MacBook Air hinge defect not covered by Apple's warranty?
By Paul Miller 
posted February 26th 2009 3:03PM
posted February 26th 2009 3:03PM
Our rocky history with the MacBook Air Rev. A has been well documented, and while Apple would very much like us to forget all about it and plop down another $1,800 for the much-improved Rev. B, not everybody has that sort of birthday money to throw around. Reports of cracked hinges on the laptop are nothing new, but we always assumed Apple would eventually 'fess up to the problem and comp those repairs. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case, and we just got another report of a hapless MacBook Air owner who has a broken hinge that Apple says will cost $800 to repair, despite the fact the laptop is under warranty. Our own MacBook Air Rev. A had the exact same problem -- the hinge becomes loose over time, then suddenly catches and cracks from normal use, it's not from undue stress -- and Apple did the repair for free, but only after we escalated the issue to a manager, who let us know how very nice of them that was. From reading various reports, that seems the exception to Apple's repair policy, which lists this sort of damage as "accidental," and we're wondering how widespread this issue may be. If you or a loved one has been affected, hit up the poll below and pour out your heart in comments. If you're unscathed or MBA-free, feel free to show very little compassion to your fellow man. Wiggle hinge and broken hinge video is after the break.
[Thanks, Alex, and sorry for your loss! Photo courtesy of LanDung2008]
| Just the wiggle, nothing big. | |
|---|---|
| My hinge broke, but Apple fixed it for free. | |
| My hinge broke, Apple won't cover under warranty. | |
| Zero hinge problems, it's like butter. | |
| I just want to see the results. |
Read - Apple Discussions forum thread
Read - MacRumors forum thread
Read - Crashzone's link roundup
Well... Yeah, it's Apple.
Pretty young women, and ugly bald guys. Oh, and Justin Long lookalikes, but they've all killed themselves at this point.
Let's just put it this way.
I. Apple has the highest satisfaction over any other company for almost a decade and the second place Dell again is not even close in rating.
II. You can pretty much get anything replaced at Apple for free. If you don't go in like a know it all ass hole. If you have a legitimate issue and the tech doesn't replace it the manager will. If they don't ask to speak to the market manager. More than likely it will get resolved then.
III. Expensive? If you customize similar options on a Dell and Apple you will fid them to be close in price, but it won't look 1/2 as good. You can't really compare a Honda to a Mercedes, but you can compare a BMW to a Mercedes. Once ya do you will see there similar in options and price, but still even then a Mercedes is just above all the rest.
IV. Every computer will have issues, but look at the computers that have the lowest % of issues. I would buy that one. Now with the unibody it is so easy to fix just about everything. Even a person with average intelligence can break one down and build it up.
Sounds like Apple to me. I had an iBook once... it died just after the warranty was up, as things do. I was willing to *pay* for repairs rather than buy a new one. But the local Apple authorized center refused to help at all. I was on a tight deadline and went to a local computer store and bought a cheap Compaq Presario for half the price of a new Mac. It's been solidly running Windows XP now for 3 years and also boots to Ubuntu, which allows me to do everything I had the overpriced Mac for. I'm never going back to Apple again. All hype and my experience was that there are just as many monthly security updates for Apple machines as for PCs.
@Everyone
This is what $2700 buys you from Apple.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834100045
And this is what $2500 Gets you in a Windows based laptop.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147919
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115541
For the same price you can buy two comparable laptops from different manufacturers in different styles. And save $200 for the extended coverage if you like. Or just say screw it because you have two laptops and if one takes a shit you can just whip out the other one.
And honestly people when something goes wrong with your Windows laptop you can go on one of a million sites and get a replacement part for cheap. Then go to one of a million other sites and find a how to DIY guide accompanied by step by step videos.
The real thing that PC has over MacOS is not Build quality, gaming, product support, Fanboys or functionality.
It's community. There are easily 100 times as many people using Windows based PC's and 100 times as many companies providing them. When apple bends you over a barrel and fucks you in the ass all you can do is say "Thank you kindly, may I please have some more"
When you are displeased with a PC provider you can tell them to "Go die in a fire, because I'm taking my business elsewhere"
So maybe you can't do much about XP or Vista's problems just as much as you can't do much about OS10's quirks. But at least when your PC is pissing you off with some little issue all it takes is a little know how and an internet search before you have tons of people trying to walk you through fixing it yourself.
You didn't have a a vote for bought a rev A hinge broke ( I had also dropped it many timess) Apple wouldn't fix under warranty (I could see their point). Then bought a rev B. I have been very careful and the same hinge is now wiggly and do all the things the last hinge did before it exploded.
It wouldn't be so bad but it is the same left hinge in both laptops.
Wow, that would really tick me off. Why do the sheeple just sit back and "take it". Why not hit them where it hursts and STOP buying their inferior products?
RT
www.privacy-center.pro.tc
This is no honor in business anymore.
sounds like everyone here has negative experience, runaround, and negligence on Apple's part stemming from failure to address a cometic issue with their product that limits the functioning of the product is clearly a basis for a class action lawsuit.
Statistically it's improbable that nearly 5,000, soon to be more, users on Engadget have a MacBook Air and have viewed and voted in this poll. Even less probable that all of them have taken it to Apple to be denied a warranty replacement. I've had a friend who had the problem. Apple gave her a new MacBook Air, free of charge.
Conclusion: Windows fanboys.
I paid 1200$ for an HP with core2 Duo @ 2.6Ghz, 6GB ram, 500GB hard drive, 17 inch wide screen w/ 9600GT 512MB dedicated (not shared w/ the 6gb system memory), DVD+\-RW, AND a full size keyboard. External connectors include media slot x6, HDMI, 15RGB, 3 USB, 1 firewire, 3 audio, lan, and a modem. Why on earth would I pay almost 2000 dollars for a smaller laptop with 1/5 the options, interfaces, and capabilities of this box. So it can be lighter, have a pretty OS, and be trendy. pffft
abuseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee your self..!!!! this is user abuse mate..!!!
