Really frustrating experience with apple Repair

[SimonTT]

First of all you should view the attached file to make your own opinion on wether my Mac has a Problem or I am just being petty.

in March I got my 2021 16“ MacBook Pro for which i had to wait around 2 months and cost 3500€ or 4270$ at the time.
Accordingly high were my expectations, which were actually met until one day my Power Adapter startet humming.
I contacted Apple Support they told me to plug it out and in (I didn’t do it because I wasn’t interested in fixing the symptoms instead of eradicating the source) which actually fixed it and so they just told me to observe it and get in contact if anything happens.
It never hummed again. End of Story.

No of course not, then the MagSafe Port started to act up (as seen in the video) so I contacted Apple support once again.
It was a nice experience they sent me a replacement power adapter and cable(the nice support guy even got me a space grey cable instead of the silver one that came with my space grey MBP) and i just had to send back my old parts.
Problem fixed. End of Story.

No of course not, nothing changed (apart from the color of the cable).
After another pleasant chat with Apple Support I went to Apple Store Rosenstraße (about 1h one way drive), since my sister was going to Munich anyway, but since it was pre Christmas and in the absolut center of Munich the Store was overcrowded and there was no way a Genius had time. At least I bought some nice Apple stuff.

After that disappointment I surprisingly got an Genius Bar appointment the very next day at Apple Store OEZ. It was a fun drive hyperlmiling a BMW to 50+MPG while going 80MPH. The Apple Store OEZ is the complete opposite of the Apple Store Rosenstraße maybe two customers per table and most the time at least two employees were idle. OEZ truly embodies the vision of an Apple Store.
Back to the topic. I went in there talked to an employee, had to wait like 30 seconds and then my Genius came, a very friendly Lady. She asked me to describe the problem, I did that and then showed her the video. She wrote that down and then advised me to send it in for repair and told me that I would get it back on friday (it was Monday), if I am lucky, and at max on Tuesday.
Overall it was a very nice day i even got to buy some nice Apple Stuff

Then I got the following E-Mail(the picture), it says:“Problem: MagSafe sporadically doesn’t charge, LED only active after multiple moving.
SD-Card Slot also sporadically doesnt work.
Steps to reproduction: Visual inspection and function test at the Genius Bar
error traced
Visual condition: no abnormalities
Proposed solutions: Shipping to depot
Mac OS Version: unknown
Disk size: 0
Ram Size:0“
The interesting part is the price. Due to the self service repair store i know they would have replaced the Magsafe Board as well as the whole Mainboard.
Ok, I don’t mind having to set the Mac up once again if i therefore get a new SSD(they have a very long but finite life cycle)
Its Friday, they repaired it. I got back. End of Story.

No of course not. It is Friday, I check the Support App, Status :“being sent back to the Apple Store“, Ok minor inconvenience. I didn’t expect them to send it back to Apple Store, since it doesn’t cost them more money or effort to send it back to me. Then I look at what happened in the repaircenter. Nothing happened: they “couldn’t replicate the error” and sent it back to the Apple Store.
Major inconvenience: I didn’t have my Mac for a Week (my iPad sadly can’t replace a MacBook Pro even with a Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse), I have to drive another 2h and I am back to the beginning.

So I contacted Apple support once again. I prepared my explanation and then found out that Apple only allows 1024 characters per message, meaning I had to split my message into three. Firstly I entered an english chat since my iPad is set to English, normally that wouldn’t be a problem but i prepared my really long message in German and i didn’t want to translate my message for like 10 minutes. So I asked the support guy to transfer me to a German chat. He asked me for Patience, then I “lost connection and should wait to be transferred to a new Support employee”, this actually took quite long. But finally I was greeted by the three standard messages, weirdly enough the first one was English and the others German. That wasn’t the only weird thing: I couldn’t read the last messages, it would automatically scroll up to a certain point.
Enough of that, I endend the chat and tried to start a German one but on iPad you can’t change the languages of individual apps and the support app wouldn’t let me start a German chat. So I deleted the stupid support app (the website lets you choose the language but only if you haven’t installed the support app. Just why apple?).
Then I finally got a properly working German chat, resulting a half an hour of chatting where I was told to go to Apple Store and try my luck there. Tomorrow is Christmas and the Apple Store is only operating certain services (I have no Idea what that means). First day they are back to normal is Tuesday.

