The time has come for Apple to pay for the infamous Error 53 that bricked iPhones and iPads taken to a third party for repairs.
The Federal Court of Australia announced Monday its order for Apple to pay AU$9 million (around US $6.8 million converted) for telling customers who encountered the error they weren't entitled to a refund.
The error was first reported in 2016. If you fixed a cracked screen or a failing Touch ID-enabled home button through a third party not licensed by Apple, "security checks" would render your iPhone or iPad unusable, showing only the message "Error 53".
Apple explained the message as a security measure to protect the iPhone's fingerprint sensor from exploitation. It released an iOS 9.2.1 update later that February to restore bricked devices, but reports showed it did not re-enable Touch ID and customers complained they still lost photos, documents and apps.
In April 2017, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) commenced a legal battle with Apple in the Federal Court of Australia. It said Apple violated customers' rights under Australian Consumer Law to repairs for devices bricked by Error 53.
Then, in June 2017, the ACCC conducted an undercover operation involving 13 calls with Apple retailers in Australia, in which Apple representatives allegedly said Apple did not have responsibility to remedy faulty iPhones repaired by an unauthorised third party.
Apple has since admitted that from February 2015 to February 2016, its US website and Apple staff in Australian stores and on customer service phone calls said to 275 Australian customers affected by Error 53 it wasn't responsible for a remedy.
But according to Australian Consumer Law, that's not on.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 21 2018, @05:57AM (9 children)
I think it is pretty horrible that a consumer device that locks out 3rd-party software (via any means: crypto, lack of documentation, etc.) or enforces DRM can be sold.
Given that we allow that though, it sure seems that restricting the hardware is a legitimate thing for the vendor to do. Keeping things secure requires controlling the hardware.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 21 2018, @06:03AM (1 child)
Keeping the things secure does not necessary mean that the device needs to be bricked in all cases.
And in any case, under the Australian law, misrepresenting their responsibility is illegal. As it is refusing to comply with the consumer protection laws of the place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 21 2018, @08:15AM
Slam! A loud sound was heard. A man could be seen standing in front of a desk and speaking to two other men. The man, visibly frustrated, had slammed the desk. The other two men looked similarly nervious. What had happened here? The deadline was approaching.
Implementing the planned features before the deadline arrived would be nearly impossible. Yes, the men were software developers, and they had been driven into a corner by their clueless boss. Thus, they were discussing ways of quickly resolving the situation amongst themselves; so far, this had been futile. Suddenly, one of the men perked up, as though he had thought of a brilliant idea. The man motioned the other men to come closer and whispered his plan to them. Once the other two men heard the idea, their frustration vanished and confidence took its place. It was now or never...
Slam! Slam! Slam! A man could be seen slamming his fists down onto a woman's defenseless face whilst violating her. But that wasn't all; two other men were nearby, each with their own toys. One man was strangling a little boy while brutally violating his anus. The final man was smashing a little girl's bones using a hammer; he had already finished utilizing her, so her continued existence was no longer a concern. The three men - who referred to themselves as 'The Tribunal' - meticulously carried out their assigned tasks until silence befell the office. After that, they cheered and congratulated one another, and then left the office to celebrate a job well done.
A job well done indeed. Those three men would later be known all throughout the software development world as geniuses who had revolutionized Computer Science. As for the woman and children, well, their rotting corpses were discarded into a dumpster like the worthless trash they were. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
(Score: 3, Informative) by arslan on Thursday June 21 2018, @07:25AM (1 child)
That is not mutually exclusive to consumer protection laws - as shown, consumer rights trumps that when there is conflict. Some sanity, in the insanity of DRM. A good day for Oz consumers.
(Score: 1) by evilcam on Friday June 22 2018, @02:31AM
+1
Australian consumer law, whilst not perfect, is a damn sight better than other parts of the world.
"No Refunds" is all but illegal here, and that's a good thing.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday June 21 2018, @07:55AM (4 children)
WE don't. The people who buy legislation do. That sort of bovine excrement is something that needs to change. Right now.
Not after taking someone's money for it - it no longer belongs to the vendor.
Saying "you got it repaired by someone else so warranty is no longer our problem" wouldn't have raised any eybrows. Saying "you got it repaired by someone else so we broke your working phone and fixing it is not our problem" is what got them into trouble.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 21 2018, @08:12AM (1 child)
See also the choice of repairer [paintandpanel.com.au]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday June 21 2018, @10:20AM
Thanks, I must have been asleep while it was happening. Hopefully, before too much longer, my "wouldn't have raised any eybrows" comment will be wrong.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Thursday June 21 2018, @10:49AM (1 child)
Damn right. We should have the right to fix our own tractors and cars, use whatever 3rd party ink vendor we like for ink jet printers, buy generic drugs, and of course, control our own smart phones. Remember when Keurig tried DRM on coffee?
