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The story of The CBC National begins with a secret attack on an Apple Store in Toronto, with a "common problem" where the screen did not work properly. When inspected by one of the geniuses of the store, it was found "that there is a lot of liquid that has penetrated to the inside", as the indicator colored water penetration in red confirming that there was water infiltration.
The indicators led the engineering to inform the client that it "should consider replacing a number of components" because of the alleged damage. When it pressed for anything else, the customer was informed that, "whatever its cause," the damage to the liquid should be repaired first, and that the store " can not perform partial repairs when it has been damaged by something. "
In terms of options, the store employee said it would cost at least $ 1,200, including $ 600 and $ 500 to replace the logic board and top box and $ 100 for labor. If the screen needs to be replaced, it will cost $ 780 more.
When asked if it was possible to make it cheaper, the Genius said the fees "are very close to the cost of buying a new computer." to repair in the store? No ".
The same MacBook Pro was presented to Louis Rossmann, owner of the repair shop, who saw the same indicators during his inspection, but rejected them as a confirmation of the immersion or damage caused by the liquids due potential risk of moisture. After discovering that the display was working well, but without backlight, a twisted pin in a screen connector was faulty, which was then put back in place for repair in minutes.
Rossmann states that he could have provided free repair to a customer as a short-term solution, which solution in his view would last in most cases the remaining life of the computer. If the customer wanted a replacement cable as a long-term solution, Rossmann estimated the cost to be between $ 75 and $ 150.
When asked how often customers go to their store after the Apple Store has refused a repair or says it's too expensive to repair, Mr. Rossmann suggested that it happen "between 10 and 30 times a day." ".
The report called on Apple to respond to this incident and to accusations of costly repairs. According to a statement from Apple, customers are better served by "certified experts using original parts" and systematically denies an overestimation of the cost of repairs.
The video also focused on the iFixit repair company, known for dismantling Apple products and providing support documents, parts and tools. Kyle Wiens, owner and spokesperson for the national "Right to Repair" movement, explained that it was "more and more difficult to get access to the information you need or that local shops get the parts "for a repair, the movement demanding legislation. give consumers the opportunity to make repairs.
via iFixit
"The point of view of Apple is that he wants total control over the device, from the moment you buy it, to the end of his life," says Wiens. "Right to Repair takes away some of the control and hands it over to the owner, where the manufacturers can say," We make a product, we distribute it around the world, and we control every aspect of it. happens after the fact, "is total madness".
Wiens then explains some of Apple's security practices to make it more difficult to repair products, including pentalobe screws and sticking batteries in an iPhone.
The repair of the Home button on an iOS device was previously considered an easy repair, according to the report, until Apple has reprogrammed its operating system to detect unauthorized home buttons, and the phone would suddenly stop working. " Not to mention that the Home button also contains the Touch ID and interfaces with the Apple Secure Enclave, Wiens compares it to the laying of spare tires on a Tesla, then to the delivery by Tesla of a software update that prevent the car from working with these specific tires.
"This stems from a mentality that they are the center of the universe and nobody does anything with their product," according to Wiens.
Apple claims to have sent legal threats to third parties who have published internal diagrams and other documents about its products, citing a violation of the copyright on the textbooks, articles and illustrations used for the repairs. Threats of fines up to $ 150,000 are reported, with the aim of obtaining the removal of shared information.
The story goes on to say that there is a right to repair legislation that would force Apple and other companies to provide manuals and other materials to help solve hardware problems. Activists believe that a state willing to introduce legislation on the right to repair would break the dam, as other states are likely to do the same by requiring manufacturers to provide resources to third parties.
Rossmann and iFixit have legitimate points. CBC, on the other hand, does not do it.
Too much simplification of a complicated problem
According to the CBC video, Apple takes the equipment recovered by its customers and throws it into a shredder, or transmits it to the robot Liam. This is not the case, however.
Machines that are not captured by engineering for an assessment of what went wrong are returned to the depot for repair and final destination of the supply chain of refurbished appliances, or for cleaning of parts that are then refurbished for other repairs. And yes, the renovation process involves people like Rossmann to do these repairs.
The iFixit organization is incredibly powerful, that is, it partially alleviates the panic caused by the screen calibration software requirements for the T2-equipped MacBook Pro and iMac Pro, but must make money. The company lives from the sale of spare parts and tools. They should not be unhappy of course, and more than one AppleInsider Staff members purchased tools from the vendor, obtained parts for repair from the company, or both.
Rossmann is also very talented in his work and knows an incredible success. We sent people sending us a message about a difficult or expensive repair in their store for a second opinion. However, it is ridiculous to say that Apple should call on repair technicians in every store. If Apple did, it would eliminate any economies of scale that the company achieves by using a repository for component-level repairs.
Service in numbers
In the past five full years, Apple has sold about 1.36 billion devices. If you assume that one out of every hundred devices will fail for reasons other than user-caused damage, such as a broken screen a year, there are still 13.6 million faults per year . This figure out of a hundred corresponds to less than half of the industry standard, namely 2.5% for high-end equipment after an initial 30-day period of infant failure covering the first year of life of the family. 39, a device, and a fifth of the failure rate after this year.
