How unlucky are you?

[emraha06]

How many times have you had to return or replace an Apple device with new one (iPhone, iPad, Mac etc) over and over again?

For example my worst experience was about my mbp 2018 which was replaced 6 times in a span of months because of several issues on each new one (dead pixel, speaker problem, backlight bleeding)

 

[S.B.G]

I bought a refurb iMac back around 2010. It kept freezing randomly. I brought it into the Apple Store twice for repairs and on the third time, they replaced the whole computer with a brand new one at no cost to me.

 

[Reverend Benny]

How many times have you had to return or replace an Apple device with new one (iPhone, iPad, Mac etc) over and over again?

For example my worst experience was about my mbp 2018 which was replaced 6 times in a span of months because of several issues on each new one (dead pixel, speaker problem, backlight bleeding)

Got a new 3GS on my insurance cuz I decided to go for a swim on a midsummer's night with it in my pocket.
Also had 2 battery replacements done on my 6S, first one was cuz the 6S came with a faulty batterie from the factory and the second one was also free cuz the first replacement seemed to be a faulty battery as well.

That's about it I think.

Had had a series of i-gadgets and macbooks throughout the years, aside from what's mentioned above they have all been ok.
When it comes to Macbooks i'd say the worst experience I had was the noisy butteryfly keyboard. Was working fine but had to change cuz it was just to loud to type on.

 

[eyoungren]

I've had defective phones, not bad luck. Only the iPhone 5 though. My original was replaced in November 2012 for a bad speaker. After that it was replaced two or three more times (I lost count) for swelling batteries. My wife's iPhone 5 was replaced once for the same thing I believe.

Now there's a megathread around here long since buried that runs several pages. It's all about the iPhone 5 and Scuffgate. One person had to eventually be stopped by Apple employees after opening several brand new iPhone 5 box and still not being happy. It was either the color of the screen or scuffs. That's not bad luck (or just a perfectionist), it was bad QA on the part of Apple.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I replaced my 3G three times. The plastic case kept cracking on each side of the 30pin and on the third time, the Wi-Fi died, and the case was cracked.

Not sure if it was me or a design problem, but I saw other people with the same case issue. It happed to my brother with his 3GS.

 

[thecautioners]

I actually haven’t had any issues, ever. I’ve been in the Apple ecosystem since 2006 and everything has been flawless.

 

[snipr125]

Never any issues with all my Apple stuff brought new, but brought a Apple refurb iPad Air 3 from their site in 2019 and it refused to authenticate with Apple servers. Took it to the genius bar but they could not fix it. Shame as it looked brand new, but got a refund and just brought a new one off Amazon.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Been an Apple customer since 2007 and never needed to return any device for defects. Had the battery replaced in my 6S and X but that's about it..

 

[Matz]

Haven’t had to return anything for a defect. I had a Watch replaced because I cracked the glass.

Ok, now that I think about it, I did have to repair my first Mac - a Mac Plus that I purchased used in the 80s. Fortunately I found some instructions and soldered in a new resistor. Other than that, no problems.

 

[TechRunner]

I've been buying Apple products since 2006 and never had to return/exchange one. I'll be buying a couple of new Apple devices by the end of the year, so I hope my luck holds.

 

[macsforme]

My original iPhone 5 kept dropping calls, as did the first replacement. After the second replacement (3rd phone), I finally stopped having the issue.

 

[bchah]

2016 MacBook Pro 13":

Keyboard Replacement I
I/O board Replacement (Loose USB-C ports)
Keyboard Replacement II
Swollen Battery Replacement (Including Keyboard Replacement III)
Display Replacement (Stage light effect)

By the end, the only original part was the thin sheet of aluminum that makes up the bottom cover. It was truly the worst generation.

In contrast, now coming up 3 years on my 2021 M1 Pro with 96% battery capacity and no problems whatsoever. Really glad they turned it around with the MacBooks.

 

[RRC]

Been buying Apple products since my iPhone 3GS and honestly I've never had to return a single device - and I am OCD with their appearance and quality control.

 

[TracerAnalog]

How many times have you had to return or replace an Apple device with new one (iPhone, iPad, Mac etc) over and over again?

For example my worst experience was about my mbp 2018 which was replaced 6 times in a span of months because of several issues on each new one (dead pixel, speaker problem, backlight bleeding)

iPhone 6: 3 times before I got a new one

 

[PsykX]

Never but my dad bought the iPhone 3G when it was released, and 5 minutes in, it was already bricked.
He returned it and thought iPhones weren't ready for prime time so he didn't buy another one until like iPhone 7.

 

[antiprotest]

I have received devices with hardware defects 100% of the time when I preordered in September.

I have stopped making preorders and always wait until after the New Year to buy Apple products.

Hardware defects have reduced to 0%, so far.

 

[smirking]

An iPhone 4s was the only Apple device that was problematic from the start. It had a sticky sleep button that kept jamming. It was serviced a couple of times by a tech in the shop before they finally just gave me a refurbished unit instead that worked flawlessly for many years.

