[dylan604]

But Apple could take it to an 11 too. If they finance your equipment and you fall behind on your payments, guess whose equipment just went into lock-out mode... Apple could then allow the device to be returned to an Apple Store, and credit will be applied to the account. A voluntary return policy, only throw in a carrot of if you provide a memory stick, they'll make you a copy of the data for a small nominal fee.

[NicoJuicy]

That will most definitely destroy the brand

[dylan604]

Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Honda, et al. repo cars daily, and their brands are not hurting. People know when they can't make payments that their collateral is likely to be collected.

I'm not saying I'm for them doing this or anything, but just taking the dystopian concept to a logical completion. We've already seen where self driving cars have been discussed repossessing themselves, so this is just the natural extension of the same concept. This forum tends to think that places like FB, Googs, etc should have a very negative brand due to the data collections, but the masses don't give a damn.

[jncfhnb]

Those are typically dealers

[dylan604]

Those are typically finance companies, so dealers are no where near repossession. Each of the big auto makers all have their own financing companies, so it very much is the manufactures.

[vba616]

I believe that remotely disabling your car if you don't pay has been an established practice among "buy here pay here" dealers for many years. It's an "innovative" way to lend to people who have bad or no credit.

On the other hand, I've never heard of it spreading outside that market segment.

It would be news to me if the major manufacturers finance arms have the capability and are keeping it on the down low.