Linus Tech Tips
1 HN recommender · recommended in 5 months, 2018–2020
7:49 · 11M views · Apr 17, 2018
Linus Tech Tips breaks an iMac Pro and then tries to pay Apple to repair it, only to be refused service. The video documents the frustrating runaround and what it says about Apple's repair policies for its professional machines.
HN commenters cite it as a concrete example of Apple's hostility to repair and weak support for 'pro' hardware, mostly in right-to-repair debates.
5 comments from Hacker News
You should check out Linus Sebastian's experience with his broken iMac Pro screen. He wanted to pay for the repairs, and Apple refused. He then tried to buy the parts separately, and apparently if you got them from Apple, it would cost more than the computer was worth. He eventually managed to source the parts through various people at a reasonable cost and repair his broken iMac with Louis Rossman. Here are some of the videos (I'm sure I missed a couple, but it's a very interesting series of videos) this video [LINK] [LINK]
> I'm an Apple fan because I don't need to repair the device Given that Apple has no data recovery service for any of their products (even if you tell them that you'll give them a limitless pile of cash) and that they solder storage into most of their devices (that is paired to the CPU -- so you cannot remove the flash chip and put it onto a working board to recover data), this is a very bold claim. Maybe you don't need your phone to be repaired when it is water damaged and you can no longer get photos of your children (that you should've backed up, but didn't). Maybe you want to pay US$300 to replace an out-of-warranty phone when the only thing wrong with it is that a headphone jack got stuck inside the port[1]. Maybe you don't want to pay more than the device is worth to fix a brand-new device[2]. Apple devices aren't just hard to repair, Apple as a company is anti-repair -- and defending this practice is not a reasonable position to hold. I understand arguing that Apple products are easier to use, or that they are more consumer-friendly, or that consumers shouldn't have full control over their devices because they'll probably brick them, and so on. But arguing that them being irreparable is a good thing is not justifiable (even if you don't need your device repaired, someone else will, and out-right ignoring that is misinformed). [1]: [LINK] [2]: this video
Oh boy, do you know that device manufacturers are actually refusing to repair plenty of devices - I am not talking about warranty shenanigans, but refusing to repair for any money at all: this video I have taken my A50 to Samsung, and they are not fixing it no matter how much I pay them. On my Withings smartwatch the glass cracked, and was considered under warranty. They explicitly told me it is unrepairable, and replaced the watch with a new one! How the F k are they unable to replace glass on a watch? Just about everything has already became either unrepairable, or uneconomic to repair, from fridges to TVs to phones to smartwatches. The are a few exception like vehicles or large equipment, but the events so far indicate that people will buy unrepairable equipment because they have already done so in many industries. Consumers generally have no way to know how repairable something is, especially for a new product. Lastly, a device does not have to be completely unrepairable - it could require absurdly specialised and expensive equipment, that only the OEM will ever afford, so you will be back at the monopoly problem.
No, it does not happen with the iPhone or most other Apple products. They are incredibly hostile to 3rd party repairers. Apple is notoriously draconian about ensuring that 3rd parties are blocked from accessing schematics and repair manuals. I'm talking, they threaten lawsuits to anyone publishing schematics, and there is no legal way to obtain those schematics unless you're an Apple authorized repairer - in which case you'll never need them because your job is just to replace entire logic boards after minimal diagnostics. This creates enormous waste and costs a lot more than an actual repair would. In some cases they don't even do that and just tell the user tough shit, get a new device. this video
What kind of pro computer doesn't come with top notch support? "Apple REFUSED to fix our iMac pro" this video "The Apple Store Genius Bar broke my $5000 iMac pro" [LINK]