14 DAY TRIAL // More than 18,000 MacBook Pro owners have signed a petition to ask Apple to replace the faulty parts in their expensive computers. With the complaints going unanswered, a Washington DC-based law firm now wants to elevate the problem to class action status.
On Apple Support Communities alone there are several threads, hundreds of pages long, describing what is clearly an issue with 2011 MacBook Pro computers equipped with discrete graphics cards.
Customer reports
Just one of hundreds of such reports reads, “I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro (2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 memory) running OS 10.8.2. It has two graphics components: an AMD Radeon HD 6750M and a built-in Intel HD Graphics 3000. Since I've had the computer, the screen would get a blue tint when the computer switched between them.”
“However, as of two days ago, the problem has become substantially more severe. The computer was working fine, when all of a suddent [sic] the screen when completely blue. I had to force restart the computer. Since then, the screen has gone awry on numerous occassions - each time necessitating a hard reset.”
Other complaints echo this type of malfunction, but many others are reporting different graphical glitches in different circumstances. However, all complaints have three things in common: the computer specifications, the year when these systems were sold, and the type of malfunction that is being reported.
Lawyers want to help
A bunch of attorneys from Washington DC have intercepted all the forum discussions, sites and petitions created to get Apple’s attention. They want everyone to fill out a form and determine if they can elevate this to a class action lawsuit that Apple will be forced to answer to.
“Greetings #mbp2011 community! Thousands of you have raised your voice, but sadly it seems that Apple and Tim Cook are not listening,” reads the attorneys’ message.
“We are Whitfield Bryson & Mason LLP, a law firm based in Washington, DC, committed to the protection of consumers. Our attorneys have successfully filed and prosecuted cases against Google, Lenovo, HP, and Sony, just to name a few. Alerted to the pervasive failures concerning the 2011 MBP GPU’s, we commenced an investigation leading us to your community.”
“Your posts are a great source of information, but to determine if any legal claims may exist, we need your help. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey below,” says the group.
If that’s you, head over to this address and share your troubles. It’s truly a shame that Apple has left these reports unanswered, considering the exorbitant prices these people have paid for their premium laptops.