The Story of a MacBook Repair
Prologue
Early last year, around February, I bought a MacBook M3 Pro. This was for my wife's personal use. After a little more than a year of use, my wife reported that the screen had suddenly died. I was not in the city at the time, so my wife went to the nearest store herself. For context, there's no Apple Store in Indonesia, only Authorized Resellers (TODO: confirm the name). While my wife was still talking with the shop's repair guy, her laptop screen suddenly fixed itself. Both my wife and the guy were baffled. She then returned home.
Later that day, I helped look for issues in the Apple forums and found similar complaints.
After I returned home days later, we tried to find a third-party Apple laptop repair service. They all said that there were no official replacement parts available, and that OEM parts would need days, if not weeks, to be sourced. Not satisfied with the available options, and since there was no urgency to repair it, we just kept using the laptop as if there was no fault with it.
Then it happens again
And again. The screen turns blurry and dark for hours every few weeks, and then it fixes itself. We do a lot of reading, assumptions, and experiments, like draining the battery before charging it again, but we're just guessing. When the screen comes back, we never understand what happens.
Then it never came back
One day in early July, it turns off as usual. Hours become days. Since it's taking longer than usual, I set up an external monitor for my wife to use and in my spare time read about and try other methods, like the possibility of using software to adjust the angle lid sensor. My wife spends weeks using the laptop in clamshell mode. For a developer like me, having a slightly off-color display isn't a problem. I wouldn't even notice it. But for my wife, who works with colors, it's a little annoying to have one of its most expensive parts not working.
Wife's Singapore office trip plan
Fast forward a few weeks. My wife's company is planning to have some kind of weekend outing in Singapore. I suggest that she bring the laptop with her, to maybe drop it off for repair on Friday before her trip, then pick it up, fixed, on Monday after the trip. I make sure to ask fellow Singaporeans which Apple store is the easiest, and notify the Apple store about my issues and expectations weeks beforehand.
It's just a screen replacement, right? It wouldn't take long.
Wrong.
Screen replacement is a process
On August 15, my wife goes to Singapore. She visits Apple Jewel Changi Airport. She meets the Apple Genius as scheduled. They inspect the laptop and confirm there's no liquid or external damage. Then they give the quote. My wife asks, how long would it take? "The screen procurement can take up to 5 days." No. She's only in Singapore for the weekend. The laptop needs to stay for the procurement to happen, but my wife isn't planning to overstay or miss days of work. She's in the middle of a project. My wife lets me know that she has canceled the repair. I think, "Oh well, I thought I had made it clear that I wanted a screen replacement."
Returned broken
My wife returns Monday night, around 11 PM. She's tired from the trip. It was nice. I am happy that she's having fun. On August 19, Tuesday morning, I am woken up by her frustration. The laptop is stuck in a boot loop. There's some blurry text on the screen, but it's not discernible because of the display issues. The external monitor doesn't seem to work either. On top of that, the touchpad is now stiff and external peripherals do not interact with it (my external keyboard's backlight doesn't turn on when plugged in). It's 6 AM. I try to debug and gather as much information myself.
Restoring firmware
I find a page titled "If your Mac doesn't start up all the way," and try to make sense of the situation.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102675
Looking at all the possibilities, everything narrows down to just 2 paths:
- Question mark -> first step is a link to startup from macOS recovery
- Circle with a line through it -> first step is also a link to startup from macOS recovery
- Globe with warning symbol -> goes directly to the startup from macOS recovery page
- Apple logo -> bla bla bla, so many steps but at the end it's startup from macOS recovery
- Blank / empty -> macOS recovery or revive firmware (new options!)
- Options with gear icon -> 2 options to boot as usual or macOS recovery
- Exclamation point in a circle -> revive firmware
- Lock icon -> firmware password
Most of them lead to "macOS Recovery" mode, so I give it a try. It doesn't work. I'm pretty sure I didn't put a password on the firmware, so the last option is to try to revive the firmware. I follow the steps and, using my other MacBook, the broken Mac is available in DFU mode. Revive means trying to fix the firmware, and restore means to do a factory reset. I don't want to lose any data, so a factory reset is not an option. Thus, I try reviving the firmware. It seems you need around 100 GiB of space to do this. I clear out my Downloads folder to accommodate it.
The revival fails.
to image of firmware restoration failed
Ah, it seems like I have exhausted my self-debug options. It's 7 AM.
Customer support?
