As a school requirement I purchased a Macbook Air in 2014. Accidentally we cracked the display on it. Can happen to anyone. I went today to an authorised repair centre since Apple has no free appointment any soon.
Guess how much it would cost. $710 for the part + $149 for the installation. Of a 13 inch display. That pretty much is the value of the computer.
Never seen such a greedy and overpriced bunch like Apple.
People say this all the time but I have never seen it.
Last time was n Air power pack, the lead frayed and stopped working . The never replaced it, I had to but, although a lot of people did say they would replace for free.
Service was poor, they even sold me the wrong charger until my son told them it was wrong.
Were you being a dick?
nope, I never am with sale people (or anyone for that matter). Sometimes I think people carrying on and arguing get their way more than me, certainly was the case when my wife worked in Myer .
in this case the staff member just had a quick few seconds look and said we had to buy another charger and got one of the shelf then got their little portable payment gizmo out, after I paid my son said it was the wrong one (connector was wrong so staff didnt look at our very well then).
Maybe its just the apple store at robina, they always have an air of "i know better than you" and dont listen.
When I was buying four ipad pro 12.9inch a few months back I wanted to know the difference between the 9.7 pro and 12.9 pro. I asked a few staff, their attitude seemed, its Apple just buy it. the only thing they did was point to the display models and told me one had a bigger screen - I, myself, know there is more than that but I wanted their take on it seeing I don't really know ipad/ios.
I realise they get paid less than Woolworths staff but I thought I would get OK service.
ended getting the four pros (2x 9.7, 2x 12.9) elsewhere seeing they didnt help. I miss NextByte, they had great service I thought.
people say service is good but never has been for me unfortunately.
@PVA:
Robina apple service is shocking. Went to get a quote to fix my iMac screen under insurance - freely admitted I cracked the screen whilst moving, I didn't expect warranty. Anyway, the quote had the wrong purchase date on it and I went in with the receipt and I kept telling the bloke it's the wrong date but he just wasn't listening. Insurance wouldn't have covered it because it was saying my iMac was bought in 2012 lol. Apple ended up replacing it for free after being on the phone to them for there easily resolvable stuff up where I didn't expect them to pay for it in the first place.
@jenkemjunkie:
Thanks, good to know its not just me thinking Robina is poor. I have other times service has been poor too with iPods.
Enjoy the GC600 this weekend, we can here the fireworks, cars zooming around (we're pretty close to it)
@PVA:
We're probably going to go up to Brisbane to avoid it. We can hear it too. Heard them test driving the other week
I had a broken SD card reader and they replaced the entire logic board, including CPU for free. Out of warranty. Had a Panasonic Home Theatre System break down, was told to drive it up to NSW or ship it off at my expense. Then they would charge more if they deemed it my fault, after 1 year and 1 week, but still under consumer law warranty.
Apple are good with customer support, they probably have protocols about repairing things that are obviously user damage. But if you're nice enough they'll go above and beyond, like repairing out of warranty, for free, etc.
I had the opposite experience. Always had great after purchase service from Apple. The replaced my Iphone numerous times under warranty. Just had to walk in-store for an appointment and if they agree with the issue, its a new refurbished one. I have not had the same experience with any other company.
710 sounds expensive, but have you compared against the cost of replacing different branded laptop monitors? I doubt getting Sony, dell or lenovo to replace a monitor would be a cheap exercise as well.
Only one I got replaced recently was on a Surface pro. Around $400 for screen and touch.
Microsoft now charges $754.54 + GST.
You should compare current price to current price.
I don't get the display replaced every few days. The price is from around July when I got it done
So you've broken an apple screen and a surface screen. Maybe stop breaking screens and you won't have to fork out the $$$ to have the screens replaced.
Why did your iPhone need replacing numerous times? I would expect a $1000+ phone to last.
Had an iPhone 6 which I replaced for free, 3 separate times over two years- each time the microphone had died and I couldn't make calls. My sisters IPhone 6 had no issues at all. Some people are just unlucky.
You are going to be subjecting the iPhone to slightly different conditions. From the moisture and temperature in your pocket/carry bag and home, to the regular bumps the phone gets. It's not likely just bad luck. If the failure rate is 1% a triple failure is 1 in a million. If it's 5% we're talking 1.25 in 10,000.
'm not even an Apple fanboi - only recently got my first iPhone (iPhone SE)
Troll alert.
What's trolling about the comment you've high-lighted?
a new refurbished one
lol
The replaced my Iphone numerous times under warranty… I have not had the same experience with any other company.
