[fareesh]

In countries like India we don't really have too many consumer protections. Apple tends to operate similar to a criminal enterprise - they sell defective products / products which become defective after barely any use.

I bought the 2015 Macbook Pro which developed the "staingate" issue. In first world countries, I hear that Apple replaced the screens for customers for free (I'm not sure if this is true or whether it's astroturfing). There is no such system here. Both speakers in this Macbook developed tearing and are no longer audible. Other laptops - Samsung, Lenovo, etc. in my household have worked perfectly. One laptop developed an issue with the keyboard, which was replaced for $50.

I received Airpods as a gift this year in February. One earphone stopped working within 8 months. Apple told me they weren't going to do anything about it. I must have used them about 20 times total. I also own knock-off Airpods. They work perfectly.

I follow Louis Rossman's YouTube channel where he opens up the devices and showcases the various corners that have been cut in the manufacturing process. He also exposes the unethical behaviour of the Apple "Genius" employees who overcharge customers for simple repairs. In one case he just plugged a loose connection back in and charged the customer for 20 minutes of labour whereas Apple said it would require a screen replacement for roughly ~30% of the cost of the device.

Repairability is becoming near impossible with these products now. At one point in time you could salvage together parts from dead devices to gather spares, but now Apple is working on technology to ensure that parts from different devices will not be compatible with each other.

Without legislation they will continue to operate like this with impunity. If enough key markets push for something like "right to repair" there is a small possibility that something will be done about this, otherwise the way things are headed, there will essentially be no accountability for cases like this.

I would not be surprised if there will come a point where they make devices stop working if you open them, and only they can restore the device back to a working state.

[m463]

That's a good reminder of the consumer protections in the US.

The first couple times I ventured out of the US, I was struck by the differences in environment for some companies.

For example in Mexico, I was struck by plentiful advertising for cigarettes and hard alcohol. Strangely, Coca Cola advertisements on the TV always had a legal disclaimer, something like "always with food" (I recall poorly).

[nicoburns]

The strangest one for me was billboard adverts for politicians. Those are banned here in the UK.

[jhickok]

Thank you for this perspective-- oftentimes I don't think of how these verticalized monolith companies operate outside of NA/EU.

[fareesh]

It's made worse by the fact that we pay more for the same devices because of import duties, and much more in terms of relative pay scales which are typically lower.

An average junior software developer here is making $10,000 a year. Hypothetically if they bought a new M1 Macbook Pro they'd spend $1,700 for the cheapest model (compared to around $1,500).

If there is a manufacturing issue that shows up after a year, they're down ~17% of their annual salary for a defective product.

[krtkush]

While I agree with your general sentiment, your particular statement about Apple services in India wrt staingate is incorrect. I got the same problem with my 2015 MBP screen and got it replaced for "free" (had to pay Rs. 2500 service charges) in Mumbai. My speakers got busted[1] too after 4 years but so did my previous laptop's (Dell XPS 13 - 2011). While neither is acceptable, my point is that it is not unique to Apple.

However, I agree that Apple services are crap in India where they'll charge you Rs.2500 for even telling you what is wrong with your laptop and then maybe ask you to get the motherboard replaced for a minor repairable problem.

[1] It is fairly easy to repair them by using rubber cement but don't expect the original audio quality.

[irab]

Wait, if you go to an authorized Apple service provider, they HAVE to provide you a with a free screen replacement as long as the device is it's within 4 years of purchase date. Either that or your the screen problem wasn't actually caused by staingate or maybe your device was not eligible for that particular service. It's obviously possible that the person there maybe didn't know about it (he's supposed to though)? In that case you could just go to a different service center.

[fareesh]

Regarding Staingate - I checked with a few of them and they said they didn't know anything about it. I got puzzled expressions when I mentioned it.

Furthermore, one of them knew about it and quietly advised me not to do it because it is an extremely harsh and clumsy with scraping of glue and other such steps involved, some of which may inadvertently cause other damage, and so they recommended I just deal with it and upgrade eventually but they were happy to attempt it.

So my choices were to either live with the stains or risk the replacement based on what I was told. I use it with the stains till this day.

[irab]

Yeah you got some really terrible service, I live in India too and they just replaced my screen assembly (not just the panel).

Same experience with butterfly keyboard servicing on my current MBP. Obviously these flaws shouldn't exist in the first place but they treated me well.