What should I do now? Try my luck and send it in for repair once again? Push for a replacement unit? Try replacing the board myself (I am quite skilled at that and the part from the self service repair store ist only 14€)? Or try something completely different?

 

[pshufd]

My local Apple Store can apparently fix anything as I've never had to have them send it out after they started doing repairs on-site. I think that they have a second or third shift running because they can repair stuff overnight. It may take longer if they need a part but the fix is done in the store.

I would ask for a replacement given the cost - the headache would be the wait time.

I have a 2014 MacBook Pro 15, currently on loan to a relative, and a 2015 MacBook Pro 15 which is my backup laptop or an extra if I want two screens when traveling. If I have to bring in my 2021 16, then I just use the 2015 15 until I get the 16 back. I can't afford to not have a laptop. If I lost them both (rather unlikely I think), I could ask for the 2014 back. I do plan to seel the 2014 or 2015 when the relative is done with it.

 

[SimonTT]

Hah, the OEZ Apple Store is not like that it is quite small and I not sure if they even do iPhone screen replacements.

Getting a replacement is also currently my preferred option, even tough doing it myself would probably be the fastest and easiest, but I just can’t get myself to replace a broken part on a device that is so expensive AND under warranty.
The Problem with a replacement is that I have a custom config and it would take weeks to get the same spec.
The next normal configs are either 460€ lower value or 410€ higher value. I wouldn’t take the lower spec one and probably won’t get the higher end one.

As for a Mac I could use a 2017 13“ base MBP but the dual core i5 is way slower than my iPad so its actually faster to use my iPad and as I am a Student I can get by for some time without power apps.

BTW I just saw that you also got the best phone there is and probably will ever or at least for a long time be. The 13 mini, what color did you get?

 

[pshufd]

Hah, the OEZ Apple Store is not like that it is quite small and I not sure if they even do iPhone screen replacements.

Getting a replacement is also currently my preferred option, even tough doing it myself would probably be the fastest and easiest, but I just can’t get myself to replace a broken part on a device that is so expensive AND under warranty.
The Problem with a replacement is that I have a custom config and it would take weeks to get the same spec.
The next normal configs are either 460€ lower value or 410€ higher value. I wouldn’t take the lower spec one and probably won’t get the higher end one.

As for a Mac I could use a 2017 13“ base MBP but the dual core i5 is way slower than my iPad so its actually faster to use my iPad and as I am a Student I can get by for some time without power apps.

BTW I just saw that you also got the best phone there is and probably will ever or at least for a long time be. The 13 mini, what color did you get?

I got black - I just said give me whatever you have, other than pink. I love the iPhone 13 mini. I wouldn't even mind if it were smaller.

The MacBook Pro (and Studio and the other BTO stuff) is a real pain. They used to carry some common BTO options in the US so that you could order them and they would be shipped from a warehouse instead of from China. Saved Apple in shipping costs but they also had carrying costs. I have a BTO as well and it is the best laptop I've ever owned. I have a Studio for my desktop at home and the two system are so alike in performance. But I have 3-4 monitors on the Studio. My local store didn't carry the Ultra. The stores in the next state over did carry it but it would mean a trip an 6.25% in sales taxes and I just got the base Studio which still packs quite a punch.

I ordered my MBP over a year ago. Apple has just had a lot of stuff to deal with in their factories the past two months and some issues are slipping through. I would expect perfection given the costs of these machines.

 

[SimonTT]

iPhone 4 had the perfect size, sadly phones are heading in the complete opposite direction.

Why did you get a Base Studio? Can’t the a high end MBP do everything the Studio can?

Do you mean „an 6.25% INCREASE in sales taxes“. I know some states have no sales tax at all, if you only had to pay 6.25% sales tax you were really well off from a european perspective.

When mine was being delivered I saw many stories of scratched and banged up MBPs being delivered and wasn’t sure wether I wanted Apple to cut corners to just get the damn thing or that they kept their old standards, which probably would’ve meant my delivery time slipping.

Once I got my MBP I followed the shipping estimates and appreciated that I had one while some configs where taking nearly half a year to deliver. Now I am once again in that position.

