4 ms·

I am part of a group of independent repair shops (see http://repair.org http://repair.org ) and most of us are quite vocal about our policy of not buying iCloud

I am part of a group of independent repair shops (see http://repair.org http://repair.org ) and most of us are quite vocal about our policy of not buying iCloud-locked phones. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't make it easy to see whether a phone is iCloud locked. They used to have a convenient online tool for this, but took it down. So a lot of folks, repair shops or not, get suckered into buying one. From my perspective as someone who owns several stores, the majority of them get sold to people who don't know any better through platforms like Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. A lot of repair shop owners do lurk on, say, FB Marketplace and comment on posts where people are obviously trying to sell stolen goods, but there will unfortunately always be someone willing to buy something because they got "such a good deal." Typically repair shops aren't going to put used parts in a customer phone, so an iCloud locked phone isn't much use "for parts."

sitepodmatt 9y ago
Can you explain why you wouldnt put working used parts in a customers phone (excluding time degrading parts like a battery I guess). I'm sure in Asia all little 1-2 people phone and laptop stores (which are very popular - in some cases whole shopping centres floors dedicated to such repeated stalls) do? If I need a new headphone jack in an out of warranty phone I guess a second hand part is probably much cheaper for everyone? Ignoring the stolen issue (and morality around stolen) for a second. Same reason independent mechanics will often source from a scrap yard where appropriate - say a cheap phone $150 (like my y6-ii) with one thing broken?
- mwgalloway 9y ago
  Using used parts might be twice as much labor for one thing, you have to remove the part carefully from one phone and then install it into another one. Another is that you can't always guarantee the repair is done well if it's done with used parts as you can't really be certain what kind of conditions they were subjected to over time. Also, as you have to charge less for used parts, you might not have as good of a margin on the repair. I don't work in phone repair, but I used to work as a bicycle mechanic, and sourcing used parts for repairs was generally not considered worthwhile in most shops I've worked in.
- sithadmin 9y ago
  >I'm sure in Asia all little 1-2 people phone and laptop stores do? Can't speak for all of them, but one that I visited in Hong Kong to do a screen replacement definitely had a guy sitting at a counter breaking down a stack of used iPhones for parts.
mseebach 9y ago
> Unfortunately, Apple doesn't make it easy to see whether a phone is iCloud locked. They used to have a convenient online tool for this, but took it down. Huh, that seems like an obvious thing for Apple to not just provide, but to make extremely easy to use and actually promote. Run a simple stolen/not stolen check from NFC by tapping another phone, or something like that. Perhaps be able to put a message on the check from iCloud to enable easy positive proof of ownership.
- phonon 9y ago
  I think there were some issues that robbers would be checking it, so demanded passwords etc. in the robbery to prevent it from being locked. So Apple made it harder to access to the public.
  - mikeash 9y ago
    If the robbers were willing to go to that much trouble, they could just ask the victims to wipe the phone on the spot to remove the activation lock. It'll work either way, no need to know in advance whether it's locked or not.
    - phonon 9y ago
      This is the best explanation I could find. http://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/01/31/apple-probably-took-down-icloud-activation-lock-tool-to-prevent-hacks-relying-on-stolen-serial-numbers/ http://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/01/31/apple-probably-took-...

sitepodmatt 9y ago

Can you explain why you wouldnt put working used parts in a customers phone (excluding time degrading parts like a battery I guess). I'm sure in Asia all little 1-2 people phone and laptop stores (which are very popular - in some cases whole shopping centres floors dedicated to such repeated stalls) do? If I need a new headphone jack in an out of warranty phone I guess a second hand part is probably much cheaper for everyone? Ignoring the stolen issue (and morality around stolen) for a second. Same reason independent mechanics will often source from a scrap yard where appropriate - say a cheap phone $150 (like my y6-ii) with one thing broken?

mwgalloway 9y ago
Using used parts might be twice as much labor for one thing, you have to remove the part carefully from one phone and then install it into another one. Another is that you can't always guarantee the repair is done well if it's done with used parts as you can't really be certain what kind of conditions they were subjected to over time. Also, as you have to charge less for used parts, you might not have as good of a margin on the repair. I don't work in phone repair, but I used to work as a bicycle mechanic, and sourcing used parts for repairs was generally not considered worthwhile in most shops I've worked in.
sithadmin 9y ago
>I'm sure in Asia all little 1-2 people phone and laptop stores do? Can't speak for all of them, but one that I visited in Hong Kong to do a screen replacement definitely had a guy sitting at a counter breaking down a stack of used iPhones for parts.

mseebach 9y ago

> Unfortunately, Apple doesn't make it easy to see whether a phone is iCloud locked. They used to have a convenient online tool for this, but took it down. Huh, that seems like an obvious thing for Apple to not just provide, but to make extremely easy to use and actually promote. Run a simple stolen/not stolen check from NFC by tapping another phone, or something like that. Perhaps be able to put a message on the check from iCloud to enable easy positive proof of ownership.

phonon 9y ago
I think there were some issues that robbers would be checking it, so demanded passwords etc. in the robbery to prevent it from being locked. So Apple made it harder to access to the public.
- mikeash 9y ago
  If the robbers were willing to go to that much trouble, they could just ask the victims to wipe the phone on the spot to remove the activation lock. It'll work either way, no need to know in advance whether it's locked or not.
  - phonon 9y ago
    This is the best explanation I could find. http://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/01/31/apple-probably-took-down-icloud-activation-lock-tool-to-prevent-hacks-relying-on-stolen-serial-numbers/ http://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/01/31/apple-probably-took-...