Keyboard damage to screen on 2021 MBP 16"

[stereodan]

About a month ago a friend of mine dropped a heavy bit of luggage on my laptop bag. The screen was pushed into the keyboard and touchpad bridge and caused a faint but permanent reddish imprint in the screen. I have AppleCare+ and was expecting to pay the $100 to get it replaced, however when I took it in and explained the situation, the employee quickly brushed it off as "it's an issue with the coating" and that it was "covered by the warranty" and authorized a free repair.

Now I'm all for free stuff, but I'm curious why Apple is so freewheeling with this screen replacement, as this was definitely an accident that caused damage to the actual pixels as I explained to them, and not a coating issue. I've heard from an Apple employee friend that Apple has a running list of "ghost recalls" where no formal recall is announced, but if you bring a product in with a particular fault, or something potentially related, they will quietly fix it, gratis.

My suspicion is that with some MBPros, the keyboard rubs against the screen and damages the coating, and this is subject to a "ghost recall" of some sort. Anyone else had this issue?

 

[Apple_Robert]

I think you are looking for a conspiracy that doesn't exist. An Apple employee went out of his way to make you happy. Be thankful and stop trying to overthink this repair.

 

[robotica]

Yeah that guy was being nice to you

 

[nikhsub1]

I think you are looking for a conspiracy that doesn't exist. An Apple employee went out of his way to make you happy. Be thankful and stop trying to overthink this repair.

This 100% ^^

 

[stereodan]

I think you are looking for a conspiracy that doesn't exist. An Apple employee went out of his way to make you happy. Be thankful and stop trying to overthink this repair.

I would be inclined to agree, except

1) This is a company that stopped including chargers with their phones to save a few $; a screen replacement without AC+ is $900. There's no world in which Apple operates in a way that allows employees to hand them out like candy.

2) There is already a Class action lawsuit pending for an issue regarding damaged screens on M1 MacBooks, which would lend credence to the idea that Apple is treading lightly when considering screen repairs.

3) I’m not sure what you mean by conspiracy since this has already happened multiple times before. The keyboard crumb problem; rattling Airpods; antenna decoupling on the iPhone 7. At the time, if you brought your product in, you would have quietly received a free repair in the exact same way I did. It’s a real thing! And there are surely quite a few more we haven’t heard about because nobody went on a forum and asked about it.

Sure; could've been a "nice guy" moment. But I'm going to pull the "you had to be there" card and say that he took one look at it and immediately said "yea so this'll be an issue with the coating." It was not at all "I like you personally so I'm going to stick my neck out" and more of "I know what this is and have been trained to offer a repair in this situation"

 

[The Game 161]

sounds like a great guy

 

[Sterkenburg]

He could have told you to bite the bullet on the flat repair fee, instead he went the extra mile to help you and labeled it as a defect. Just be thankful, you received a great customer support.

 

[Six0Four]

I had a tiny piece of paint that chipped off my new 14 MBP caps lock key and I took it in to be replaced and the genius guy kept telling me that I can just return it for a new machine (was only a week old). Seemed like he really wanted to replace the whole device. Since I had a perfect display I didn't want a new one.

I was just sort of shocked that instead of replacing a key that takes 5 mins they would want to replace the whole machine. Seems like a huge loss for them.

 

[Fishrrman]

You expected to pay and (to your surprise) got a free repair from Apple.
What more could one ask for?

So... what's the purpose of this thread?
(other than looking the gift horse in the mouth...)

 

[stereodan]

Ah, now I remember why I left this forum full of nebbish pedantic *******s.

 

[jasonp99]

About 5 or 6 years back when I took in my 2011 15" MBP for the video recall, they fixed that but when they gave me back my machine the nice lady said that one of the memory SIMM's was bad (weird, since it was fine when I gave it to them), and the Magsafe power connector was bad (again, it was working prior). But I didn't press her on the specifics since they did all that for no charge.

 

[Shaggymax]

Nineteen years and counting!

 

[MuGeN PoWeR]

Ah, now I remember why I left this forum full of nebbish pedantic *******s.

 

[con500]

That guy isn't apple though. He works for them but is a consumer like you or I at the end of the day. If he saw an opportunity to write a repair up as warranty..even if slightly disingenuous, he was doing you a solid and its within the majority of our best interests if there are more apple employees like him Just a little unethical can slide when the giants are busy counting our readies

 

[J.Gallardo]

…This thing happened to me: bought a refurbished 21” iMac from Apple(web), an intel i5 with a nice 1TB ssd and 16GB ram at a very good price.
The machine was perfect, specs and pice matched, looked like completely new (the smell… you know) BUT,
They sent me it with an intel i7 inside!!
[EDIT]: I tried (not too insistingly) to communicate with Apple about this “issue” and they avoided to answer.