At the moment I'm writing this, 4960 people have had hinges break underwarranty and Apple refused to cover it. If those numbers are correct, I hope this info gets forwarded to the right people so Apple can issue an offer to repair them for free. That is a serious defect in the MBA.
i had the hinge problem. apple said they would charge me $800 for the fix.
i tried to raise it to manager, pointing out there were blogs written on the topic but they gave me nothing.
fuck them
I purchased a Macbook Air on the first day they were released. I bought the model with the flash drive, the external drive, travel kit, etc. All told near $4,000.
I noticed the sway in the screen, suddenly the hinge popped. Oh, so suddenly. On Feb 26, 2009.
I have been generally satisfied, but many times, envied those who had the full 15" Macbook.
The processor heat problem has been a constant nag.
How about this Apple?
I'll give you $500, you keep my Macbook Air, you give me a new Macbook Pro.
Just a 15". Just one that both the processors work, most of the time.
I'll lug it around, learn to live with the extra HD space, the memory, sure I won't look cool at StarBucks anymore....
Then you can fix the $3.00 hinge, sell the MacBook Air refurbished, make a bundle.
I won't complain.
Is it too much to expect version 1.0 of something to work these days? I gave them version 1.0 of the asking price that day.
Stephen
I need to up from my previous comment. The South Coast Apple store went out of their way to help me. They offered to fix the Macbook under Apple care.
The assistant store manager took it one step further and offered me further customer satisfaction.
I had lost some of that warm Apple glow. It is back.
The customer service I received today at the South Coast Store was superior. Excellent. In fact.
I think there is no secret formula to success.
It was plain and simple.
Excellent service. Excellent experience. Made up for any previous short comings of technology. This 10 minutes of personal attention, of the company making a decision that made sense not only for Apple but for the customer, renewed my belief in shopping at Apple.
I won't consider another electronics purchase outside of Apple for a long long time.
They have secured me as a customer.
My MBA was eventually repaired, but only after I was insulted by the "Genius" staff and assistant manager. They were condescending and basically told me I was a liar by dropping the computer which they said caused the hinge problem. I put my husband on the phone who was 3,000 miles away and who was citing an article like this documenting the problem, which the staff told us they'd "never seen or heard of before". After asking them to call their Customer Care Department for information about the problem, they hung up on him by handing the phone to me saying "We're getting nowhere with him"....THE ABSOLUTE NERVE!!! I went home and called the Customer Care Department and they told me that my case number that the store assigned me said I had damaged my computer. I couldn't believe it! So I immediately photographed every single angle of my computer AND sent them websites documenting the problem that others were having. Within two days Apple Care called me back saying they'd cover the repair, but first they wanted to make sure I was buying an extended warranty! Anyway, the good news is, they fixed it and I'm finally happy. The bad news is I'll never again step foot in the White Plains, New York Westchester Mall Apple Store after being treated so abysmally! Not sure who was the winner here.
HP has the best warranty....total care and when they say that....it really means total care!
I have had the exact same problem happen with my Macbook Air....left hinge. I do have the 3 year extended warranty and my MBA is about 13 months old. I took it into an Apple store after researching and finding that this is a fairly common problem. The "genius" there said it would not be covered under my warranty even after he referred to it as a defect. He caught himself I think and tried to backtrack and say that I must have pushed the screen back too far, stressing the hinges and causing them to break. I explained to him that I knew it was a common problem and he tried to convince me that they (Apple) have no knowledge of this problem and they don't take into consideration anything anyone posts about these things on the internet. I stopped short of calling him a liar but let him know I was not happy and found it hard to believe that Apple has no knowledge of this defect when doing a quick google search for "macbook air broken hinge" brings up hundreds (thousands?) of hits instantly. He offered to send it to the depot (whatever that is) for a final decision but he said more than likely they would call with a price of about $600 to fix it. I told him no thanks!
This morning my husband called Apple Care and didn't have a problem at all. They are sending a box to ship it back to them and they are going to repair it. They did say that if there is anything on my MBA that I want to keep to get it off because the machine will be reset. I have no idea what that is about.
I guess, at this point, my advice would be to call Apple Care and not deal with the so called geniuses at the stores. Good luck everyone!
I thought I should come back and report that my MBA has been repaired free of charge. Apple fedex'd a prepaid shipping box to send it in. We sent it off and it was back in less than a week.....good as new and with tight hinges. To clarify, we do have the extended warranty. I don't know if that had anything to do with them repairing it or not.
My hinge broke and apple won't replace it under warranty. I'm pretty mad about the situation. There is a law firm that is currently investigating the situation. I filled out there request form and I suggest you guys do the same. This just isn't right!!! The link is right here http://www.sfmslaw.com/pages/cases.php?id=752
I started a blog devoted to this subject http://macbookairhinge.wordpress.com.
Come tell your story!
It sounds like there is varied experience with this.
For what it's worth, my 1st gen hinge was wiggling about a quarter of an inch so I took it in to a Apple Store. The Genius looked at it for a short period and then proposed having it repaired under AppleCare. It took about 6 days to get it back (it was shipped out) and the wiggle is now almost completely gone. The repair suggests "latch/hinges loose or broken."
FWIW, this was a refurbished 1st gen I just got about 4 months ago.
I replaced an iBook with a Macbook last year and it has been nothing but trouble. Bad fan, cracked casing and now the power supply has died. This kind of low quality is not what I pay a mac premium for.
In 23 years of owning macs it is the first one that has me seriously considering switching to a pc on my next one.