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Several years back, before Apple clamped down on this kind of commercial behavior, I made the mistake of taking my iPhone to a third-party repair firm for a scr

by alwa 3y ago

Several years back, before Apple clamped down on this kind of commercial behavior, I made the mistake of taking my iPhone to a third-party repair firm for a screen replacement. They claimed to be “Apple-authorized,” but it’s unclear for what. The knockoff part they used to replace the screen was palpably awful-dim, purple-tinted, discolored around the edges, somehow flickering like a CRT, and a millimeter or two thicker than the real deal so that it stuck out from the body of the phone. The guy said “it’s fine, it looks great, it’s working perfectly, there’s no problem with it.” Basically “a screen is a screen.” I suppose in some situations and some parts of the market that may be true, and I’m glad that part of the market is adequately served by commodity Android manufacturers. But part of the small premium I pay to Apple for my low-end model iPhone, I pay specifically to avoid having to look my repairman in the eye and attempt to divine his judgment and trustworthiness before he makes off with my money. Consistency and trust in the repair ecosystem is a feature, to me. There’s a balance to be struck, sure, but I’d hate to think of somebody doing the equivalent “what, it’s fine!” type of repair to a safety- or life-critical device and claiming it’s just as good as new. Even if somebody were to track such repairers down and prosecute them after their repairs injure somebody, we’d be moving from a high-trust to a low-trust kind of environment in exactly the areas where I least want to have to worry about trust. Anyway, as to phones, I’ve since been very happy to pay Apple the $4/month to cover quality, authentic repairs should I damage my device—and I take them up on that coverage fairly often. $48/year plus the $29 deductible per incident works out even cheaper for me than that unacceptably poor third-party repair cost me years ago.

dpkonofa 3y ago
This is only slightly comical to me because the article actually mentions ventilators and how evil they were that they could only be serviced by the OEM due to the “VIN” on the parts. I would not want to be the person strapped to a medical device where “it looks fine, it works great” guy was the one that fixed it on the cheap so he could make an extra few dollars.
- itishappy 3y ago
  If first party repairs are an option, my choice is clear. If my choice is between a third-party repair and death, I'm less principled.
  - dpkonofa 3y ago
    Yes, that's my point. The article had to use a once-in-a-lifetime/millenium global pandemic to make its point.
    - Clamchop 3y ago
      Emergencies happen. Were inappropriate or flawed repairs ever a significant problem? Are there other solutions to that problem? Could there exist a third-party repair service or parts manufacturer competent enough to be authorized? Even besides an emergency, is the measure worth, say, severe delays to or even the impossibility of getting a repair somewhere that's disadvantaged either by being too far away from official services or by economics? And why couldn't this be a post hoc PR rationalization for what just as well could be profiteering? Now apply all those questions to the far less life-threatening concern of smartphones and laptops.
      - dpkonofa 3y ago
        >Were inappropriate or flawed repairs ever a significant problem? Are there other solutions to that problem? Could there exist a third-party repair service or parts manufacturer competent enough to be authorized? Yes, and they continue to be. Potentially, but no manufacturer, Apple or otherwise, has found one. Yes, but not at the scale that Apple operates. That's why Louis Rossman is a shyster. He has skills that are very rare but peddles his right to repair schtick as if every repair shop has those skills and then misrepresents the situation to create drama to drive engagement to his business and YouTube channel.
b112 3y ago
Consistency and trust in the repair ecosystem is a feature, to me. You can always go to a real apple repair depot, instead of the crook changing your screen, as you cited. 3rd parties having access to real apple parts, an easier ability to replace them, makes it easier for you to get good independent support. It has nothing to do with that crook you mentioned.
- tgma 3y ago
  (Just to steel-man the counterargument) it is not as clear-cut to me that everyone is realistically able to make such choice (depending on the geo, quality control of the authorized centers). The repair process is opaque enough that you are compromising the user who is choosing to pay for premium parts to get ripped off with some probability. Even a small percentage of bad parts in the ecosystem will disproportionally diminish the value of used/repaired iPhones so there is a non-trivial calculation to be done on the social impact of such individual choice.
  - jwells89 3y ago
    There should probably be regulations mandating that electronics replacement parts meet certain minimum QA and performance standards, particularly those with the significant capacity for harm such as batteries and components handling power. Parts not meeting these standards would get rejected at the border.
  - jtode 3y ago
    Perhaps they should design the machines so that they are user-serviceable. This was the default at one point. Look at the manual for any home appliance from the 1950s. The difficulty in replacing an iphone screen is not that it's hard to plug it into its receptacle - the difficulty is in acquiring a part (they won't sell them) and then in opening the device, which requires skill and a specialized tool in pretty much every case. Maybe, hold them together with small screws, instead of that. "but then it will weigh an extra .237oz!" Shut up.
    - nemothekid 3y ago
tgma 3y ago
> somehow flickering like a CRT Backlight dimming can be implemented via PWM, which turns signal on and off at different frequencies to achieve the desired brightness setting from the backlight source. When it is poorly executed you tend to see that effect (more so at the lower backlight settings)
spacecase-25 3y ago
Oof, this just proves that their strategy works. By limiting the availability of panels, 3rd party repair shops are left with very poor quality rejects. What happens is that Apple disallows any of their suppliers to sell panels on the open market, so 3rd party repair shops aren't able to get good panels, then Apple points to the 3rd party repair shops with shitty screens and tells you that you shouldn't trust 3rd party repair shops because the quality of their repairs aren't up to par. If appropriate parts were available, there would be no reason that someone with basic soldering skills and the ability to use a screw driver wouldn't be able to replace your screen with one just as good as it came with out of the box. You've fallen for the scam.
- dpkonofa 3y ago
  You act like there wasn’t a full decade and more of history where 3rd party repair existed en masse for electronics and the situation that he’s describing was exactly the result. There’s no scam here. Most of us find the official repair stuff to be a feature, not a crutch.

