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A few months ago the trackpad on my late 2014 rMBP began to malfunction. I brought it to an apple repair centre and they had to replace the battery, keyboard, l

by ttsda 9y ago

A few months ago the trackpad on my late 2014 rMBP began to malfunction. I brought it to an apple repair centre and they had to replace the battery, keyboard, laptop and the aluminium top case of the laptop. A lot of people, when presented with the quote they gave me would very likely just get a new laptop and throw the old one away. If they were even slightly commited to the environment they would have the option to replace only the trackpad, it's not even the same part, they're attached by only a few screws! It's very easy to find things your company already do for another reason and say you're doing it for the planet. I don't think there's more than this to apple's "commitment to the environment"

ics 9y ago
I'm actually amazed that almost every time I go to the Genius Bar for service, there are people paying ~50% of purchase price on repairs for their Mac/Book/Pad/Pros instead of refusing service and buying something new. Going with my first comment in this thread, my perception is that people have a much stronger connection with the thing they bought rather than optimizing for cost. To add another anecdote: a few years ago my wife dropped her iPhone 4 into water and it died shortly after. I told her to shut it off and even disassembled it to see if anything was salvageable (it wasn't for my level of DIY). She paid probably 75% of the original purchase price to have it "fixed" which meant pretty much a new phone dropped into the old housing. Contrast that with one week ago when my iPhone 7 fell out of my pocket while biking and got run over by a car (only one tire hit, squarely over the thing). There were only three scratches to the side of the aluminum and a cracked rear camera glass cover. Not even a scuff to the screen. Apple quoted me $320 for the "repair" which I refused and semi-jokingly replied that I'd wait for the next battery recall. For now I have a $5 replacement part coming which I'll install myself, but if it shows any other issues down the line I'll likely just buy a newer model and give the old one to a family member or use it for whatever still works– there's almost always a use for old Apple products that still turn on.
- tqkxzugoaupvwqr 9y ago
  > people have a much stronger connection with the thing they bought rather than optimizing for cost Assuming people want to stay in the iOS ecosystem: Isn’t choosing the less expensive option (repair) instead of the more expensive option (buying a new iPhone) optimizing for cost?
  - derefr 9y ago
    That’s assuming they weren’t already planning to replace their phone soon. Personally, I’m four iPhone versions behind, and am probably going to wait one more refresh cycle before getting a new phone. But if my phone broke today, I’d just buy the currently-new model and then not buy the one a year from now. Either way is fine with me.
  - ics 9y ago
    If you're going to upgrade every N years/product cycles just to keep up with hardware advancements, then paying for a repair is money spent on a device that will be out of date sooner. Depending on how close/far you are from an anticipated upgrade it might make more sense to reset the clock. My MacBook Pro is from 2011. If the logic board fails, I'll get a new machine without question even though it serves me fine and the repair would be 1/4 or less than a new model of the same tier. If I had an iPhone X and it needed a $500 repair today, I might pay for that if I had no intention of getting the iPhone X 2 or whatever it gets called. If I really wanted the "X 2", I'd start looking at other options whether that's a cheaper iPhone, a special plan from my cell provider, etc. What I'm trying to describe is that rather than calculate what's best based on their own habits, consumers will react based on their gut feeling. Apple marketing definitely has an effect on that feeling but so does the desire to remain within Apple's ecosystem and therefore keep giving them money in one way or another.
  - hedora 9y ago
    Also (especially for laptops), the new option is more about different tradeoffs than better hardware. I use the headphone jack on my 6 plus daily, and don’t want to screw with dongles in my car, or replace my $100+ headphones with non-existent Bluetooth versions. I can’t deal with the new laptop keyboards, so I’ll pay more than the purchase price of a new one for a repair of the old one. (Though, in practice, I’ve found their repairs to generally be quite reasonably priced, and much more convenient/ reliable than any other manufacturer repair service I have dealt with)

by ttsda 9y ago

ics 9y ago

I'm actually amazed that almost every time I go to the Genius Bar for service, there are people paying ~50% of purchase price on repairs for their Mac/Book/Pad/Pros instead of refusing service and buying something new. Going with my first comment in this thread, my perception is that people have a much stronger connection with the thing they bought rather than optimizing for cost. To add another anecdote: a few years ago my wife dropped her iPhone 4 into water and it died shortly after. I told her to shut it off and even disassembled it to see if anything was salvageable (it wasn't for my level of DIY). She paid probably 75% of the original purchase price to have it "fixed" which meant pretty much a new phone dropped into the old housing. Contrast that with one week ago when my iPhone 7 fell out of my pocket while biking and got run over by a car (only one tire hit, squarely over the thing). There were only three scratches to the side of the aluminum and a cracked rear camera glass cover. Not even a scuff to the screen. Apple quoted me $320 for the "repair" which I refused and semi-jokingly replied that I'd wait for the next battery recall. For now I have a $5 replacement part coming which I'll install myself, but if it shows any other issues down the line I'll likely just buy a newer model and give the old one to a family member or use it for whatever still works– there's almost always a use for old Apple products that still turn on.

tqkxzugoaupvwqr 9y ago
> people have a much stronger connection with the thing they bought rather than optimizing for cost Assuming people want to stay in the iOS ecosystem: Isn’t choosing the less expensive option (repair) instead of the more expensive option (buying a new iPhone) optimizing for cost?
- derefr 9y ago
  That’s assuming they weren’t already planning to replace their phone soon. Personally, I’m four iPhone versions behind, and am probably going to wait one more refresh cycle before getting a new phone. But if my phone broke today, I’d just buy the currently-new model and then not buy the one a year from now. Either way is fine with me.
- ics 9y ago
  If you're going to upgrade every N years/product cycles just to keep up with hardware advancements, then paying for a repair is money spent on a device that will be out of date sooner. Depending on how close/far you are from an anticipated upgrade it might make more sense to reset the clock. My MacBook Pro is from 2011. If the logic board fails, I'll get a new machine without question even though it serves me fine and the repair would be 1/4 or less than a new model of the same tier. If I had an iPhone X and it needed a $500 repair today, I might pay for that if I had no intention of getting the iPhone X 2 or whatever it gets called. If I really wanted the "X 2", I'd start looking at other options whether that's a cheaper iPhone, a special plan from my cell provider, etc. What I'm trying to describe is that rather than calculate what's best based on their own habits, consumers will react based on their gut feeling. Apple marketing definitely has an effect on that feeling but so does the desire to remain within Apple's ecosystem and therefore keep giving them money in one way or another.
- hedora 9y ago
  Also (especially for laptops), the new option is more about different tradeoffs than better hardware. I use the headphone jack on my 6 plus daily, and don’t want to screw with dongles in my car, or replace my $100+ headphones with non-existent Bluetooth versions. I can’t deal with the new laptop keyboards, so I’ll pay more than the purchase price of a new one for a repair of the old one. (Though, in practice, I’ve found their repairs to generally be quite reasonably priced, and much more convenient/ reliable than any other manufacturer repair service I have dealt with)