 

[pshufd]

iPhone 4 had the perfect size, sadly phones are heading in the complete opposite direction.

Why did you get a Base Studio? Can’t the a high end MBP do everything the Studio can?

Do you mean „an 6.25% INCREASE in sales taxes“. I know some states have no sales tax at all, if you only had to pay 6.25% sales tax you were really well off from a european perspective.

When mine was being delivered I saw many stories of scratched and banged up MBPs being delivered and wasn’t sure wether I wanted Apple to cut corners to just get the damn thing or that they kept their old standards, which probably would’ve meant my delivery time slipping.

Once I got my MBP I followed the shipping estimates and appreciated that I had one while some configs where taking nearly half a year to deliver. Now I am once again in that position.

I hook up 3-4 monitors to the Studio and it would be a pain in the neck to plug and unplug daily. I also have three monitor port hubs and an additional Anker port hub and plug in a fair number of devices and that would be difficult to do on the MacBook Pro. The additional ports on the Studio are nice.

My state has no sales taxes (no income taxes either) and the sales tax in the neighboring state is 6.25%.

 

[SimonTT]

No sales tax is crazy, we have 19% and that’s not all we have up to 42% income tax. In total if you go to a store and buy something about 80% of your money somehow finds it way to the state, but at least we don’t have speed limits.

 

[pshufd]

No sales tax is crazy, we have 19% and that’s not all we have up to 42% income tax. In total if you go to a store and buy something about 80% of your money somehow finds it way to the state, but at least we don’t have speed limits.

Every state has Federal income taxes so you can pay up to around 36% in Federal taxes.

One huge problem that we have is housing because so many people want to move here.

 

[SimonTT]

Update:
I talked to a Genius at Apple Store OEZ and precisely explained him my problem and how I replicated it.
He said he would take a look at it with a technician, which would take up to a few days.
Today he called and said he couldn’t replicate the issue.
He told me that they can’t really do anything if they can’t replicate the issue, so I should come to them and show them how I provoked the issue, they also said that I should try if their display units are the same and I am just complains about build quality.

Now I am perplexed how this works.
I tried for 10secs max and got it to (dis)connect rapidly (video).
Surely Apple technicians would notice a faulty connection if they are told that the repaircenter didn’t notice it and they should prove that.

I would be really surprised if this was just build quality and I didn’t notice for 9 months, but hey you never know.

One explanation would be that it was just dirt stuck in the port, but I keep my devices meticulously clean and if the port was just dirty it wouldn’t have lasted weeks.

Another explanation is that it just healed itself. Sounds stupid but is not impossible if some connection desolderd because of heat (could easily happen when you fast charge with 140W) and then the solder gets vibrated to the right spot and melts everything is good again.
My old 2019 13“ MBP cooked its T-CON Board (no more signal to the internal display), one day I fell over its cable (pre MagSafe days) and it dropped ~40cm onto carpet and suddenly the internal display worked again.
After that the display went black a couple more times but I just dropped it onto something soft every time and at first the problem reappeared every couple days then weeks and then months.

 

[SimonTT]

Update 2:
I went to the Apple Store and picked up my Mac.
Essentially they told me that it was just taking time for the Mac and Power adapter to communicate and that was perfectly normal behaviour (would be normal if a connection would be established at some point), but at that point I just wanted my Mac back, so I didn't really argue.

After that I spent some time looking at the MacBooks the had displayed (I should really have picked silver instead of space grey) and when I played around with a M2 Air I disconnected the Magsafe and reconnected it and funnily enough its charging indicator also went out (green before), so I asked an employee if this was normal and he imedeatly told me this shouldn't happen. After reconnecting it again it never happen again. But still what a weird coincidence.

 

[wilberforce]

After reading through this, I am still unclear what the problem is. Can you summarize in one sentence the issue?

btw, I assume you know that there is a data connection between the charger and device; they need to communicate and establish a mutually acceptable charging profile. These are not just "dumb" chargers.

 

[SimonTT]

It doesn't always charge when the charger is connected (the disconnects in the video aren't temporary they are position sensitive I.e. if the cable is left that way it wouldn't get a connection because the "handshake" between charger and device isn't the problem)