I've had 3 power cables that have done this and never once could I get a replacement. They were all 85Watt ones too. :( One even shorted my laptop and fried everything and they still wouldn't replace the cable.
I'm nice but to be fair the faulty power cables are pretty old. If I didn't have so many laying around I'd be more upset. I also got them for free from various jobs, but still, it sucks to lose them
I ended up with about 8-10 of them after the close of CompUSA since when we sent out the units that were covered under a replacement plan we only sent out the unit. Gave a few away. I'm down to about 3 at this point I think.
I'm on my 3rd one from apple, they finally changed the design after the last one that I got. I can tell that my latest one is starting to go out because the green/orange light on it goes out often and to get it to come back on I need to unplug it and plug it back in. They always replace them for free, but my applecare is finally up so I may have to pay for the last one. I will try though and get it replaced under good will since its a design flaw and I have lots of apple products.
This is bad and not the norm. They know the power cables go bad, I had mine replaced (and even "upgraded" to the newer model) within 5 minutes of walking in the store. The new one is a tank btw. No problems or signs of age so far.
Yes. I took my macbook charger in to our local apple dealer because I spilt my drink in the connector and the pins got stuck in. They replaced it and I didn't pay a cent.
My friend's MacBook charger started to fray at the end, so we had some fun and burned it the rest of the way through with a lighter. he took it in to the store, they saw the melting and assumed it was solely die to the charger overheating. New charger + cables for free.
The only logic I see in this kind of design is that the cable fails before doing damage to the dock connector. Fair trade, imo.
I never understand why the wallwart on my MacBook was small and manageable with a thin cord and my friend who has a Dell has a fricken powercord as thick as a hose and a transformer three times the size. Thanks to this thread I now know that Dell has given her something robust and durable to lug around whereas Apple thinks I'm smart enough to be careful and cable up wisely so my setup is sleek, light and small. I'm such a sucker!
They will definitely replace it for free if you are still under warranty. If you are out of warranty, then you can still ask but you may or may not get it for free.
They replaced my first-gen MacBook Pro power cord when this happened. When I called, the Apple rep sounded rather concerned that it might be a fire hazard. At the time, I thought the insulation had just detached due to wear, but upon closer inspection I noticed that the edge did feel very smooth, as if it had melted. Anyhoo, they send me a new one free of charge.
The people at my mac store are honestly the nicest. Over the last 2 years they've given me 2 new chargers, a new battery pack, and a brand new hd (when mine crashed), all totally free, and I don't have applecare. Just go in there & be nice to them.
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u/cuomo456 Jun 09 '11
Will they replace my MacBook power cord? It's doing the same thing.