[jld89]

Apple quoted me 900 EUR to repair a motherboard problem (replace the whole damn thing). On a 3K EUR macbook pro.

I went to a third party, 250 EUR, they just repaired the motherboard, works like a charm, and did it in 1 day. It's been 2 years. Fuck apple.

[oneplane]

That's great (for you), but there's no telling what "works like a charm" actually means, and no real way to tell if the specs as-advertised still match the specs-post-repair. This is also why Apple doesn't bother with board level repairs on an individual basis.

For some people, that measure or metric doesn't matter, and that's fine, but it by no means is a universal "see this is better" approach. And I say this as someone who does board level repairs. On iPhones. (and that mostly came about because people tried to replace the screens on their phones with the power on, blowing the backlight circuit)

Doing something as a one-off is nothing compared to doing something world-scale.

[CharlesW]

If there are 3rd parties who do inexpensive fixes quickly, what is the problem?

[josephcsible]

That Apple goes out of their way to make it harder for those third parties to do that.

[threeseed]

But they don't though.

They go after third parties who are using counterfeit or non-OEM parts.

[foldr]

Apple can't realistically do board level repairs because they can't guarantee that a board level repair will bring the device back to its original level of reliable functionality. When you mess around with soldering and desoldering individual components, you can't guarantee the end result in the same way that you can when it's the outcome of a reliable and repeatable manufacturing process. For example, rework with a hot air station might imperceptibly weaken a solder joint somewhere else on the board, which will then fail 6 months later.

[krnlpnc]

Would it be better for them to sell you a surface mount electrical component and let you figure out how to solder it yourself?

[a2128]

Yes. Repair shops have been advocating for a long time for companies like Apple to allow repair shops to obtain certain parts and ICs which are otherwise unobtainable due to exclusivity deals with chip fabs, as well as to provide repair schematics. When companies go out of their way to make both impossible to obtain, it becomes very difficult for independent repair shops to do their work.

[halostatue]

Apple has programs for repair shops.

This program, like the iPhone program, is not that program. This is for adventurous people who want to do the repair themselves because they don’t value their own time highly enough.

One can complain about how Apple deals with repair shops. One can complain about how Apple deals with self-service repair. One should not confuse the two situations as if they were in any way equivalent.

[fmntf]

It's repair versus buy. If you cut the power cord of your dishwasher, you can buy a new dishwasher from Bosch for 900€, or ask a 3rd party to repair it for 25€. I don't see any "fuck Bosch" logic here.

[rmbyrro]

It would be "fuck Bosch" if they were charging 125€ for the otherwise 25€ fix.