Me neither - I've never had to replace anything numerous times!
By contrast, I had to enquire when getting my MacBook Pro Retina 13 screen replaced under warranty what the price would be out, and the part was $950+$150 for fitting.
Insanity!
Jesus, for that money you can get nowadays a really good laptop. Brand new. Not just the screen
What about the light up Apple logo?
Just put an apple sticker. No one will know.
Which store gave you that quote?!? I had my 2014 rMBP screen replaced under warranty a few weeks back and from memory the screen would've been $579 and $39 labour. Is yours a newer model?
My quote was from an Apple authorised repairer in Tasmania. The receipt had the prices listed, with under warranty written at the bottom for payment.
I'm unfortunate enough to need to get my screen replaced again due to the issue with delaminating on this model.
Mine was a 2014 rMBP too. I now have a 2015 model of the same due to premature expiration.
We don't have an Apple Store in Tasmania unfortunately!
Welcome to 2016. Computers and TVs are more costly to repair than buy brand new. My sister had to buy 2 new TVs over the last 5 years because her toddlers broken them.
People who buy Apple have lots of money so it is actually quite smart
Lots of money and obviously not lots of brain.
I've always thought that iCrap is for people with learning difficulties.
Ummm…
They target their stuff to be able to be used by little kids so are appealing to the lowest common denominator. The amount of people who buy it is a reflection on society today I guess.
Apple products are popular because they're intuitive to use. My parents (well my mum at least), is so adverse to technology that she refuses to use cruise control or climate control in her car. We'd never been able to get her to adopt any technology, until she tried her first hand me down iPhone, and figured out how to use it in half an hour. That's not a weakness, it's the biggest strength of their devices.
That said, they're also incredibly powerful. I moved from Windows -> OSX because of its underlying 'NIX core, and the fact that I could use the CLI to automate all my work, rather than being forced to do it via Windows GUI. Having an intuitive UI doesn't mean that it isn't a capable or powerful interface.
I use Mac for the same reason as you. Unix based. I also grew up using red hat Linux as well as DOS, win 3.1 and hell even had a microbee, built PCs and did water cooling and window mods before water cooling kits and 'gamer' window cases even existed. I buy their products because they last.
Then along come the computer know alls of today that don't really know anything but spec talk…I'll give the my MacBook with custom boot loader running 'weird OS's' and watch them bumble and struggle with a terminal prompt to make it do something.
In the end though kids just want to play games…I was more interested in figuring out how to decompile them, work out the CPU registers pattern and spending hours cracking it.
@Praeto: yeah but dogboy clearly is much a more sophisticated gentle sir than your mother, with an intellect to match the wisest of men.
Behind the fedora, lies a misunderstood genius.
@jenkemjunkie: you can get a Linux shell on windows now with win10
Power shell is also great for automation in windows land. Macs run on PC hardware anyway so you can bootcamp or run parallels VM if you want multi OS
Only an idiot would think that, oh…
Yep, well aware of that mate. It's good that they brought it back. I have win10 as a boot option on my MacBook and have a desktop with it on…. It doesn't bother me what people use, I just like the refined Mac hardware. It's expensive, but I'm not penny wise pound foolish. My 2009 still runs beautifully today even when I use my maxed out 15 retina.
The entire Android development team use MacBooks as do many software engineers. You know, the people who make the direct competitor to iOS, that Apple makes. Obviously highly paid engineers have learning difficulties. Troll more.
I seriously hate the stigma. As a developer, people look at you like you're an idiot because you have a MacBook. I only use Windows for games, but I don't immediately judge every Windows user as being a gamer.
Still friends with blokes that got jobs with IBM before they even finished their comp sci degrees.
They used MacBooks. The type of blokes that don't get caught up in this product debate shit They're the type of coders that had a deep understanding of programming and processes and were very creative in cracking stuff. Not your rote learn variety there are way too many of.
One of them would always be very giving with drinks from the NFC coke machine that always seemed to give them to him ;)
@jenkemjunkie: Yeah. I get where you're coming from. There are pretty much two types of people: lazy people who like computers and people who love programming and are willing to learn independently. Not like I'm trying to brag but I love programming, reverse engineering, all that stuff. I hear people in my degree say they "hate programming" so often, and they "want to make games". Games programming is very competitive, due to the limited market and even in the U.S. where the industry is huge, its highly competitive and you need to have tonnes of knowledge, programming, physics, advanced maths, etc.
