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YouTuber Linus breaks his iMac Pro, wants it to be repaired but Apple refuses
- Thread starter Redhead On Moped
- Start date
But Apple IS trying to make it so that only they can repair Apple products.
Opposed by Apple, 'right to repair' bills nonetheless pile up in state capitols
Apple Is Lobbying Against Your Right to Repair iPhones, New York State Records Confirm
OP, here is the article I read.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/...independent-iphone-repair-shop-owner-and-lost
No need for a 15 minutes video that is 5 days later after the article that you can read in 1 minute
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/...independent-iphone-repair-shop-owner-and-lost
No need for a 15 minutes video that is 5 days later after the article that you can read in 1 minute
He didn't knew this was going to be the case because this never happened with any company ever, not even Apple.
I have brought and and know people that did bring opened and modified iMac and MacBook to Apple Stores and they happily repaired it through monetary compensation, their excuse here is that the product is new and they haven't trained people and whatnot which is bananas because you don't launch a product like this.
Pretty much this.
This is an ABSURDLY shitty practice, but Apple is an ABSURDLY shitty company so it's not really surprising.
This is just another in a long line of reasons why no one should buy Apple products. Especially given they aren't that great to begin with. Certainly not worth what they charge for them
Can we have a title change or a mod edit for this thread? The amount of drivebys that are clearly from people who have not watched the video is making this thread super hostile.
Pretty sure that would fall under Apple trying to prevent a third party from being able to repair their devices with parts not sourced from Apple directly.
Apple and other companies put sensors & tapes around to see if people have opened devices. So this was beyond a normal voltage jump situation
I know what you're saying about repairing, but giving the nature of this video I'm sure if Apple offered to repair it then the video would be "LOOK HOW MUCH APPLE CHARGED ME TO FIX MY IMAC". And again, they are not under any obligation to fix these things. Mechanics, handymen, contractors, etc can all refuse the work if they deem it to not be worth the time or effort.
There are countless stories of Apple store employees doing complete upgrades for people with old & broken hardware. There is a reason their customer service is consistently ranked high. This is not a normal situation.
Which is why the repair shop guy had to resort to buying parts from China in the first place.
What exactly would be modified in the title? There's character limits too.
Add that it is an out of pocket repair, that he wants to pay for the repair.
Some "people" are claiming that he's trying to get it repaired under warranty
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Exactly. Even on this page, a day later, so many hot takes and people not understanding how warranty and repairs work. Linus is at fault, he's making a dramatized Youtube video out of it and even went as far as making it a reality show cringe skit. He's playing people up and making money off of it too. It's to be expected, he's a PC master race guy. He knew what he was doing. If Apple had charged him a vast sum of money, like $4,000 out of the $5,000 price tag, as another poster put it above, you know he would have made a video bitching about this too. It's just the way he works.
Yeah. I'm kind of confused by some responses here. Like if I was just screwing around with the internals of my laptop and did really serious damage - HP (or any other company) is, as far as I know, under no obligation to repair it for me for any price. I'd just have to go buy another one. Is the difference here the price point? Where people are expecting repairs because the device is so expensive? It sounds like he was talking to customer service agents who weren't really familiar w/ the specific product in question and the damage it sustained, but stuck to a script for how they'd usually handle repairs. But freaking out about Apple over this seems really dumb.
Okay, maybe it just seemed common to me because I might've seen it enough before that it wasn't totally weird to me as much as the snark OP got about it, as if it originated with the OP. I know that's not the case, since I was able to quickly do a websearch and find an example of it being used elsewhere, so I know I'm not that crazy.
The nature of the damage would be the same (minus the cracked screen i guess) so where's the difference?
I have never heard of a company refusing a paid repair unless the parts are literally out of production and in those cases some would just tell you to find and bring the replacement part and to pay the labor work.
I watch LinusTechTips from time to time and they are not akin to fabricate these kinds of drama for clicks, having said that there's a reason this video went semi-viral among all the clickbaity stuff there's on youtube and that reason is that this is out of the ordinary for any kind of company, even Apple as i explained in my previous post, and this should not be or become the normality.
Apple is lobbying for the status quo: 3rd party repair shops (and consumers) can do what they want, but Apple (etc.) is not obligated to help. The proposed laws would change that.
"Right to Repair" laws force companies to sell individual components and provide repair documentation to consumers/repair shops.
