macbook pro problem - "water damage"- Really?

Reading this thread is both reassuring and infuriating. I bought a Macbook Pro with Retina Display in January of 2015. I spilled liquid on that one. It did what was supposed to happen when exposed to liquid -- the backlight flickered off and when I tried to restart my computer to make it come back on, the computer itself refused to come back on. I bought a replacement computer, an identical Macbook Pro with Retina Display in November of 2015. It has been working great. I literally had zero problems with it until last week. I could still use it just fine, I used it every day for work (I edit videos for a theatre company). The sole problem was that the battery was no longer charging and I needed to keep the charger plugged in in order for the machine to stay on. It was more of an inconvenience than a real problem. The battery indicator said that I needed to replace my battery, so I took it in to my local Apple store. They TURNED ON my computer, ran a diagnostic and confirmed that my battery did need to be changed. I left it with them. A few days later they call me back and say that they couldn't complete the repair because there is extensive water damage. They estimated the cost of repair would be over $700 because that sort of damaged was not covered under Apple care (I bought the extended plan). I know what a water damaged Mac looks like. I took every precaution not to lose that laptop the same way I lost the one before it. I even bought a silicone keyboard cover to prevent liquids from entering it. I did nothing wrong to my 2nd computer. I fully intend to fight this diagnosis. The first step is contacting the FTC. I will be contacted Apple headquarters next. I have an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar at my local Apple store on Saturday to get my FULLY FUNCTIONAL laptop back. Seriously, Apple, I would walk away from you forever if Graphic Design wasn't so reliant on Macs.

I fancy a bit of a rant about this same issue.

First of all let me say, This laptop is my 70 year old mothers laptop, its a mid 2012 13" MBP it's hardly ever used. It's a minter, it has never had anything spilled on it. I know people will probably roll their eyes when I say that, but thats the truth, but for this story wether the laptop has been left to soak in a swimming pool for half it's life is actually kind of irrelevant.

So anyway, dearest mother notices the laptop starts getting a glitchy screen and freezing when it's picked up or moved.

I book it into an apple store and talk with a genius. I make the laptop freeze in-front of them, with the glitchy screen, the genius then does the same. she says OK we will have a look at it.

3 days later they call up to say it's fixed! brilliant

I come into the apple store, I pick up the laptop, and u guessed it, the screen flickers and the laptop freezes. I say well... this clearly isn't fixed is it? 2 geniuses replicate the error, run some systems check, the genius speaks to a manager to get authorisation for a freebie logic board he comes back and say look really sorry, clearly we didn't fix this. I suspect it is a problem with the logic board. we have one in stock, we will replace the logic board free of charge as we've missed the issue here.

Great.

2 hours later, I get a call.... I've opened up your laptop and there is evidence of corrosion on the logic board, so therefore we will not repair it this time.

I'm like woah, hang on a minute there bud, why are you saying this now? did you not discover this the first time you 'fixed' the graphics? and besides this is supposed to be a FOC fix because you messed up the first time. There were no 'strings attached' get-out-clauses that said if this is broken because of 'such and such' reason we wont undertake the repair. It was just a flat out, sorry we've messed up the first repair, we will replace the logic board for you asap, free of charge.

as much as I argued my case and the unique circumstance of a previous bad repair the acting store manager, was not having any of it. I asked to speak to the store manager, who is 'on holiday' so I've said well i'll just have to wait for him to come back.

If in the first instance they had a look at the laptop and said ahhh corrosion sorry pal no free fixes here, you know I may have understood. But to be messed around like this i'm just like *** apple!

I'm more disappointed in the store staff to be honest, the way they talk to customers over at the solihull branch is shocking. I'll be down there next week when the managers back to have a lovely chat with him about what's been going on.

I'm having same problem. My new MacBook Pro (still owe $800. On it) which I bought apple care for just stopped. Would do Nothing. No charge , nothing. I took it to the "genius bar". He took it to the back room and brought it back and showed me a picture of water inside of it. I was shocked considering that it had not been anywhere near water. He quoted me a price of 750 dollars.

