phaZed
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Featuring Louis Rossman... Not that most of here didn't already know about this, but nice to see some public attention.
Genius Bar caught ripping customer off ON CAMERA by CBC News
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cypress
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Actually saw that this morning on Facebook. Not even shocked anymore.
NETWizz
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Seems like a setup. How did the pin get bent and he found it so fast? That isn't something where the laptop will work one day and suddenly stop working. Also, I would think he would charge something for bending the pin back... because "no good deed goes unpunished"
cypress
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I think they just edited the video pretty good to get to the point quickly. I know he said he would not charge but honestly I would charge minimum diagnostic fee. Because he ended up saying that the problem should last for the life of the laptop.
timeshifter
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Agreed. How does a pin like that get bent in normal operation???
Also... 30 people a day??? That's how many he said come in per day having been told some rip-off story by Apple. I don't have a storefront, but I find it hard to believe he has that kind of traffic. If he does someone needs to setup shop next door.
Plus, the guy's such a publicity whore.
Markverhyden
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Sigh..... Yet another misleading title being published. What the Apple employee did is quote the costs for performing the repair according to Apple's specifications. I've seen enough of their manuals, though not for that particular one, to know that Apple would require the logic board to be replaced if the indicators were triggered. Period. Then they could move onto other things. Blaming an employee for following their employers procedures is a double edged blade. Unlike 3rd party ASP's those Apple techs don't have the luxury of spouting or acting anything but the company line.
At any rate this was just another secret shopper event to push someone else's agenda. Really? Does anyone believe a TV station in Canada is going to not try a local tech shop before flying down to NYC? I remember back in the late 90's an area TV station decided to pull that stunt on a bunch of big box tech shops. It ended up backfiring because everyone found out that they had sabotaged the machines intentionally in a manner that was nigh impossible to identify.
As I've said before Apple's been doing this for literally decades. The only reason it makes the news is because these days they are the largest, most profitable company in the world.
At any rate this was just another secret shopper event to push someone else's agenda. Really? Does anyone believe a TV station in Canada is going to not try a local tech shop before flying down to NYC? I remember back in the late 90's an area TV station decided to pull that stunt on a bunch of big box tech shops. It ended up backfiring because everyone found out that they had sabotaged the machines intentionally in a manner that was nigh impossible to identify.
As I've said before Apple's been doing this for literally decades. The only reason it makes the news is because these days they are the largest, most profitable company in the world.
timeshifter
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It's highly probable that Rossman shopped this idea to different media outlets and one up in Canada took the bait.
I do remember a similar expose' over a decade ago where they snipped a line on an IDE cable.
NETWizz
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We can all agree the logic board recommendation is hogwash or bupkis. I would think they would do a tear-down and figure out what it needs vs recommend replacing every part in the unit. Usually a fault like that is one component... back light, screen, cable, ... something.
sapphirescales
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Large companies have been screwing people over and hiding behind "policies" forever. It doesn't make it right. Let me tell you a little story.
I own a Cadillac Escalade. One day the brakes blew out when I was stopping at an intersection. I was about 30 miles away from my repair guy, and I had broken down in the intersection of the Cadillac dealership so I pushed my car out of the intersection and into the dealership to get a repair estimate. The cost of towing my car 30+ miles was going to be hundreds of $$$'s and it couldn't be anything too serious so I figured that I'd pay the "stealership" prices just this once.
Well after 3 days I got a call from the "service manager" saying that my ENTIRE braking system needed to be replaced. All 4 rotors, calipers, pads, break lines, etc. The quote was over $5,500. I laughed in his face, called him a liar, and went to pick up my car. I wasn't about to be fooled like that. I had replaced two of the calipers less than 3 months ago and my guy told me that the other 2 were fine as was the rest of my brake system, but that my brake lines were getting rusty. He said that I should be fine for another year or so, but I had stopped suddenly because some idiot in front of me slammed on his brakes for no reason and it had blown one of the brake lines.
So I had it towed to my guy for about $250. His quote? $400 to patch the brake line or $900 to replace all the brake lines. I decided to replace all of them since I didn't want another problem and they were getting rusty too. The one thing I don't like about my car guy is that he tries to "save you money" even to your detriment. I should have just told him to replace the brake lines when he said that I had another year or so. Nowadays whenever he says that I have X amount of time on something, I just have him replace it. He's an old guy who grew up in the Great Depression so he tries to save money whenever possible. Me? I just want my sh*t to work.
After getting my car fixed, I called up the "Service Manager" at the Cadillac dealership. He just shrugged his shoulders and spewed a bunch of bullsh*t about how going through them is better because they're the dealership and that you can trust their work. He did refund my "diagnostic" that I paid them, but declined to comment further. So I did a little research and I found the name and contact information of the OWNER of the dealership and I called him up and talked to him, businessman to businessman. He apologized and begged me not to write a negative review. According to him, his hands were tied because he was following corporate policy. GM's policy when it comes to anything involving brakes is to just replace the ENTIRE brake system for "liability" reasons even if the other parts are absolutely fine.