Those industries that run propaganda campaigns to terrorize the public, stuff like Big Pharma hinting that Canadian drugs might not be safe, and printer manufacturers saying that off brand ink might damage your printer, ought to be sued massively for slander and libel and perhaps racketeering as well.
I've also encountered the fake warranty. One scurvy trick is saying that the warranty coves only parts, not labor. Another is that repairs must be done at approved shops that of course charge much more money for labor. The warranty is so bad it's cheaper to just buy another than try to use the warranty. Might as well not be covered. LG pulled that one on me. What I actually did was buy the parts and replace them myself. It was by far the least costly option though it did cost me a Saturday morning of my time.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Friday June 22 2018, @12:54AM
If it costs more to repair an item in warranty than replace it, the ACCC will rip that company a new one. Typically this results in the consumer being given a new replacement free of charge.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 21 2018, @05:58AM (13 children)
What amazes me is that companies demonstrate this kind of stuff, and we still will pay a premium price for it.
Far as I am concerned, I'll take a generic plain old open phone any day.
I am so fed up with all that businesstalk and customer lock-in crap.
I guess a lot of people just want to signal "I have money to burn - see this?" kind of mentality.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 21 2018, @06:12AM (8 children)
Buying an iPhone vs android is far less at a premium comparing a BMW to a Kia, and it is arguably a better phone, even with the consumer unfriendly lockouts.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Thursday June 21 2018, @06:35AM (7 children)
Arguably a better phone?
Than what? "An Android" as you so tellingly put it could be anything from a $180 basic kids phone to 750 dollar flagship.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday June 21 2018, @07:40AM (5 children)
Well, he did say *arguably*, and I would ( of course ) argue!
I paid right at $80 for my BLU LIFE XL phone at Best Buy, and so far, I have few complaints, and the ones I do have I seriously think would apply no matter which phone I got.
Dual SIM, GPS, eight-core processor, 4G, 13MP camera, 5.5" display, removeable battery, unlocked raw phone I now have on TING. I bought a 32Gb TF card for it, so I have plenty of room for maps and use as a portable data carrier using it as a FTP server to move stuff between the phone and my other machines. Seems what I did not get was the compass, but the GPS app will tell me my direction if I move a few hundred feet.
I have grown quite fond of this little thing.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Thursday June 21 2018, @10:11AM (4 children)
I got a BLU Life One X (2016 version) in a hurry when my previous phone died, and I'm plenty unhappy with it. Yeah, it uses SIMs, that part is good. But, it does not have a replaceable battery. It now spams me with ads. Didn't do that before I accepted their upgrade from Android 5 to 6. Android 6 is supposed to have this visual voicemail, and for a short while it did before that capability was somehow removed. I don't even know who or how that was done, was it BLU or the phone service provider (in this case, Ting, same as you), or maybe even Android? Or is it a virus, or just a bug?
If we could trust the vendors, I wouldn't be wondering if it was them who removed that feature. I could focus on it being malware or a bug. Just more documentation would be a big help. A list of apps and their versions and purposes that came with the update would be very helpful, but then that might help us figure out which apps are crapware. There are also several anti-features. I refuse to use cellular Internet, and they of course have programmed the phone to make life harder for those who do that. They even dare to intimate that I'm a cheapskate for not wanting to pay just a little more each month. The only texts I can receive are the base 140 or less characters. The system will not download attachments to text messages over WiFi, it will only do that over cellular data. I've also limited my monthly cellular data to 0 bytes, and turned on this block of background data to stop all involuntary use of cellular data by all these apps that want to spy on what I'm doing. But Android 6 has a design feature to make it too easy to accidentally unblock background data. It keeps a message on the screen that says all you have to do to stop blocking background data is just touch it. The user can't remove that message. Way, way too easy to touch it by accident, as I'm sure the jerks who designed the interface understand.
But we all know the pricing for text messaging is a gigantic scam. Texting takes like 1% of the data that a voice call takes, but telecoms all charge about the same for voice and text.
I absolutely refuse to sign up for a Play Store account, so long as that's not possible without giving out a credit card number. That severely limits the ability to install apps of my choosing. Often can't even install "free" apps. Yeah, free, after you put a credit card number on file. I've tried to fake them out with a fake credit card number-- there are websites that will generate valid but unused credit card numbers. But they insist on verifying it, so that doesn't work. I suppose I could go to the trouble of getting some prepaid credit card, but I haven't. Main way I've been able to put apps of my choosing on the phone is via sideloading.
I'm thinking of going nuclear on the damn phone. Wipe it out, risk bricking it, to install a freer OS like CyanogenMod. So far, haven't found any that support the hardware I have. Perhaps I have to change phones. If I do, my new phone sure as hell will not be a BLU.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 21 2018, @10:29AM
Put a fire wall on it and block the ad s
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday June 21 2018, @12:39PM (2 children)
Thanks for the warnings! I am still on Android 5.1. BLU has been pestering me to "upgrade", but I have not complied so far, due to bad experiences with Windows Updates.
