptop, and tell you they don't have parts in stock (if you're lucky), but should be able to repair it in-house in 2-3 days. If you're unlucky, they're going to tell you that it'll take ~10 days as they send it away.

And as a disclaimer, I'm typing this on my Macbook Pro, listening to a podcast on an older iPhone, so I use both platforms.

WorldLux

[QUOTE=KRSW;28073501
We've used both Dell and Lenovo enterprise-grade laptops over the years. If something breaks, they send someone to us, on-site, in 24 hours or less. I've had them show up within 2 hours with parts in-hand. [/QUOTE]

But that's usually part of a business deal. The private customer usually has to wait quite a bit longer. I had to send in a Sony Ericsson mobile phone (back when they were still popular) and it took them 1 month to "fix" the problem. The problem reappeared 6 months later and it took them 2 months to "fix". The fix worked for 4 months. After that, I abandoned it and Sony Ericsson and switched to the first iPhone.

Dunbar

On my 2015 Macbook the local Apple store shipped mine out on a Monday and it was delivered to my home on Friday. Same thing, keyboard replacement due to unresponsive keys.

I think these butterfly keyboards are much less tolerant of food and debris getting stuck underneath them. My delete key starting acting up within a week of replacement. Some keyboard cleaner and compressed air fixed the issue. I think the key to longevity is to clean the keyboard regularly and not let it get too gnarly under the keys. My old Macbook Air keyboard was much less finicky.

KRSW

These "business" deals are available to individuals when you're purchasing enterprise-grade equipment. Both Dell & Lenovo will sell on-site support contracts to individuals. Likewise, cellular/mobile phone companies will sell business plans to individuals as well.

My point still stands... Apple equipment and support *is not* enterprise grade. Apple doesn't even make the X-Serve or anything even close to it anymore, nor does Apple offer any type of on-site support, no matter how large your company is. It may be better than what the average consumer is used to, but going without a laptop for a week or more isn't an option for me.

javabytes

+1

You can pay for whatever level of support you want. The average home user doesn't need next day onsite repair, but it's an option if you buy professional-grade machines and are willing to pay the extra $100 or so. Dell even offers it on home machines now.

I can't count the number of times I've had a keyboard stop working, or even lose a key, and I've just had Dell or HP just overnight me a new one. Typically 2-3 Phillips screws and it's done. They're disposable parts, they don't even want the old ones back. Macbooks are many things, but easily serviceable they are not.