Do you think an entire device’s warranty should become completely nullified the moment a 3rd party touches any 1 component on a device?
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Apple Makes Independent Repair Shops Sign Draconian Contracts to Get Official Parts
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Do you think an entire device’s warranty should become completely nullified the moment a 3rd party touches any 1 component on a device?
Depends on the repairability of a device, but also requirements for safety and security.
While I like right to repair laws, I doubt they will be the panacea people expect, for a number of reasons:
- Companies need not provide component level spares but simply provide the same replacement parts they use; so that 10cent part that failed can only be repaired by buying a $500 board
- Older devices may simply no longer have parts available if Apple no longer services them
- Diagnostic and coding tools may not be cheap either
- Right to repair doesn’t mean easy to repair
In the end, shops who take up Apple on their offer may not be substantially cheaper than Apple. They may find them losing business to Apple at one end and unauthorized repair shops at the other; all because of the price they need to charge to make a profit.
I don’t see the problem with Apple’s side. Opening up one of the largest brands to right to repair and having small pop up shops gain access to OEM parts that could ”represent” themselves, facetious, as an “authorized provider or “genuine parts”, could attempt to mislead customers where they feel if you get an Apple OEM part you should be covered by the manufacture regardless of where you obtain it and I believe that is what they’re trying to rule out, hence the data collection.
Yes, Apple are trying to control the narrative. The purpose of this contract is to take away the independence of independent repair workshops.
In Apple's own words, "We are committed to giving our customers more options and locations for safe and reliable repairs," Apple told Motherboard in a statement. Apple is implicitly saying here that if you go independent you will receive unsafe and unreliable repairs. Consider that independent cellphone repair has a larger slice of the $4 billion cellphone repair industry than all the phone manufacturers themselves such as Apple and their agents.
This is because authorized repair agents don't have enough incentive to rise to the top of their game. They already have the word 'authorized', there is nothing more for them to achieve hence the low review scores quoted above. Apple is trying to make the choices for you when you decide how to fix your devices. Apple is treating you like a stupid person unable to make you own decisions.
Independent repairers must every day strive to be the best they can be. To continue learning and improving. To rise higher than the competition. The authority to repair something is ultimately given by the owner of the device, that's us, that's you, the discerning individual who is intelligent and able to determine for ourselves the best places for fixing our technology.
No. Hypothetical situation. Your car is under warranty. If a third party changes your cars’ ECU, and your cars’ engine blows up, the brakes should still be under warranty. But if the tranny was damaged, doubt the dealer would warranty the tranny.
Isn’t this the primary reason for these shops? To repair Out of warranty devices more cheaply than Apple could. (or to actually repair a device)
For me, I would bring a warrantied device or one with AC+ to Apple.
I do not know but would assume they can and the same rules apply. I would think most of their work would be out of warranty, since if they did warranty work they are likely to get smaller reimbursements. The question is what will Apple’s position be on warranty work? They may not let IRC do warranty work since they could be on the hook for botched warranty work.
If this was the case, that these shops were ONLY dealing with out-of-warranty devices that Apple would never ever have to touch again, then there wouldn’t be a problem. However, because someone may take something to a third party and then expect to go to Apple AFTER that, Apple’s just protecting their position.
And, any reputable shop wouldn’t have a problem saying, “I’ll work on this, but if you’ve got a warranty on it, this will void it. AND anyone you try to sell it to later will know it’s not original or repaired by Apple, it was repaired by an unauthorized third party.” However, because there are shops that refuse to say this, again, Apple’s protecting their position.
"....Repair shops are required to share information about their customers with Apple, including names, phone numbers, and home addresses...."
"..Customers who receive service from an independent repair shop have to sign an acknowledgement that they understand they're not receiving repairs from an Apple Authorized shop and that Apple won't warranty the repair..."
So Apple wants to regulate and suck all the data out of the repair shop, including your personal information, while claiming no responsibility.
Talk about having your cake and eating it too....
With business "leaders" like this, do you need to wonder why our societies are broken?
"..Customers who receive service from an independent repair shop have to sign an acknowledgement that they understand they're not receiving repairs from an Apple Authorized shop and that Apple won't warranty the repair..."
