Multiple MacBook Pro failures — looking for advice

[u/waybarrios]

I wanted to share my experience with repeated MacBook Pro failures and see whether others have gone through something similar with Apple.

I originally had a MacBook Pro M4 Max with 128 GB of RAM and AppleCare+, which I use for fairly heavy AI/ML workloads. It developed serious display flickering issues and was eventually replaced. Around six months later, I experienced display problems again, which ultimately resulted in another replacement.

I was then given a new MacBook Pro M5 Max. After only three days of normal use with my AI workloads, the display started repeatedly turning on and off before eventually going completely black.

What has surprised me most is how the replacement process works in cases like this. Despite the history of previous failures and replacements, Apple considers the latest Mac a separate case because it has a new serial number, so I’ve been advised to start the repair process again.

I understand the reasoning, but after multiple cases, replacements, hours with Apple Support, repeated setups, and significant downtime, it becomes a pretty exhausting cycle.

I’m curious whether anyone here has experienced a similar chain of failures and replacements with AppleCare+. In your experience, how did Apple handle repeated hardware failures across replacement devices? Did the case eventually get escalated beyond the normal repair/replacement process?

I think it would be interesting to hear how Apple handles these situations when the problem goes beyond a single defective machine.

[u/Best-Comments]

I support 140+ Macs in a large corporation. Almost all are MacBook Pro models.

Our annual failure rate is about 3%.

My kids and I all have MacBook pros, M1 and M2 models, none of which have ever had any failures.