If you assume that there are 5,000 authorized repair centers – about 10 times the number of Apple Retail stores currently – this leaves a very conservative estimate of 27,000 devices per year and per site to be serviced beyond A software reinstallation. This does not include broken screens, replacement batteries or any other damage caused by the user which, according to data collected by AppleInsiderThat's about three times what a store sees as a failure with no known cause, even before the introduction of Apple's low-cost battery replacement program.
Like it or not, Apple is a consumer electronics company. Board-level repairs at retail outlets are much, much faster for the company, require less skilled workers in retail who may be paid less than a Rossmann-level technician , and all this combined makes it possible to return a functional machine to the consumer more quickly. .
As an exercise for the reader, go to an Apple Store on a given Saturday near the Genius Bar's evaluation table and see how many customers require instant repair privileges or lead-time privileges because they have a deadline: Billy's birthday is Saturday and his pictures are in the machine, or data is stuck in the broken machine and he has to go out for work.
For the historical perspective, data collected by AppleInsider back to nearly 2000 suggests that the move from Apple in the Mac ecosystem to more watertight devices like the Retina MacBook Pro 2012 and later has halved the percentages of failure. More on that in the coming months as we continue to evaluate the data, though.
The battery, again
And, of course, the CBC video recalls the entire iPhone battery saga again, but it does not indicate that a battery is a chemical process that runs out of steam and loses its effectiveness over time. The batteries are not eternal and are a consumable – what Apple has always said, perhaps not as vocally as it should have been.
We discussed how this happens, why it occurs and the detailed response from Apple before. So, we will not do it here anymore.
via iFixit
Yes, Apple could have been faster with the iOS update that implemented the routines to avoid a crash of the device when the voltage was below the critical threshold under load. however, AppleInsider Always maintain that a device that does not fail, but runs slower, is always better than the one you can not count on.
And, importantly, these devices with a properly functioning battery always move bits from one register to another and perform the operations as quickly as the day they were made.
Of course, we would like the $ 29 battery replacement process to be postponed forever, but that does not seem to be the case.
Speaking of red herring, the reason why Radio-Canada said that a video of a French nationalist tax protest was a protest over repairability is not clear.
The problem with the work "infiltration"
The device used by the publication had two problems: one, a series of triggered moisture sensors, and two, a twisted pin on a connector. The only genius with which CBC spoke followed the procedure established by Apple to examine moisture sensors first.
The procedures exist in all industries for a reason. The technician did not submit any alleged "malicious compliance" nor tried to extort money from the "client", but did his job as he had been trained, followed the procedure as he was supposed to do it and performed at the level of experience that he was supposed to have.
If all Apple stores had Rossmann, or someone with similar skills and experience, performing all the device exams, the twisted pin would have been found. However, there are always bigger time issues, and these 2,700 devices a year that arrive in each store and require detailed troubleshooting.
Exams like Rossmann's take time. They can take a lot of time. A detailed review and repair is most often a process of several hours of work from start to finish. What's better for the average consumer, an hour in and out of the store, as it can happen now, or a long diagnosis, and a repair ?.
Any service center may refuse any repair for any reason – you may have heard this before. Sloppy repair or damage caused by user tampering is specifically cited as a ground for refusal. This is done primarily for liability reasons, as the technician has no way of determining what has been damaged by the unusual failure mode.
Repair shops other than Apple Retail have an important function
There are good, bad, independent repair shops authorized by Apple, and all the permutations of these four that you can imagine. The key for the user is to find a store that offers them the best balance between affordable price, lead time for repairs and quality.
Quality independent stores, like Rossmann's, will occupy positions that Apple does not want or does not want to do at an affordable price, like the CBC's "infiltrated" MacBook Pro. It's a good thing.
The Apple Retail Repair Rules established by the Apple Corporation for purposes of uniformity, have a reason to be, including refusals, card-level repairs rather than 39 at the component level. In the same vein, with regard to the "right to repair", not facilitating repairs by providing parts or manuals to a particular user is not the same as blocking those repairs , which he is still not doing. And as we said, iFixit demonstrated it last week.
Apple has every interest in ensuring that quality parts can be repaired. It also has a vested interest in preventing poor quality parts from entering the supply chain of third-party vendors – perhaps applying these rules far too forcefully for our taste.
Customers need Apple Stores to have Genius bars. They also need rooms like Rossman's Shop and iFixit. The two broad categories are not incompatible and do not focus on the same remedies – or if they should be.
And it's probably important to remember that Apple's design and service choices mean that devices fail less often, and that repair is smoother for those whose iPhone or Mac are dead, or even more expensive. And, as a rule, these customers do not have the same level of technical discernment as AppleInsider readers have, are not trying to do the repairs themselves and are able to replace a device.
And, these consumers are more numerous than "we" 20 to one or more.
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