MacBook Pro Retina late 2013 - repair experience & request for suggestions for keyboard protection going forward

Doug Lerner2 wrote:

I had a good, then frustrating, then ultimately good experience with AppleCare this week. My late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina's AppleCare expires the day after Christmas. Over the last year, from normal use, some of the keys had begun to wear away. Several keys were so worn away you couldn't see the letters at all, and you could even see underneath the key.

Everything worked fine, but I figured if it was covered I might as well get a keyboard replacement before my AppleCare expired.

So on Friday I made an appointment at the Apple Store Ginza and brought it in. The "Genius" was very friendly and said that yes, it was covered under warranty. Not only that, the top case, trackpad, keyboard and battery were all one unit and so that whole unit would be replaced and sent back to me by courier. I left my MBP there pleased.

On Saturday I got a very frustrating email from them to click on my repair status. There they claimed they found water damage (photos below) and therefore the repair would be out of warranty. They gave me a choice of either paying 57,000 yen (about $485) and getting it repaired or returning it without repair. And there was also an option to chat with the repair center, which I selected.

I was quite worked up about it because I knew for sure there had never been any spill of any liquid on my MBP. I never ever drink around it, and it's never been in the rain, or used outdoors. I'm 100% positive of that. The only conceivable thing I could think of are the three years of very humid Tokyo summers it been through. And I use non-alcohol computer "wet sheets" to clean the screen and keyboard when they get dusty. That's it.

In my chat I'm afraid I was quite upset, but the support person was soothing and said a "specialist" would call me back within 5 minutes from internet, which he did. The specialist took my word for it, said they didn't want to lose me as a customer, and agreed they would do the repair for free. So after an hour of intense frustration, all was well again.

And my MBP just arrived back by courier to my house (extremely quick turnaround) and it looks to be in brand new condition, though I haven't turned it on yet. That's my next task. So in that sense, all's well that ends well, and AppleCare took care of me properly in the end.

But... I am very curious about what happened! I'm adding the photos below which supposedly show "water damage." I don't see it. And it's important to clarify that nothing happened suddenly, and nothing was actually broken or not working. It was simply that some of the keys had worn down over time and the letters were not visible and I wanted it looking nice again in case I decided to sell it or continue using it, since it was still under warranty.

My questions to people out there are

(1) Do you see water damage?

(2) if you do, what are possible explanations for what might have caused it if I am 100% certain there have never been spills on the keyboard. Could it have just been the humidity over three years? My palms are certainly not sweaty enough to be dripping water while typing. It's just weird.

(3) Are there ways of protecting the keyboard going forward?

For the latter, I know there are protective shields for the keyboards. But I've also heard they might cause issues with the case closing properly or, even worse, they might damage the display because of the tight fit. Anybody have any suggestions in this regards?

Thanks.

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