Genius Bar caught ripping customer off ON CAMERA by CBC News

Watch some of his videos. He has a lot of insight about the subpar quality of Apple devices, about the outrageous lies of Apple Genius Bar quoting people thousands of dollars for repairs that take him 5-10 minutes, for apple’s efforts to make the devices non serviceable, withholding schematics, controlling access to replacement parts etc. Here’s a televised CBS report. ▶ this video He is extremely good at repair while despising the company’s despicable practices - and warns people about them.

OK, some people downvoted this, so let me explain: Overcharging: Apple tends to replace whole assemblies rather than individual parts, and don't do board-level repairs or anything. Apple staff are generally just following a procedure and aren't allowed to/aren't trained to solve problems in the best way. Here's an example of them charging for a whole motherboard replacement when the issue was a bent pin: ▶ this video Some people might be OK with this, but not everyone; competition is important! About the self/independent repair program: The self repair program allows you to order one part at a time and you have to have the device to do it. Realistically, almost no one will do it themselves, and will use a repair shop. The program is impractical for repair shops, because they can't stock parts in advance. The other option is the independent repair program, which effectively turns you into a shipping centre for Apple; it bars you from doing anything but the most basic repairs without sending it to sending things off to Apple and they will do random inspections on your store and fine you if you're actually offering good service like board level repair or using cheaper aftermarket parts. So it's likely that both are mostly just PR stunts to get ahead of regulation while also not making a significant change to their business

Because as a customer you should have the choice to get a repair from whoever you want. Even if you only go to Apple, competition will force their prices down somewhat. "pay the Apple" It's not just Apple doing this "then spend lots of extra time trying to save $50 on a repair." What if you're trying to save precious data? Apple don't make much effort to do data recovery because they don't care; you can fund 3rd party repairers who absolutely do. What if you got the device second hand? What if it's not $50, but $1000+? I've seen a video where Apple tells a journalist they have to buy a new Mac, and a 3rd party repair shop fixes it for free because it was such a small issue that Apple didn't even check for. ▶ this video "Macs are all identical, so repairs boil down" This is the problem; Apple is pairing parts to devices, so if you use a 100% genuine part from a new device it still won't work

> Apple laptops and phones objectively last longer than the competition. I'm not sure if you've spent much time watching Louis Rossman's youtube channel, but it is full of examples of Apple telling customers a device needs to be replaced when simple repairs are possible. [1][2][3] Apple worked with US Customs and Border Patrol to seize replacement batteries for laptops that apple will no longer service. [4] Rossman has a lot of videos so I did not find original sources for the following, but he has also called Apple support about replacing a charging port on a phone. Apple support told him the charging port was soldered to the motherboard and the phone needed to be replaced. But that charging port on that device is attached via a cable and is not soldered to the board. It can be replaced for a few dollars in five minutes. Rossman also says that apple prevents third party chip manufacturers from selling to repair shops. So Rossman could repair certain macbooks with a $6 chip from (I believe) Intersil, but Apple (being an 800lb gorilla) has asked Intersil not to sell those chips to anyone else. So apple won't replace that chip on your motherboard but they also won't let anyone else do it. It's great that apple will replace batteries, but I seem to recall there was significant consumer (or government?) pressure to offer those replacements. And I would be curious if they do that worldwide or only where legally required. But watching Rossman's youtube channel, it is clear that rep

> most people dont care or think about it at all This is orthogonal to the question of whether or not the practice is environmentally friendly. Most people have been buying gasoline for 50 years but that’s also causing environmental problems. All of these manufactured devices take a lot of resources to create. Often “unusability” means the operating system has outgrown the hardware, but we can easily imagine Apple allowing third party operating systems on their unsupported phone and tablet devices. This would extend the life of the hardware, significantly reduced waste, and lower people’s cost of living. But even when Apple devices can be fixed for free the company will quote exorbitant repair prices and suggest the customer replace the device. (See links below which I also shared in another comment) From this we can see that Apple is not making the effort to keep old devices functional and they will mislead customers about it to sell them a new device. This leads to hardware waste and higher costs for consumers. [1] ▶ this video [2] link [3] link