Parts with Apple logos on them. That trademark infringement was the basis for the case.
The difference is Apple determined the end user tampered with the product versus a normal voltage situation.
Yeah, it's the ultimate circle jerk story. LTT deserves absolutely no sympathies, they modified the iMac, broke PSU, Mobo and screen during the process (if I got the ending of the video right the other night, a lot claim it was just the screen) and then play victim? Lmfao
And? Yeah they tampered the product that means the warranty is void, they made completely reversible changes (changed cpu and ram) and they broke the thing causing the same damage as a voltage jump so, since we ascertained that Apple doesn't have to do this stuff for free and has to do the same kind of work as someone who didn't tamper the product then why in this particular case they won't repair it? Whatever the answer is it's not acceptable, even if they can't repair the thing for someone with a voltage jump damage is not acceptable.
As some of us have said 100 times already, if this was a normal use situation then Apple would just give them a brand new iMac. They would then recycle the broken one as per their recycling program they have.
And to answer your other point, yes a good and valuable mechanic, handyman, etc will be up front and honest with a repair situation. If the cost of the car 5000 and the total repairs are going to be 4000 they're going to make sure you really want to spend that kind of money on something. This is why insurance companies have total loss calculators and factor all this when evaluating claims.
Here are the facts laid out since everyone seems to be confusing them or just flat out pretending they don't exist.
1) Everyone has known that the iMac Pro is essentially non-upgradeable. It was intended to be this way. It was no secret, and anyone buying a $5K machine knew this ahead of time.
2) Linus broke it when he tore it open. Not just the screen, but the Logic Board (which includes the GPU) and the PSU. This means there are possibly other components that may need repair that are smaller, but these are the 3 "big" ones.
3) Apple doesn't sell parts to individual consumers. Common knowledge.
4) Apple reserves the right to refuse service to machines that were broken due to "misuse" (in this case, pulling everything apart and trying to piece it back together).
5) Apple is capable of repairing the computer.
6) The parts are available for the computer.
7) None of the businesses he spoke to want to fix it because it is a waste of their time and money, and could make them liable for future repairs.
8) Linus is making money off of BOTH of these videos, and it stands to reason that his outrage manufactured for profit.
9) The computer is a total loss. That means the cost to repair or replace the damaged components is near or at the cost to replace for Apple. Replacement with a refub was not an option given that he was not under warranty.
10) New warranty laws from the FCC are not relevant because all of this occurred BEFORE those changes happened.
I think I covered everything here. He knew the risk, he took it, and he ended up with a brick because of it. If you buy a high demand / low supply niche product for the sole purpose of tearing it apart, you know exactly what you're getting into. If you don't know, it's likely because money isn't an issue to you, at least not a big enough issue that risking $5,000 seems unreasonable.
Don't get played. Him being a "YouTube" star is completely relevant to his behavior. The fact that he gives you a brief (and inaccurate) synopsis at the beginning of the video, and then IMMEDIATELY goes into his Sponsorship speaks volumes. It's a work.
1) Everyone has known that the iMac Pro is essentially non-upgradeable. It was intended to be this way. It was no secret, and anyone buying a $5K machine knew this ahead of time.
2) Linus broke it when he tore it open. Not just the screen, but the Logic Board (which includes the GPU) and the PSU. This means there are possibly other components that may need repair that are smaller, but these are the 3 "big" ones.
3) Apple doesn't sell parts to individual consumers. Common knowledge.
4) Apple reserves the right to refuse service to machines that were broken due to "misuse" (in this case, pulling everything apart and trying to piece it back together).
5) Apple is capable of repairing the computer.
6) The parts are available for the computer.
7) None of the businesses he spoke to want to fix it because it is a waste of their time and money, and could make them liable for future repairs.
8) Linus is making money off of BOTH of these videos, and it stands to reason that his outrage manufactured for profit.
9) The computer is a total loss. That means the cost to repair or replace the damaged components is near or at the cost to replace for Apple. Replacement with a refub was not an option given that he was not under warranty.
10) New warranty laws from the FCC are not relevant because all of this occurred BEFORE those changes happened.
I think I covered everything here. He knew the risk, he took it, and he ended up with a brick because of it. If you buy a high demand / low supply niche product for the sole purpose of tearing it apart, you know exactly what you're getting into. If you don't know, it's likely because money isn't an issue to you, at least not a big enough issue that risking $5,000 seems unreasonable.
