Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I don't agree. AppleCare is an extended commercial warranty that does not represent the life expectancy of a professional, or a consumer level product. AppleCare is NOT the law! By the way, in this case there are likely thousands of failures that already occurred 2 years after the product hit the market! Obviously they will not fail all at the same time.

If a MacBook Pro is sold with a 3 year life expectancy at prices of 2 000 to 3 000 euro, would you still feel tempted to put that amount of money on the counter? If so, you must be filthy rich.

I think you should not just accept what the stores in the Netherlands claim. I think you should stand up more for yourself and fight the arrogance Apple is trying to hold us off with! I believe European law is more powerful than you think.

The G-man wrote:

 

I don't agree. AppleCare is an extended commercial warranty that does not represent the life expectancy of a professional, or a consumer level product. AppleCare is NOT the law!

Totally agree.

Apple takes care of you ... IF YOU PAY FOR IT and only very limited time.

En Europe we do have 2 years legal, some contries more, but most only 2.

Applecare should extend the warranty with 3 years.

2y Legal + 3 years Applecare giving a total of 5y.

That would be caring for you.

Bet they won't risk that.... would cost them to much money.

Apple has allways been the worst company to deal with warranties.

First thing they do getting a claim is check  your mac to see if they can find some "proof" of moisture or whaterver giving them the option to refuse a free repair.

Moisture is everywhere... some indicators can fail on that only.

Or on condensation when it cools down in the night, cooling off, getting warm again....

The G-man wrote:

 

I think you should not just accept what the stores in the Netherlands claim. I think you should stand up more for yourself and fight the arrogance Apple is trying to hold us off with! I believe European law is more powerful than you think.

I don't accept it, but I have yet to find a lawyer willing to take up this case...

eezacque wrote:

 

The G-man wrote:

 

I think you should not just accept what the stores in the Netherlands claim. I think you should stand up more for yourself and fight the arrogance Apple is trying to hold us off with! I believe European law is more powerful than you think.

I don't accept it, but I have yet to find a lawyer willing to take up this case...

Sorry for asking, but did you actually search for a lawyer, or do you wait for one to fall from the sky? If you talked to lawyers, I'm sure you can tell why they refused your case.

The G-man wrote:

 

eezacque wrote:

 

The G-man wrote:

 

I think you should not just accept what the stores in the Netherlands claim. I think you should stand up more for yourself and fight the arrogance Apple is trying to hold us off with! I believe European law is more powerful than you think.

I don't accept it, but I have yet to find a lawyer willing to take up this case...

Sorry for asking, but did you actually search for a lawyer, or do you wait for one to fall from the sky? If you talked to lawyers, I'm sure you can tell why they refused your case.

Let me mention that my case is not the dreaded 2011 MBP issue. I paid EU 700 for a logic board, which didn't even last one and a half year. My main concern is the way Apple and related service providers are treating their customers.

Back to your question, I contacted the Dutch Autoriteit Consument en Markt through Consuwijzer. Although they are supposed to support the Dutch consumer, their interest in this case appeared to be academical, in that they agreed I had a reason to take action against MacCity, but they merely pointed me to Juridisch Loket, who, again, agreed I had a case, and assigned me a lawyer. The lawyer refused to take the case because of its complexity: a technical report needs to be written on the state of my MBP, with an expert opinion on the expected life time of a logic board. For a mere EU 700, the costs would outbalance the benefits. I complained to Juridisch Loket, and havan't heard anything from them.

In this case, it is interesting to note that the replacement took as long as 7 weeks , an Apple service engineer admitted the logic board may never have been replaced by a new board, MacCity refused my registered mail on this case, and refuses to answer my questions. To sum up, MacCity routinely solves their problems by ignoring their clients, MicroFix refuses to answer my questions, other than by referring to Apple politics, and doesn't even see the need to prove they did more than take my money, and Margaret Lordan simply states Apple doesn't care about Dutch consumer laws, and told me to hire a lawyer and switch to Windows, if I didn't like Apple. So, I switched to Linux.

Let me mention that my case is not the dreaded 2011 MBP issue. I paid EU 700 for a logic board, which didn't even last one and a half year. My main concern is the way Apple and related service providers are treating their customers.

sorry, but then you are off topic.

r100 wrote:

 

Let me mention that my case is not the dreaded 2011 MBP issue. I paid EU 700 for a logic board, which didn't even last one and a half year. My main concern is the way Apple and related service providers are treating their customers.

 

sorry, but then you are off topic.

Not really, as the underlying problem is one of bad Apple service, and Apple ignoring consumer laws. If the issue were merely technical, and Apple had responded adequately, this thread wouldn't even exist...

Sorry, G-man, you guessed it; they never formally acknowledged the problem, only repaired the computer without official comment, and with nothing in writing other than the "warranty" repair receipt.

r100 wrote:

 

Let me mention that my case is not the dreaded 2011 MBP issue. I paid EU 700 for a logic board, which didn't even last one and a half year. My main concern is the way Apple and related service providers are treating their customers.

 

sorry, but then you are off topic.

Off topic?  "My main concern is the way Apple and related service providers are treating their customers"  is exactly the topic of this discussion.  Had Apple, in the last 4 years, recognized the problem, analyzed the problem, determined a cause, determined a fix, tested their fix and implemented a solution there would be over 700 less pages of entries on this topic.