I also had the initial 2016 touchbar MBP with the butterfly keyboard and all of the associated problems. The keyboard actually stopped jamming after a few months, but I went on to suffer the entire rest of the laundry list of issues for that model. The ports were loose, the display ribbon cable began fraying, and the screen coating disintegrated.

Luckily, I bought AppleCare that one time. They practically replaced everything in that laptop right before I sold it after 2.5 years. It wasn't an entirely unlucky experience because I was able to haul back a sizable chunk of my original purchase price since it was practically a refurbished unit when it came back from repairs.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

How many times have you had to return or replace an Apple device with new one (iPhone, iPad, Mac etc) over and over again?

For example my worst experience was about my mbp 2018 which was replaced 6 times in a span of months because of several issues on each new one (dead pixel, speaker problem, backlight bleeding)

I bought myself a personal 2019 Macbook Pro, maxed out. Came to about $4k as I recall. Found it had the overheading problem, sent it in to Apple Engineering 4 times for logic board replacements in a row, each time to the surprise of the Customer Service rep who had never heard of such an issue. And each time taking longer and longer. With 4-6 months going by at a time, I bought myself a second MBP with an upgraded 5600m GPU, so I'd have something to actually use & could sell off if I ever got my original back. So there's another $4k. When I finally got the original model back for the last time, the Applecare was expired, and service said there was nothing else they could do. Right about then they introduced the M1 MBP's, effectively terminating our companies ability to use Apple computers, and the resale value of the MBP16s fell to about $1500 a piece overnight lol, stranding me with these two albatrosses I barely got to use and lost $5k on, and souring everyone here on Apple as a computer Co in general.

In the end, the Korean gamer guy who figured out the cooling mods has made it about the most powerful mobile CAD workstation there is, perfectly fine for design work on the go. But I don't take it into the office, out of embarrassment.

 

[ignatius345]

Maybe I've just been lucky, but honestly I can't remember more than a couple times I've had to bring an Apple device in for a defect in about 20+ years of buying Macs, iPhone, iPods, AirPods etc.

- I had a 5K iMac with a defective display that started showing severe image retention. Fortunately that came up within AppleCare and I got the panel replaced.

- I also had a polycarbonite MacBook where the battery started swelling up and pressing up against the trackpad. Also under AppleCare and also handled very well by Apple.

I can't think of any others, honestly. Will edit this post if anything else comes to mind.

 

[Analog Kid]

How many times have you had to return or replace an Apple device with new one (iPhone, iPad, Mac etc) over and over again?

For example my worst experience was about my mbp 2018 which was replaced 6 times in a span of months because of several issues on each new one (dead pixel, speaker problem, backlight bleeding)

I've never had to return or replace anything for myself, work or family. I also don't take the spotlight and magnifying glass out looking for minor blemishes in surface textures and such. I think I'd notice a stuck pixel, for example, but may not notice a dead pixel on a retina display and probably wouldn't notice or care about a tiny chip in the finish on some corner of a product.

 

[VertPin]

I've had defective phones, not bad luck. Only the iPhone 5 though. My original was replaced in November 2012 for a bad speaker. After that it was replaced two or three more times (I lost count) for swelling batteries. My wife's iPhone 5 was replaced once for the same thing I believe.

Now there's a megathread around here long since buried that runs several pages. It's all about the iPhone 5 and Scuffgate. One person had to eventually be stopped by Apple employees after opening several brand new iPhone 5 box and still not being happy. It was either the color of the screen or scuffs. That's not bad luck (or just a perfectionist), it was bad QA on the part of Apple.

There is a legendary iphone xs thread where a guy bought and returned up to 16 of them, too.

 

[ninecows]

My wife had to return a first edition iPhone SE once. It became hot for no apparent reason. Returned under EU “warranty” after 1 year or so.

And I had my AirPod Pros returned once under the repair program. That was after nearly 18 months of daily usage.

Otherwise nothing. Don’t know if that makes me lucky, normal or unlucky 😂

 

[Allen_Wentz]

How many times have you had to return or replace an Apple device with new one (iPhone, iPad, Mac etc) over and over again?

For example my worst experience was about my mbp 2018 which was replaced 6 times in a span of months because of several issues on each new one (dead pixel, speaker problem, backlight bleeding)

Never. In decades of owning/managing many many Apple devices has a return or replace happened more than once. Multiple butterfly keyboard repairs, but that is not what was asked.

 

[Lakris]

Never, at least not yet- finger crossed!
Entered the apple ecosystem in 2003 with a purple iPod mini. Since then I had MacBook, AirPods/AirPods Pro, MacBook Air, iPhone 7/11/14/15pro, Apple Watch SE/series 9 and Apple TV. Other family members had iPad/iPad Pro, iPhone 7/12mini/15pro. None of us has been unlucky with an apple device so far.

 

[eyoungren]

There is a legendary iphone xs thread where a guy bought and returned up to 16 of them, too.

We are probably thinking of the same person. Unfortunately at some point the mods combined all those threads in to one megathread and it's difficult to search through 100 pages or so for the specific instance and sequence of events you want to highlight.

I don't blame the mods, I mean at one point just about every other thread in this subforum was about iPhone 5 scuffing.