Show HN: Apple no longer repairing older MacBook Pros
According to Apple, they are no longer manufacturing parts to repair this machine. Instead, I can make an appointment with my local Apple Store and IFF they still have the part lying around, they might do a battery replacement for me. Otherwise, and I quote, "you should buy a new laptop."
Let's see: $199 to replace the battery on a perfectly functional $2400 laptop OR I can spend $2400 + tax on a new Apple laptop with worse specs that I don't even want or need.
Fuck. Apple.
P.s. I ordered https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Compatible-MacBook-Retina-Late/dp/B07GTF8GQ8 and will replace the battery myself. I still think Apple should be able to repair their own products—imagine Honda refusing to repair a 2014 Honda Accord that needs a new battery, instead suggesting that you should just "buy a new 2021 Honda Accord."
It's absolutely pathetic for a trillion hardware company to encourage people to replace hardware that works perfectly well (other than needing a new battery) because they refuse to manufacture replacement batteries—Apple's "environmentalism" is complete and utter self-serving marketing bullshit.
33 comments
[ 6.9 ms ] story [ 67.6 ms ] threadThat's not a $2400 laptop. That's a $400 laptop at most.
It was $2400 in 2014, which was seven years ago.
Although you should wait until the M1 variant of your laptop releases. It is a bad time to buy the non Apple Silicon macbooks.
That thing is 7+ years old.
Don't be silly.
His only choice is go to ebay / amazon. A laptop 7 years old it is a miracle that laptop lasted that long. at $200, apple rep is right, its best to put that $ into a new or slightly used laptop.
I do not get these posts that say things like this on a laptop that has done its duty for 7 years. Even HP / Dell / Lenovo enterprise will not have the parts for this.
It's not a miracle, it's why Apple hardware has high second hand value. Got a 2012 Macbook Pro here still doing great. As it should be.
It could be considered satire if you would substitute "Apple" with "Generic Windows Laptop OEM" and "MacBook Pro" with some plastic model of a windows laptop.
What I'm trying to say that 7 years is a great lifespan for a laptop and a fact that only now first-party repair is becoming problematic (I understand it was possible to replace battery with OEM a year ago) and you have to resort to third-party parts seems still outstanding for a consumer goods company.
Apple does have its fair share of problems with less repairable laptops as of recently - that's for sure. Especially if you listen to Louis Rossmann
Lenovo and Apple are the only brands that even remotely stand by their products after even a couple of months and don’t make it horrendously awful to repair.
It’s a miracle it works after 7 years of use. I’d venture to say that Apple is the best of breed in longevity for the original purchase. You paid about $1/day for that laptop. If you can buy another that lasts remotely as long and it isn’t made by Lenovo I’d love to hear about it.
What do you people do with your laptops? ThinkPads aside, even my $300-350 Acer laptop is coming up on 6 years of (11-12h daily) use and everything works more than fine. I don't even use an SSD. The one I had before this lasted a good 10-11 years of similar if not heavier use (my entire family used it).
As an aside: the Dell Latitude 610 I carted around for several years was a goddamn beast. It weighed a shit ton, but it took some drops and hits that I was positive wrecked the thing. What killed it eventually was the hinges on the screen breaking and shearing the video connector.
You described Apple as a consumer goods company and called this scenario satire if you just substitute a different company. Keep in mind the sale to OP was made by the much less consumerized Apple of 2014, not the "you can't touch /System without disabling important protections" Apple of 2021, and was from a Pro laptop line ostensibly targeted at business use cases, not a consumer model.
The expectations of OP for a top-tier business laptop seem quite reasonable to me, both in the past and in the present. My laptop still meets my needs well enough after more than 6 years of use (yeah I bought it in 2014) that I haven't been able to justify the purchase of a replacement, even though I could afford one if needed. Dell's offering of guaranteed compatible new parts reinforced both that decision and my openness to Dell business laptops whenever I do upgrade, since it's not a planned obsolescence trap.
They also still have a page on their website documenting current battery products that work with this exact model, including one battery model that can be installed inside the machine like the original one. It's a very different attitude than Apple's.
A charger is completely different from a lithium-ion battery, which degrades over time.
https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/dell-45-whr-4-cell-primary-b...
I focused more on the fact that they were still willing to provide this level of support for the repairs that such an old machine might need than on the particular part I chose to buy. My battery could use a replacement too, but I use it plugged in too much for me to want to spend on that. In a different lifestyle I'd buy that as well.
Also, have you never had an old car where the repairs start to cost more than the car is worth? Sometimes you do need to replace things.
Ikea also practices fake environmentalism by using non-standard parts in their light fixtures while not providing replacement parts.
[1] https://thenextweb.com/apple/2021/03/14/apple-makes-third-pa...
it wasn't by repairing every gadget they sell