To know and not to have done, is not to know yet.  Since Apple has not demonstrated to us they have fixed their process. The likely hood of this workmanship problem occurring again is very large based on current evidence.  Each of us feels very uncomfortable buying another Apple product.  We have a lingering questions in our minds about future Apple products and future Apple virtues when dealing with us, the customer.

We have invested in Apple and Apple products.  Is that investment safe?  Common sense says if more people have the same experience we are experiencing a large percentage of those people will look else where for their next computing solution.  If that happens Apple will be the next Microsoft or IBM, a company heading for the exit.  To protect our investment we are forced to make Apple live up to their word or our investments will turn to dust.  For customers with small investments, they are the dust in the wind that blows where ever today's winds take them.  For us who have planted some roots, different story.

Customer service has been the issue from day zero.  Without a doubt Apple's technical staff have the capability to cure this problem and repair their faulty workmanship.  Apple management has decided the effort is not worth the cost.  We have now reached the spot of a line in the sand.

If someone built a better choice and you could run OS X would you buy it?  Would you buy OS X if the machine to run it was broke most of the time?

We are the donkey, equal distance between two bales of hay trying to decide which is easier to reach while starving to death.

Hansa69, I heard that the repairs need the computer to be in the "original" state as well, but mine has a new SSD that I put in; and they didn't comment.

jrireland - Apple consider memory and HDD on the MBP 2011's changeable parts (the genius bar folks themselves told me that when when I took it in for a repair under the warranty a couple of years ago), so if one of them is changed they won't bat an eyelid, if you tried to change the CPU or something like the CD/DVD drive that would void the warranty.  My late 2011 MBP has been repaired this week in the UK and it had a different disk (disk that came with the machine fried about 18mths ago so had to replace it) and they didn't comment at all

I've thrown some pretty intensive graphics benchmarking and testing at it since I've had it back and it's stood up to the task so far without falling over (admittedly I did only get it back yesterday) although I did run one test for about 3 hours.

I'm the same though - tried to get some form of official confirmation from both Apple and the authorised repair center but neither would take the bait. 

I do wonder though under UK/Irish/EU consumer law if the 90 day warranty really matters - surely if it goes again outside of the 90days then it's just another claim under consumer law and given that they have already replaced the board once, they have set a precedent and would find it very difficult to refuse a claim a second time.  Does anyone with more knowledge of these laws know how this would work at all?

eezacque wrote:

 

Margaret Lordan simply states Apple doesn't care about Dutch consumer laws, and told me to hire a lawyer and switch to Windows, if I didn't like Apple. So, I switched to Linux.

We are experiencing the cost of a No Parking sign, $50 to buy and a fortune to enforce.  We paid for the product with a promised level of quality.  for many we paid additional fees for extended warranty time, now we, a bunch of ants, are trying to enforce our purchase against an elephant.

There was a time when schools taught virtues, the common dignity of how to interact with each other.  Virtues are no longer taught, we have laws instead.  Today the reply is something about "within the law".  Laws describe the minimums of acceptable behavior.  "Within the law" is the response of those who meet minimums.  When virtues are again taught in schools "within the law" will leave a sour taste in the mouth of all who use the phrase and a disapproving look from all who hear it.

Same issue here. We have TWO 15' Macbook Pros from 2011 and both are failing. One was updated to Yosemite, the other not. The updated occasionally shuts down suddenly and frequently shows strange screen patterns/pixelations. The other Macbook won't startup any more, it shows the stripey green apple on boot and then hangs at the grey screen, though its drive can be accessed via firewire mode.

Now, hopefully the class action lawsuit will get Apple to listen. In the meantime I'm selling my iphone 6, I'm NOT buying any more new iMacs and no new MacBook Pros (which I would normally do) and **** will freeze over before I patronize an Apple store or buy anything from itunes or the appstore.

I feel you have the right attitude. I agree we should not patronize Apple until they handle this properly. It is getting harder and harder of me to log on now. takes about an hour... I am using gfxCardstatus, SMC fan control... and I can get it to work fine when I get in. I am going to try an new strategy and not log off but rather make the screen sleep.... yesterday I tried to set it in sleep mode which lasted about 3 hours then went in restart mode which failed......

I'm not really good at waiting or being a victim. I am beyond sick with Apple and their close minded arrogance when it comes to owning up to 'their' faults. The fact that there are nearly 800 pages in this thread alone, and thousands of people all over the world with the exact same problem is beyond me. I own several companies and I can't afford to be down but before shelling out another $2700 for a new MBP, I decided to try the re-flow option. Happy to say that after $40 and a couple hours, what was a brick that wouldn't boot now works as good as the day I got it. Of course this is not the optimal solution I would liked to have had, but if you need to get your machines up and running, and buying a new one or switching to PCs isn't an option, go the re-flow way. The only other option is to wait for Apple to come around and I seriously don't see this happening. This thread started back in 2013 and here we are two years later with the same problem and no help. They had a very similar issue with the 2011 iMac and they recalled and fixed those.

One last thing to keep in mind, if you do get a replacement Logic Board from Apple, they're basically replacing it with the same "defective design" that has already failed. Another reason why the re-flow with a heat-gun and new 'high end' thermal paste is, in my mind, the only way to go, other than a new machine. This is a @#$%! shame that we have to go through this and for the record, I am sorry there are so many of us out there having this problem. God, I used to love my Apple gear...