I left the store in shock. I had to leave the state for 3 weeks to go and help my mom. When I got back it would charge so I did a hard reset and on the screen it had an icon of a file with a question mark flashing.

I had bought it at Best Buy, so I brought it in to them. When I bought it I told them I wanted full coverage insurence and they sold me apple care and assured me that it would be covered.

I took it to the geek squad counter and they took it and shipped it off. A week later I got a call from them telling me it was ready for pickup. Oh good I mistakingly thought, I would have my laptop back. When I went to retrieve it they showed me a $3057.00 price for repair and said it was not done because the cost exceeded the value. I told them that it was a new laptop that I had paid top dollar for along with their assurance that "it was covered". I refused to take it. I told them that it needed to be fixed.

After speaking with the manager they said that they would ship it out again for repair. I thanked them and left.

I got an email today telling me to take it to apple. That they could do nothing. I just got done writing back to her and explained that I had bought it from them and I expected them to fix the problem considering I was told it would be covered when I bought it.

Apparently apple uses "liquid damage" to null and void any responsibility they have even when an "apple care" policy is sold to the consumer. The consumer is not told that there is this stipulation written into the contract when you purchase it. Of coarse it's somewhere in the multiple page contract you sign but unless you have a legal background and 3 days to go over it you don't see it. Really, do you read the fine print on those things?

I have been with Apple since the screens were that weird green color with white writing. I bought one from Wozniak at west valley jr collage in Sarratoga CA many years ago when I was in my first year of collage. I continued to use Apple through graduate school and then throughout my professional career and now that I'm retired I still use their products. I brought both my children up using Apple and they continue to be faithful to the many products that Apple comes out with.

Over the years I have had minimal contact with their customer service. On occasion (in the early years of iPhone) I had a few problems that were quickly resolved at the "Genius Bar" by some nice young person.

I had Never Ever recieved such poor service as I was given when I took my laptop to the "Genius Bar" this last time. As I sat there in shock when I was presented the 750 dollar estimate I saw the young "genius" that had been helping me whisper something to another "genius" and they both laughed. When they realized I was watching them they stopped and my guy walked back and told me the offer would still be on the table when I brought it back.

I left there and cried. I am now on social security and the monthly payments I make for this computer are all that I can afford. I have a new MacBook Pro that is useless and no option to get it fixed. I bought apple care trusting that it would cover whatever went wrong. I trusted my long time "friends" at Apple. After all they have been with me for more years then I can count.

marrield

Water damage is not covered. Your story indicates that Apple did the right thing by not repairing it and you having to pay an expensive repair bill. It seems to me that Apple was looking after your best interest by not repairing the computer. None of us, or you, know the source of the water damage, which apparently happened while you were away.

LMAO. I love your solution. I have been with Apple since green screens. I've also been screwed by them recently with Apple Care on my MacBook Pro. I'm not shutting up and going away. I'm retired and I can't afford to just go away.

You gave me a bit of laughter which I needed right now. I just thought I would say thank you

Yes mystery water is always a problem I guess. Little mice must have done it, or perhaps the Apple water fairy? Apple looks out for my best interest?

I don't think so. Not any more anyway.

Even if "liquid damage" did occur somehow mysteriously, I was assured when I bought it that "it was covered" if I bought the Apple Care plan. I assumed that this meant that it was covered. Silly me.

I may be old, but when I was assured that something was going to be covered, I expected it to be fixed if something happened.

I recently had to check my carry on at the gate and mistakenly left my laptop inside the case in a computer case, but a few weeks later it stopped working and I was told it was water damage. It's never been near water, so unfortunately I think this is the reason my MacBook air broke. It was 5 months old 😟

My 20 month old MBP got a 'wobbly' screen and a day later would not power up. I took it to my mac repairer of choice and he said "it's the logic board". Go back to apple it will still be under waranty (2 years). Just got the email from apple saying water in the machine. It sits in my office, never had water near it, I'm the only one here. I rang the apple and they say the water got in the side of the computer, so evidently I put the computer on its edge and spilled water into the ports. Thanks apple, but I didn't have ANY expectation that you would fix a problem with your hardware.

