It takes some bravery to bring a legal fight against a corporation like Apple, but that’s precisely what one B.C. woman did after experiencing issues with her MacBook Pro.
Details were laid out in a BC Civil Resolution Tribunal decision between the B.C. woman, the applicant in the case, and Apple Canada, the respondent.
According to the dispute decision, the woman claimed $2,000 in damages due to what she believed was a defective MacBook Pro.
She had purchased the MacBook Pro brand-new, directly from Apple. Within a year, she began to notice cracks appearing on the screen. She paid to have the screen repaired. Eight months after that, cracks began to appear again.
Her claim for $2,000 in damages was to cover the cost of repairs and compensation for issues related to it.
In defence, Apple Canada said the MacBook wasn’t defective and that issues related to the screen were the customer’s fault.
“It says this type of damage is not covered under its warranty and that it is not liable for any damages under the Sale of Goods Act or any other consumer protection legislation,” the tribunal decision states.
She had purchased the MacBook Pro on Oct. 4, 2020. In September 2021, while watching a movie, she started noticing cracks in the bottom left corner of the screen.
On Oct. 2, 2021, she took the Mac to an authorized Apple service provider, who informed her that the laptop had an internal fracture on the left side of the display featuring multiple cracks.
She and her father contacted Apple to see if the issue would be covered by Apple’s one-year warranty, but Apple refused to pay for the repair. On May 14, 2022, she paid $968.80 to cover the repair costs.
Cracks appeared again in either January or February 2023, so her father shelled out the money for a brand new MacBook. Her father then took the damaged MacBook back to the service provider, and he was informed that another internal screen fracture was causing the cracks.
The tribunal did not accept Apple’s reasoning that the cracks were caused by physical damage, citing an affidavit from the applicant’s partner as evidence that the cracks appeared during everyday use, specifically while watching a movie.
Additional evidence from the service provider supported the applicant’s position, as there appeared to be physical damage; however, no signs of external damage were found that suggested the laptop had been dropped or damaged in any way.
The tribunal had some strong words in regards to evidence that Apple submitted.
“Apple also provided its own internal record, which says that the MacBook was repaired after suffering impact damage from a drop or hit. I place no weight on this document because Apple did not explain who made this record or what information it was based on. Impact damage is not noted in any of the TLD reports. There is no evidence that any Apple employee examined the MacBook. I find that Apple’s internal record is self-serving and unreliable.”
Ultimately, in the B.C. MacBook dispute, Apple Canada was ordered to pay the damages the applicant requested, plus tribunal fees, resulting in a total of $2,356.42.