Apple to replace frayed MagSafes for free

Apple’s long standing policy has been to ding you for $100 bucks if it frays, melts or explodes out-of-warranty… unfortunate, since they are prone to just such problems. Now, Apple’s doing the right thing: even out-of-warranty, you should be able to bring the MagSafe by your local Apple retailer and get a free replacement. Which means we can all be a bit more frivolous with our power cable garrotings.

1. [kylejbritt]

   My MagSafe started to fray and burn a few months ago and the Genius Bar was all too happy to replace it for free, the Genius even mentioned he had seen the problem a lot.

2. [Anonymous]

   I’m an apple service provider and cannot find any documentation of this at apple and they defintely haven’t told us that this is now the case… though they don’t exactly have a good track record of informing service providers of anything. Any chance anyone has a link to backup this claim?

3. [Anonymous]

   not knowing this was a known issue I went out and bought a brand new magsafe at the ridiculous 100 dollar price tag last week! i could kick myself for just assuming it was out of warranty and there was nothing I could do!

4. [bikeyjosh]

   I’m an apple service provider and I’m afraid to tell you all that this post is a bit incomplete. This replacement program is only for the adapters that shipped with the first generation of macbook & macbook pros. It is NOT for all magsafe adapters. And it is not a sure thing. Apple still says that once they see the adapter they can decide to replace it not.

   http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1977

5. [Hiuyu]

   You just saved me $100! Unfortunately I had ordered a new magsafe and it arrived an hour after reading the article so now I’ll have to wait longer for the replacement, but no complain.

   The only thing: The rep said that they will replace the adapter WITHOUT the “duckhead” AC-plug , meaning I’ll have to take it from my old power plug. I was a bit surprised that they won’t replace the adapter as a whole, but I guess it’s better than always staring to see if the electrical tape is holding up.

6. [zuzu]

   Holy fucking Christ on a Crutch! This has been a problem with every single Powerbook / MacBook adapter ever!

   The new MagSafe ones have slightly thicker insulation (finally!), but even that doesn’t seem to be good enough.

   Apple, this is unacceptable.

7. [zuzu]

   Apple’s long standing policy has been to ding you for $100 bucks if it frays, melts or explodes out-of-warranty… unfortunate, since they are prone to just such problems. Now, Apple’s doing the right thing: even out-of-warranty, you should be able to bring the MagSafe by your local Apple retailer and get a free replacement.

   So what about the 5 old Powerbook adapters I have with exactly this problem. Can I still bring those in out-of-warranty for working replacements?

8. [Anonymous]

   What the heck!

   Not a month ago I threw down $80+ for a new one after my initial one gave up the ghost. So where does that leave the folks who promptly threw their faulty adapters away in disgust and contempt?