Surprised by trade in value because of LCD “damage” on MacBook Air?

If you expected a higher trade-in value but were told there was damage to pixels, flickering, or LCD damage, here’s what I’ve found. Third party does the work. Runs a program to detect issues with the screen. And they will find it. And your value will drop considerably. After many calls, it was determined there was a light spot, that you can’t see. That the Genius Bar couldn’t see. But their software can. So why does it matter? It doesn’t. There are brand new, from the factory macs with the same issues, because there are tolerances that are allowable. Especially if you, the user can’t detect them. But the third party software can, so you will get dinged for it upon trade in. Apple suggested going to the Genius Bar for evaluation so you can review the results which the third party company doesn’t give access to. And if you call Apple and are connected to this third party, it has to be in your name, not your spouse or they won’t talk to you about it. Google search on the screen issue is tip of the iceberg. As I did, take photos of every angle, I side and out, but also of the screen running, which I didn’t do. Apple doesn’t suggest this process in their return instructions, but if you don’t go to the Genius Bar, you will be glad you did. Getting dinged $130 for something that is not visible to the user is not fun.

So video the running screen. Photograph the inside and outside, and packaged up computer. Or best case, take it to the Genius Bar so you can have a face to face discussion.