Apple's Independent Repair Provider Program Expands Globally (apple.com) 14
Apple said on Monday it is expanding its "Independent Repair Provider" to over 200 countries, nearly every country where the iPhone-maker's products are sold. From a press release: Launched originally in 2019 and expanded to Europe and Canada last year, the program enables repair providers of all sizes access to genuine Apple parts, tools, repair manuals, and diagnostics to offer safe and reliable repairs for Apple products. There are now more than 1,500 Independent Repair Provider locations serving customers across the US, Canada, and Europe. "Being a part of the Independent Repair Provider program has been a huge benefit to my business, employees, and customers," said Scott Baker, owner of Mister Mac in Wimberley, Texas. "Since joining, we've received great support from Apple, and we're able to deliver that same level of service to our customers. It has even brought genuine excitement to our town." All participating repair providers in the program have access to free training from Apple and the same genuine parts, tools, repair manuals, and diagnostics as Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs) and Apple Store locations. Further reading: Apple's Independent Repair Program is Invasive To Shops and Their Customers, Contract Shows (Published in February 2020).
one-eighty. (Score:2)
Quite the change from what use to be.
Re: (Score:3)
Not really
>same genuine parts, tools, repair manuals, and diagnostics as Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs) and Apple Store locations
the trick here is both shops and AASPs are PROHIBITED from any serious repairs beyond
-swap battery
-swap display
-swap motherboard
They dont do the actual repairs, they just offer to swap those three components at ridiculous prices. For phones display alone is over the value of 100% working second hand unit.
Their "repair manuals" are pictures with locations of screws t
Re: one-eighty. (Score:2)
>same genuine parts, tools, repair manuals, and diagnostics as Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs) and Apple Store locations
the trick here is both shops and AASPs are PROHIBITED from any serious repairs beyond
-swap battery
-swap display
-swap motherboard
They dont do the actual repairs, they just offer to swap those three components at ridiculous prices. For phones display alone is over the value of 100% working second hand unit.
Their "repair manuals" are pictures with locations of screws to open device for motherboard swap. Plus you dont get access to "tools and diagnostics" that would let you pair display module or battery with new phone. Its all a huge scam.
Prove it.
I agree they will allow only module-level repair; but guess what? Only Apple itself goes to Component-Level repair. However...
That is not at all unusual as the level of complexity in a design goes up. TVs started the "module-level" repair concept (not "scheme") decades ago.
Why?
It is actually a good thing for both the Customer (so long as the modules are reasonably-priced; something I agree Apple does not usually do), and for the Repair Shop (who doesn't have to waste 5-10 hours chasing that Bit 20
Re: (Score:2)
Prove it.
I agree they will allow only module-level repair; but guess what? Only Apple itself goes to Component-Level repair...
Repairing Apple hardware, isn't magic or mysterious.
Just ask Louis Rossmann.
Re: (Score:2)
Prove it.
I agree they will allow only module-level repair; but guess what? Only Apple itself goes to Component-Level repair...
Repairing Apple hardware, isn't magic or mysterious.
Just ask Louis Rossmann.
And did I say anything about "magic or mysterious". I simply said that, as design complexity (and use of proprietary components) goes up (and especially when product-size goes down), troubleshooting and repair at the component-level becomes less and less economically (and turnaround-time) practical from the POV of both the Customer and the Repair Shop.
Speaking of Mr. Rossman and that first CBC "expose": Not everything is as simple as a Display Cable. And, as a former Electronic Bench Tech myself, I simply r
Not as good as it sounds. (Score:1)
The consumers still cannot buy screens, batteries, replacement cameras, etc. They will not give the centers schematics or chips to do board level repairs. The best those centers can do is screen and battery replacements and send the old ones back or pay severe penalties. If you have water damage and need to replace a chip, good luck getting that repaired to get your data off. Best case with Apple Care is to have a swap out with a refurbished unit and all your data is gone.
If you can't beat them... (Score:2)
bill them.
Decoys (Score:3)
This is how Apple tells the repair community to go screw themselves: "hey, we sell parts because governments demand us to, so we devised this grand scheme of only selling the parts we want to whom we want, not report on any parts that we actually don't want people replacing, and make every single repair crazy expensive so the customer never knows if he purchased a battery or a new screen"
Re: (Score:2)
Great of you to start off with the offenses, gets your point across like freakin' space waste falling from the sky.
I never said they didn't supply a replaced parts list. I said they make simple repairs synthetically expensive and complicated to hamper consumer, and third party repair alike. And this is not just Apple, but Apple is especially shady in triggering motherboard or screen replacements for things that only require a new connector or a BIOS reflash/chip. And best of all, they protect this practice
Re: (Score:1)
I'll bet this is a PR move (Score:2)
And as soon as people stop worrying about right to repair, they yank the chain again and stop the program