Don't get played. Him being a "YouTube" star is completely relevant to his behavior. The fact that he gives you a brief (and inaccurate) synopsis at the beginning of the video, and then IMMEDIATELY goes into his Sponsorship speaks volumes. It's a work.
Screen is destroyed and irreparable
Motherboard is destroyed and irreparable
PSU is destroyed and irreparable
Isn't that like 80-90% of the PC? At some point you're not really even requesting repairs, you are just wanting to run a salvage operation to scoop up the handful of components that aren't completely fucked.
Motherboard is destroyed and irreparable
PSU is destroyed and irreparable
Isn't that like 80-90% of the PC? At some point you're not really even requesting repairs, you are just wanting to run a salvage operation to scoop up the handful of components that aren't completely fucked.
Yup. That and the fake acting. I'm a former Apple fanboy turned hater, but he was in the wrong.
You're making a false equivalence, there is no misreading. You're suggesting a broken windshield and transmission can't be repaired because he "opened the hood". When the reality is, he opened the hood, disassembled the transmission (and broke it), and dropped the windshield. You're also cherry picking pieces to make analogies to. Replace Transmission with "everything but the intake manifold and exhaust pipes" because that's essentially what happens when you break the Logic Board of an iMac where most of the components are soldered on and run the risk of additional damage to other components.
Again, Apple has so many fucking areas they can improve on, but trying to apply THIS situation to the ENTIRETY of their customers service or repair practices is ridiculous. This situation is uniquely his own and in no way represents what everyday average customers would encounter. At all.
Apple customer service is actually the one thing that is hard to rag on for Apple.
I have had to get several computers and iPhones fixed, and every time the service was really good. I can't say that for too many consumer electronics companies.
If you actually watch the video and the "acting" it is apparent this is some bullshit drama.
I have had to get several computers and iPhones fixed, and every time the service was really good. I can't say that for too many consumer electronics companies.
If you actually watch the video and the "acting" it is apparent this is some bullshit drama.
Not the OP, but if you bother to watch the video, you will learn it doesn't have anything to do with that article.
I've never had a desktop hardware failure in 27 years of owning nine Macs. Unless there's a critical hardware failure I doubt they're getting getting a lot of repairs in on such new machines (new cooling system aside though I'm still wondering what the failure rate would be in three or four years though.)
The fact he gives a synopsis and then goes to a sponsorship doesn't speak volumes. it's his standard behavior. Watch other videos from him. I mean, it speaks of the videos being his profession, it isn't a hobby. That's not secret.
Point 5 isn't clear, from what the video shows. Do you have any evidence to the contrary? And the video itself basically is how point 4 is fucking bullshit. Which I agree with.
It absolutely does speak volumes. "Here's a misleading representation of what really happened, and also here's me making money off of this inflammatory 30 second preview!". He knows exactly what he's doing with his controversy, and none of it is for his right to repair (all of it is for his bank account).
He has no evidence to the contrary for point 5. You're taking him at his word. As has been pointed out in this thread multiple times, repairs are possible, parts are available. In this case repairs means replacement of parts, and those parts are nearly the entirety of the computer.
Point 4 may be "bullshit" but it's their right. It applies to all businesses. Any company has the right to refuse repair of something if they feel like it will lose them money. You don't get to pick and chose which companies reserve the right to profitability over customer satisfaction. Apple isn't exempt from this because they make billions of dollars, especially not in the case of a snot nosed tech junkie who ran the risk of breaking something (and broke it) for profit (and then got "outraged" for profit).
This. Is. A. Work.
You're. Being. Played.
For the record, the total number of cumulative views on iMac Pro videos from Linus is near or above 5 million. At about $1,500 per million views (a low estimate), he's made $7,500, so a net of $2,500 on his iMac that he broke, and realistically he'll make back more than that before it's all said and done. His average video views are around 300-400 thousand. This has been his most profitable series of videos, so it's really tough to "feel sorry for him" in his completely unique circumstance that he brought upon himself and has made a very solid chunk of change on.
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Also I dunno why this is 19 pages because the end game of this is probably Apple giving him a new one
You only have 50 posts per page?! YOU SAVAGE. (Actually I should probably do that because reading through 100 replies gets pretty long in the tooth).