MacBooks are good because they're Unix based. cmd comes absolutely nowhere near as good as bash. Powershell also misses the point and the interface is utterly crap (still limited number of lines WTH?). Linux is also great. OS X/macOS is ideal because you get most of the benefits of Linux with one big difference, commercial software actually exists on OS X. I'll probably never buy a different brand laptop again. I have owned an Acer, HP, Toshiba all were pretty crappy and I spent more and more on each successive build (up to ~$1500). My first MacBook was second hand and cost $650 and it outlasted all of those, despite being 1.5 years old when I bought it, it's still going strong too, more than five years old.
One of my good friends, also CompSci absolutely hated Macs. Caught up with him recently and he was like "obviously you have a MacBook, yeah?" and turns out he bought one and absolutely loves it.
Another thing is Apple's support. It sucks to have to wait for an appointment, but its great that you don't have to ship away for three weeks, deal with postage, etc. If you manage to go to the store early enough you can usually sneak an appointment in too.
They've been a good investment for me so far. Very few technical issues out of any Apple hardware I've ever owned.. Usually end up as hand me downs for the rest of my family or resold (as they retain their value well). I really don't understand any of the hate people throw their way.
I move from Windows to linux, because at the time Windows didn't have powershell, and I wanted a more powerful CLI. I still use lots of linux machines, but realised that OSX was already offering everything I was looking for out of Linux and gave it a go. I haven't looked back.
I owned a load of laptops over the years including a Dell Inspiron, a load of IBM Thinkpads and most recently a Lenovo and a Dell XPS 13. When they're actually working, they still mostly sit unused, because my 2012 MBP is still the best laptop I've ever owned.
I grew up with lots of different "smart" tablets and phones from different manufacturers including HP, Nokia and I-Mate and then I tried my first iPhone… I haven't looked back. Now I do most of my content creation on laptops etc, but almost all my media is consumed on one of my iDevices, which works perfectly for me.
This stuff is all subjective, and people are entitled to their own views.. But I don't understand how someone else finding a product useful is somehow offensive to you, or generates this level of animosity?
I sold my surface pro 4, didn't use it, bought that Inspiron 11 inch from a deal hear to see what it was like as a Kali machine…still prefer Kali running on a 2009 white MacBook so I'll sell that soon too. I even tried to use other phones from esoteric android phones to the lumias to the galaxy's for a year. They just felt tacky compared to an iPhone.
@jenkemjunkie: iOS is good. People get up in arms because the iPhone is actually a very high performing device. Look at the single core performance of last years iPhone, it's higher than the new S7 Edge's. But no Apple sucks and it's all crap, blah blah blah.
A lot of security/pen testers recommend the iPhone over any other smart phone alternative if privacy is a legitimate concern…
Regardless, I like simplicity because it saves my time. I like time machine and I like air drop, and I didn't have to read up on how to use it. I did the whole custom rom, phone firmware Tom foolery bull shit and it was more a time sink preventing me from getting shit I needed to get done done. I couldn't be bothered with jail breaking a phone these days so maybe I've just grown tired of that sort of stuff. If I had the time, I'd rather find a loophole than follow a internet how to recipe.
@jenkemjunkie: iOS is great. If you jailbreak iOS and develop tweaks I find that its absolutely perfect. I own two Android tablets and have been through the whole rooting thing but it still seems less polished than what Android offers. Sure, custom kernels, etc, but I have no interest in that. The biggest reason for me to root would be to get a freaking update on a tablet worth $800 that is just a year old, but no. A reason why I won't touch a Samsung mobile device again.
If you can develop tweaks for iOS the possibilities are pretty limitless. Though I don't have much time for it these days, it's pretty great being able to do things like adding Touch ID to your banking application and the like. You don't need to be a genius to realise that iOS is better for those that are privacy conscious. After all, Google make most their money through advertising and data mining, who knows what GAPPS are doing on your Android device, these apps are not open source either.
The people who shit on iOS and Apple tend to have pretty limited technical knowledge. It's mostly people who consider themselves elitists because they edited the registry once or patched their hosts file or something trivial. No matter what though, there's always some massive feature that Android does better. Like my personal favourite "I can program on Android" – oh really, do you? "No, but I can." Well you can on iOS too, install a toolchain from Cydia and you're good to go. Building on device is only useful if you're using SSH/SCP because development on Windows for iOS used to be a pain, but it's probably improved now. For Android, there's very little reason, unless you don't own a PC, because the Android SDK is cross platform and officially supported.
So essentially, you bought a car, crashed it into a pole, and the dealer wouldn't help out with repair costs.
Am I right with this analogy?