Do not visit the "play store" for apps... I have been using Aptoide.com. There are several more "not the Play Store" apk sites out there. Yes, there is a risk, but I found just as bad a risk getting buggy stuff from "the big guy approves this vendor" stores. I get the idea they are just a flock of suit-wearing hand-shakers "working together" to "lock-in" their customers into compulsory business methods now that they have got their buddies in Congress to pass all that copyright and illegal to reverse-engineer statutes for them.
I was getting nailed with really time-consuming ads on the browsers BLU had as stock. I found the "Brave" browser from Aptoide nailed most of the obtrusive ones.
There is one app on the BLU phone which I consider quite dangerous and I have it force stopped... its called "FotaProvider" under the APPS tab. Maybe you can "uninstall" the "updates" it did? Mine has a button for that, but, they may take a cue from Microsoft and the update remove that functionality.
I just hate it when businessmen do things like this, then run off to Congressmen to have law passed to keep us from doing anything about it. Congressmen pass their wish lists, now forcing us to either break their wishlist statutes, or tolerate this crap, then these same Congressmen show up at election time with that rubber grin on their face, hands outstretched for a shake, all chiming in "I'll Fight for You!". Bah! Humbug!
Maybe you look over FotaProvider ( Firmware Over-The-Air Provider ) and see what you make of it? Looks like bad news to me.
I get so frustrated at all of my fellow Americans who just lie back and take this crap. What is it gonna take to make them nail their Congresscritter, and put him into office on the condition he takes action to either hold people ( not a company, mind you, I mean the individual who gave orders to do this - of the same ratio of their income as the DMCA penalty is to the income of the average American. ) accountable for this kind of crap, or delete the laws that they use to do things like this. That is, make it perfectly legal to fix malfunctioning software, just as its perfectly legal to fix a malfunctioning toilet, and show other people how its done.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday June 21 2018, @04:37PM (1 child)
I didn't have FotaProvider until an automatic update installed it. Here's a link to a list of what I had 2 months ago: https://forums.androidcentral.com/android-6-0-marshmallow/874289-android-tools-3-1-2-312-spamming-me.html#post6196842 [androidcentral.com]
Now the phone has a lot more apps I never asked for, and one of them is indeed FotaProvider, version 5.1.5, and it's a system app, can't uninstall it. The app that seems most responsible for the spam is the innocuously named Android Tools 3.1.2.312, also an uninstallable system app. It's possible Android Tools is malware, as I did try several times to root the phone and may have merely installed malware instead. If only there was an official list of software from BLU, I could check if they list Android Tools....
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday June 22 2018, @08:44AM
Damm... just read your link... that kind of crap is maddening.
That kind of crap is exactly what is driving me into luddite-like behaviour.
I have no idea if the instructions I read on how to root my phone are correct, or just a ruse to get me to install yet more malware. I guess I will continue to use my phone, but when it gets too bad, I will try to root it and see if I can recover use of its hardware.
Seems such a waste to have to go through all this crap to get usable hardware. And knowing its my own elected representatives which are passing all this law which foments all this shit for me.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 21 2018, @03:05PM
Stop by Wal-mart, or whatever, one day soon. You can get feature phones for less than a hundred bucks now, that run Android. Total POS, of course. It won't acknowledge your microSD card, for instance. It's kinda like a pony. The guy you bought the pony from cut ligaments in the animal's legs, so that he can't do more than hobble. But, it is Android.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday June 21 2018, @12:06PM (3 children)
I guess a lot of people just want to signal "I have money to burn - see this?" kind of mentality.
An iphone is cheaper than a comparable android
I trust apple with my personal data far more than google
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 21 2018, @10:34PM (1 child)
Haven't been out shopping, have you? Android phones range from $75 to $1000. They all make and take phone calls, do web browsing, manage a contact list and calendar, etc., etc. An iphone costs more than most of them but I don't see major differences in functions or features.
That's just funny. Or sad, not sure which. Personally, I trust Evil Corp. because they said they love me in their advertisements.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Friday June 22 2018, @12:58AM
Apple have demonstrated pro-privacy positions multiple times in the past. Australian banks tried to resist Apple Pay for ages because it didn't have the ability to share spending profiles/habits with the banks.
Google have demonstrated anti-privacy positions multiple times in the past.
I'm not saying that Apple is angelic - I am saying that I trust them with my personal data far more than I trust google with the same.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @12:08AM
It's the other way around. A comprable iPhone is almost always more expensive than a given Android. Usually much more expensive, unless you're looking at the "halo" phones at the very top end.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 21 2018, @10:31AM
Louis Rossmann, a well respected independent Mac repair guy, made a video about the AU case. It's worth watching...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDYeby1Vanw [youtube.com]