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HomePod Repairs Cost Almost as Much as a New HomePod (theverge.com)
This may not come as a huge surprise, but it's going to be pricey if you break Apple's fully sealed and densely packed new speaker. From a report: Repair pricing for the HomePod was posted to Apple's website this week, and the number is high enough that it's clear you should invest in a warranty if you're worried about breaking one: an out-of-warranty repair from Apple will cost $279 in the US, which is 80 percent of the price of a brand-new HomePod. So you're not so much repairing it as getting a small discount on a new one.
why there is a fixed price to the repair. Surely the cost of repair depends on what is wrong, so I can only suppose that the charge for repair has a lot of profit baked in.Yes: I understand that repair will include a charge for labour, but it was put together in the first place. All the more reason for 'right to repair' legislation that forces a vendor to provide spare parts.
Apple will do just as well to throw them in the shredder
That is not very eco-friendly is it ?
Why bother even repairing them? Apple will do just as well to throw them in the shredder and ship you another one.
Exactly. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what they do.
I cut out the middleman by going to the Apple store and throwing one directly into the trash bin.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Bullshit. They fix it at a cost of $30-$50 and send you a bill for $279. This is the business plan that has made them the richest company on planet Earth.
Makes no sense. Just spies on you anyway. Why would you want that? Don't even say 'convenience'. Too many of you give up too much for 'convenience'.
I know I'm supposed to give some sort of insightful comment but today I will be giving a loosely poetic, haiku-inspired rant instead.
To discourage the frivolous repair requests and pay for all the "hassle free" returns repair costs must be high.
You do not really care that the costs are high because a Home Pod belongs in the home. The proof is in the name.
You will own one, you will pay for it when you buy it, when you repair it and when Apple monetizies whatever clever data collection they have on you, anonymously or not.
It's quite a recent iThing and you already own many iThings and you know old iThings get "battery optimised" to slow down so you might as well buy.
Also, poor people cannot afford to pay a repair bill that is near the amount of the original item, assuming they can even pay for the original. You, you are not like a poor person, you can waste money so you won't even care.
In fact I just recently bought a HomePod, to put in my home where the Pod belongs and I ruined it just so I can prove I can afford the stupid repair costs and then asked Siri what to do and bought another! AND it connects to all my iThings. Flawless.
Thank you Apple for making iThings. They complete me.
(I admit to breaking with traditional haiku structure. I opted for 19-24-24-32-28-44-53-9 instead)
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
... is an advertisement for why not to buy anything from Apple. I am so sick and goddamned tired of their bullshit. I hope as many people as possible will help Apple be a better company by PUNISHING rather than rewarding misbehavior of this kind, by refusing to buy their products. When people ask why you would not consider buying whatever the latest, ludicrously overpriced gadget Apple is trying to force-feed you, just say, “because Apple has become a monster and I refuse to aid or abet them in their crimes against the people.” That is why I won’t buy anything from Apple anymore.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
for any device that comes in bad. Modern electronics aren't very repairable. The whole thing is probably a giant block of solder with an occasional computer chip and a pair of speakers.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Apple's overarching policy is to discourage recycling at all costs. They even mandate recycling companies to destroy perfectly fine iPhones Macbooks.
I have to laugh at Apple fanbois (and sockpuppets) that claim Apple's ostensible green credentials. Truth is, there is no worse company in IT at the moment, than Apple. At least Microsoft doesn't explicitly order recycling companies to destroy their hardware - thought repairability of Surface and Surface laptops is abysmal and effectively nil. But at least they don't lay down the pretense as thickly as Apple does.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Directive not law. Implementations in member states can differ. For example Dutch consumers have a warranty depending on expected live spans, if a washing machine breaks after 5 years but is expected to last 10, the seller (not manufacturer) has to prove misuse or repair the thing. There is a minimum of 1 year under law.
It's as eco-friendly as their laptops with non-upgradable RAM.
#DeleteFacebook
Maybe I like being spied on.
