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Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

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Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#11

Post by cmroanirgo »

rasz wrote: post #5
tmaly wrote: post #4

I have a 2013 MBP that started random crashing several years back. I took it into a Mac store and they could not help me. I have always suspected a hardware issue. Repair for a new board was just not worth the cost. If this works and it would bring the cost down, I would still consider trying to get this machine fixed.

It will cost you ~$450 in a real independent shop. Apples only option for repairing logic boards was always swapping whole thing for $850-1600 or up-sell to a new device.

This is my experience too. An unexpected failure on my 2013 mba and Apple suggested new logic boards with no guarantee of fix the problem & recommended a new mba. I literally went across the road and a flat fee of $500 got me going again. He desoldered a few components and replaced with parts taken from a spare mba mobo. Couldn't be happier.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#12

Post by formerly_proven »

abawany wrote: post #9
rasz wrote: post #2

Just as a reminder, their phone "independent repair program" has you signing rights to your business away (you are forced to let apple audit you at any time, you have to share personal client data on all of your clients with apple. All of this not limited to Apple repair part of your business) for the right to: - remove battery / screen from client device - send battery / screen to Apple with all clients personal inf…

IME, they've really hobbled the functionality of independent repair shops, making it necessary to supplicate to the Apple Store. I was trying to get the battery replaced in a 2015 MBP and the independent shops were 'required' to keep my machine for about 7 days since they had to first 'diagnose' that the battery was dying, order it, wait for it to arrive, and then replace it. In contrast, one could make an appointmen…

This level of customer-hostility would cause a huge uproar for any other "Pro" or "workstation" vendor.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#13

Post by snapetom »

Years later, and I've had a ton of problems actually finding an Independent Repair provider. As far as I can tell Apple does not actually maintain a directory, and it's left for local repair shops to market/advertise. The later, then is highly dependent on their Google ranking skills.

I went to a local repair shop for years. I went in a third time in a year to change a battery on an iPhone 8. Each time they apologized, blamed it on a bad shipment of batteries, and repaired it for free. However, on that third time, I chatted them up about the IRP. The guy got extremely hostile about the program.

Screw that place. Took me a while, but I finally did find a IRP after much googling and asking around.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#14

Post by Hamuko »

robin_reala wrote: post #7
rasz wrote: post #2

Just as a reminder, their phone "independent repair program" has you signing rights to your business away (you are forced to let apple audit you at any time, you have to share personal client data on all of your clients with apple. All of this not limited to Apple repair part of your business) for the right to: - remove battery / screen from client device - send battery / screen to Apple with all clients personal inf…

That doesn’t sound legal in the EU. Is it true in Europe that to be an independent repair shop you have to get your customers to consent to having their personal data processed by Apple before they can get their phone fixed?

Is the program even available in the EU?

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#15

Post by snapetom »

bluedino wrote: post #10

I remember last year when Best Buy stores all became AASP’s...except they don’t really do any work on Macs at all. They send them out to their service centers and don’t even use OEM batteries in their replacements, for example. With the nearest Apple store two hours away (and not even open this year), it would be nice if Best Buy could do the work...sigh

Authorized Service Providers and Independent Repair Provider are two separate programs. IRP was created a few years ago specifically for iOS devices. This article says that it's expanding to Macs.

ASPs have been around for decades. Computing stores in many US colleges/universities are ASPs. In the past, when Macs were much simpler, they were allowed to do a fair amount of work on then. However, you're right. As Macs have changed and everything has become fused together, ASPs have basically just become an interface between the customer and real Apple. Basically a "Genius" bar not in an Apple Store.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#16

Post by snapetom »

rasz wrote: post #2

Just as a reminder, their phone "independent repair program" has you signing rights to your business away (you are forced to let apple audit you at any time, you have to share personal client data on all of your clients with apple. All of this not limited to Apple repair part of your business) for the right to: - remove battery / screen from client device - send battery / screen to Apple with all clients personal inf…

I thought specifically one benefit of an IRP was that they had official Apple inventory on hand like screens and batteries without resorting to grey market stripped/scavenged parts. Is that not the case?

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#17

Post by crazygringo »

rasz wrote: post #2

Just as a reminder, their phone "independent repair program" has you signing rights to your business away (you are forced to let apple audit you at any time, you have to share personal client data on all of your clients with apple. All of this not limited to Apple repair part of your business) for the right to: - remove battery / screen from client device - send battery / screen to Apple with all clients personal inf…

> you are forced to let apple audit you at any time, you have to share personal client data on all of your clients with apple

I assume they want to be able to confirm the shops aren't also buying counterfeit Chinese components on the side and swapping them in for the genuine ones.

I also assume they want the repair information to feed into their tracking of the history of the device, as it can affect warranty, AppleCare, whether Apple is willing to service the device in the future, etc.

I don't know the details, but can you point to specifics (actual text) that seem unreasonable, or that don't make economic sense? Also remember that with franchises, repair shops, etc., agreements commonly give the franchiser/manufacturer tremendous power. They don't need it in normal cases, but it's reserved to be able to act against "badly behaving" companies trying to cut corners, falsify records, etc.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#18

Post by reaperducer »

rasz wrote: post #2

Just as a reminder, their phone "independent repair program" has you signing rights to your business away (you are forced to let apple audit you at any time, you have to share personal client data on all of your clients with apple. All of this not limited to Apple repair part of your business) for the right to: - remove battery / screen from client device - send battery / screen to Apple with all clients personal inf…

There's another side to this coin.

I had some work done on a device at one of these independent Apple-certified repair locations. There's a sign in the store telling the customers that they may be contacted by Apple to ask how their experience was.

It's a way for Apple to ensure that the shops flying its flag are quality operations. I'm OK with that. I specifically chose that store because of its relationship with Apple.

remove battery / screen from client device... etc...

That sounds like an extreme case. My repair took three days, and only because the shop was out of the battery I needed, and had to order a new one from Apple. The store said the work is usually done the same day.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#19

Post by saltedonion »

reaperducer wrote: post #18
rasz wrote: post #2

Just as a reminder, their phone "independent repair program" has you signing rights to your business away (you are forced to let apple audit you at any time, you have to share personal client data on all of your clients with apple. All of this not limited to Apple repair part of your business) for the right to: - remove battery / screen from client device - send battery / screen to Apple with all clients personal inf…

There's another side to this coin. I had some work done on a device at one of these independent Apple-certified repair locations. There's a sign in the store telling the customers that they may be contacted by Apple to ask how their experience was. It's a way for Apple to ensure that the shops flying its flag are quality operations. I'm OK with that. I specifically chose that store because of its relationship with Ap…

Apple can can certainly limit the scope of use for the data collection for quality assurance only. But it’s probably worded much more broadly.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#20

Post by reaperducer »

snapetom wrote: post #13

Years later, and I've had a ton of problems actually finding an Independent Repair provider. As far as I can tell Apple does not actually maintain a directory, and it's left for local repair shops to market/advertise. The later, then is highly dependent on their Google ranking skills. I went to a local repair shop for years. I went in a third time in a year to change a battery on an iPhone 8. Each time they apologize…

I've had a ton of problems actually finding an Independent Repair provider. As far as I can tell Apple does not actually maintain a directory

Call AppleCare. That's how I found the one that I used.

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