I don't think Apple will give him a new one though, and if they do...he'll make a video about it and make even more money. *shrug*. YouTube gonna YouTube.
You call me savage
I call myself...clean.
precise.
effervescent.
Calvin Klein.
My issue with this is the fact that Apple doesn't make parts available for repair outside of authorized repair centers.
Apple is fully within their right to not repair or replace the machine.
I just hate this recent trend of computers not being user repairable or upgradable.
Apple is fully within their right to not repair or replace the machine.
I just hate this recent trend of computers not being user repairable or upgradable.
You know, I like some of Apple's products and both use and recommend them (and many I also tell people to avoid) but Apple fans are the worst.
I doubt that Linus is being dishonest here. He may be misinformed, or have been lied to about the repairability of iMac Pro systems, but I don't think he was intentionally lying when he said that his system was "unrepairable" by an AASP.
While the Apple of 2018 is not the Apple of 2004, I can believe the story about service providers not having the required training to handle repairs of brand new hardware, and parts being scarce.
I bought a maxed-out iMac G5 the day they were released and though I did not take it apart as Linus has done here, I had a big list of hardware failures, including the main logic board and the display, and that system was with Apple service providers for longer than I even owned it. The first logic board replacement took something like two months and it was returned to me with damage to the display, so it had to go right back.
I was without that system for something like four out of the first six months that I owned it, before I got rid of it.
I'm struggling to think how someone could not only break the display but also kill the power supply and logic board in an iMac Pro, but even in that case, it doesn't seem like the system should be "totalled" for it.
There's still an $1100 CPU, $500+ in RAM, $500 for the SSDs, and at least $500 for the chassis and cooling hardware (which could be much higher, based on things I've heard) that are likely all salvageable. That's at least $2600 of parts.
It would be an expensive repair since the logic board has a high-end GPU soldered on there, and a 5K display is not cheap, but even if labor is $150 an hour it should be possible to repair it at far less than the cost of replacing the machine.
I don't think it's unreasonable for Apple themselves refusing to service the machine.
The problem here is that Apple are refusing to authorize the sale of parts required to repair the system at an AASP for someone that is willing to pay for the repair.
I doubt that Linus is being dishonest here. He may be misinformed, or have been lied to about the repairability of iMac Pro systems, but I don't think he was intentionally lying when he said that his system was "unrepairable" by an AASP.
While the Apple of 2018 is not the Apple of 2004, I can believe the story about service providers not having the required training to handle repairs of brand new hardware, and parts being scarce.
I bought a maxed-out iMac G5 the day they were released and though I did not take it apart as Linus has done here, I had a big list of hardware failures, including the main logic board and the display, and that system was with Apple service providers for longer than I even owned it. The first logic board replacement took something like two months and it was returned to me with damage to the display, so it had to go right back.
I was without that system for something like four out of the first six months that I owned it, before I got rid of it.
I'm struggling to think how someone could not only break the display but also kill the power supply and logic board in an iMac Pro, but even in that case, it doesn't seem like the system should be "totalled" for it.
There's still an $1100 CPU, $500+ in RAM, $500 for the SSDs, and at least $500 for the chassis and cooling hardware (which could be much higher, based on things I've heard) that are likely all salvageable. That's at least $2600 of parts.
It would be an expensive repair since the logic board has a high-end GPU soldered on there, and a 5K display is not cheap, but even if labor is $150 an hour it should be possible to repair it at far less than the cost of replacing the machine.
I don't think it's unreasonable for Apple themselves refusing to service the machine.
The problem here is that Apple are refusing to authorize the sale of parts required to repair the system at an AASP for someone that is willing to pay for the repair.
Exactly. And the bizarre thing is that individuals in this very thread have cited Dell, Microsoft, and HP as companies which would never do this, despite having the exact same notice in their terms of service for repairs. People have compared it to cars, despite cars also being written off once beyond repair.
There are very few companies which will repair a product regardless of the state of it and/or the cost of repair.
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Because of the way it was damaged (misuse in being opened and subsequently damaged while doing so), one cannot only be certain that those components are damaged. This is what renders such devices beyond economic repair and almost invalidates them for service. The cost of repairing not only those components, but potentially more components, combined with labour cost (where it's being hand-tested and hand-assembled rather than done on a manufacturing line) will make it exceed (or approach) the unit cost (which isn't the retail cost, it's the cost of production of a device). As the full cost of repair can only be determined once the repair is completed (and only then is the individual charged), products which are beyond economic repair are simply refused service regardless of whether the consumer claims they will pay (or not). In this instance, the cost of service is the cost of a new iMac Pro.
