Fight to Repair Daily: August 24, 2022
Learn how much every Macbook part costs to replace. Plus: Tesla in hot water over its insufficient repair network and NZ town organizes around repair.
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💸 Here’s how much Apple charges for every part to fix your own MacBook
Yesterday, Apple revealed it would expand its Self Service Repair program to let you fix your own MacBooks, and today the program is here. You can now download full repair manuals for your 2021 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros and the 2020 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro and M1 MacBook Air — and shop for parts you might need.
But what will Apple actually let you buy, and how much will you really have to pay? That’s not obvious until you enter your serial numbers and root around the company’s entire store — so we did it for you.
Many prices seem (relatively) generous! Others, not so much. Some highlights include:
Motherboard: Not only will Apple not let you upgrade to a higher-end board, the company is dramatically incentivizing you to return the original part. It expects you to lay out as much as $4,222 for a new logic board
Battery & Keyboard: You can’t just replace your own battery or keyboard on a MacBook Pro. You have to buy the entire top lid that comes with that and other parts preattached, and it’ll cost you more than twice the $199 that Apple charges for a battery replacement. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Repair Tools: You can also opt for Apple’s $49 tool rental — if you’re willing to sign away its whole purchase price in the event you don’t return it within seven days. (This nearly got me in trouble when I used one to repair my iPhone, as my parts arrived days after the kit, and even though I sent it back in time, Apple initially reported it missing.)
Missing parts, long waits, and a dead mouse: The perils of getting a Tesla fixed
These are just a few of the issues about Tesla service that customers have flagged in complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Through a public records request, Recode obtained details about more than 1,000 complaints about Tesla, including more than 120 customer reports that discussed specific problems with service, delays, and parts. The complaints point to all sorts of problems with the experience of owning a Tesla vehicle, including an inadequate number of service centers, limited stock of replacement parts, bad communication, poor manufacturing quality, and long wait times for repair appointments.
Part of the frustration is that EVs are supposed to be easier to maintain than internal combustion vehicles. They don’t need oil changes, have fewer moving parts, and use regenerative braking, which means brake pads last longer. Tesla even says that it “designs every Tesla vehicle with the goal of eliminating the need for service.” Among car owners who do need service, however, Tesla drivers tend to visit service centers at nearly the same rate as the owners of premium gas-powered vehicles, such as Lexus or Audi.
Some independent mechanics who have experience repairing Teslas say they’re picking up the slack. Benoit, who runs a Tesla YouTube channel, operates an EV repair shop, and says he’s seeing an uptick in demand for repairs, including a rise in appointments for Model 3s. Carl Medlock is also the owner of an EV repair shop who worked for Tesla for nearly four years, and says his business has doubled in the past year. He explained battery and power train issues are his most common repairs.
“We have 103 appointments for Tesla Model Ss from 2012 to 2013 with bad batteries,” Medlock told Recode. “I won’t take any more appointments because I haven’t even started the first one.”
(Vox)
No, Apple won’t let you replace your MacBook’s main board with a higher-spec option
Apple just expanded its self-service repair program to include M1 MacBook Air and MacBook Pros. You can get replacement screens, batteries, and even logic boards, but don’t expect to be able to upgrade your laptop, as you can only purchase the exact same main board that originally came with your device.
With the self service repair store, you now have to input your MacBook’s serial number before you can search for or purchase the replacement parts. This helps ensure that only the correct parts for your specific machine come up, but it also means that anyone hoping to grab a bit of extra RAM or a larger SSD in their computer will be out of luck.
While the self-service repair store as a whole is lacking in terms of its value proposition, the ability to purchase a slightly higher specced (though still compatible) mainboard could allow the service to be helpful for even more people who may realize they should have gone with more storage to begin with. I have no doubt that some people will get their hands on an upgraded motherboard and give this swap a try, but at that point, it seems unlikely the company would support the use of their System Configuration tool to get the device totally up and running since they clearly say they don’t support it. (9to5Mac)
🇳🇿 “The Repair Revolution” is saving trash from landfills
The Repair Revolution meets once a month in a community house in Richmond, NZ with people bringing in an array of items broken down, worn out or missing bits to try and breathe life into them again.
In one room electricians Alan Liefting and Rudy Kremers were endeavouring to find out what was wrong with a toaster that was no longer working. The cause of the toaster's problems was proving difficult to pin down, and Liefting said that uncertainty about what needed to be done and how long it would take to fix, was often what put people off even trying. That was the beauty of the Repair Revolution, he said.
"Because we've got volunteers giving time, that expensive part, the labour portion of the repairs is no longer there ... We get parts donated and that sort of thing. So thing like parts are quite a minor part of a repair. So that's the beauty of what we've got here, is that people can see if something is able to be repaired.
"For instance, if you bring it into our work, we have a $45 minimum fee to have a look at something. And that could be $45 going towards a $200 appliance, so you can see why people aren't repairing things."
New York Right to Repair Bill Is a Bad Idea
🤑 The publication of right to repair hit-pieces funded by think tanks continues – this time from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
The New York State Legislature recently passed a bill that goes beyond the normal meaning of “right to repair.” The legislation is unnecessary, as it illustrates a myopic view of the electronic repair industry. The sponsor of the legislation, Assemblymember Patricia Fahy, wrote in a memorandum of support for the bill that “many of us have stacks of iPads or laptops or desktops in our basement because they’re not worth fixing because of the planned obsolescence … .”
“Planned obsolescence” has become a rallying cry for right-to-repair advocates. The phrase is used to describe intentional design features by manufacturers to limit the life cycle of electronic devices and to push users to buy new devices. In reality, the outcries over planned obsolescence are overstated, particularly when it comes to electronics.
It ignores the cause of most repairs: human error. Broken screens are overwhelmingly the most common damage incurred by smartphones and account for about 55 percent of breaks. And the leading causes of laptop damage are falls and liquid spills. More often than not, users break their device before they become obsolete. Two published studies, one in the Journal of Marketing Research and another in the journal Management Science, found that users are more likely to break or lose their device when a new version is released.
The right-to-repair movement is multifaceted, touching on several policy issues like copyright, antitrust, and environmentalism. But legislation like the Digital Fair Repair Act, for which the movement advocates, doesn’t protect property rights. It doesn’t embody free markets, and it doesn’t appreciate consumer choice. (CEI.org)