Spontaneous crack in MacBook screen

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › Spontaneous crack in MacBook screen - what would you do?

rknz

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#318631 5-Feb-2025 13:43

In November 2022 I purchased a MacBook Air 13" M1 from Noel Leeming for my son to use at university. All has been great with it until this week when he turned it on one morning to find the screen messed up. It was working fine the night before.

When the screen is on there are a whole bunch of glitchy lines running down the right-hand side and bottom of the screen converging on what appears to be some sort of fine crack in the screen, along with other weird black splotches. Inspecting the screen while the laptop is turned off there are some physical signs of discolouration at that spot but no obvious external crack.

Googling this problem it seems that there are plenty of people who have had their MacBook screens do similar things with no apparent event to cause the damage. So much so that there are stories talking about a class action in the US.

My problem is I don't know how to approach getting this fixed. If I go to Noel Leeming I can already foresee the battle I would have to convince them to repair under the CGA, as it will be hard to prove that it is not due to some physical damage. I can also imagine they would want to charge some sort of "inspection fee" that I would never get back after they conclude that it is not a manufacturing fault and expect me to pay for the repair.

My other option is to try getting it repaired under my home contents insurance policy due to accidental damage. This has as excess of $250, which is likely to be less than the actual cost of screen replacement. The conversation with the insurer will be slightly awkward when there is no actual known "event" that damaged the screen.

What would you do in my situation?

gehenna

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#3339593 5-Feb-2025 13:50

You'll have to get it assessed and see if they come back with any insinuation of physical mistreatment. I've had a couple of similar situations with Apple over the years. One notable example was the polycarbonate MacBook top case issue - I had three replaced before Apple acknowledged it was a design flaw, and the third time it was insinuated there was drop damage because there was something in the case that had become detatched from the top case. I challenged that via their customer relations team and it was resolved quickly.

I think you have to assume you'll get a similar push back, then it's up to how far you want to push back against it. But you can't know until a service request is processed and the certified service provider looks inside.

antoniosk

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#3339596 5-Feb-2025 14:03

whatever path you take, it needs to go to apples repair assessor to determine if it’s manufacturing or owner accident.

repairs for Macbooks are expensive - expect it to be in the $700 region

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Antoniosk

nova

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#3339597 5-Feb-2025 14:04

I lodged an insurance claim for a broken Macbook Air M1. I rang a few repairers beforehand, and the quote for a screen replacement was $1000. The insurance company didn't bother to repair it, and just gave me the money for a new one. When I talked to the agent he said that screen replacements on macbooks were risky so they generally just replaced. Your insurance company might be different, but if they are the same the good news is that you might get a 16GB Macbook Air M2 as a replacement as the M1 is no longer sold.

Having said that, I think you should talk to Noel Leeming first, and also Apple direct if Noel Leeming won't help out.

CYaBro

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#3339600 5-Feb-2025 14:20

If, as you say, there is no sign of a point of impact then it should be covered.
When I had my AASP shop we had to inspect things like that with a microscope.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

mattwnz

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#3339635 5-Feb-2025 15:26

antoniosk:

whatever path you take, it needs to go to apples repair assessor to determine if it’s manufacturing or owner accident.

repairs for Macbooks are expensive - expect it to be in the $700 region

I do wonder how they can actually tell, especially if there is no impact damage. There could be a scratch on the casing from another event, and they blame the problem on that. From my use of laptops, I suspect some screens could get damaged from opening them from a corner, and causing the screen to twist, and if that happens enough times, it could cause fatigue and failure.

rknz

13 posts

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#3344143 18-Feb-2025 13:03

Thanks so much for all of the advice. This has now been resolved.

I followed the consensus from you guys and took the device to Noel Leeming. The NL staff initially gave me quite a bit of pushback, but I stuck to my guns with the belief that the CGA should cover me. They thought it was most likely physical damage and warned me that I would most likely be asked to pay the inspection fee and for the repair. They also gave me the expected garbage about being out of warranty etc. I insisted that they send it away to be assessed despite all of their negativity.

In the end the repairer deemed that the issue was "consistent with electronic/mechanical failure" and repaired completely free of charge. My son will be stoked to have his laptop back, thanks again GZ community for giving me the confidence to push for my rights.

qwertee

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#3344218 18-Feb-2025 14:32

Thanks for posting the outcome 👏

Well done! You must be rather relieved.