Apple's Efforts to Block 'Right to Repair' Laws Highlighted in New Report

t76turbo said:
Thats correct.

It was fully on display when apple removed the wall warts from the iphone boxes claiming it was for environmental reasons. But included a charging cable that had usb-c connector which a low percentage of people had at the time. So it just drove people to go buy a usb-c wall wart to plug their new cable into. (and before anyone says the customers should have just used their existing cables which would still work fine, if everyone has cables already then why is apple including THOSE in the box as well????)


I own a LOT of apple stock. I want them to do good. But want them to do things that make sense as well. Fighting right to repair doesnt make sense. I hate that so much stuff ends up in the landfill because people will not repair stuff these days. Just throw it away and buy new.
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Electronics do not.....should not be going into landfill. They are supposed to be "e-recycled" where they are torn down and the materials reused.

Because cables wear out, break. I have seen so many cables with frayed jackets at the connectors. Cables too, should not end up in landfill. the copper has monetary value.
 
javanate said:
A few things:

1) Apple doesn't really repair anything, they just swap out pieces. So yeah, it's expensive
2) I feel like they should just let people break whatever they want, they aren't obligated to fix it after.
3) However, the minute an iPhone burns a house down, there is not a single news agency or law firm that won't blame Apple instead of the repair person.
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Oh please... so a pattern of 1 indicates Apple was at fault? Especially when they find out someone had just done repairs on the device?
 
I love how this can be related to the car industry.

Car manufacturers lobbied against seatbelts until they were forced to put them in.
 
Wanted797 said:
I love how this can be related to the car industry.

Car manufacturers lobbied against seatbelts until they were forced to put them in.
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A great example. Some people in this thread are arguing that somehow it’s fine for Apple to prevent repair of a tablet because of safety but CARS can be (and are somehow less of a safety issue than tablets and phones)?
 
MauiPa said:
"He claims that Apple opposes repair programs to get people to buy new devices." Well that is crap. I guess in this day and age you can just make any old crap up and state it as truth. Didn't the last administration change the libel laws so people like that could be sued, promises made, promises kept. LOL

I think the record is pretty clear, if independent repair shops want access to any of this all they have to do is get one or two people trained, not very hard nor expensive. Oh, it may be for the fly-by-nighter shops, here today, screw up some repairs, gone tomorrow. But legitimate professional repair shops, not a problem. There re actually quite a few around where I live.

So please explain why getting appropriate training and certification is a bad thing? You need it for some aspects of automobiles (obviously not changing a tire), but more intricate things that matter to operation and safety. You need it to maintain furnaces, to repair plumbing and wiring, etc, etc, etc
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Many of the repairs are simply replacing screens or batteries. Seeing as it's impossible to get official Apple parts, It's both an economic and environmental burden when Apple repair prices are as high as they are, especially in my country.

Myself, my dad Have replaced batteries and displays on a number of the mobile phones of family members over the past two decades, it is not brain surgery. Now I happen to be a senior member of the IEEE, But the repairs are nothing that cannot be done by a competent teenager, and the safety concerns are exactly because there are no easy ways to get official parts. Apple is just spouting FUD for profit, Hoping that consumers will write off the device and buy a new Apple toy.
 
ArPe said:
Right to repair is backwards thinking. It results in billions of little discarded pieces thrown in trash by consumers and repair shops and all of that polluted the rivers and the ground.

Look how much ewaste PCs produce. Sure it’s cool to build your own PC and fix it but all those dead or old graphics cards end up in the ground somewhere and destroy nature.

But people who support this right to repair are brain dead. They think it is a David vs Goliath fight. It isn’t. It’s a stupid person vs smart person fight.

If you’re producing tons of ewaste you are stupid and don’t give a damn about your own children.

Computers and other devices should be powerful, streamline and efficient and easy to recycle in one process. That’s the Apple way and if anyone wants the worse option go look somewhere else and don’t force your backwards views on Apple.
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I was not sure if this is written sarcastically, or if you really lack understanding of engineering and economics.
 
Personally, I see both sides of this coin. On the one hand, I don't want my car dictating to me where I can take it to get serviced. On the other hand, as a product vendor, I see how poorly my customers treat the equipment.
 
Yeah, I kinda agree... I don't think it's necessarily "good" for Apple to dig in their heels on this one, but I'd imagine part of the reason they have high customer satisfaction is because they control the whole experience. Users getting themselves into trouble with unauthorized repairs could easily wind up blowing back on them, and reflecting poorly their service centres, through no real fault of their own. People are just kinda weird and cranky that way... So I get why they want to keep things super tight, procedural, and in-house. I've actually had surprisingly good treatment from Apple for the last several years, so I have no problem with how things work currently.
 
