Critics Slams Apple On Claim About "Losing" Money On Repairs

Apple recently made a claim before the Congressional Judiciary Committee investigating whether the Cupertino-based tech giant’s locked-down approach to device repairs is anti-competitive. The company has always maintained that its control of the process of repair is for reliability and safety but said that it is losing money because of this. Right to repair device advocates slammed Apple describing its recent claim about losing money to repairs as misleading and absurd. According to Apple,

Our goal is to achieve a safe and reliable repair for our customers, whether that repair is done by Apple or a service provider designated by Apple. Apple has spent time and money to make Apple devices incredibly user friendly—but they are still complex, very technical machines. And there are a number of factors that go into achieving the goal of ensuring repairs on these complex devices are safe and reliable.

Genuine Apple parts are designed, tested and manufactured for Apple quality and performance standards. If a customer needs an Apple device repaired, it’s important that the repair be conducted by a certified technician who has completed Apple service training and who uses genuine Apple parts and tools. Repairs performed by untrained technicians might not follow proper safety and repair procedures and could result in improper function, product quality issues or safety events.

Additionally, repairs that do not properly replace screws or cowlings might leave behind loose parts that could damage a component such as the battery, causing overheating or resulting in injury. For these reasons, we believe it is important for repair shops to receive proper training when obtaining access to spare parts and repair manuals. We continue to expand the number of locations where consumers can get repairs, while maintaining a priority on safety and reliability.

Some critics believe that Apple is deliberately preventing its customers from getting lower-cost repairs from repair shops outside the company so it could force customers to use Apple Stores or authorized repair shops. The Cupertino-based tech giant presented its usual arguments in testimony to the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law of the Committee on the Judiciary.
9to5mac’s Ben Lovejoy says that for Apple’s claim to be true, it must have included warranty repairs. The writer believes that the company is making money on most chargeable repairs, particularly because of Apple Care policies. His perspective was echoed by Matthew Gault of Motherboard.

The concept that Apple is losing money on repairs is wild, and a curse of its own making, according to Gault. The writer also says Apple’s answer seems purposefully vague since, through the years, the company has been offering a wide range of service repair programs for its defective products. The Cupertino-based tech giant has to replace a lot of MacBook and MacBook Pro for free because some of it has an unrepairable keyboard that easily breaks, the writer notes.

Instead of changing a few keys, Apple has to replace half of the premium laptop. If the Cupertino-based tech giant includes warranty repairs and service repair programs on the standard retail repairs, then it is just misleading the Congress and the public, Gault explains. Repair.org Executive Director Gay Gordon-Byrne agrees to this and claims that there are tens of thousands of small repair businesses that make a living repairing smartphones and able to do so without access to low-cost tools and parts.