That said, I had (a few years ago now) a MBP repaired because of some minor issue (I can't recall). They replaced the MB but slightly damaged the casing (small scratch). In the end, they replaced my yearXX high spec CTO with a year XX+1 high spec standard (that met or exceeded all specs of the CTO).
Won't say it wasn't a hassle, but credit where credit is due.
You also shouldn't badmouth a company on the internet when you actually haven't dealt with them directly. Contact Apple over the phone, explain the situation, and see if the AppleCare advisor (probably in Ireland) can get you an appointment at your nearest Genius Bar. Ask nicely.
Try and be proactive rather than coming on here talking crap about a party that has nothing to do with your issue.
While I don't agree with Apple's expensive part pricing, I still feel that if you don't like the pricing then don't use Apple products again. And you said that in your original post.
An Audi headlight cost 10 times a Toyota or Holden one, I heard. =)
in case you missed the story that milhouse is trying to tell, It does seem like he has been taken out for dinner as he did get a replacement laptop with a newer spec. =)
It's pretty clear that was a paid comment from Millhouse.
Sweet - what's your PayPal email? I'll invoice you now.
Maybe just realise that most places don't offer that level of service to begin with and that, as a Perthie, I have to wait to get stuff shipped over to the east coast sometimes in case of repair. Either way, their service is pretty good. Perfect? No, but certainly above par.
AppleCare can often bump in appointments at a Genius Bar. I have no doubt it shits the store off, but they can do it.
For the record, I'm now using a Surface Book.
Finally, I'd assume the display is the same one in the current $1549 13" MBA. So really, you're needing a replacement part for a $1549 laptop (in terms of parts).
They damaged the laptop and you had to chase them?
Best service
I noticed the small scratch when collecting it, raised my concerns, agreed to take it for the moment, and a replacement was arranged. It was actually very fast.
No, you're analogy is not right. Here's a better one. He ran over a pothole and damaged his wheel rim and now Apple wants to charge him for a brand new car to fix it.
Not quite. He's crashed into a pole and only damaged the front bumper. Now the dealer wants to charge you the cost of the car just to fix it and you are pressured to have it fixed at the dealer, otherwise they will void your extended warranty.
OP's comments seem to suggest that he would've repaired it himself at his own cost, but would rather pay for the repair and not void the warranty if the cost was reasonable. Which i don't think anyone could argue that it is reasonable to charge close to the cost of the laptop to repair the screen
Except what damaged isn't the front bumper but the entire front end. The screen on a laptop is the 2nd most expensive part and probably the hardest to get at and replace. A MacBook air is ~$1400 new so they're charging about half the price which seems entirely fair. Yes it's a lot of money to pay but the work needed is non trivial. This is why you get insurance on valuable purchases…
How do you know that it is the 2nd most expensive part? Because if i had to speculate i wouldn't be that certain. I'd put it 1. motherboard then it's a tossup between pcie ssd/m.2, processor and screen. Even if it was the 2nd most expensive, that doesn't mean much when it is far from making up the bulk of cost. But that doesn't matter because we don't need to speculate on how much the screen costs, in proportion to the cost of producing the laptop because OP said it could be had for around $200 (probably costs less for them) while they are charging 700 for the screen only.
Now as to whether or not he should've had insurance for consumer electronics, that is entirely up to the individual. A laptop or phone is no where substantial enough compared to say your home or car to say that you should've had insurance. And if they do break, it's hardly the end of the world
Glad I'm far to old for school. I'd hate being forced to contribute to the Evil Emoire and buy Apple. Why do you specifically need an Apple laptop for school?
The school sold its soul to the devil and decided it would get Apple compatible software licenses and so required students to get mac books to meet Byod criteria.
So those poor ass pleb students with Windows netbook running Atoms are out of luck as they won't have access to the software and textbooks the school provides.
That is actually rather common. Problem is that most decision makers in the education are hopeless when it comes to technology and just want something that they don't feel threatened by (i.e. iOS devices) and based their decisions around minimal information they know about the devices (i.e. how it look and the manufacturer's presentation). You won't believe how big a stranglehold Apple has around the education system.
My kids' private school spent ages looking at different options and ended up with Surface Pros (with a bit of help from me, hehe.) It's all good except for all the kids dropping them (I think the extended support covers 2 screen breaks.)
Unfortunately they chose ipads for the primary students (haven't had to buy one yet - not looking forward to it.)
You should be angry at the morons in your school that make these expensive laptops a 'requirement'.
