Apple nixes video glitch repair program for 2011 MacBook Pros
Apple is no longer supporting 2011 MacBook Pros as a part of its Repair Extension Program for Video Issues, according to updated support documents.
The company is still covering 15-inch Retina models of the Pro from 2012 and 2013, as long as they were bought less than four years ago, Apple said. Officially the program ended on Dec. 31, 2016, but it continues to be in effect for people within that four-year window.
The program first launched in Feb. 2015, addressing what Apple claimed was a "small percentage" of Pros with absent or distorted video, or prone to sudden reboots. Problems came to light as far back as 2013, however.
In Oct. 2014 the company was in fact hit with a class-action lawsuit, seeking compensation for faulty graphics hardware. A later online petition to Apple executives collected over 40,000 signatures.
People who qualify for the Repair Extension Program can get free repairs for video flaws, but will be charged extra for any separate fixes, or ones that have to be done before the video glitches can be resolved. Repairs can be performed by making an appointment at an Apple store or an authorized service provider, or else by calling Apple support to request a prepaid mail-in box.
The company is still covering 15-inch Retina models of the Pro from 2012 and 2013, as long as they were bought less than four years ago, Apple said. Officially the program ended on Dec. 31, 2016, but it continues to be in effect for people within that four-year window.
The program first launched in Feb. 2015, addressing what Apple claimed was a "small percentage" of Pros with absent or distorted video, or prone to sudden reboots. Problems came to light as far back as 2013, however.
In Oct. 2014 the company was in fact hit with a class-action lawsuit, seeking compensation for faulty graphics hardware. A later online petition to Apple executives collected over 40,000 signatures.
People who qualify for the Repair Extension Program can get free repairs for video flaws, but will be charged extra for any separate fixes, or ones that have to be done before the video glitches can be resolved. Repairs can be performed by making an appointment at an Apple store or an authorized service provider, or else by calling Apple support to request a prepaid mail-in box.
Comments
In the end giving the customers a return newer model might be a customer friendly way to go.
Yes, I own a 2011 Mac Book Pro....
You'd have to pry my 17" from my cold dead hands for me to give it up or upgrade to newer models.
BTW, I have a stack of about 14 3TB Seagate hard drives that failed and the 3 year mark typically - so a larger sample size... but any individual one I could not guess as to it's failure.
it turns out the mouse was caused from a swelling battery. As part of tube up they replaced both. But much to my surprise they replaced my brand new maxes out RAM stating mine didn't optimize the machine. They also replac d the entire logic board and the LCD screen. Why??
it turn out my model serial number fell inside the range for recall and as it is apple's policy anything happening or replaced during the recall replacement then EVERYTHING is free and included.
I actualky thought this was over kill and demanded they let me pay for all repairs they refused. "At least take my $276". Nope they wouldn't
so I'm guessing this announcement now only covers the recall repair and not everything else.
By the way this was on my 17" 2011 laptop so thanks!!!
This is, without question, a manufacturing defect. Yes Apple repaired the computer, but they did so with a bad part. Twice.
Totally unacceptable
And mine failed outside Apple's repair policy (which shouldn't have ended IN THE FIRST PLACE, as it was a MANUFACTURING DEFECT), so I was SoL even before I was SoL.
Edit: my MBP will be 6 years old in October (as will my wife's MBA) anything past that point is bonus time as far as I am concerned. My longestest lasting Apple was a Mac II was very nicely usanle for over 10 years (with suitable RAM and drive updates - something which my contemporaneous IBM PC AT could not support). I forget how many megs of RAM I put in the Mac but it far exceeded what the PC AT was able to handle because that manufacturer didn't bring out all the address lines that the'86 could support. Although I am long retired, I may just buy a new (yet to be released) Mac Pro just because it will be updatable. I was a design engineer at both Intel and AMD - THE STORIES i could tell...
So Apple's and Australia's definition of obsolete agree. Both agree that a product that is more than 7 years after manufacture is obsolete and can be no longer serviced.
Like California, in Australia, vintage products are still eligible for hardware repairs. They aren't free. But repairs are still available.
In other areas of the world, vintage products are not eligible for repair. So products that are older than 5 years are no longer repaired by Apple.
I know we'd all like these programs to run forever, but that is not realistic. If someone came to me with a 2011 MBP with restarting issues(covered under this repair program), then I would need significant mental gymnastics to assume that the problem was a manufacturing fault from a time when Steve Jobs was still doing keynotes. I wonder how many of these repairs Apple was even doing at this late stage? We're talking about a fault which affected a very small percentage of devices that are up to 6 years old.
With the battery replacement they also change out the keyboard, mouse pad and to surface. There also is a free screen replacement for delamination effects.
So in the end almost all of the laptop was changed out with the exception of the motherboard.
With consumer electronics - such as laptops -- they are basically appliances and the manufacturing has made newer models (that don't have mechanical parts) basically single body machines where all the components are manufactured (non-replaceable) which makes the hardware more resilient and cheaper to manufacture (with a much lower overall failure rate) -- but makes the replacement of parts impossible. The maintenance of the products becomes more of an insurance product rather than maintenance. If you take it into Apple for repair and they find one of the components is defective -- they replace the component (which is either the entire computer, screen or battery)... [3rd parties might actually make unsupported repairs by soldering etc.]
In the end the cost of such an option would be much more and over 10 years the amortized cost would increase.... so if they were to flatten the payment schedule over 10 years the price per year (early) would be seen as a money grab (with the appropriate markup for said insurance) and would be more damaging to the brand than helpful.
In the end - the option to keep on using hardware without "worries" of it breaking down.... would be better served by leasing the hardware......