The economics of buying new rather than reparing applies already to many products. There are two strategies: buy good quality and repair if damaged or buy cheap and replace often. Unfortunately the second choice appears to be the better one even for producs which do not innovate that fast. For example: I bike everyday, summer and winter, the bikes start to deteriorate after about two years (which is for me about 6000 miles), pretty much universally so that I have to replace a lot, like breaks, gears, pedals, cables etc. (smaller things can be fixed nicely in bikes still fortunately). Bringing such a bike to a shop can cost close to get a new cheap one. Expensive bikes last longer as the quality of the ingredients is better the chance of having it snatched away. Also with electronics which are carried around, I started to buy frequently new cheaper products more frequently than expensive in larger intervals. Also there, the danger of losing it, or having damaged keyboard, charging plug or battery issues etc makes the first option the better one for me. It is a bit unfortunate that many products also are less and less self repairable.
It's actually designed to be moved every so often. There's an accelerometer that when tripped, instructs the homepod to recalibrate the sound. Seems an odd design choice if the engineers expected the users to never move their speaker.
You (collectively) wanted stylish, small, and cheap. The laws of manufacturing and hardware design don't allow you to just throw "easily repairable" into the equation without paying for it somewhere else.
How much does it cost to repair Soros speakers if they break? That's who Apple said they are competing with here, and those speakers are more expensive.
Seems legit. Lots of companies have ~$750B-$900B hanging around in vaults.
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
Oh yes, shredding components and letting them sit in some third world dump (where people also live) is very beneficial to the environment.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
You have never had electronics fail on you for any reason other than physical damage?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Who buys these stupid annoying things. If I see one I will put it out of its misery, it is so fucking ugly, like a Trash Can 2.
That's not an "Apple-enough" name!
Sp-iCan!
t goes along with many of the other Apple products.
Sp-iMac
Sp-iPhone
Sp-iMacPro
Sp-iMac-Mini
Sp-iPod
Such meme. Much wow.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Dont forget apples massive debt
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/11/07/heres-how-much-debt-apple-inc-ended-up-raising-yes.aspx
How exactly would you damage one?
It's a lump.
It sits there looking lump-like.
Occasionally, you talk to it.
If it talks back, it's no longer just a lump: instead, it's a talking lump.
Mostly it just sits there.
I'm just as grumpy as the next guy about finding out about yet another product you can't easily open up and do repairs on. But this thing is just a speaker with some wireless network connectivity, essentially.
I've got some pretty nice Bluetooth wireless speakers over here (a pair of Harmon Kardon Onyx mini's, and my wife has a pair of UE Boom 2's), and these even have rechargeable batteries inside them. Yet they don't look too repairable either. MAYBE the Onyx can be disassembled. I see some "how to" stuff on a Google search that refers to a larger model of the speaker, at least? But I'm pretty sure with most of these -- people just trash them when their batteries finally stop holding a charge.
Typically, speakers last for many years. You used to blow traditional speakers because they weren't mated up optimally to the amplifier they were attached to. If the amp couldn't put out enough wattage for the volume level you wanted to listen at, you got "clipping" -- damaging distortion that tore up the speakers. With these "all in one" units, that shouldn't really be much of a problem anymore. They should handle the maximum volume level they allow you to turn it up to.
I'm pretty confident if I purchased these HomePod speakers, they'd be trouble free for as long as I'd care to use them. Eventually, the built-in amps in these things tend to fail, but I'm talking 10 years or so. I have several nice 3 piece amplified sets of PC speakers that all lasted about that long before the amps failed. (Probably capacitors drying out and failing on the circuit boards -- but I never cared to even try to repair one before.)
They have a history of abandoning devices.
1. Airport Express. I have a bunch of perfectly good routers serving up music in various rooms. Have to use windows to configure it since apple obsoleted the config util on macOS.
2. Apple TVs.
3. The old white Bluetooth keyboards.
At this point even MacBooks look like a dead end purchase so I'm sticking with my old 2012 pro until it's dead. Then we'll see.
I've been primarily a "Mac user" since around 2000-2001, when I got really tired of the Windows world and discovered the new Mac OS X operating system and all the new hardware Apple was suddenly creating under Steve Jobs' take-back of his company.
Apple really had a good run between 2000 and Jobs' death. Under Tim Cook? I feel like the company hasn't been nearly as pleasing to support and follow along with. The thing is though? Like a lot of Mac users I know, we're all pretty heavily invested in the ecosystem, and it doesn't make any sense to try to bail out on it wholesale. The Apple bashers/haters have been saying essentially the same things since as far back as I can remember. The thing is, I've been into computers and I.T. since the late 1980's and I *also* bashed Apple back in the days of "Classic" MacOS. That's when Apple was at their low point, selling crappy Performa towers that couldn't even multitask well enough to format a floppy disk at the same time you did anything else with the machine.
