I watched this video. Here is a summary. The delivery sucks and the guy is annoying to listen to, but do not shoot the messenger. His facts are accurate. Apple, the world's wealthiest and perhaps most powerful company, is gouging selected customers with an $800 repair for an admitted backlight design defect that Apple will only fix under warranty in certain models. He shows proof that Apple is deleting any comments in their support forums about how to fix the defect in unsupported models without paying $800. He further observes how hostile Apple "users", i.e., people commenting on his YouTube channel, are to any criticism of the company, as if they take it personally. He also suggests it is likely other companies emulating Apple may adopt some of its worst practices as Apple demonstrates what today's customers will tolerate.
TL;DW: Apple deletes inconvenient truths from their forums. They also only cover flexgate[1] repairs to 13" 2016 MacBook Pro models[2], despite the issue affecting the 15" 2016 model as well as 2017 models[3].
Anecdotal evidence, but I've had a 2017 13" MBP repaired under the Flexgate scheme for free. Obviously this repair should be standardised, and the affected models should be added to the scheme, but Apple (or at least their employees) are authorising repairs for models not on the "official" list.
It's also worth mentioning that I tried at two different stores to get the free repair, and was refused the free repair at one.
My anecdotal story: I bought my Dad a 15" MBP which recently failed due to this. This is in the UK where there's strict consumer protection laws mandating free repairs within 6 years, as long as the consumer can show that the problem existed when the computer shipped.
He took it to the store and they wanted £600. I called and insisted they should fix it for free. I got hold of a supervisor who eventually gave in and agreed to do it, hooray! Not so fast. We got disconnected and I called back, getting another supervisor who said the first guy was mistaken and shouldn't have told me that. He explained that Apple's interpretation of UK consumer law is to deny any claim that falls outside of an approved repair program, unless you can somehow prove that the problem existed when the computer shipped, which he admitted is impossible due to the way these computers are built. He said that forum posts and YouTube videos are not considered evidence that it's a widespread issue.
It's especially painful in my case because I worked there as an engineer when I bought it for my Dad under Apple's employee purchase program. I was proud to do so at the time - he would never buy such an expensive computer for himself. I explained this to the AppleCare supervisor and he, of course, did not give a shit; probably didn't even believe me. So, if any Apple folks are reading, be warned that buying hardware for family members under EPP might seem like a good thing, but you may well be sticking them with an expensive repair bill in the not-too-distant future.
My Dad uses a Chromebook now and our family no longer buys Apple stuff, which sucks to say after working there for 8 years and shipping software that runs on that MBP.
For anyone not willing to click - this is a Louis Rossman (right to repair campaigner) video. I haven't watched it yet, but it's unlikely to be totally click bait and wasn't submitted by the creator (I don't think).
A webpage would convey the same information in a fraction of the time and bandwidth, but he is right, Apple’s policies around the butterfly keyboard fiasco and flex gate are despicable, and they are going to be resolved via class-action lawsuits eventually, but at a huge cost and aggravation for customers, and no small reputations damage for Apple.
Stuff like this is why I stopped buying apple products. It seemed like during the 2010's the MO was always the same: I'd buy a new model, something would go horribly wrong it, Apple would deny there was a systemic problem for years, then when the pressure was unbearable they'd issue a limited recall that probably wouldn't cover your device.
I had this happen with the Black Macbook, the iMacs with the bad video cards, several phones. The iMac was particularly onerous-- I had to haul the entire computer down to the Apple store, only for it to work when I got there. I did this twice. Never got it fixed, ended up junking the machine.
Apple's next 72 hours, if not when this popped up years ago, will define their deliberate, public choice for how they're going to handle this.
I can imagine their forum censorship getting enough visibility to see more scrapers archiving posts for useful facts and truths. How sad does that sound for the company that thought different?
It escapes me why the execs are playing like this during such a defining moment in their company history. R2R cannot come soon enough.
Bottom line - Apple is great if everything works as it's supposed to. Otherwise your experience with them isn't going to be better than anywhere else, other than their Genius Bar employees tell you to go eff yourself in a really nice way! The good news is most of Apple's stuff works so you're generally okay. That's what passes for customer service these days.
