[traceroute66]

> Something interesting is that it seems that you are paying a "deposit" on replacement batteries, which is refunded when you return your old battery.

And your problem with this is what, exactly ?

If you are genuinely repairing something then we're only talking a small window when you will be out of pocket (the time between receiving the part, replacing old one, sending old one back).

Apple do the same thing with iPhone exchanges under Apple Care. They'll send you out a brand new iPhone in advance (to allow you to transfer data etc. as required), but they'll take a deposit. If you don't send your broken iPhone back, they'll keep the deposit. Seems perfectly fair to me.

AFAIK in one way or another, the practice is widespread in the IT industry. For example, I recently replaced a Dell monitor on warranty. They didn't take payment up-front, but they certainly made it clear to me in no uncertain terms that I would be charged if I failed to return the monitor.

In terms of Apple specifically, its basically the way they work with their Authorised Service Providers. If the AASP fails to return parts, then the cost is billed to their company's account with Apple.

The reality is that in the world we live in, these sorts of parts/repair services are subject to fraud and other malicious use. So manufacturers (whether Apple or otherwise) are perfectly entitled to protect themselves.

[Nextgrid]

The potential problem is that unlike your monitor or a replacement iPhone where the original still has some value, a used up battery has near-zero value and probably less than it costs to ship it back in an individual box (as opposed to dropping it off at a recycling box at your nearest supermarket). This is clearly a bad-faith effort to make stocking up on parts impossible and make the entire process more inconvenient than it needs to be.

[traceroute66]

> a used up battery has near-zero value and probably less than it costs to ship it back in an individual box

That's if you look at it on an individual quantity. In volume quantity there may be other considerations at play.

> This is clearly a bad-faith effort to make stocking up on parts impossible and make the entire process more inconvenient than it needs to be.

Give me a break !

For a start, this isn't a "parts stocking" programme, it is a self-repair programe. You obtain relevant parts on a Just-In-Time basis. Jeez !

If you want to stock parts, go become an Apple Authorised Service Provider. You even get a credit account so you don't have to pony up the cash up-front.

[Nextgrid]

> this isn't a "parts stocking" programme, it is a self-repair programe

Why can't it be both? Most existing "self-repair" programmes (before such things had to have a specific name instead of just "buying parts") such as the ones for cars work just fine on the model of "show up at the dealership, give them a part number & payment card and walk out with your new part". They don't care if you're buying these parts to repair your car now or keep it for later and managed to stay in business for decades just fine.

> You obtain relevant parts on a Just-In-Time basis.

One major advantage of a self-repair programme (as opposed to just doing the repair at Apple or an AASP directly) is that you can work around some of the logistics and make the operation quicker/more efficient.

If you are particularly careless and smash your phone frequently (or your friends do, like in my case) you can keep spares of commonly-broken parts in advance so that the actual repair process is really quick and only involves a couple hours or downtime.

Having to order parts in advance and having to return the old part in a specific timeframe means you need to schedule the entire thing and plan around the logistics of it and it can no longer be a "I have a couple hours to kill tonight, let's make my phone new again" thing, at which point you get back most of the inconveniences of doing an official repair such as scheduling it, waiting for shipping, etc. I suspect this might be the point of these restrictions.

> If you want to stock parts, go become an Apple Authorised Service Provider.

Can I become an AASP if I do one repair a month? If so sign me up!

[stetrain]

I don’t see where it says they have a problem with it, they just called it out as interesting.