How to get a free Macbook Pro: Alternate Method (Off-Topic)

by Kahzgul, Friday, December 29, 2017, 13:55 (2519 days ago) @ Cody Miller

First, Cody: Apple switches their monitors back and forth between matte and glossy almost every year, and then charges $100 extra if you want it the "old" way. They've been doing that since the first iMac, iirc.

Anyway, my alternate method commences:

I used to own a 17" MacbookPro. I loved it. I think this was a 2007 model? I'm not sure. But it had all of the real estate space of a 17" screen plus the portability of a laptop. It also had a boatload of ports: firewire, thunderbolt, usb, etc, and a DVD-R drive (Apple calls it a "superdrive"). Anyway, one day the logic board failed. Known problem on the macs of that era (as Cody pointed out).

I took the mac in to the genius bar, and they told me it would be a $1200 repair since I didn't have applecare. Oh? How much is applecare? $300. Okay, how much will the repair be if I buy applecare first? Free. So I spent $300, bought applecare, and sent my compy off for service. When it comes back, there are green lines down my monitor. Seems something broke in shipping. Also, apple discontinued 17" monitors some years ago, so they can't replace the monitor of my computer. Their solution: I got to go to the apple store, build a laptop with whatever specs I wanted, and they'd give me that for free. I mentioned that I needed all those ports and such, and the new computer didn't have any of them except for usb and thunderbolt, so they threw in a bunch of dongle thunderbolt to whatever converters and a superdrive.

So I got a mid 2012 macbook pro, fully loaded, and a superdrive, and all these dongles and converters, for free*. Technically I paid $300 for apple care, but they applied that to my new laptop as well, so...

It's weird to think that it is now 2017 and this computer is still boss. Apple really needs to update their hardware.