We know from the Macrumours article the bolded is not correct, and there are parts available to AASPs.
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Man a lot of you are really serious about this Linus guy. Or is it Apple? Or both?
After watching that vid, it made me feel like I was being played towards to something. But the fact that he was willing to pay for the parts and do the repairs himself, only to get refused is really really odd. He probably got a new one anyway from Apple with some strange apology tagged with it.
After watching that vid, it made me feel like I was being played towards to something. But the fact that he was willing to pay for the parts and do the repairs himself, only to get refused is really really odd. He probably got a new one anyway from Apple with some strange apology tagged with it.
This is a valid complaint, and I 100% agree with it. The inability to purchase replacement parts is really ridiculous. Particularly when you're talking about their SSD enclosures, speakers, CPUs, etc. Them moving towards using their own CPUs will cross another component off the list. Granted, the iMac is a machine built specifically for people who fawn over apple products and want aesthetic over anything else, but it's still really ridiculous that there's no reasonable path to repair by the user.
From what I can tell, the screen somehow got dropped into the chassis in a way that shorted out the PSU/logic board. I'm guessing the unit must have still been plugged in and/or the tech doing the tear down didn't ground himself? Kind of unconscionable to think that anyone in the "tear down" business could be that inept, but...this is the info straight from Linus: screen, board and PSU at a minimum, are toast.
If the PSU and board somehow got shorted, I wouldn't be shocked (no pun intended) if the CPU and/or RAM suffered the same fate. But even if they didn't, your calculations aren't taking testing into account. If you're a repair tech, knowing that an electrical short/surge damaged the board/PSU, you've got to pull the entire machine apart and bench test everything. You've got to test again after replacing the major components you know are damaged. And, unless I'm mistaken, you've got to provide some sort of limited warranty on your repair job, even though the repairs are happening outside the scope of the original warranty. I can fully understand why a manufacturer wouldn't want to take that sort of risk on. I know I wouldn't if I were in their position.
EDIT: and, for the record, I'm a card-carrying member of the PC master race, with a giant, custom water loop-filled Phanteks Enthoo Primo case, an Asus Rampage V Ed. 10 board, and every kind of blingy light imaginable. Despite (or maybe because of) being stuck on one at work, I wouldn't personally buy an Apple PC on a dare. But I just can't find any fault with them here beyond some poor communication.
I don't get how this is some super long con job. Linus will usually do a couple of videos on a product and then resale the product to recoup their cost. Seems like you hate him as a person.
He has 4 (maybe 5, I haven't dug that deep) videos specifically revolving around his iMac Pro, and they are all his highest watched videos, outside of a handful of outliers. Those iMac videos have 2-3 times the number of views as his others. Seeing what those views were generating and what the responses were, he was fully aware of what this particular situation would drum up: a lot of views.
It's not that it's a con, it's that he isn't being genuine. The controversy in this video is manufactured so people will think "what if this happens to me?!" and then they'll share it and warn their friends or some other nonsense, and he'll get a massive pay day (which he already has). This one video alone will ultimately pay for his iMac Pro, and then some. Frankly, him breaking his $5,000 iMac and getting refused repair from Apple is probably the best thing that's ever happened to his channel, as it's given him considerable publicity and likely a decent number of new viewers.
I'm just saying he knows exactly what he's doing with this nonsense, he knew the risks, and he's exploiting his situation to manipulate his viewers to make money. Telling half truths, making assumptions, and being outrageous.
It's a work.
Watching the video again:
- Acted out scenes of "outrage" reading emails (followed with assumptions based on statements that are not solid, and include key words like "IF").
- The push to the forums! "Hey, if you can help, post down here so we can flip this and make more money!" (This is a way to generate a recurring audience through his website and secure a more consistent source of income through his videos, if only in the short turn).
- He wants to flip something he broke on Craigslist. Initially he says "we have to make more videos on this thing!" In his "acting" segment, but then during his genuine "I'm just ranting" bit, he clearly and openly states he just wants to flip it on craigslist, thus showing he is manipulating his user base who might miss those key bits.
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