So Apple wants to regulate and suck all the data out of the repair shop, including your personal information, while claiming no responsibility.
Talk about having your cake and eating it too....
With business "leaders" like this, do you need to wonder why our societies are broken?
a .
I'm wondering what exactly happens should some rogue Apple employee hurt someone based on info obtained from one of these customer lists ? If you willingly provided the info to Apple , you can be held civilly responsible for the crime committed by another . This is not a far fetched scenario .
Try , as an eBay seller , talking publicly about the identity of another eBay member . If eBay can prove you did such a thing , you will get a permanent NARU ( non appealable loss of seller privileges ) . This happened to a friend of mine and she had a million dollar revenue a year business with eBay . eBay lost a lot of future earnings from this . But eBay understands the liability of such an event , clearly .
Apple clearly has their legal agreement designed so onerously no sane person would agree to it . And that may just be the point .
I'm wondering what exactly happens should some rogue Apple employee hurt someone based on info obtained from one of these customer lists ? If you willingly provided the info to Apple , you can be held civilly responsible for the crime committed by another . This is not a far fetched scenario .
Try , as an eBay seller , talking publicly about the identity of another eBay member . If eBay can prove you did such a thing , you will get a permanent NARU ( non appealable loss of seller privileges ) . This happened to a friend of mine and she had a million dollar revenue a year business with eBay . eBay lost a lot of future earnings from this . But eBay understands the liability of such an event , clearly .
Apple clearly has their legal agreement designed so onerously no sane person would agree to it . And that may just be the point .
That seems a bit far fetched to me. Even if you could convince a jury that the IRP was responsible for what happened, what are you going to collect? The IRP is likely to have very few assets, and may not even have any insurance to cover even part of a jury award. The real deep pockets would be Apple, and they have the resources to defend themselves making such a suit a difficult process.
Apple will survive and they have a team of lawyers larger than most country's standing armies .
But in the meantime , the existence of that independent shop just got destroyed .
And all their energy is spent in court , as opposed to doing something productive - like earning a living .
I assume you are not from the USA , as you'd know how pointlessly litigious America is .
I’m so tired of this argument. No. It’s not ALL yours.
Do you OWN all the IP in it? Or any of the responsibility that comes with that?
For your $1000 or whatever, you haven’t bought an isolated physical item that is now all yours with no connection to anything else. You’ve bought a small piece of an entire ecosystem, the right to be a part of it, and none of the responsibility to maintain it.
If you want to own that device you’ve bought and everything in it then fork out a few hundred billion or so for all the IP and everything else that’s in that device that you’re not currently paying for.
1. YOU would not be fined for repairing your own car - just like YOU cannot be sued for repairing your own phone. You can literally do anything you want to your own phone, as long as you can find parts and make it work. However you cannot start a business - selling modified / aftermarket or black market devices bearing the Apple name. It would be the same as if you replaced all the parts in your GM with third market parts, you can absolutely do that, but you cannot start a dealership selling these modified cars as original genuine GM cars.
2. If a parts DEALER sold you after-market parts and passed them off as Genuine GM Parts, GM would absolutely sue!
My point simply is suing and winning a suit are two different things; and I find it highly unlikely an IRP would be held liable for actions of an Apple employee even if they contractually supplied information used by that employee; especially since most, if not all of it, is publicly available.
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All of which is irrelevant in the US. I would guess if they roll this out worldwide they would make changes based on local laws.
I think you and others here underestimate how *”stupid”* the average consumer actually is - at least when it comes to this stuff. *”Discerning individual”*...? Hah. Sure, maybe us nerds here in a tech forum, but no, not most consumers.
More than a few times I’ve found myself in an Apple Store sitting, waiting my turn for service, listening to other customers say the stupidest things about the status of their devices, including some pretty tragic stories of how some independent repairer royally screwed something up leaving the customer with an expensive problem that the repairer wouldn’t take responsibility for, and no, Apple shouldn’t have to.
The average consumer’s expectations are such that Apple holding independent repairers to a high standard and making them inform customers much more thoroughly really is a good thing. I don’t know how anyone can argue against that, unless they’re out of touch with reality.
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