Shocking. 🙄
Apple's Efforts to Block 'Right to Repair' Laws Highlighted in New Report
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For sure on that!
Maconplasma
Cancelled
Show me where Apple actually wrote or said those exact words?Well plenty of companies end up there unintentionally...but aren’t we supposed to believe Apple when they say the customer experience before profit? (PS...I don’t believe them)
It's important not to single out Apple. I recently had an issue with my PlayStation VR headset where Sony wanted $275 to replace the whole thing. I ended up getting a brand-new official Sony part from a third-party supplier for $22 (although I certainly had to hunt for somewhere to buy it!) and it worked flawlessly.
erniefairchild1
Suspended
Wow, you didn't really grasp what they wrote, did you? Put down the beer.
bwayne
macrumors regular
And why not?
DanTSX
Suspended
Eh….this is the one thing Apple gets 100% right. You have every right to enjoy or hate your Apple product, but it’s still apple’s product and you agreed when you bought it, that at the end of the day, only Apple has what it takes to responsibly and ethically repair or replace your product
Considering the person's assumptions that Win PC builders just throw away components willy-nilly*, and that recycling is a preferred way to deal with old computers**, I suspect that it is the latter.
* I found it very hilarious that her or she mentioned graphics cards; considering the current shortage in these cards, it is more likely a person nowadays would sell their graphics cards than dispose of them.
** While it is relatively "easy" to recycle such things as iron, steel, aluminum, and copper, for items like the precious & "rare earth" metals that are part of the actual electronics, the processes used to recovery these items from the e-waste stream can be almost as nasty as the ones used for their initial extraction. There is a reason that recycle comes at the end of the term "reduce, reuse, and recycle" - it is supposed to be the last resort.
Rather than the argument over right to repair, its better for consumers to be protected by proper warranties and guaranties.
Spain has insisted on a 3 year warranty for many electrical items.
Quite why expensive items can end up with 1 year warranty only incentivises manufacturers to cut corners.
Computers and phones should have a mandatory minimum 3 year warranty as should appliances in the home.
Spain has insisted on a 3 year warranty for many electrical items.
Quite why expensive items can end up with 1 year warranty only incentivises manufacturers to cut corners.
Computers and phones should have a mandatory minimum 3 year warranty as should appliances in the home.
"Computers and phones should have a mandatory minimum 3 year warranty as should appliances in the home."
That sounds OK with me. And customers should be OK with paying a little more for a computer or phone for that extra protection.
Changing the oil is not repairing the transmission. And yes you do have to be certified to repair cars under warranty. I also would let a shade tree touch my car.
The repair situation is worse in countries where there’s no Apple presence. In my country, there are only Apple authorized distributors, and guess what, they’re only interested in selling rather than supporting. It takes 3rd party repair companies to actually have more presence in various parts of the country, that provide better customer service since that’s their main business.
This is why I’m quite hesitant in buying Apple computers. Not only the distributor in my country marked up the prices in ridiculous amounts (base M1 MacBook Pro is ~$300 more expensive here than US MSRP) and offers no BTO option, the closest Apple store is a 2 hour flight in another country, which is made impossible by the pandemic. Without 3rd party repairs, having an Apple product is like paying a lot of money for a time bomb.
As for fake parts, they will still exist no matter what, since they already exist now. And Apple restricting components will only make it worse. So why won’t Apple help their own customers by supporting 3rd party repairers? There’s a Scrooge inside Apple.
This is why I’m quite hesitant in buying Apple computers. Not only the distributor in my country marked up the prices in ridiculous amounts (base M1 MacBook Pro is ~$300 more expensive here than US MSRP) and offers no BTO option, the closest Apple store is a 2 hour flight in another country, which is made impossible by the pandemic. Without 3rd party repairs, having an Apple product is like paying a lot of money for a time bomb.
As for fake parts, they will still exist no matter what, since they already exist now. And Apple restricting components will only make it worse. So why won’t Apple help their own customers by supporting 3rd party repairers? There’s a Scrooge inside Apple.