I reach out to Apple Support, as I have many times previously. I tell them the situation, that I have tried a lot of different paths. I get bounced between multiple support agents until they finally say that I will need to go to Makassar for repair, since the "official Apple repair" is there.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/vBKa8U7iBtL5zeJK9
Knowing how shady Indonesian repair shops can be, I refuse. I prefer the Apple Store in Singapore. Apple Support also says that I would need to get my device inspected (again), wait for the replacement screen to be ready, and then wait again for the repair, which may take anywhere from 5-15 days, depending on logistics.
I'm bounced around to 3-4 customer support agents, explaining my issues again and again. My wife's colleague even goes to an Apple Store, connecting us via a WhatsApp call since the Apple Store can't be reached by any of our numbers. I finally understand that their policy does not allow me to pay for the repair upfront and have them prepare the screen beforehand.
Device needs to be in the Apple Store to confirm replacement parts purchases.
It's 11 AM.
Reaching out
I write a lengthy email to Apple, explaining how disappointed I am with their hardware and their service. I express how much time is being wasted. I don't have much hope for the email; it's just a moonshot and a way to vent. Looking back, I am proud of my choice of words, and how I was able to hold back so much anger at that moment. It's 1 PM, and I have lost half a day dealing with these issues. I just go back to my work.
They call me back
On August 20, a random +65 number calls my phone. I pick it up. It's someone from Apple. They are offering me a replacement unit, available to be picked up at an Apple Store in Singapore. After some back-and-forth emails, I say that I will be able to visit them in a few weeks, on Monday, September 8th, at 10:00.
Simple replace?
On September 8th, I go to Singapore. As soon as I land, I immediately head to the Apple Store. While walking, I check my email and the Apple representative says that I should bring the laptop charger too. "Could have said that a week ago," I mutter to myself, since I only brought the laptop with me. I arrive at the Apple Store at 10:30 AM. I let them know my problem and they tell me to wait. After waiting around 40 minutes, an Apple Store manager and an Apple Genius (their term for technical support) come out and bring me a brand new MacBook M4 Pro. They say they are offering a replacement unit. I ask, "How about my data?" They say that Apple's policies regarding privacy forbid them from doing data recovery. I emphasize that "nothing on my laptop is secret, I just need my data." No. It's rather annoying because they had broken it in the first place, but props to them for sticking to their policies.
They suggest I contact 3rd-party data recovery solutions. There are a lot of them in Singapore (heh). I ask if they have a recommendation, and the Apple Store manager gives me the name of a global, Apple-certified data recovery company. Looking at their websites, they'll accept my laptop at a drop-off site somewhere and repair it outside of Singapore. I don't have that much time. So I spend the next few hours locating data recovery shops. My plan is to recover my data from the broken laptop, then come back to do the replacement. They agree with the plan.
Recovery
I find "CBL Data Recovery." They have almost a thousand good reviews, and luckily their office is only a 15-minute walk from my company's Singapore office. So there I go. It is now 1 PM. I tell them my circumstances: the laptop is unbootable, I need my data, and I am returning home Saturday morning. They say that they'll do an inspection first and will get back to me the next day. I spend the day "working" at my company's Singapore office, utilizing the time to connect with my teammates.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/swCHYen7YHnbyA6r5
On Tuesday, September 9th, around 3 PM, CBL confirms that they can do it. It takes them another two days, and by Thursday evening my data is recovered. They have their own tools to recover and are able to revive the MacBook M3 Pro. The trackpad is still stiff, though. They say that they noticed some components were seated improperly. All my data is recovered into an external HDD. I am really happy with their quality and speed of service. (This is not a sponsored post.)
I head to Changi to swap my laptop. Fortunately, the Apple Store at Changi is open until 9 PM. It's a quick replacement. It is now Thursday, September 11th, 10 PM. I'm already back at my hotel. I let out a huge sigh of relief. My main mission in Singapore is done.
Epilogue
The cumbersome Apple repair process may be the result of logistics optimizations. There's a lot of money to be saved by having a centralized replacement and repair site. The fact that they need to confirm a repair before sending out screen replacements means that they don't want to send parts unnecessarily.
It is also unfortunate that Indonesia does not have proper Apple repair shops.
Writing is hard. I've had this post in draft since September 19th. I still don't know how to write faster.
Thanks
Thanks to the people at Apple Singapore for being really helpful and accommodating during this whole replacement arrangement.
Thanks to CBL for recovering my data.
Thanks to my Singaporean colleague for lending me money for the transfer since the repair shop didn't accept credit cards. It is understandable, as they might not want to deal with credit card reversals.
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