Macbook Air SSD failure?

Here is my update.

My MacBook Air had died and I had replaced it with an OWC one when the Apple Care center told me I had to wait 2 weeks and would get the exact part. I had lost a lot of very important data. I do use time machine but it was backed up a week back. But its 2013 and a lot happens in a week. 🙂 I just couldn't take the risk and the wait. And I did it myself as the Apple Care people wouldn't do it.

After the annoucement of the recall I asked for a refund and after a 10-day wait I am told I wouldn't get a refund because I opened the Macbook Air myself and instructed me to take legal action if I want the refund.

So my Macbook Air is basically Designed in USA, Manufactured in China, Sold in Hong Kong, Used in India and Defended in Australia. ***!

Disclaimer: I use 8 Apple devices and keep recommending everyone to use them. Engineering shouldn't suffer for some lame operations.

<Edited By Host>

And the post is deleted!

I was thinking the same thing. Apple have given us a faulty product and I am likely to be out of a computer for a month (just a guess.). They aren't making any effort to help us and many of us suffer in business or academics because of it. I wonder if anyone else understands more about the legality of apple's actions concerning our MBAs?

My Experience of the SSD Macbook Air Warranty/Recall:

My macbook air was affected by the SSD recall. On Oct 19th I took it in to a local Apple corporate store. The "Genius" checked it in and said it would be 3-5 days. He also commented how pristine my macbook air was and marked the condition as new.

On Oct 28th I called to get a status and was told by the Apple Associate that my part was on order and may take several weeks. I stated that I needed a system and it was already pass the estimated due date. The associate put me on hold and new associate answered, she said the part was in stock and they were imaging my drive as we speak.

Later in the evening of Oct 28th I received a phone call that my macbook air was ready for pickup. Just before 8pm I arrived and the macbook air was returned to me with several black smudges particularly around the backplate (underside of computer). I then powered up my macbook air while in the presence of an Apple Associate; the screen backlight went off and would not come back on. The monitor was functional as you could see text on the screen - just no backlight. I then said this needs to be resolved and added how I was not happy that my computer was returned dirty. It is now 8:30pm and an Apple Tech comes to me and he just restarts the computer - the screen backlight did come back on. He said because he reset the pram and smc it caused the screen backlight to behave erratic and claimed it was fixed. Knowing better that a reset to the pram is suppose to fix odd quirks like an erratic backlight - I insisted something else was wrong. By then the store manger arrived and confirmed that my computer was okay as they just wanted me out of the store. The Apple tech said he did not touch the the monitor. I said inadvertently you may have since the SSD is attached to the logic(mother)board and the monitor is also attached to the logic board. Insisting that my computer be reinspected, I called 800-my-apple to start a new case since I didn't feel I was getting enough support.

Oct 29th, I was notified by the Head Tech at the Apple Store that my computer failed diagnostics (at the local Apple Store) and a request was issued to ship my computer to an Apple Repair Depot for additional diagnostics and repairs. The Head Apple Tech agreed with me on my concerns and was also disappointed by what the tech told me from the previous evening. By this time I was also contacted by phone a Senior Customer Service Agent with Apple Corporate essentially to fact check the circumstance and to address my concerns. A new repair ticket was generated and listed the condition of my macbook air to good (which is a downgrade from new) confirming that my complaint about the macbook air being returned dirty.

At this point, I have invested over 6 hours conversations and driving time to the store to resolve what should have been a simple recall. My first request was that Apple share the cost of a warranty extension since the botched the repair and I had lost confidence in their abilities. As the circumstance became worse I requested that they either provide me with a warranty extension at no charge or supply me with a replacement unit. The requests were denied as of now.

I have lost faith in Apple and was eager to purchase an iPad Air tomorrow (Nov 1), but now I am putting that purchase on hold until I see how my warranty recall repair is handled.

I truly hope this was just a series of bad events isolated to me and not the direction of how Apple is handling repair work and recalls.

I forgot to mention the Senior Apple Care executive was one of the worst "talkers" I had encountered. He was "empowered" by Apple to take any decision for my product and didn't pause when I asked him to listen. But then the support is for/from India, I am used to that.

My experience on my Macbook Air repair went pretty well. This is actually my first time visiting an Apple Store. Perhaps the store I was visiting happens to be a Premium Store, as showed on the Apple.com website at https://locate.apple.com/service/?pt=4&lat=39.125434299999995&lon=-77.1990604 (the first one "MBS"), I got a good customer service and a fast repairing speed.

My MBA was dropped off in the morning last Friday, 10/25. I filled out a repair form and explained to the representative that I maybe eligible for the recall program (most of the fields in the form I didn't fill out and he still took the incomplete form, perhaps it's because the recall is an exception or some other reasons). He ran the test and could not find the SSD drive. He then told me to wait for the call and will tell me the result.