At least that Sony part is available for sale. The argument with Apple is that they literally told their component manufacturers to not sell the parts to anybody else other than Apple. So for Apple products, nobody else can even sell you or 3rd party repairers the parts other than Apple. You have to rely on OEM parts (from the Chinese) or salvaged parts from existing Apple devices.
amartinez1660
macrumors 68000
Let me add that I actually did change to summer tires a few days ago... and did it at the Ford dealership. Beyond the special situation that they are very wide grippy performance tires, proper tire swap should be followed by the right torque applied per wheel nut (the torque wrench can be $100 and upwards plus misuse can un-calibrate the tool), tire balancing, sensors resetting/calibration and finally the right PSI amount for the intended use (i.e race tracks that will get them extremely hot or normal road travel), etc. Have the tire rubber be swapped to a new wheel? The whole thing requires even more machinery.
So although a tire change fix-me-up can be trivial and most will do it successfully without batting an eye; proper and accurate tire change that won’t leave someone dead after a 200km/h fast straight gone wrong isn’t. I can assume then that in the electronics and high tech world, this accuracy is through the root.
I totally agree with the sentiment. However, damn, hard to ignore that there are quite a few displays going bad. That said, yes, the few changes, battery replacements, screen replacements, etc I do them directly on Apple stores, hands down. AppleCare also when sensible too, peace of mind is invaluable compared to the few extra saved bucks.
We often hear all the stats about how Apple uses almost 100% clean energy centers/plants, 100% recycled parts, efficient manufacturing, that disassembly for recycle robot, etc so I would be open to the possibility that their products are being designed accordingly and also giving them an edge regarding portability, weight, thinness, etc.
For example, if a generic battery part is used so that a normal person could repair or swap it, that extra weight and volume around that piece will have incalculable costs on air/water/ground transport, amount of containers filled per batch, etc etc... maybe the soldered battery without the plastic around for it to have a friendly slot seating, access panel door, clips, engraved instructions on it, etc etc could be the better and more efficient one.
The amount of disagreements on these line of thought is through the roof though. I’m not too sure myself but I would be willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt.
Do people know something that we don’t? The PC parts are now the benchmark example on the recycling front? People are experts at repurposing those RAM sticks and CPUs that stopped working or that became obsolete because Intel changed yet again the motherboard sockets/slots and compatible RAM speeds?
turbineseaplane
Contributor
That’s not the problem. The problem is nobody can get the official parts needed for repair other than Apple themselves. Most devices going to 3rd party repairers are out of warranty devices anyway, or the customers don’t have access to an Apple store (eg. My country). So you’d rather people using fake parts rather than genuine Apple parts? Apple literally forced the component makers to not sell the components to anybody else other than Apple.
No wonder there are so many fake Apple parts from China. Apple created that market by not making their official parts available.
maerz001
macrumors 68030
Now please enlighten me why you think that a repair shop doesn’t recycle?
with that logic an unrepaired device in the river is better than a small part of it?
maybe the solution is right to repair and rule to recycle? But which brain dead throws trash in the river anyway
Yup. Repair shops actually have the incentive to repurpose parts and recycle. In my country, companies frequently “throw” away their old PCs. It’s the small repair shops who salvaged them and repurpose them to sell as used affordable PCs, using old parts and components. They even keep damaged boards to salvage the chips.
If I’m not mistaken, by agreeing to the Apple certification, you are actually agreeing for Apple to restrict your business capability. It’s like you are only allowed to only replace iPhone screens and batteries, and that’s about it. The word certification is misleading.
What you are talking about is actual repair; most "repair" places, including Apple, are merely parts swappers. I say this as a former "repair" tech.
If we are going to curb this global crisis of e-waste, we need to start training people to do these kinds of repairs.
Swapping the wheels and inflating the tires is trivial.
a torque wrench is about a 100USD that's not a lot of money for a useful tool - it's not an F1 car.
I just went over to summer tires this week.
Forcing Apple to allow its batteries and screens to be sold as official spare parts would not require -any- change to the design. But would allow competent consumers and third parties to prolong the life of an iPhone, iPad or Mac that would otherwise, say after 2-3 years, be outside of economical _Apple_ repair.
Basically you have no idea what you are talking about.
Macbookprodude
Suspended
Any repair company has a right to repair apple products since Apple's pricing is so bloated and overpriced.
metalinka
macrumors newbie
Apple does not give the training you are thinking. They teach you how to repair so they can make more money. Example, any damaged on the frame will void screen repair on an iPhone, when a repair store with help of G-Tools can fix it and put a new display without any problem. Another example, 99.99% of all new iPads (made from 20016) having problem with charging port due to manufacture issue design, in my opinion. It has to do with two screws that are left without a proper torque, pretty much they screws are loose from the factory.