I’ve been Apple customer for more than 20 years, and I suspect there’s some kind of policy… like “we’re expensive but nice people”. It’s like they’re been told: don’t loose the opportunity to gain a loyal customer if stock allows you to.
I’ve read experiences like these from Apple users through the years… and I think there’s some kind of intention, I’m not sure.

 

[mkelly]

My wife‘s boss accidentally spilled coffee on my wife’s personal MacBook Pro while they were out for lunch. My wife immediately powered it down, flipped the laptop over, pulled the battery (back when you could do that!) and let it drain/dry for a couple days. The laptop worked great after that, for 3 months … and then the trackpad and some of the keys stopped working.

When she took it to an Apple store for repair they outright asked her if anything had been spilled on it and she said yes & told the story about her boss & the coffee. They had to replace the top cover (including trackpad and mouse) but told her they were only going to charge her for the parts.

When we went in to pick it up several days later, the Apple tech/genius handed the laptop to us (with a new keyboard/trackpad installed) and said “Happy birthday! No charge for the repair. Enjoy!”

So yeah, sometimes Apple and its employees do nice things just to be nice.

 

[bill-p]

My suspicion is that with some MBPros, the keyboard rubs against the screen and damages the coating, and this is subject to a "ghost recall" of some sort. Anyone else had this issue?

Yep. I have had this issue with every single MacBook from 2016... including the new 14" Pro that I have here.

There is... very little clearance between the screen and the keyboard. Any debris big enough sitting on the deck that you don't notice before you close the screen? That's going to damage the screen outright. It's not just coating but you may actually crack the display.

How do I know? There was a small piece of dust sitting on the palm rest area. I saw it and was going to wipe it away when my 2-year-old son pushed the display down.

But barring that, there's an imprint of the keyboard and trackpad on the screen from just having the MacBook inside a bag with no pressure on the screen.

This is not a conspiracy. It's reality. Even with the new 14" and 16" Pro having thicker casing, Apple still designs them with ZERO CLEARANCE between display and keyboard/trackpad.

So what now? I have AppleCare+ and I don't think they're going to charge me a lot (and it may as well be free), but I would be wary of buying any 2nd hand MacBook without AppleCare+ going forward. Screen damage due to design is real. And I bet it'll continue to be real for another 4-something years until Apple redesign their MacBooks again.

 

[Fred Zed]

Yep. I have had this issue with every single MacBook from 2016... including the new 14" Pro that I have here.

There is... very little clearance between the screen and the keyboard. Any debris big enough sitting on the deck that you don't notice before you close the screen? That's going to damage the screen outright. It's not just coating but you may actually crack the display.

How do I know? There was a small piece of dust sitting on the palm rest area. I saw it and was going to wipe it away when my 2-year-old son pushed the display down.

But barring that, there's an imprint of the keyboard and trackpad on the screen from just having the MacBook inside a bag with no pressure on the screen.

This is not a conspiracy. It's reality. Even with the new 14" and 16" Pro having thicker casing, Apple still designs them with ZERO CLEARANCE between display and keyboard/trackpad.

So what now? I have AppleCare+ and I don't think they're going to charge me a lot (and it may as well be free), but I would be wary of buying any 2nd hand MacBook without AppleCare+ going forward. Screen damage due to design is real. And I bet it'll continue to be real for another 4-something years until Apple redesign their MacBooks again.

Do you have a keyboard membrane cover ?

 

[bill-p]

Do you have a keyboard membrane cover ?

No. No screen protector either. I took those off about one month before the crack.

In fact, I initially thought the issue was due to the screen protector and keyboard cover, so that's why I took them off. One month later, I was WRONG. The screen protector and the keyboard cover were actually able to PROTECT the screen and keyboard against damage. Now that I have taken them off, damage that would have been sustained by the screen protector is dealt directly and permanently to the display.

So whenever I take this MacBook in for a repair, I'll definitely keep the screen protector and keyboard cover always on. Lesson learned.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Apple has a “surprise and delight” policy that gives retail employees a bit of leeway in repair situations. Be happy an employee decided to use this policy with you.