Genius Bar caught ripping customer off ON CAMERA by CBC News
Why Hacker News recommends it
Used repeatedly in right-to-repair threads as a concrete example of Apple overcharging for repairs that independent shops fix cheaply.
What it is
Louis Rossmann reacts to a CBC News segment in which an Apple Genius Bar quoted a costly logic board and display replacement for a MacBook that had only a bent pin. He explains why the repair is simple and what the case shows about Apple's repair practices.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2018 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends andrei_says_ · 2021-06 · on “New York Senate passes Right to Repair bill”
Watch some of his videos. He has a lot of insight about the subpar quality of Apple devices, about the outrageous lies of Apple Genius Bar quoting people thousands of dollars for repairs that take him 5-10 minutes, for apple’s efforts to make the devices non serviceable, withholding schematics, controlling access to replacement parts etc. Here’s a televised CBS report. [this video] He is extremely good at repair while despising the company’s despicable practices - and warns people about them.
Cites Fricken · 2018-10 · on “Apple Said to Have 'Dramatically Reduced' iPhone Repair Fraud in China”
On Sunday CBC's The National aired an episode exposing Apple attempting to charge a customer $1k for a 2 minute repair: [this video]
Cites mistersquid · 2018-10 · on “Apple Said to Have 'Dramatically Reduced' iPhone Repair Fraud in China”
The diagnosis of the first repair case is a Macbook Pro that has had liquid spilled in its internals. [0] From a business and service perspective, Apple repair must first fix the liquid damage that may be causing the dim screen. Replacing the screen without first fixing the liquid damage may simply reproduce the issue and/or damage a new screen. The customer balks at the quoted price asks the Apple Genius Bar rep if there are other options. The Genius Bar rep hesitates and informs the customer there are no other options under Apple repair. Of course there are other options outside of Apple authorized repair, but it is likely against Apple policy to recommend an alternative (i.e. assuming ind
Critical rasz · 2018-10 · on “Apple Said to Have 'Dramatically Reduced' iPhone Repair Fraud in China”
Thats a nice PR piece pushing criminal fraud narrative, forgetting to mention Apple is at war with people providing 3rd party repair service. The goal? remove alternatives, _any_ small defect = 'genius' telling you to buy new $1-2K device. [this video]
Critical dis-sys · 2018-10 · on “Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms”
I watched the following video last week and I was shocked. APPLE charges its customer up to almost $2k ($1200 for the motherboard and $780 for the screen) to repair something a small laptop repair shop did for free. What is more shocking is the fact that dozens of such cases happen everyday in that small laptop repair shop. [this video]
Critical prolikewh0a · 2018-11 · on “Apple iPhone Supplier Foxconn Planning Deep Cost Cuts”
Not sure why you're being downvoted for something that is very possibly going to happen. People hate hearing crony capitalist reality on HN and trust too much in large corporations that are solely there for profit to shareholders and will do so at any cost. Look at the dongle nonsense Apple has pulled on customers for profit. Look at their genius bar overcharing and lying to people about their broken devices (see: Louis Rossman [this video] ).
Critical bborud · 2019-06 · on “Slack Is Going Public at a $16B Valuation”
I don't know much about the X since I stopped at the iPhone 7 and I am probably not going to buy any of their exorbitantly priced phones. That being said, in their pursuit of thin phones they ran into design issues with boards flexing so that BGA components will eventually fail. They became aware of the problem and then proceeded to make the same mistake again in later models rarther than fixing the problem. (The flexing problem isn't that they will break after one "bending event", but rather than they fail over time as your phone is subject to mechanical stresses of what is within the range of normal use. Typically because the tiny balls under BGAs will let go) I'm mostly talking about thei
Critical ChuckNorris89 · 2019-08 · on “Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair”
Apple doesn't want their customers to get f'd over you say? You might want to check out Luis Rosmann's videos, a famous Apple repair geek who fixes for cheap the products Apple themselves misdiagnose[1] in order to rip off their customers[2]. [1] [LINK] // teenager's MacBook's display is not working correctly so Geniuses tell him he needs a new motherboard replacement while Luis discovers in 2 seconds that the lid-close sensor cable is broken so he replaces it for $8 [2] [this video] // customer's MacBook's display is not working correctly so Geniuses tell him he needs a new motherboard and display replacement while Luis discovers in two minutes that the display connector has a bent pin and fixes