Last week the space bar on my MBP stopped working. Thankfully it was only for a brief period of time, but it was a sign that I needed to get off my ass and get that machine back to Apple for yet another top case/keyboard replacement. In addition, the machine has been "popping" for months. The best way to describe it is the sound an empty plastic drink bottle being squeezed. There's no rhyme or reason to when it pops; sometimes it happens when the machine's cool, sometimes when it's warm. And lastly, the USB ports on either side of the machine have become laughably loose—and whatever's connected randomly loses connection (usually external drives. Annoying.).
I still have about seven months left on my Apple Care, so I knew sooner rather than later I would have to bite the bullet and get the machine in for service. As I've bitched before, it's a huge hassle to part with the machine for the typical 3-5 days it takes Apple to replace this, but thankfully we still have Ben's old 2010 model that I can use while mine is out for repair. It's a [first world problem] pain in the ass to transfer my data now because that machine can't be upgraded to the same OS I'd been running on mine, and—because Apple—you can't utilize the built-in Migration Assistant to seamlessly transfer data from the newer machine to the older.
So I have to go in manually and move stuff. I left Microsoft ten years ago because of this kind of bullshit. But Apple…it just works!
If you count the original exchange of my laptop a week after getting it, this is the fourth time this issue has been addressed, and—per Apple—this would automatically qualify me for a complete machine replacement. But in Apple's view, this policy is by serial number, so this repair is only the third time now. So…no soup for me!
On the other hand, I was told they're no longer making parts for my 2016 model, meaning I'll probably end up with the newer iteration of the top case containing the (marginally) better butterfly assembly. Still not ideal, but if this replacement craps out before the expiration of my Apple Care, the Genius at Apple told me I'll end up with a new laptop altogether. (A 2019—or if the timing is right, hopefully the hotly-anticipated 2020 model with the scissor keyboard if it comes out by then.)