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by ksec 2919 days ago
Apple unofficially / officially said the failure rate was less then 5%. There was later some investigative work by a few Apple media that repair at Apple Retail and third party to confirm that figure. Failure ( Or Repair Rate ) or roughly 3 - 4%.

You see, that is the problem. I expect Keyboard failure to be LESS then 0.03% - 0.04%. Thanks to Apple, people finally realise how important the keyboard is, especially in these days and age, where Mac / PC are more for professional and business / work usage. 4% Repair meant 4 in every 100 Mac, even 0.04% is 4 in every 10,000. For Keyboard!

For every IBM / Lenovo, Dell, HP single Keyboard failure I have seen in the past decade of my professional career, there is like 10 MacBook Keyboard failed in the past 2-3 years. It doesn't mean other brand don't fail, but they are much less often, 5 times cheaper to repair, and many had three year warranty included. While All Mac only comes with a single year warranty.

I wish Apple bump the price by a small percentage, and include at least 2 years warranty, or even Apple Care by default. ( I know in EU this is included already ) We don't upgrade our Mac every 2 - 3 years any more. They have much longer life time. This will hopefully force Apple to think about design that is easier to repair for themselves, and much higher reliability so they do less repair.

2 comments

It’s included in New Zealand too, due to the consumer guarantees act, a fantastic piece of legislation. Possibly summarising to the point of error “a purchase should last as long as a reasonable person would expect”.
That’s great, but I do I get from that to a number that I as a business (to know my obligations) or I as a consumer (to know my rights) can use?

Does every instance need to be tested in court? Seems ripe for unpredictable outcomes.

I don’t know the answer to that. Electronics like phones seem to get a minimum of 2 years and extended warranties are generally not worth buying here, though some do extend for 10+ years.
> While All Mac only comes with a single year warranty. > I wish Apple bump the price by a small percentage, and include at least 2 years warranty, or even Apple Care by default.

Unlikely to happen. People seem to love shelling out extra for AppleCare+ just like how they love to tip. They think they're getting a lot of extra bonus value because of it but really it's just like most extended warranties only this time it's for an expesive product that's not expected to last (in relation to its price).

Go to another country, like Australia https://www.apple.com/au/legal/statutory-warranty/

How long does Apple provide warranty for devices in Australia?

> A reasonable period from date of delivery until the failure becomes apparent

> Without limiting consumers’ rights, Apple will provide its own remedies equivalent to those remedies in the consumer guarantee provisions of the Australian Consumer Law at any time within 24 months of the date of purchase. For the avoidance of doubt, Apple acknowledges that the Australian Consumer Law may provide for remedies beyond 24 months for a number of its products.

I'm in Australia and the statutory warranty doesn't specify 24 months - it can be longer (whatever the customer thinks is reasonable and is willing to push on).

The 24 months that Apple provides is really a minimum as far as the law is concerned. For expensive "high quality" products such as the MacBook Pro, it's fair to expect that coverage should last longer than the 24 months that Apple tries to impose.

https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/11/most-electronics-store...

https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/3znx69/manufactu...

https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/consumer-rights-and-advic...

Contrary to popular belief, 2 years is not a hard limit and claiming such is borderline "illegal". See in particular the video (or transcript) within the last link there.

Which is exactly what Apple says in its first and last line.

> For the avoidance of doubt, Apple acknowledges that the Australian Consumer Law may provide for remedies beyond 24 months for a number of its products

There's no doubt that saying there is a 24-month hard limit is illegal. Nothing borderline about it.

I worked at the Genius Bar in Sydney while Apple was going through all this trouble with the ACCC and they really stepped up their game in a big way, especially compared to other retailers in the country.