A woman shared her astonishment in a now-viral video in which she said she discovered that her computer keyboard melted after it was in the sun for just a few minutes.
Posted by TikTok user @katrinaforeal on August 3, the video amassed nearly four million views.
"It was the newest 2020 16-inch MacBook Pro," she said in a subsequent video, which she shared on August 8 and was viewed more than three million times.
She told Newsweek in an email that she had the computer for less than three months.
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"If you haven't dusted it down lately, physically cleaning your PC will help get it running coolly and quietly again," the company said.
TikTok user @katrinaforeal opened her first video by saying she believed that she "melted" her keyboard.
She focused the camera on the warped keys as she expressed her disbelief.
"Just in the sun for like, five minutes, and I noticed that my keyboard was getting hot, so I closed my MacBook," @katrinaforeal said. "I just came in to do some work and the keyboard is warped."
She explained that she's previously used other computers, one of which was a MacBook, in the sun but never had an issue with the keyboards.
"Am I an idiot? I feel like an idiot," @katrinaforeal said as the video concluded.
Some viewers were just as stunned to see what happened to @katrinaforeal's keyboard.
"Oh that is wild," a TikTok user wrote. "I wouldn't have expected the plastic to have more heat sensitivity."
"I never use my mac outside and now I definitely won't," wrote another.
For others, however, @katrinaforeal's story was not so surprising.
"This happened to me," one viewer wrote. "I brought it in and the guy tried to convince me I spilled nail polish remover on it."
"This happened to me too," a comment read. "Perfect fingerprint impressions. I had to buy new keys and replace them all by hand."
In her follow-up video, @katrinaforeal said she went to the Apple store twice. She said employees gathered around the computer and were shocked.
They ultimately gave her a refund and took the computer.
"I got a call today saying that they're sending it to the headquarters out in California for the engineers to look at because they are really concerned that three to five minutes of sun exposure completely melted a keyboard on a very expensive computer," @katrinaforeal said.
She said that one frustrating aspect of the process was that if she went into the store by herself, she spent at least an hour trying to speak with the employees about the matter. However, when her boyfriend accompanied her, the issue was resolved in half the time.
"The level of treatment they gave him versus me was disappointing but at the end of the day I got a full refund and they are taking the computer to be tested, as they are worried this might be a very large problem with the new 2020 MacBook Pro," @katrinaforeal said.
Since then, she purchased a new Apple computer but has not received any update on what happened to the other computer.
Newsweek reached out to Apple for further comment.
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Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Catherine Ferris is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting for the U.S. Trends Team. She ... Read more