The re-invented Apple of the Jobs era is probably what kept me interested in computers, when I saw so many of my peers get burnt out on it and change careers and focus.
The "Mac haters" I run across today tend to fall into two camps; The ones who always refused to use a Mac and insist they're substandard, overpriced junk based on an idea nothing changed since 1990 in the business .... and the younger ones who just hate how successful the company is, and/or the fact they can't afford to buy them.
These days, I get paid to support a mix of both Windows PCs and Macs, and I've gone back and forth between using Android phones and iPhones. I typically own some products on both sides of that fence and believe in using the best tool for the job, no matter who manufactures it. All this Apple hate is the same baseless garbage it always was. But that doesn't change the fact that a lot of us who DO still buy Apple's products are feeling a decline in the quality and value for the dollar. There have been a lot of software bugs in OS X and iOS that feel like Apple is slipping on quality control. Product launches such as for the Apple Watch were botched, trying to position it like a piece of high end jewelry or a fashion statement, instead of a piece of tech complimenting an iPhone for the masses. (I think they got that pretty much corrected with "Series 3" of the watch and sales are better than ever on it now.) The HomeKit home automation support was another botched launch, really. Just now, you finally have companies like Belkin selling reasonably priced "gateways" so WeMo devices can work with HomeKit properly -- and until iOS 11, Apple didn't have the HomeKit UI in what I'd call a finished state, either.
My point is? I have a LOT to thank Apple for and have gotten a whole lot of use out of their products. I have enough invested in them that I'm not going to be quick to migrate away from them either. BUT, I'm not going to make apologies for Apple's mis-steps either. I just find the blanket "Apple hate" to be utterly nonproductive and uninformed. If you love products from Apple's competition, you should be thankful every day that Apple survived. Many things you use are better BECAUSE they were challenged by Apple.
Bullshit. They fix it at a cost of $30-$50 and send you a bill for $279. This is the business plan that has made them the richest company on planet Earth.
Prove it, or STFU, hater.
Because they're the ones who started this insanity? Thinness at all costs is not good for the users.
#DeleteFacebook
The phones are a loss leader.
No they're not. They're made just as cheaply as the rest and sold for a massive mark up.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
I can confirm that Apple's repair rates are nothing less than abusive. I wanted to upgrade our Mac Minis to SSDs from HDDs. The official repair centre I contacted quote me at $1000CAN for a 256GB SSD. And that's not counting labour. I told them that that was ridiculous and asked about using a non-official drive, and they said that they weren't allowed to. For comparison, the single most expensive consumer-level 256GB SSD I could find was $350CAN. The median price was approximately $150CAN.
So yeah, Apple charges absolutely obscene rates for repairs. I could literally buy a brand new mac mini /w the upgraded drive ($240 on their website) for less than it would cost me to repair an existing computer.
https://apple.slashdot.org/com...
Because they're the ones who started this insanity? Thinness at all costs is not good for the users.
Thinness at ALL costs is not; but I'm sure that Apple (and others) looked at the statistics regarding what percentage of Laptop Owners ACTUALLY Upgraded their RAM and/or File-Storage, and found that it was in the single-digit range. And as an OEM, you don't often make design decisions based on the desires of that low of a percentage of your userbase. At least not if you have stockholders to answer to.
Connectors are expensive, failure-prone, and large. Two of those disadvantages have NOTHING to do with "thinness". And one of them has EVERYTHING to do with percentage of failures (both in and out of warranty). Laptops ARE mobile devices, ya know...
People have accepted without whining for many years that CPUs and GPUs in laptops are VERY rarely upgradeable (and even when they are, it's usually kind of a joke); so what's different here?
Personally, I'd like laptops to be configurable with snap-in/attach-with-a-single-screw Ports. Buy your base unit, and then purchase any combination of up to, say, six "port modules". These would be simple SPI/I2C-connected peripherals, with an ASIC or small SoC on it, just enough to get the signals on/off a peripheral bus. But I am in a small minority of people that would enjoy that.
So, that's why we have TB and USB-C docks and adapters. They answer the same need, without needless expense and physical overcomplication of the laptop itself.
Engineering and Product Design is always ALL about Compromises. This is no different.