> they have great service Apple typically does not perform component-level repairs. They tend to replace larger parts like motherboards, display assemblies or cases piece for piece, which is cheap and quick for them and expensive for the customer. And it also typically means that the customer will lose their data. I am not sure on what basis can such a service be considered "great". On top of that, Louis Rossmann has published multiple videos showing the sheer incompetence of Apple's official Genius Bar service. For example: * ▶ this video (Apple's suggested "solution" to a bent pin issue was to replace the logic board and the top case) * link (Apple is unable to resolve an issue with the SSD, bends a display cable pin in the process and tells the customer that there might be a motherboard issue) * link (Apple spends $ 10,000 while troubleshooting an "issue" of backlight being turned all the way down)

> People pay huge overhead to apple exactly because apple makes choices for them - regarding what settings are reasonable to have, what software they want you to use etc. Well, they think it gives them quality. Instead they kinda get fleeced and pushed into a threadmill of planned obsolescence, e.g. ▶ this video

> need a new motherboard / some drastic problem Only because apple won’t do simple repairs. Eg, blwn capacitor worth 40 cent? New motherboard worth hundreds! [1] Of course, to the end user, the effect is the same... [1] ▶ this video and link for just two examples

Apple doesn't want their customers to get f'd over you say? You might want to check out Luis Rosmann's videos, a famous Apple repair geek who fixes for cheap the products Apple themselves misdiagnose[1] in order to rip off their customers[2]. [1] link // teenager's MacBook's display is not working correctly so Geniuses tell him he needs a new motherboard replacement while Luis discovers in 2 seconds that the lid-close sensor cable is broken so he replaces it for $8 [2] ▶ this video // customer's MacBook's display is not working correctly so Geniuses tell him he needs a new motherboard and display replacement while Luis discovers in two minutes that the display connector has a bent pin and fixes it for free

This is such a bad article, I half suspect it's astroturfing and food intended for Apple apologists. It's focused on a single small part of the problem and unnecessarily misrepresented it. As a reminder of the broader picture: Apple has a strong anti-repair stance, they have lobbied for this [1], have engaged in broad, deceptive strategies to remove 3rd party repair options, by confiscating legally refurbished hardware under the guise of "counterfeits" [2], attempting to confiscate grey market parts under the guise of "trademark violation" and threatening the 3rd party repair shops [3]. They profit from this continued attack by deceiving customers into expensive unnecessary part replacements, suggesting repair is not possible and generally coercing customers into buying new products instead [4]. [1] link [2] link [3] link [4] ▶ this video

I don't know much about the X since I stopped at the iPhone 7 and I am probably not going to buy any of their exorbitantly priced phones. That being said, in their pursuit of thin phones they ran into design issues with boards flexing so that BGA components will eventually fail. They became aware of the problem and then proceeded to make the same mistake again in later models rarther than fixing the problem. (The flexing problem isn't that they will break after one "bending event", but rather than they fail over time as your phone is subject to mechanical stresses of what is within the range of normal use. Typically because the tiny balls under BGAs will let go) I'm mostly talking about their laptops and their iMacs. The USB C connectors are of course inconvenient, but I actually like them. Again, the problem is that in their pursuit of thinness they ended up designing keys that are very sensitive to dust (and not very nice to use). In subsequent models they kept at it, so the quality of keyboards doesn't seem to be a priority. Some laptops have a tendency to develop display problems due to bad design. For instance blowing hot air on parts that can't take hot air or laying out connectors so that they will fail more easily. Now these are design flaws, which brings us to the "abusive and fraudulent" part. If you want to get these things fixed under warranty you _may_ be okay. Except the process appears to be entirely decided by chance. For instance they have put moisture indica

Not sure why you're being downvoted for something that is very possibly going to happen. People hate hearing crony capitalist reality on HN and trust too much in large corporations that are solely there for profit to shareholders and will do so at any cost. Look at the dongle nonsense Apple has pulled on customers for profit. Look at their genius bar overcharing and lying to people about their broken devices (see: Louis Rossman ▶ this video ).