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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday November 23 2019, @06:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the make-it-right-the-first-time dept.

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956_

Right to repair advocates have described Apple's recent claim to lose money on repairs as 'absurd' and 'misleading.'

Apple made the claim to a Congressional judiciary committee investigating, among other things, whether Apple's locked-down approach to device repairs is anti-competitive...

Apple has always insisted that its control of the repair process is for reasons of safety and reliability. Others have, however, argued that Apple is deliberately preventing customers from obtaining lower-cost repairs from independent shops in order to force them to use Apple Stores.

Source: https://9to5mac.com/2019/11/21/lose-money-on-repairs/


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Nuke on Saturday November 23 2019, @07:55PM (2 children)

    by Nuke (3162) on Saturday November 23 2019, @07:55PM (#923933)

    The main purpose of the Apple repair front desk (the "Genius Bar") is to hum and har over a customer's broken iThing and then quote a crazy high price to repair it. They then say that a new one would be cheaper, or even if not that a new one would be a better spend in the long run. It would not matter if the repair operation lost money if considered in isolation because in reality they are part of the sales team to sell new stuff and make money for the company as a whole.

    Nevertheless, I suspect that even if only a few customers take up their exobitantly priced repair offers, they would make some eye-watering profits anyway, unless their workshops' incompetence is monumental.

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  • (Score: 2) by dry on Monday November 25 2019, @02:43AM (1 child)

    by dry (223) on Monday November 25 2019, @02:43AM (#924370) Journal

    You're forgetting about the licensing costs of running that repair centre. Every repair sees a large license fee paid to some company in the Cayman Isles which has to pay some company in Ireland etc. So that $500 repair at the Apple Repair Center breaks down to $10 for parts, $50 for labour and $490 paid for being able to use the Apple name. Then there's rent etc. So yes the Apple Repair Center loses so much money that they pay negative tax and Apple has to supplement their income.

    • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday November 25 2019, @01:50PM

      by Nuke (3162) on Monday November 25 2019, @01:50PM (#924501)

      As I said, Apple strive not to do repairs and the Genius Bar's main function is to persuade customers to buy new stuff instead of a repair. You can say the Genius Bar and the necessary minimal workshops behind it are losing money, but because they are in reality mainly a sales force, they only "lose" money like any salesman "loses" money in that his salary is a debit on the books.