I put the computer on its edge and spilled water into the ports. Thanks apple, but I didn't have ANY expectation that you would fix a problem with your hardware.

I thought you wrote that you did it yourself.

What did I miss?

I just took my 2 year old mac book pro to apple in jacksonville. the night before i took it i was downloading the new software update and my computer turned off. when i turned it on it was a scrambled mess of a whole bunch of letters. so I took it to apple in jacksonville and the guy was really nice. he worked on it for a long time and agreed it was an issue with the download of the software. so he sold me a 75.00 external hard drive to and said they would try and save my information.

so I left the compute with him and i got a call a few days later. the gentleman said,"I have good news and bad news."

basically what he said was the good news is they got my information off the computer and put it on the hard drive. that will cost me an additional $100. the bad news is my computer has water damage and it will be an additional $775 to fix it. i can guarantee you the computer has never had water damage. it did get a little condensation off of the bottom of my diet coke cup but it was a few drops and i wiped it with the sleeve of my sweatshirt. nothing to worry about. so i asked him to open it. he said he could not open it. i raised my voice in front of the other 6 people at the table and so he said oh i have pictures. so i had him show me the pictures he had on the iPad he was holding. he had 2 pictures that showed a little spot that looked like crumbs and one picture looked like it could be a spot of dried water.(the size of a quarter). so i took a picture of his pictures but he would not open the computer. so i went to my car and got on my phone and ordered a tool for $10 from amazon to open a mac. the next day i got the tool and opened the computer. the pictures did line up with the ones he showed me. so he was not lying about that. however, i took the computer to the local guys in the IFIX IT store up the street. I gave the guy my computer and told him i thought it was the software issue. he called me back 30 minutes later and said yes. it was a software issue and it took him 5 minutes to fix it. he said the water spot on the inside was of no worries. it did no damage at all. he said he sees this all the time from APPle stores. He said they are famous for ripping people off.

I have exactly the same problem. 6 month old Macbookmpro. The display was blank one morning I opened it up. Could not get it to come on. At Apple certified repair the technician opened it up and detected a minute bit of oxidation on on the the components which he claimed was prima facie proof of a spill. I know absolutely there was no spill and I believe that if there had been there would be a lot more evidence of it than this tiny bit of oxidation. And yet, the repair shop claims it invalidates my Applecare policy. This is outrageous. Have you discovered any means of recourse?

Angus Davis

I have a macbook air that is only one year old. The display stopped working and I brought it in for repair. It just went black while I was watching a movie. I took it in for repair and they also told me that the liquid indicators were turned on and tried to sell me a brand new laptop because they said the logic board was damaged. The thing is I've never spilled anything on it ever, and it's always been only in my possession. Not only that, but it works perfectly when hooked up to another monitor.

I definitely think their liquid indicators are defective in some way. Maybe condensation builds up inside the casing. I live in Canada and our summers are extremely humid but it's never happened to any of my other laptops.

I hope Apple is not using this as a strategy to sell computers to unsuspecting customers.

I recently found out that Apple has Apple Plus (husband bought Iphone10 and found out about it), So I called to change my Apple Care to the plus program. They said no. You should have called when it came out 5 months after I spent 6000.00 on Apple computers. So the 750.00 wasn't enough extened coverage on 2 Mac book Air and a IMac. Horrible customer service. Never buy Apple

They are actually Liquid Submersion Indicators (LSI), and are tiny white “stickers” that turn red when they come into contact with liquid. They are located throughout your MacBook Pro. They are not triggered by humidity.

As wjosten says, the indicators that tell them it has gotten wet are not triggered by humidity. However, carelessness in a humid environment can cause the problem. For example, if you have your MBP in the bathroom and take a very hot, steamy shower, that can cause condensation on and inside the machine, especially if it's on and the fans are sucking humidity inside. Or if you take your MBP outside during the winter and it gets very cold, and then you take it back inside a hot, humid environment, that can cause the problem as well. (Photographers have been dealing with such problems for decades by putting cameras in plastic bags before coming back inside after long winter shoots.)