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Apple Taken To Court For Refusing To Fix Devices (bbc.com)
Australia's consumer watchdog has begun legal action against Apple over claims it refused to repair iPads and iPhones previously serviced by third parties. From a report on BBC: It alleges that Apple made "false, misleading, or deceptive representations" about consumers' rights under Australian law. The case follows complaints that users were "routinely refused" repairs after an error disabled their devices. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) began an investigation after users complained about Apple's so-called "error 53", which disabled some users' devices after they downloaded an update to their operating system.
You're repairing it wrong.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
They are more like a boyfriend who is really good looking but kind of an asshole when you really get to know him.
I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
If your phone has the "touch disease" Apple will admit its their fault and fix it for you for $149. Of course you get a refurbished board and minimal warranty. Apple cheapened up the phone and didn't solder a metal shield to the board that reinforced against flexing. Now they used some foil tape as a shield. However 3rd party companies will fix it the right way, reflow the chip and solder on a shield. They even offer a better warranty than Apple!
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Actually, in the US, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act makes it illegal for any company to void your warranty if you open up a device and repair it yourself, or have a third party do so. Or using third party replacement parts. It covers any item that costs over $15. But since most people don't know this, most companies have gotten away with it.
Apple Ink's user license agreement has nothing to do with ownership.
Apple Ink does not confer ownership of any of its products. Apple Ink retains ownership of all its products after sell. The buyer only buys the user license agreement document, nothing more.
Therefore, if Apple Ink does not want to fix a product, it is well within its ownership of the product to do nothing.
Ha ha
Prove it.
Case law says otherwise.
they voided the warranty by taking it to an iFixit shop
No matter what their TOS says, that's illegal. See Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act in the US.
turned out to be incompatible with an OS upgrade they knew was bound to happen
Incompatible = Apple deciding to block fingerprint readers with a different ID than originally came with the phone. A security move that only makes sense during the initial design - not when done after the phone is out there. It was a valid repair and the iPhone offers no way to pair with a new fingerprint reader except by Apple (which is just as bad as putting a chip on a printer cartridge and should be illegal).
And if an end user breaks the home button and knows their PIN (which is more secure than a fingerprint), then they should be able to replace that. Apple put that roadblock end only for their own bottom line.
Do you think all those "fixit" shops were buying their parts from Apple? Apple only sells to authorize service persons, and they only sell to them because they have been trained in proper repair techniques.
They're not buying stolen parts, if that's what you're implying. There is more than enough demand for 3rd parties to manufacture replacement Apple parts. I just bought a brand new replacement LCD for an iPhone 6 for all of $25.
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The touch sensor is tied to the CPU.
That's all the "error 53" issue is.
It's intentionally tied so that some asshole who steals you iPhone, and then parts it out on eBay for grey market repairs now has a worthless piece of junk.
This discourages assholes like that from stealing your iPhone in the first place, because they can maybe sell the battery and a couple of other parts ... and that's it.
Do you think all those "fixit" shops were buying their parts from Apple? Apple only sells to authorize service persons, and they only sell to them because they have been trained in proper repair techniques.
Can someone figure out how to repair something with no training? Probably. But that won't cause Apple to sell them legitimate replacement parts.
Electronics aren't some mystical voodoo that just works. Many parts such as the home button can be disassembled and duplicated. They don't need access to Apple to make replacement parts for these items that work just fine. It's Apple that added software deterrents to using after market parts by implementing proprietary codes to their parts.
The PIN is more secure than fingerprints - fingerprints are everywhere. All it takes is requiring the PIN to pair a new fingerprint sensor.
In fact, the FBI has no trouble getting fingerprints - what they have trouble with is bypassing the PIN.
There's no such thing as an "unauthorized repair shop." They're just repair shops. Apple calling theirs "Authorized" does nothing to de-legitimize repair shops. Do you think the only place to get your car repaired is the dealer? Or do you take your car to an "unauthorized" repair shop?
No they didn't. The law is very explicit, you DO NOT void a warranty by using your own repairer unless the damage that was done is a direct result of that repair which in this case it was NOT. In Australia a company cannot change a consumers rights under the law regardless of what they say in EULA's, warranty statements etc.
They're not buying stolen parts, if that's what you're implying. There is more than enough demand for 3rd parties to manufacture replacement Apple parts. I just bought a brand new replacement LCD for an iPhone 6 for all of $25.
Given that Apple has a vertical monopoly on between 6 and 11 parts for each of their devices, you either bought a use part, likely from a stolen iPhone, or you bought a new part, stolen from the factory that makes the parts exclusively for Apple, or you bout a part that was from a repair center (and either it's a repair center which is violating its contract with Apple not to sell parts to third parties, or it was stolen from the repair center).
Apple intentionally controls the market to prevent "third shift" style product forgery, which is otherwise pretty common in China: run two shifts to build product for the contracted company, and then run a third shift, using the same employees, and parts sourced from different suppliers, to manufacture knock-off which you can then sell as if they were products from the company to which you are contracted.
Apple intentionally established vertical market monopolies on certain parts to prevent them being available, other than through sourced from Apple, or from parting out Apple products with the genuine part (sourced from Apple).