Apple does not have a send-in repair service?

[romanof]

This is a new one for me.

Just had my one month old M2 Studio lose a TB port. No big deal except for a heart-stopping moment when I thought my Pro XDR had just burned out. But swapping to another port brought it up.

On to Apple support, where the service was superb. The 2 minute call back time was reduced to about 3 seconds and I actually got a real person.

But... As we went through service options, she offered the Apple store in the big city. I said that I was WAY out in the country and that was a triple digit drive one way, so I would rather mail it in even with the longer service time.

That was when she said that Apple does not have mail/UPS/Fedex send-in for Macs. In person only for warranty repairs.

???

Since this is my first Apple product of 20 years that ever failed, I have no experience with repairs, but this was somewhat... bothering? surprising? I remember helping a friend sending in a new iMac that had a child failure (although several years ago), so might this be something recent?

 

[MBAir2010]

This is a new one for me too
I sent in a watch, EarPods and almost a 2010 MacBook Air in the year 2016.
wow, I guess this mac model is too large to ship for free and the CEOs won't f'spring for the shipping bill anymore.

 

[Boyd01]

I've sent Macs (and a big, monster 21 inch CRT Studio Display) to Apple before, but that was many years ago. You would schedule the repair, then they would send you an emtpy box for shipping the Mac to them. This FAQ implies that these same options are still available. So, no idea what is going on, but if it were me, I'd try contacting somebody else at Apple and ask them if the infomation in this FAQ is still correct.

"After you’ve contacted Apple for service, you’ll receive a kit that contains everything you need to return your Mac to Apple."

How to send your Mac to Apple for service - Apple Support

Learn how to send your Mac to Apple for service.

support.apple.com

 

[Boyd01]

Hmm, looking some more, I found this. Perhaps, for some reason, they determined your products were not eligible for direct mail-in service?

"Direct Mail-In Service. If Apple determines that your product is eligible for Direct Mail-In Service, you will ship your product to Apple’s repair service location in accordance with Apple’s instructions."

Legal - General Service - Apple

www.apple.com

 

[romanof]

Hmm, looking some more, I found this. Perhaps, for some reason, they determined your products were not eligible for direct mail-in service?

"Direct Mail-In Service. If Apple determines that your product is eligible for Direct Mail-In Service, you will ship your product to Apple’s repair service location in accordance with Apple’s instructions."

Legal - General Service - Apple

www.apple.com

A one month old brand new BTO M2 Mac Studio bought from the online Apple store? If that doesn't qualify, I don't know what would. I also found some 2024 Apple articles that mentioned send-in warranty service. I will give them a call back tomorrow. Something is not right here.

 

[Macky-Mac]

A one month old brand new BTO M2 Mac Studio bought from the online Apple store? If that doesn't qualify, I don't know what would. I also found some 2024 Apple articles that mentioned send-in warranty service. I will give them a call back tomorrow. Something is not right here.

Definitely call again......the last time I called Apple Support I discovered the call had been forwarded to a remote worker who usually handled sales and not Support. I called again the next day and got a completely different story.

 

[romanof]

Well, I still haven't found out. While I was waiting for business hours to arrive to make my call, I was searching around Apple documents for any new changes and once again I left the room for a while. When I came back the Studio monitor had come on. For two days, now, everything plugged into that port for testing works fine.

???

The good side of this anomaly is that I still have 11 months of warranty left if it reoccurs.

 

[romanof]

Here we go again. After almost exactly one month, the port died again, and this time while I was sitting at the computer. Suddenly, the secondary Studio Display just went black and the cursor now stops at the right edge of the primary, so the system assumed that it had been disconnected. Moving to another port brought the display back up. Plugging a USB drive in the failing port got a light on the drive, but no indication of existence by the system.

This time I went through the Apple support pages and found the Mail-In option for Macs. When business hours arrive, I will call in for support again and we will see who says what on the subject.

Later edit:
Changed my plan. I will wait a week or so to see if it comes back. I don't want it to get to the repair shop and be working. Last time it was about 4 days before it popped back on. 3/4 of a year warranty left, so I have plenty of time.

 

[romanof]

Apple refuses to allow mail in on the 5 month old $2500 Studio. Told them that a reservation meant 400 miles of travel, to drop it off, then go back and get it. But...

"We're sorry. Mail in option is not currently available at your location."

End of my Apple purchases. I will finally make the move back to Linux.

 

[chown33]

You could try emailing Tim Cook:
tcook@apple.com

At this point, I don't see anything to lose by doing so.

EDIT
I thought of something else.
You don't say whether you've run Apple Diagnostics when the port is malfunctioning.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.

support.apple.com

If it produces an error status of some kind, that would be worth mentioning in the email to Tim Cook.

 

[romanof]

I have followed their instructions on the first call in and more. Ran all the diagnostics I could find, tried another monitor (two Apple monitors, actually), another USB device, booted safe mode to test the port, reset back to day 1 and reloaded from time machine, then finally, reset to clear then loaded only a new OS from the 'net. The port is dead. Not only that, but I suddenly realized that now the port on the opposite end of the four will sometimes not activate without a reboot.