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Funny how personal anecdotes go. Let me tell you mine with Apple. A few months ago I spilled about 300ml of water on top of my MacBook Pro. It's one of the new

Funny how personal anecdotes go. Let me tell you mine with Apple. A few months ago I spilled about 300ml of water on top of my MacBook Pro. It's one of the newer models with the touchbar and the terrible butterfly keyboard (otherwise it's a fantastic machine though). The spillage happened just as I was about to finish work for the day. There was a lot of water there on top of the keyboard. It took me 5 or 6 large napkins to dry it out, even after having drained it first by leaning it sideways. I closed the laptop, put it on its case and went home for the day. Next morning I took it off the case at work and switched it on, just to find the display behaving oddly (weird colours and artefacts). After a few minutes, the display froze and I believe the whole computer did too. I force-rebooted it and the same thing happened, only this time a lot quicker. After a third time I decided to keep it shut down and head back home to get my backup computer. I made an appointment at the Apple store and took it in. I described what happened precisely, didn't leave a single detail out. They took it in, found zero water damage but acknowledged the problems. I was told it could take up to 10 days as I use a US keyboard (this happened in London) and they might not have one in stock. About 4 days later I got a call to pick it up. They had replaced the logic board and the display and cleaned up the keyboard, all free of charge. I do have Apple Care on it but if I recall correctly this was done under warranty and would have happened regardless.

lal 7y ago
I had a 2017 mbp, two months in, the left hook thing on the J keycap broke. It still stayed on for the most part so I was fine. The minus key was next, but both hooks broke so it just loosely flapped and fell off if the laptop was tipped. I 2-sided-taped under and it was mushy but worked. About 4 months in, the spacebar started sending double inputs like 10% of the time. I learned to watch out for it. About a year in left shift literally just stops working over the course of about a half hour. The button under the keycap is apparently just done. I use karabiner to remap (only when karabiner is running) left ctrl to left shift and caps lock to left ctrl (just using capslock as shift is painful). One OS update later I get an error message that the keyboard is unrecognized. When it finishes rebooting the remapping is now permanent for some reason and unalterable (I don't have any reason to want to though because it's the only way I can write capital letters without right shift). A year and a half in, it's working one night, then the next morning I open it and it's showing rainbowy artifacts everywhere that only appear when the screen is past like a quarter way open. I finally go to an Apple store, where they take it and basically say "yeah all of that is stuff that happens, we'll check what it is and let you know". I get notified that it will be 700$ to replace the display module which they say is at fault. I just took it back and paid 50$ for the diagnostics and bought an XPS13. Life is good. My mbp works if attached to an external monitor or projector.
FireBeyond 7y ago
Dell can do the same. Or better. I've had a repair guy show up at my house at 9am on a Sunday morning to take care of a motherboard issue. I also like Canon Professional Services. Annual fee but free maintenance on up to 10 camera bodies and lenses, 30% discount on any actual repair work, with free shipping both ways, and will begin NBD, _and_ they will overnight you a replacement to use while they repair it).
opencl 7y ago
They go very strictly by the water indicator stickers. You blatantly admit that you spilled water on your laptop but none of the stickers changed color because that's not where the water landed? Congratulations, you're still in warranty. One of the stickers got triggered by using the machine in a humid environment and your machine fails for a completely unrelated reason? Too bad, all repair will be refused unless you pay for a new logic board.
radcon 7y ago
Based on the terms of their warranty, your experience is an exception. Even after paying $299 for AppleCare+, you should've had to pay an additional $299 for the repair. Anyone who bases a purchase decision on this type of anecdote is just asking to get screwed. On the other hand, the service I mentioned from Dell is part of their standard warranty, included with every new (and refurbished) computer.

lal 7y ago

I had a 2017 mbp, two months in, the left hook thing on the J keycap broke. It still stayed on for the most part so I was fine. The minus key was next, but both hooks broke so it just loosely flapped and fell off if the laptop was tipped. I 2-sided-taped under and it was mushy but worked. About 4 months in, the spacebar started sending double inputs like 10% of the time. I learned to watch out for it. About a year in left shift literally just stops working over the course of about a half hour. The button under the keycap is apparently just done. I use karabiner to remap (only when karabiner is running) left ctrl to left shift and caps lock to left ctrl (just using capslock as shift is painful). One OS update later I get an error message that the keyboard is unrecognized. When it finishes rebooting the remapping is now permanent for some reason and unalterable (I don't have any reason to want to though because it's the only way I can write capital letters without right shift). A year and a half in, it's working one night, then the next morning I open it and it's showing rainbowy artifacts everywhere that only appear when the screen is past like a quarter way open. I finally go to an Apple store, where they take it and basically say "yeah all of that is stuff that happens, we'll check what it is and let you know". I get notified that it will be 700$ to replace the display module which they say is at fault. I just took it back and paid 50$ for the diagnostics and bought an XPS13. Life is good. My mbp works if attached to an external monitor or projector.

FireBeyond 7y ago

Dell can do the same. Or better. I've had a repair guy show up at my house at 9am on a Sunday morning to take care of a motherboard issue. I also like Canon Professional Services. Annual fee but free maintenance on up to 10 camera bodies and lenses, 30% discount on any actual repair work, with free shipping both ways, and will begin NBD, _and_ they will overnight you a replacement to use while they repair it).

opencl 7y ago

They go very strictly by the water indicator stickers. You blatantly admit that you spilled water on your laptop but none of the stickers changed color because that's not where the water landed? Congratulations, you're still in warranty. One of the stickers got triggered by using the machine in a humid environment and your machine fails for a completely unrelated reason? Too bad, all repair will be refused unless you pay for a new logic board.

radcon 7y ago

Based on the terms of their warranty, your experience is an exception. Even after paying $299 for AppleCare+, you should've had to pay an additional $299 for the repair. Anyone who bases a purchase decision on this type of anecdote is just asking to get screwed. On the other hand, the service I mentioned from Dell is part of their standard warranty, included with every new (and refurbished) computer.