Probably the school gets them from Apple cheaper via Apple's educational pricing. They sell to educational institutions at a great discount, higher than the student discount they offer. The school probably just resells them at full price and makes a profit. Having a MacBook is only really good for development, not much else.
Damn kids I can't hear you over my Linux kernel compiling. fan noises
But no.. kids these days say Apple has the best service.
I'll be upgrading my laptop to 64gb of ram tonight, what's that? Your Macbook's ram is soldered on?
I chuckled when you mentioned 64GB of RAM on the laptop. Unless it is a 2000+$ laptop I won't believe you
I have a cheap <$800 laptop with 4 ram slots. Notebook ram is cheap as chips - why not?
Because it is a motherboard limitation? Just because you have 4 RAM slots does not mean that you can chuck in 16GB x 4 sticks and it magically works to 64GB RAM. Have you checked the motherboard manual as to whether it actually supports that much of memory?
One time I downloaded too much ram and my laptop became sentient
cool story. WHats that? you needed so much RAM?
what an 'apple-ing' situation. tteee heeee haa!
I know this post is here to hate on Apple, but when I cracked my Microsoft Surface 3 screen, I was told it'd cost me ~600 to fix. I checked again recently and now they're saying 800. I guess they're running out of parts? Pretty sure I could get a new surface for that price.
Let's add Microsoft to the list. Companies can charge what people are willing to pay.
Oh come off it, man. That isn't even that bad. I had to get a Lenovo business grade laptop screen replaced, and that had one of the shitty low-spec screens - $440, which my boss was surprised with the price. They expected around $800 or so, but this is for a low spec'd laptop.
Get over yourself.
Really? And what is high grade about a 13 inch display with around HD resolution? It's not like it is a 4K display.
It's an extremely thin screen inside a very thin aluminium shell - pricing is to be expected, surely?
The Macbook Air display itself is virtually garbage by today's standards, no way it's worth that much. Also, if it's difficult to repair, it's because Apple made it that way. Hardly an accident.
@ProspectiveDarkness: Well he's talking about the 2013 model, mate. The form factor makes it expensive to install. Calm your farm
Well he's talking about the 2013 model, mate
Which means it should be even cheaper.
The form factor makes it expensive to install
This has no bearing on the cost of the panel itself. They're charging for installations separately.
Calm your farm
My farm is perfectly calm. Given your reply further up the thread, seems like you're the one with your underwear in a bunch over Apple.
"Air display itself is virtually garbage by today's standards"
So why are you comparing it to today's models?
Because OP is being charged $710 today, not in 2013. A garbage display from 2013 shouldn't cost anywhere near that much when we have 1080p, 1440p and 4K touchscreens all over the place. If it was an rMBP maybe the price would be justified.
You forget we are on OzBargain
Anything more than free is too much
I'll pay that.
Never seen such a greedy and overpriced bunch like Apple.
And you just figured this out now? They have boasted for years that they make more profit per phone than anyone else. They became popular as an anti-establishment company, but then they became the establishment. The biggest, greediest, anti Australian company there is. They charge Aussies double what Americans pay for a tune off the same server FFS!
Unlike other companies which charge Aussies the same price as everywhere else, such as… oh damn I'm having a hard time coming up with one name. OI'll wait for you to provide that list.
Apple fan Bois. They're adorable.
And there's the deflection, typical.
There's already a pre existing club for this. It has many members.
I have no idea why people buy Apple in first place… As a matter of fact Samsung is now in that bracket as well..
Technology is meant to go cheaper not dearer..
I understand they add new features every now and then, but considering that 95% of technology used in a particular device is from the last year's release, the prices must still go down, or atleeaast stay the same. And am not yet considering the economies of scale as these companies are adding users/customers every year or the production efficiencies gained in that year's time.
I now look for the cheapest stuff for my devices, many options around. Some Chinese and Indian companies have split the market wide open on these gadgets.
I always go for a Mac because of the OS. I find that Adobe programs (Photoshop etc) are much less stable on Windows.
Fair enough reason, I knew some one who wanted an iphone and Mac just because of the brand, not because of the programs or specs. Lost my respect after that.
Question:How do you milk sheep???
Answer:Release a new iPhone…
I can here the Apple fanboys bleating from here!!!
I bought a macbook pro retina last year for ~1500 and just after 6 months it was constantly overheating, turning itself off, etc. So I brought to Apple store and found out it got water damaged (honestly I don't know how). And they asked me for 1300
Spare me mate, you broke the screen and now somehow expect special treatment.
Guess what Apple will not give a flying toss about you never spending another cent with them….
Apple care does for phone and tablets just not on the laptops