So in the end, "company policy" dictated that the dealership had to LIE to me and tell me that sh*t was broken even when it wasn't. I learned my lesson. I don't care if I have to have my car towed 500 miles, I will NEVER go to a dealership again. Thieves, crooks, liars...those are the words I choose to describe that company. I don't care if it's "company policy" or not. I don't want to be LIED to and pay 5x more for a repair just so the company can cover its own a$$. If they want coverage, they should BUY it from an insurance company, not screw their customers. This "liability" excuse is just that - and excuse. The REAL reason why this policy exists is to fleece unsuspecting customers. I'm tempted to buy a brand new Escalade and have my guy damage one of the brake lines and see if this "company policy" extends to warranty work. Then if it doesn't I'll sue their a$$ off. F*ckers.
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sapphirescales
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You don't work on many Macbooks, do you? Apple is the cheapest, greediest company in the world. One of the ways that they save $0.01 on each Macbook is by making the display cable too freaking short. Over time the opening/closing of the lid causes the display cable to wiggle loose. I personally love it...charging people to plug a cable back in. But this is an excellent opportunity for unscrupulous techs (like apparently the ones working in the Apple store) to claim that the problem is really big and expensive to fix. Spend 5 minutes unbending the pin and viola! Charge the stupid Apple sheep $500+ for a "logic board replacement" or a "screen replacement."
We get in a lot of Macs from the local "Mac only" repair shop downtown when they say that they're going to cost crap-tons of money to fix. It's not uncommon for us to see this problem that the Mac repair place quoted $500+ to fix. That place has a LOT of negative reviews now thanks to us exposing their lies. Unfortunately one of my clients used our name in their negative review and the owner called me and threatened legal action against me, but now I just make sure to tell my clients not to mention my name when writing their negative reviews and there's nothing he can do about it (except, oh I don't know...stop RIPPING PEOPLE OFF perhaps?).
As for 10-30 people a day? That's a pretty easy number to hit if you're not in the middle of bumf*ck. In downtown NYC? That's actually pretty low. If you remember, the interviewer asked how many times people walked in with computers that Apple deemed "not worth fixing," NOT how many computers he did a day. I wouldn't be surprised if that number was actually closer to 60.
frase
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..or HDD cable Sapphire. Apple make products to wow not to last
sapphirescales
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YES! I can't tell you how many "logic board repairs" I've done by simply replacing a $30 cable. Of course I always try to get them to spring for a solid state drive while I'm at it and most people agree. You don't have to screw people to make money. All you have to do is offer exceptional value for their money. Most people would MUCH rather pay $500 for a cable replacement and an SSD upgrade than $500 for a "logic board repair" that they don't even need! I make the same $500 that the rip-off establishment makes. The only difference is I spend a bit more time with them and have to pay for a solid state drive and I'm able to give them an UPGRADE for the same price as the fake "fix" offered by the rip-off shop.
People here might give me flak for my prices, but I NEVER lie to my clients or rip them off. I offer them choices, give them the prices, and they either agree or disagree. NO ONE is getting ripped off so long as both parties agree to the scope of the work and the price.
I don't see what else Apple can be expected to do. They're trying to protect themselves and their employees from messy interactions with customers, and need to do that systematically. They don't want their employees to 'learn the hard way' of when to refuse a repair. Their whole setup is to prevent any surprises in the repair process, and their employees having to do any 'messing around.'
There is also a fair bit of risk in liquid damage repairs, so it makes sense they have policies for it. I personally have misquoted a liquid damage repair, which ending up being just a data transfer job. It's definitely easier to deal with that kind of thing up front, rather than sinking unrecoverable time into it and then having to deal with giving the customer bad news afterward.
However, I'm all for making sure we keep alternative options to the Apple store available, though you can't always guarantee better results there.
There is also a fair bit of risk in liquid damage repairs, so it makes sense they have policies for it. I personally have misquoted a liquid damage repair, which ending up being just a data transfer job. It's definitely easier to deal with that kind of thing up front, rather than sinking unrecoverable time into it and then having to deal with giving the customer bad news afterward.
However, I'm all for making sure we keep alternative options to the Apple store available, though you can't always guarantee better results there.
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sapphirescales
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You know how EASY it is to tell if there's liquid damage to a motherboard? The problem with the red indicators is that they turn red from heat and humidity. Apple needs to teach their techs how to spot water damage. It's not hard. But this isn't about doing the right thing for the customer. It's about screwing the customer over and trying to sell them another computer. Of course, they'll buy his 2 year old computer for $100, unbend the pin, and sell it themselves as "certified refurbished" for $100 less than a brand new one. Apple screws people right and left. They didn't become the richest company in the world by doing things right or ethically. They did it by screwing people.
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