How long should a Mac last?

The UK has a great law. My son's MacBook Air is a year and half and due to a manufacturers defect, needs between $500-$600 to fix. I'm extremely disappointed that Apply cannot do any better.

jo-annefromcourtice

"I'm extremely disappointed that Apply cannot do any better."

Apple sold 20 million Macs last year.

Electro-mechanical devices can and do fail.

You have ONE, and it has a problem. That is not a representative sample of the Macs produced, and your 'disappointment' is nonsense.

ANYTHING could happen to one out of 20 million, and that could still be stellar performance.

I'm not really concerned about Apple selling 20 million Macs, I'm really only concerned about my Macbook Air that I paid about $1200 and after a year and half I have to pay another $500 to fix it due to a manufacturer error. I could understand if it was my mistake, had I dropped or spilled something on it, but that is not the case and I feel that Apple should do better.

According to consumer report ~10% of Apple laptops have some sort of failure within the first 3 years. That is better than windows laptops of 16%+.I'm sorry it happened to you and that it happened after the base line warranted expired, but these things do happen. When Apple is already top ranked for reliability it is hard to insist they need to be even better.

Once again, not concerned about other Macbook air situations or comparing to other companies, in the case of my personal Macbook Air, (and there may be others) Apple needs to do better. If it is only 10% of Apple laptops that experience failure, then Apple should show some responsibility and support this small percentage. In the grand scheme of things, it probably wouldn't add up to a lot of money but would go a long way to guarantee customer satisfaction.

I am sorry your Mac broke down.

Apple does show some responsibility. They offer to cover defects in materials and workmanship for one year. This assures you that the product is of high quality.

They also offer a very economical package to extend that coverage to three years.

The idea that you can take a high-powered computer, run it on a battery, and subject it to tremendous G-forces by moving it from place to place, and expect ZERO failures does not make sense.

By choosing not to purchase the Applecare extension, you have made a conscious decision to cover repairs in years 2 and 3 yourself.

We have many Apple products (iPhones, iPads,) with which we have never had a problem, so I expected not to have problems with the MacBook Air, especially after a year and half. I feel as a loyal customer to Apple I should receive a better offer for repair costs. Apple is not showing enough responsibility in my opinion. Apple needs to do better.

Sometimes the AppleCare extended plan is a good bit of insurance, since these devices

are full of tedious difficult to replace tiny components that usually require some effort...

And then there are repair guides:

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_Laptop

A look into iFixit's guides can help you see where a DIY attempt could get you. 😉

Thanks for the info and tips

You may choose to offer Feedback to Apple, regarding the Products, or Support,

with either of these Contact Apple - Feedback linked pages:

"Tell us how we’re doing. Select the appropriate feedback option..."

(we read everything, but can’t always respond):

• Product Feedback

• Support Feedback

{ these links are from Apple site - Contact page: https://www.apple.com/contact/ }

Good luck in regard to these matters! 🙂

Thanks again for the help. I was able to find somebody at Applecare who was a great help so my faith in Apple has been restored!

My macbook lasted 8 years functioning perfectly well (2008 to 2016). Halfway through that period I had to take it to an apple registered service store to upgrade the operating system once though, so that I could integrate it with my iphone and ipad. The new operating system was too heavy for the machine, so they had to change something inside, and transfer some of my data to an external disk. But after that it continued functioning perfectly.

The computer is still working, but screen broke down (all black), and apparently cannot be repaired because my mac is too old, and apple doesn't manufacture its parts anymore.

So I will buy a new one now. I consider that spending €1000 for 8 years of hassle free computing was a great investment!

Windows PC fail a lot more than macs do, don't compare mac with windows because windows pc's suck and their not stable and secure like macs do.