I can confirm that Apple's repair rates are nothing less than abusive. I wanted to upgrade our Mac Minis to SSDs from HDDs. The official repair centre I contacted quote me at $1000CAN for a 256GB SSD. And that's not counting labour. I told them that that was ridiculous and asked about using a non-official drive, and they said that they weren't allowed to. For comparison, the single most expensive consumer-level 256GB SSD I could find was $350CAN. The median price was approximately $150CAN.
So yeah, Apple charges absolutely obscene rates for repairs. I could literally buy a brand new mac mini /w the upgraded drive ($240 on their website) for less than it would cost me to repair an existing computer.
Ever taken a car to a dealership for repairs?
Same thing.
And yes, you should know that an Apple Repair Center can't use aftermarket parts.
And nice try (actually not even that); but that's STILL no proof regarding Repair Costs of "$30 to $50" for the HOMEPOD, which is what I was challenging.
The wholesale price of the device is less than half the msrp. Someone is getting ripped off.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
But upgradable RAM, even if it were in custom form that would require a trip to an Apple store, would at least lower the environmental impact of laptops being discarded because they can't be upgraded. Environment should always come before profits and it should be made into law.
#DeleteFacebook
...Apple bend over tax!
But upgradable RAM, even if it were in custom form that would require a trip to an Apple store, would at least lower the environmental impact of laptops being discarded because they can't be upgraded. Environment should always come before profits and it should be made into law.
See above. VERY few people actually "upgrade" their Laptops. They use them until they are attracted by the new shiny and them throw them away, like an elderly Greek slave...
Yes, and the general opinion of car dealerships that they're sleazy crooked bastards that will soak you for as much as they can get away with. Nobody goes back to a dealership for repairs unless it's under warranty or if there are some special circumstances. If that's that kind of negative reputation Apple wants to cultivate, then all the power to them.
The problem is that Apple is trying to have their cake and eat it too. They want to charge ridiculous money for repairs AND deny people the ability to repair things themselves. And that is NOT ok. This attitude (Not just Apple but many others, including John Deer I believe...) is exactly why "right to repair" legislation is popping up all over the place, and IMO it can't come fast enough.
And no, I have no idea what the repair costs are for the homepod. Not do I really, care, to be honest, because I will never buy one of the ridiculous things. My point is that, based on my own experience, if said poster is being hyperbolic it's probably not by much.
Yes, and the general opinion of car dealerships that they're sleazy crooked bastards that will soak you for as much as they can get away with. Nobody goes back to a dealership for repairs unless it's under warranty or if there are some special circumstances. If that's that kind of negative reputation Apple wants to cultivate, then all the power to them.
The problem is that Apple is trying to have their cake and eat it too. They want to charge ridiculous money for repairs AND deny people the ability to repair things themselves. And that is NOT ok. This attitude (Not just Apple but many others, including John Deer I believe...) is exactly why "right to repair" legislation is popping up all over the place, and IMO it can't come fast enough.
And no, I have no idea what the repair costs are for the homepod. Not do I really, care, to be honest, because I will never buy one of the ridiculous things. My point is that, based on my own experience, if said poster is being hyperbolic it's probably not by much.
If you wouldn't buy a HomePod under any circumstances; then you don't care what the repair costs are, or whether they are reasonable.
So you are nothing but spewing Apple Hate.
Thanks for identifying yourself. We're done here.
If you wouldn't buy a HomePod under any circumstances; then you don't care what the repair costs are, or whether they are reasonable.
So you are nothing but spewing Apple Hate.
Thanks for identifying yourself. We're done here.
No, we're not done here. You know what, I really gotta know... Are you even for real?
When I've written past posts that is positive about Apple, you responded with back-slapping-preach-it-brother stuff. But then when I write a post criticizing Apple, you accuse me of being an Apple-hater.
So what am I? An Apple fan or a hater?
I'm currently typing on an Macbook Pro. In fact, I've been using Apple computers for over a decade. My last several phones were all iPhones. So am I a fan, or a hater?
I convinced almost every member in my family to buy Apple. I bought my parents Mac Minis for Christmas. So am I a fan, or a hater?
Well? What am I?
I mean, I could suggest that you think about it and maybe realize that the world isn't black or white, but I think that would probably be asking too much.
I would similarly guess that it is beyond your ability to understand that a consumer product company is not a religious institution and shouldn't be treated like one.
Can you at least admit that people purchase/use products via specific criteria (sometimes even solid practical ones) other than mindless obedience to a brand?