For example, my 17" MBP died. Apple quoted me nearly $1000 to repair. I managed to get board and circuit schematics and traced the problem to a tiny surface mounted capacitor. It literally cost me $0.25 to replace it.
Apple wanted $601.14 for the screen assembly + $79 labor + tax. Ok, the price was not an issue -- but here is the catch: That Apple store as well as the TEN other stores in the city DID NOT CARRY THE PART.
…
called a local independent repair shop, and found out that THEY STOCKED THE PART in their store and could install it in LESS THAN A DAY for under $500.
Cool stories, bros.
My story relating to Apple documentation is not nearly as good as yours. I had an iMac. (Just "iMac": original 1998 233 MHz Rev A.) Its CD-ROM drive could read pressed CDs, struggled to read CD-R, and could not read CD-RW. I also had a later iMac Rev C or D, which read CD-RW perfectly well. I wanted information about these drives: which drive models did Apple select, which models or revisions were built into which PCs.
You see: while almost all "slimline" or "laptop" or "SFF" optical drives were built to same 12,7mm formfactor, each manufacturer laid out their faceplates differently. Activity indicator light, eject button, and manual eject pinhole were in different positions per-maker. So only a handful of drives were perfect-fit replacements, could use iMac tray faceplate. Not like like those slot-loading SATA optical drives in MacBook lines, which operator never sees, there are at least one or two dozen suitable replacements.
Pretty much every optical drive which Apple integrated in New World machines is listed in document "opticaldrivesmatrix.pdf" "Optical - Zip Matrix". Guess what: this document is
Apple Confidential (Do Not Distribute). It does not contain any dangerous secrets, and if it were leaked, it would
hardly cause financial loss.
So a customer is made aware of fitting replacement drives? Good for customer,
good for planet. Armed with such
powerful knowledge, one can seek replacements from
local repair shops in their scrap "donor" piles, from electro-trash-cycling collections, and elsewhere. That allows reuse of what parts already exist, and it means less pollution from shipping new parts.
I know Apple dislikes censorship; this is good.
If Apple were a government which does censor, does limit speech and expression,
then I bet you they would ban phrase:
Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
I will chant this until I die.