Their site says only the 2016 13” models are covered, but you could play dumb/helpless and try your luck.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Macbook Pro Flexgate discussion [Merged]
- Thread starter SourceSunTom
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I also have minor staingate issues (like minor lines of the anti glare coating coming off). I just saw that the staingate was an actual issue when I searched about the problem of my screen which I posted a few posts back. Now I’m not sure if they’d covered it since my display is messed up.
Yeah, if you have staingate issues then take it in and be firm about it. One think i would say is to clean the screen and make sure the staingate area is clearly visible. They should fix it for free.
Read higher up in this thread. There are some pictures from people who have had theirs repaired that have received longer cables.
I'll take your word for it. I'm taking my laptop in to be repaired tomorrow so I hope I'm wrong.
Not really the repair program only covers 2016 MacBook Pro 13 inch both Touch Bar and non Touch Bar it does not cover 15 inch or any newer models unfortunately, the period it’s also very short it covers up to four years since the MAC was on sale wich means it will expire on october 2020 it’s an improvement but it’s not good enough I guess the most affected users should be the one with the older 2016 models but who knows
Hope you get a longer one. Have you opened it up and looked at it? It‘d interesting to see before and after.
I just tried to get a photo but I can't seem to pop the clips to take the back panel off.
Looks like the repair program only applies to the 2016 13” MacBook Pro’s. This problem isn’t exclusive to the 13” models only based on other user complaints so I’m really hoping other models including the 15” and 2017 Macbook Pro’s get added to this repair program as well.
I dont know why they didnt include the 2017 also...the 2018 have already the longer cable but 2017 dont...very strange indeed
Probably because 2016 has the extra year usage. Could still add the 2017. I would be stating my case that they are the exact same build.
Our org has experienced this twice since Jan 19'; Once on 13" 2016 MBP, once on a 15" 2016 MBP. Apple is refunding the repair cost from Jan 19'; they have not included the 15" MBP models yet, I expect that will come soon hopefully. For now, we'll have to pay for that repair, ouch! Apple will hopefully take care of their customers, they certainly have the resources. As new hardware continues to get smaller and lighter, they need to concentrate on quality IMO.
Wow, I am amazed at the amount of people that are posting similar problems I just experienced with mine few weeks ago which I created a thread about. It’s like it is all timed to happen.
I took my MBPro ‘16 to the same Apple store I had a terrible experience in few weeks ago with them refusing the service and leaving the only option of $475 LCD replacement. I tried to convince manager and told him how many problems I had with this computer, but he still refused the service for free of charge claiming it’s an external damage and they need to diagnose it ( even though I diagnosed it for them myself already that it’s the cable with a lot of evidence).
Today, I took it to the Same Apple store again and fortunately the same person that I had a bad experience with, oh this really felt good this time without questions asked, he took the computer in for a repair.
I took my MBPro ‘16 to the same Apple store I had a terrible experience in few weeks ago with them refusing the service and leaving the only option of $475 LCD replacement. I tried to convince manager and told him how many problems I had with this computer, but he still refused the service for free of charge claiming it’s an external damage and they need to diagnose it ( even though I diagnosed it for them myself already that it’s the cable with a lot of evidence).
Today, I took it to the Same Apple store again and fortunately the same person that I had a bad experience with, oh this really felt good this time without questions asked, he took the computer in for a repair.
I just booked my late-2016 13” tb MacBook Pro in with Apple Sydney, one week after they quoted me $691 AUD to repair. I hope that there is global consistency with the part having a longer flex cable. The part number quoted in the repair was 661-07970 (space grey display assembly)
I just got my Macbook Pro 13 TouchBar 2016 fixed for free so I thought I'd share my experience. Mine developed the spotlight pattern at the bottom. At first, people at my Apple store claim that the spotlight pattern is not covered by this 'flexgate' issue. Apparently, Apple gave them some description of what issues should be covered and spotlight pattern was not one fo them.
After some arguing and me pointing out that Apple should have provided photos of what is or what is not covered, they opted to send my laptop in for repair. If the repair person decides that it's covered, then it will be free, otherwise, they will ask me if I want to pay for it.
I just got the laptop back. They replaced the screen and didn't charge me anything. On the repair summary, however, the symptom is 'Anti-reflective coating delamination', which is a completely different issue from flexgate and one that I didn't think I was suffering from. I don't know if they just randomly picked a screen related issue or what.
Anyway, the screen got repaired for free at the end so I remain a satisfied customer. However, it really seems that Apple didn't give a clear directive to the stores on what screen issues are due to flexgate.
After some arguing and me pointing out that Apple should have provided photos of what is or what is not covered, they opted to send my laptop in for repair. If the repair person decides that it's covered, then it will be free, otherwise, they will ask me if I want to pay for it.
I just got the laptop back. They replaced the screen and didn't charge me anything. On the repair summary, however, the symptom is 'Anti-reflective coating delamination', which is a completely different issue from flexgate and one that I didn't think I was suffering from. I don't know if they just randomly picked a screen related issue or what.
Anyway, the screen got repaired for free at the end so I remain a satisfied customer. However, it really seems that Apple didn't give a clear directive to the stores on what screen issues are due to flexgate.
The downside of employees doing this is that it throws their repair statistics off. If they have a lot of failures, then they can address those failures. If they get bad failure data, then they may not address real problems.
It boggles my mind that the spotlight effect is not covered under the flexgate repair program. It's Appe's fault for not clearly defining the problem for their employees. I'm also amazed that Apple would let something like flexgate happen with its design...