Considering Apple has been making old hardware even more performant, that doesn't seem to be their goal at all.

I brought my out-of-warranty iPhone to the store last week because its battery was swelling, and they couldn't replace the battery due to employee safety issues. So they simply gave me a brand-new identical phone for the $29 battery replacement price.

In my experience, Apple goes further out of their way to give customers low-cost or even free replacements in far more cases than I've ever seen any other company do.

Not always.

I took a 14 month old iPhone 7 into the store which wouldn't charge or communicate via the lightning port. In the engineer's words it was "in perfect condition".

They couldn't repair it, wouldn't do anything because I didn't have apple care and the only way to get around it was a new device.

Nice paperweight though

14 month falls under a reasonable warranty period, so you could've claimed that. In the EU at least you'd have a very good case and they wouldn't cause trouble.

It could've been something trivial though, lint tends to pile up in the back of the lightning port, eventually causing the problem you described. Poking the back of the port with a needle or something often helps.

I'm pursuing the retailer/credit card company under the consumer rights and consumer credit act in the UK but they're requesting an engineer's report stating this is a manufacturing fault which is very difficult to get.

Tried cleaning it, there's no dirt or anything in there

So you're in the EU, and Apple isn't helping you, nor is the EU bothering to enforce it's own laws.

I must say, I'm still wondering why Apple gets a pass on the "usb charging for all phones" laws.

Couldn't you demonstrate right there that the Lightning port wouldn't charge the iPhone? Seems like a pretty simple way to refute the technician's claim.

Sorry badly worded on my part - he meant in perfect condition apart from the fault (ie: we hadn't drowned it or dropped the phone to cause any issue) but couldn't do anything

To clarify, he said that he couldn't repair the iPhone (with you paying for it)?

yes, even if I paid for it. Only solution is to replace the device.

I've found it's highly variable depending on the person you get. I've had some people that are really great and just help me replace it or figure out options. I've had other people force me to reinstall the OS even though the issue is clearly hardware and then come back in a week showing the same problem.

The subsidized battery replacement program is intended to offset the significant civil liability they have from making these phones poorly in the first place. This is not charity or even a long term business decision, it ends January 1.

I've built my own PCs for a decade, every hardware manufacturer I've dealt with has a better RMA policy than Apple.

It depends. As soon as something happens to the screen, they charge ridiculous money for repair. Went through that with an iPad pro. 3rd party repair with (a different) screen was a small fraction of the cost

Apple's screen prices are actually fair if you care about getting a "good" one. If you don't (and if you're not using it for color-related work it doesn't really matter) then unofficial screens can be a good deal.

My experience: I replaced my laptop screen thru iFixit and the replacement part had a "soft focus" camera. It also has worse backlight bleed+a little bit less contrast than the official part, and a dead pixel.

They had good customer service and when I complained about the camera and they refunded me some money, but next time I will probably (begrudgingly) pay the Apple tax.

What really happened is Apple was forced to replace your device, because they

1 sold defective devices in the first place, hence 'battery replacement' program aka lets do something after ignoring years of public pressure, but just before big lawsuit comes (famous Fight Club recall equation).

2 designed products and procedures in such a way as to minimize the ability of repair by non specialized technical personnel. Glued parts, sneaky short holes and different length screws, LCD screens blowing backlight circuit if you unplug them without unplugging battery first, etc.

If I get a new device for $29 then why exactly should I care?

The only reason you are getting new device is because Apple was caught yet again with factory defect. It isnt a charitable gift, its their obligation.

Consumers like you are why Apple will continue to rip people off and only respond when their is a threat of a Class Action lawsuit like they did with the batteries

You should care because one day the issue you have will not impact thousands of customers and.or will not raise to the level that a class action lawsuit would be possible and you will be one of the thousands of people that have been screwed over by Apple's business practices...

I am sure this will fall of deaf ears though hopefully you will remember your attitude on this day when you are standing in front of a "Genius" refusing to help you

The diagnosis of the first repair case is a Macbook Pro that has had liquid spilled in its internals. [0]

From a business and service perspective, Apple repair must first fix the liquid damage that may be causing the dim screen. Replacing the screen without first fixing the liquid damage may simply reproduce the issue and/or damage a new screen.

The customer balks at the quoted price asks the Apple Genius Bar rep if there are other options.

The Genius Bar rep hesitates and informs the customer there are no other options under Apple repair.

Of course there are other options outside of Apple authorized repair, but it is likely against Apple policy to recommend an alternative (i.e. assuming indirect liability for poorly executed 3rd-party repairs).

That said, in this case it seems entirely reasonable for Apple repair to proceed by first fixing the most obvious damage that may be causing the issue. While this approach may be more expensive than is necessary, it's also more likely to produce the desired result if the issue were not caused by the screen itself.

Paying money for premium service is anathema to many consumer advocates, but Apple is well known to meet their obligations for devices protected by AppleCare while only doing the bare minimum for devices outside of warranty. From a practical standpoint, buying AppleCare is highly advisable given the likelihood of device failure inside of 3 years, the cost of repairing such failures, and (most importantly in my opinion) the extraordinarily high level of service Apple provides should something go wrong inside the warranty window.

I apologize if all the above seems like bias toward Apple, which I readily admit. I have been a customer of Apple for nearly 40 years and while I have sometimes been disappointed with some of Apple's polices and products, I have almost always felt well-treated by Apple repair.

[0] https://youtu.be/o2_SZ4tfLns?t=128

EDIT: Changes to penultimate paragraph to better highlight the value of AppleCare as a contractual service. Change "extraordinary" to "extraordinarily".

If you were paying attention, it's the same repair.

Apple's humidity sensors are known to go red in humid environments (like your pants pockets or your backpack on a hot day) whether there's liquid damage or not.

All Louis had to do was look at the motherboard to see the bent connector.

The liquid stickers changing color didn't mean that the customer spilled liquid on it, just that the sticker changed color. It can be caused by something as normal as a humid day (as Louis said).

>>Apple repair must first fix the liquid damage

There was no liquid damage and the Apple "liquid damage" stickers should never be used as an actual indicator liquid damage, Apple put them on devices for legal cover when they wanted to deny warranty repairs not as a actual gauge for when a product was actually damaged by liquid. They are known to have a hair trigger and "activate" i.e change color in the presence of water vapor in the air (i.e high humidity common in some places where one would use a apple device)

The Apple "liquid damage" stickers is one in a LONG LONG LONG line of anti-consumer business practices

I disagree. Apple supports older products for longer and repairs them unlike their competition. I still have an iPhone 6 and had its camera fixed at an Apple store recently for like $60. I also had them fix an issue with a 6 year old MacBook Pro. Thats pretty reasonable in my opinion. I think people get hyperbolic over this stuff and lose credibility. I can’t imagine Dell, HP, or anyone supporting a laptop for 6+ years and if I break an Android there’s no where to get it repaired officially. Apple has its problems, but let’s not be hysterical about the issue and distort the reality.

Dell still supports the Latitude I bought for law school 12 years ago. HP still supports the laptop I bought right after law school, though I must now pay for shipping to a repair facility.

As for Android, there are a great many official repair locations. They simply aren't run by the phonemakers. As with cars, most repairs are done by licensed and trained repair shops (like UBreakIFix, for Samsungs).

Let's not give Apple false credit and distort the reality of how consumer electronics are repaired.

That's not the point of the video. The video shows Apple charging 1200$ for what is effectively fixing a bent pin. According to Rossman cases like this show up several times a week in his shop alone. Disclaimer: I'm an Macbook and iphone user and find apples behaviour plainly wrong.