My damage looked kind of like this, but a bit worse.
Hi! I don’t know if anyone will find this useful, but if you happen to have a Mac laptop that has the anti-reflective coating coming off, Apple will replace your display for free! That will save you about $800!!! The not-very-publicized recall put into place by Apple is in response to what has been termed “Staingate.”
I didn’t know what was wrong with my screen. I thought I just couldn’t get it clean, so I looked it up online, and determined that it was the anti-reflective coating that had come off around where the keyboard hits the middle of the screen. Usually you can still use your display with the problem, but it can get REALLY annoying. The first time I looked up the issue I didn’t see any way to resolve it. Then about a week ago I was looking online and stumbled across this MacRumors article: https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/17/apple-extends-free-staingate-repairs/ (Thank You MacRumors!). The article says that they will replace it up to three years from purchase date, but I believe it is up to four years from purchase date.
I was actually past the timeframe, and I was really bummed out (I had missed it by three months). Fortunately, a great service tech at CityMac told me I should contact Apple and see if they could make an exception. I contacted Apple, and they did! I’m pleased to say that I also had a good customer service experience with Apple this time. In the past I had had terrible customer service.
I’m now typing behind a shiny new AND CLEAR computer screen. Yay!
So, if you have this problem, you can take it into an Apple store, or go to an Authorized Retailer like CityMac. You can also contact Apple and mail your computer in if you prefer. Good luck and good computing!
kristinbell.org 