That evening I received a call from him. He told me that my MBA was eligible for the program, and asked me whether the data on the hard drive needs to be restored. I told him that I was tinkering between Linux and OS X on the MBA before its SSD dead, so I backed up everything before the tinkering.

This Tuesday, 10/29, I received a call from him that the MBA had been finished repairing. I then went to the store to pick up the device. To my surprise, he not only repaired the device, he also cleaned its screen. Now it is like a new one.

I'm planing to purchase an iPad Air and retiring the iPad 2 I bought from eBay. Not only I'm happy with the service I received on my Macbook Air, I also think that the iPad Air is the best device to directly upgrade from iPad 2

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I wish that was the service I received. From the additional time estimates it looks like I wont have my macbook air until mid November. One month without my macbook air. And no one has yet to give me an apology. 😐

I'm glad yours went smoothly.

robbychen, if only all the Apple Stores are just like the one you went to, then this discussion thread wouldn't be 360+ post long (and counting!).

I have accepted the fact that my MBA will not have its SSD replaced in the next 3 weeks or so. So I have decided to buy an external HDD to get the laptop to a usable state. I'm now about $85 out of pocket, lost about at least 6 hours of my life dealing with Apple Support people and with a $1200 paperweight with a portable drive hanging off it just to get it to work. For all the years I've been a Windows user, I have never been through this pain of getting a part replaced. :-(

Anyone have any idea at the status of the inventory of these drives?

Docwheels wrote:

Anyone have any idea at the status of the inventory of these drives?

I'd like to know that too - it has been almost 3 weeks since our MBA was submitted for repair, and a few days ago a guy on Apple chat said 'it's probably going to be more than a few weeks'.

My new disk finally arrived on 31st October, a liitle earlier than the 3d of November the initially told me. On the 1st of November I took my MBA at the store and after half an hour I picked it up. I also claimed a refund of the 40€, which I had paid for the disk check after my first crash, and they did not have any objection. So, I hope that my story finishes here, with a new disk (Toshiba again), without having paid anything in the end but having lost significant work for me and a conference deadline for that reason. Being a freak now with my backups and disk clones, I hope that this will not happen again.

I' m so frustrated I cannot put it in words!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot believe this is happening again with my replaced SSD!!!

History:

10/12/2013: First crash. Loss of data. Disk appears in Disk Utility only as device. Blah blah in the store ... they don't take any responsibility. They check and give me back my MBA.

10/17/2013: Second crash. The SSD is not seen at all by Disk Utility.

10/17/2013: Announcement of the replacement program by Apple

10/21/2013: The Apple retailer store informs me that I'm eligible for replacement and the "new" SDD will arrive by the 3d of November.

11/1/2013: My SSD is replaced by the "NEW!!!"

11/6/2013: After a normal shutdown, when I power up my MBA what I have done the 3-4 previous days (during which I put my MBA to sleep) is lost!!!!!!! Guess what!!! The Time Machine (although from the 1st of November I was constantly schecking that every one hour it does its backup) has no information either, although it seems that there exist the backups it was taking!!! Like what I was saving in the disk was completely transparent!!!!! The Time Machine back up diffs from the 1st of November is 0!

Ok the last time I had the crash, I may have the blame of not having backed up my work. But now???? I put a lot of effort and hours during the last 5 days, to bring the project I'm working on to the state it was before the first crash of (10/12). I took my backups regularly every hour and now what???????? I have a totally useless device that cannot be trusted for saving anything!!!! So, I can only use it for browsing. Perfect!

I personally believe that Apple made fun of me as a customer, by replacing my SSD with a supposedly "NEW" one that proved faulty in only five days!!!

Just wanted to add my experience:

My MBA purchased last christmas failed around the beginning of October. I didn't really have a chance to take it in to service until yesterday (11/9/13). The apple genius told me it was SSD failure. He ordered a replacement and told me it would take 2 weeks but the timeframe is indifinite due to orders being backed up. I received the email and it says I would receive a call 3-5 days which I really hope is true.

I left my MBA with them (I hope it doesn't come back dinged and such).

My question is: anyone have any luck in having Apple extending the warranty period for the time its being fixed?

Just curious here... I note raitsou has had an issue with a replaced SSD, I'm just wondering if anybody else has encountered a fault after replacement?

As I want to be fair, I'm not sure in the end if it is the SSD... After several restarts and the disk remaining at the old state, I went once again to the Apple retailer store. When I turned on my MBA in the store, magically, the state was back again to where I left it. I also connected the disk with my Time Machine backup and everything was back to normal. After a discussion with the expert there we agreed that it would be a good idea to make a fresh install of the OS, as the image that my disk currently hosts is the one I took just before my second crash. Anyway, I left without a good explanation and the feeling that I should take personally care of my backups checking whatever I take in backup is at the state it should be. After several restarts since, I finally noted that the phenomenon appears when I turn on my MBA with the disk, where the Time Machne backup is stored, connected. This does not seem like a normal behaviour to me, so I remain cautious and suspicious.