Apleeseed84 said:
Think International. You probably have an Apple Store or Authorized retailer around you but 9/10 the majority of iphones worlwide don't even have an Apple Store or Applecare + is not covered under their country, then what happens to your device? you are stuck with it because no one can fix it.

I get Apple's stance on why shady customers would literally pay third party retailers to fix an item and go back to apple and say it's defective but I can attest to the notion that not everyone has an Apple store or authorized retailer within miles of where they live and even then they only have one in their country so Iddk, a massive first world problem but still not everyone has the cash to fork and train their employees to get certified especially in some random off the wall shop outside the US for example
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You are right about this. But still, wouldn't you want anyone working on your expensive equipment be properly trained and able to prove to you of his/her qualifications?
Toshiba, HP, and others have been doing this for ages. This is not a new scenario.
 
You break it you pay for it, don't expect Apple or any other company to warranty anything if you self repair or take it to a 3rd party repair shop that is not authorized by the company.
 
Yeah, if you don't want me to be able to repair my own device, then don't sell it to me. Give it to me. Voiding warranty is one thing, requiring authorized technicians is yet another, but going far out of your way to stifle independent repair is a step too far.
 
cmaier said:
This is dumb. If customers felt they weren’t being served - if they were unhappy with the repair policies - they wouldn’t keep buying from Apple.
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If every manufacturer is doing it as the article claims then what choice do throes consumers actually have?
 
frenchcamp49er said:
You break it you pay for it, don't expect Apple or any other company to warranty anything if you self repair or take it to a 3rd party repair shop that is not authorized by the company.
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Well in the first instance if you break your device it’s unlikely going to be a warranty issue unless you have AppleCare+ and if you have AppleCare+ you don’t need to worry about looking for a third party specialist to effect the repair (Apple have their own list of those they will call upon)

Its all smoke n mirrors with Apple. They know how lucrative AppleCare+ is for them (another 20% on top) with probably less than 1% chance of it being called upon or they know how lucrative it is to charge 5x as much as probably costs to effect an out of warranty repair. It has zero to do with customer safety or the environment; it is about slaughering the cash cow.
 
I say no to that. Everyone I know that went to an "alternative" repair shop, got low quality replace parts.
Batteries that last months instead of the years Apple ones take to degrade, low quality displays, a lot of phone came back with a blocked Touch ID.

And the second someone gets a bad battery that explodes, or a bad quality screen, No one will mention the third party repair on the news.
 
"such laws could lead to device damage or consumers harming themselves when attempting to repair their devices"

This is some idiotic argumentation that -quite frankly- I'm really disappointed to see coming from Apple.

Apple should stop selling devices. People could get hurt accidentally using them in the bathtub or shower...
...would be an appropriate counter argument to make person realize the stupidity of their argumentation.

You can fix cars, yet how many people try change the timing belt on their own? Just because you can do it doesn't mean that people will go for it. Proven over decades.
 
Cesar Battistini said:
I say no to that. Everyone I know that went to an "alternative" repair shop, got low quality replace parts.
Batteries that last months instead of the years Apple ones take to degrade, low quality displays, a lot of phone came back with a blocked Touch ID.

And the second someone gets a bad battery that explodes, or a bad quality screen, No one will mention the third party repair on the news.
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Yeah, why do you think that happens? Because genuine parts are so easily available on the market let alone reasonably priced?
You literally just explained why we need the right to repair...
 
frenchcamp49er said:
You break it you pay for it, don't expect Apple or any other company to warranty anything if you self repair or take it to a 3rd party repair shop that is not authorized by the company.
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There are very few reasons to have an Apple product repaired by someone other than Apple while the product is under warranty. So the real issue is out of warranty repairs, where the product would no longer be covered by Apple anyway. What kind of warranty an independent repair business provides with their service is a different matter, and will vary by the business. Why someone would choose to pay to repair something that is out warranty depends on personal circumstances, so there is no point in berating them for not having the money to buy a new Mac. Did people really forget to consider out of warranty repairs or did they purposely ignore it just so they can continue to argue?
 
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There are cheap, reliable iPhone repair shops all over Hong Kong. I’m at one every other week with my kids phones….:/
 
It just amazes me how Apple fanboys will twist themselves into pretzels to defend the indefensible. You know, you can like Apple products and still criticize the company, right? Jeez oh man...
 
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