by alwa 3y ago

dpkonofa 3y ago

This is only slightly comical to me because the article actually mentions ventilators and how evil they were that they could only be serviced by the OEM due to the “VIN” on the parts. I would not want to be the person strapped to a medical device where “it looks fine, it works great” guy was the one that fixed it on the cheap so he could make an extra few dollars.

itishappy 3y ago
If first party repairs are an option, my choice is clear. If my choice is between a third-party repair and death, I'm less principled.
- dpkonofa 3y ago
  Yes, that's my point. The article had to use a once-in-a-lifetime/millenium global pandemic to make its point.
  - Clamchop 3y ago
    Emergencies happen. Were inappropriate or flawed repairs ever a significant problem? Are there other solutions to that problem? Could there exist a third-party repair service or parts manufacturer competent enough to be authorized? Even besides an emergency, is the measure worth, say, severe delays to or even the impossibility of getting a repair somewhere that's disadvantaged either by being too far away from official services or by economics? And why couldn't this be a post hoc PR rationalization for what just as well could be profiteering? Now apply all those questions to the far less life-threatening concern of smartphones and laptops.
    - dpkonofa 3y ago
      >Were inappropriate or flawed repairs ever a significant problem? Are there other solutions to that problem? Could there exist a third-party repair service or parts manufacturer competent enough to be authorized? Yes, and they continue to be. Potentially, but no manufacturer, Apple or otherwise, has found one. Yes, but not at the scale that Apple operates. That's why Louis Rossman is a shyster. He has skills that are very rare but peddles his right to repair schtick as if every repair shop has those skills and then misrepresents the situation to create drama to drive engagement to his business and YouTube channel.

b112 3y ago

Consistency and trust in the repair ecosystem is a feature, to me. You can always go to a real apple repair depot, instead of the crook changing your screen, as you cited. 3rd parties having access to real apple parts, an easier ability to replace them, makes it easier for you to get good independent support. It has nothing to do with that crook you mentioned.

tgma 3y ago
(Just to steel-man the counterargument) it is not as clear-cut to me that everyone is realistically able to make such choice (depending on the geo, quality control of the authorized centers). The repair process is opaque enough that you are compromising the user who is choosing to pay for premium parts to get ripped off with some probability. Even a small percentage of bad parts in the ecosystem will disproportionally diminish the value of used/repaired iPhones so there is a non-trivial calculation to be done on the social impact of such individual choice.
- jwells89 3y ago
  There should probably be regulations mandating that electronics replacement parts meet certain minimum QA and performance standards, particularly those with the significant capacity for harm such as batteries and components handling power. Parts not meeting these standards would get rejected at the border.
- jtode 3y ago
  Perhaps they should design the machines so that they are user-serviceable. This was the default at one point. Look at the manual for any home appliance from the 1950s. The difficulty in replacing an iphone screen is not that it's hard to plug it into its receptacle - the difficulty is in acquiring a part (they won't sell them) and then in opening the device, which requires skill and a specialized tool in pretty much every case. Maybe, hold them together with small screws, instead of that. "but then it will weigh an extra .237oz!" Shut up.
  - nemothekid 3y ago

tgma 3y ago

> somehow flickering like a CRT Backlight dimming can be implemented via PWM, which turns signal on and off at different frequencies to achieve the desired brightness setting from the backlight source. When it is poorly executed you tend to see that effect (more so at the lower backlight settings)

spacecase-25 3y ago

Oof, this just proves that their strategy works. By limiting the availability of panels, 3rd party repair shops are left with very poor quality rejects. What happens is that Apple disallows any of their suppliers to sell panels on the open market, so 3rd party repair shops aren't able to get good panels, then Apple points to the 3rd party repair shops with shitty screens and tells you that you shouldn't trust 3rd party repair shops because the quality of their repairs aren't up to par. If appropriate parts were available, there would be no reason that someone with basic soldering skills and the ability to use a screw driver wouldn't be able to replace your screen with one just as good as it came with out of the box. You've fallen for the scam.

dpkonofa 3y ago
You act like there wasn’t a full decade and more of history where 3rd party repair existed en masse for electronics and the situation that he’s describing was exactly the result. There’s no scam here. Most of us find the official repair stuff to be a feature, not a crutch.