My anecdotal story: I bought my Dad a 15" MBP which recently failed due to this. This is in the UK where there's strict consumer protection laws mandating free

My anecdotal story: I bought my Dad a 15" MBP which recently failed due to this. This is in the UK where there's strict consumer protection laws mandating free repairs within 6 years, as long as the consumer can show that the problem existed when the computer shipped. He took it to the store and they wanted £600. I called and insisted they should fix it for free. I got hold of a supervisor who eventually gave in and agreed to do it, hooray! Not so fast. We got disconnected and I called back, getting another supervisor who said the first guy was mistaken and shouldn't have told me that. He explained that Apple's interpretation of UK consumer law is to deny any claim that falls outside of an approved repair program, unless you can somehow prove that the problem existed when the computer shipped, which he admitted is impossible due to the way these computers are built. He said that forum posts and YouTube videos are not considered evidence that it's a widespread issue. It's especially painful in my case because I worked there as an engineer when I bought it for my Dad under Apple's employee purchase program. I was proud to do so at the time - he would never buy such an expensive computer for himself. I explained this to the AppleCare supervisor and he, of course, did not give a shit; probably didn't even believe me. So, if any Apple folks are reading, be warned that buying hardware for family members under EPP might seem like a good thing, but you may well be sticking them with an expensive repair bill in the not-too-distant future. My Dad uses a Chromebook now and our family no longer buys Apple stuff, which sucks to say after working there for 8 years and shipping software that runs on that MBP.