Q: Why won't Apple take responsibility for hardware they know is faulty for the life of the machine they installed it in? Why was this an unknown "program" and not an owner notified "recall"? It seems to me that all mid 2010 MBPs were affected!

You are asking about an Apple policy decision, which is both against the terms of use of the forums, and, no other fellow user here is going to know anything about such matters of internal Apple decision making.

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Hello Muradergt,

There are many possible kinds of hardware failure after six years.  Those machines that were part of that repair program were repaired so that their owners might be able to get six years out of them. You have gotten six years out of yours so you are doing as well as anyone else.

Why was I never notified that this was an issue during the program?

When automobiles are formally recalled, it is because the driver's LIFE is in danger -- the problem is being fixed because people have been injured or killed because of crashes that may have been caused by the fault.

Your computer problem falls far short of being life-threatening.

Apple DID take responsibility for the defects, and Users who had problems and contacted them over several years (as long as the longest possible three-year period of ownership) got relief, whether or not they had purchased the extended protection. You did not have such problems during that time (or did not bother to contact Apple about it). So it appears you already got many years of useful life out of your computer.

Apple never promised your computer would be free of problems for decades. But they did "make it right" for users who reported certain defects to them within the usual PLUS Extended warranty period.

Grant does raise a good point. In the USA the Consumer Product Safety Commission only requires a recall for "products that fail to comply with a safety rule or any other rule, regulation, standard or ban; that could create a substantial hazard; or that create an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death." (www.cpsc.gov).  That's why they "persuaded" Samsung to issue their recent recall (either that or face legal consequences for failure to recall a dangerous product).

Product defects that do not affect public safety are not regulated the same way (they largely are not regulated at all and are left to civil law as the arbitrator), and the manufacturer may, or may not issue notice, and is free to deal with the situation by extended warranties, exchanges, repairs and so forth of affected products.