Apple Executive to Face South Korean Parliament Over iPhone Replacement Policies

[nospeed411]

I am in the automotive industry and this question comes up frequently.

In my field of specialty we have a certain pricey component manufactured by Robert Bosch Corp that is know to fail regularly. When replacing said part we ALWAYS use the reman one. We have found that the reman one does in fact last twice as long and has a failure rate that is much less than the new part. To say that manufacturers tend to spend better quality control on the reman part is a genuinely true statement. In our case we have actually been told by the vehicle manufacturer that the reman part purchased directly from Bosch goes through 3 testing phases vs. the new part that is assembled ,tested once and shipped.

Companies tend to roll the dice sometimes with components and assemblies to speed up the process of a part that may be in high demand. Therefore they will "skimp" on quality control in lieu of getting a product to market.

 

[pradap]

That said, I often buy Apple refurbs because they're cheaper. Not because I foolishly think they're better.
Ok, but even if the testing standards are the same, assuming that the 'refurb' is a repaired unit rather than just a return that can't be sold as new, the refurb had an issue that slipped through once. What are the odds of the same problem happening again, or another *different* problem slipping through the tests twice?That's what people are talking about when they say refurbs (from a reputable source) have passed through better testing. Imagine a product where a certain marginal part passes a test 50% of the time. The odds of it making it through testing for sale as new is 50%. The odds of it making it through the second round of testing for sale as a refurb is only 25%.

Even Apple says that they use the same testing standards with refurbs as they do with new units.Anyone who actually believes that a refurb is somehow "better" than new, is welcome to buy the iPhone 5 new, keep it in its box for a few weeks, then swap it to me for the cheaper, used iPhone 5 refurb I later buy. Yeah, right.Apple knows that used devices are not better or even as desirable. That's why they charge so much less for them.

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[shiekh]

I sometimes prefer the fixed version on the grounds that the weak point has been identified (through failure) and replaced; chances are that the resultant unit is better than the new (which may still have a weak spot).

Another way to look at it, the slightly aged item may be more reliable than the new as it has effectively undergone an extended burn-in time and so the infant failures have already been removed from the population.

 

[shiekh]

I sometimes prefer the fixed version on the grounds that the weak point has been identified (through failure) and replaced; chances are that the resultant unit is better than the new (which may still have a weak spot near failure).

Another way to look at it, the slightly aged item may be more reliable than the new as it has effectively undergone an extended burn-in time and the infant failure components have already been removed from the population.

This reasoning has its flaws that I am sure someone will point out.

 

[Epsilon88]

I just hope that the South Koreans aren't as unnecessarily theatrical and self-righteous as the American congress.

 

[dba7dba]

I just hope that the South Koreans aren't as unnecessarily theatrical and self-righteous as the American congress.

Of course they are. Politicians are the same EVERYWHERE.

 

[shigzeo]

I work with an audio company in Seoul that gets lots of returns. South Koreans are notorious for returning items that they damage themselves. I've never seen the sort of abuse to an electronic item before. Earphones that have obviously been stepped on or thrown around, some that are even cut or sand-papered.

If Koreans are upset about getting refurbished units instead of new units, they have their own uses to really hit them over the head, no Apple's policy. Korean Parliament should know this, but since they only opened the country to foreign phones in 2009, they are incredibly NEWBIE and naive concerning the handling of non-Korean devices.

They need to get a grip and look at how their population uses devices before they get mad at any foreign company for shunting refurbished devices.

I hate reading stuff like this.

1. If you used the phone any time outside of the 30 day return period, it's a used phone. You shouldn't expect to give something old and receive something new; that's just silly. And really, if it was working perfectly fine for a month, there's a pretty good chance it stopped working for a reason.

2. The amount of time it takes to replace a unit vs. repairing it is ridiculous. Have any of you been to the Genius Bar? They can swap a phone in a couple of minutes. Tried opening your phone? Yeah, everything's kind of close together, interrelated and difficult to pull out/replace? Gonna take a lot more time.

3. If you break the phone (busted screen, drop it, liquid damage, etc...), you buy a phone. Period. What company is going to make money giving away product? You can always buy a new one if you want to pay full price, Apple isn't limiting you, your wallet is. Frankly, this holds true for all circumstances.

4. The phones are all rebuilt. It's not like they took a phone from someone else, dusted it off, and gave it to you. And, frankly, if it works; who cares?? You're getting the phone replaced because something went wrong, aren't you? Don't you want to have something working? I replaced my old 3G when it stopped working; my replacement came out of a well cushioned box, with protective packaging, straight from the factory and IT WORKED.


Stupid.
Kira