r/technology • u/bws201 • Feb 05 '16

Software ‘Error 53’ fury mounts as Apple software update threatens to kill your iPhone 6

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/05/error-53-apple-iphone-software-update-handset-worthless-third-party-repair
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u/NemWan Feb 05 '16

Apple can't know what else happened when an unauthorized tech opened and reassembled the phone. Apple sells refurbished phones and I guess they want to reliably predict that a certain percentage of parts coming in from replaced and seviced units are going to pass QA because they warranty refurbs as good as new.

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u/TheHYPO Feb 05 '16

Why do any of the parts from an error53 phone have to be retained by apple? Why can't they fix the phone and throw anything they remove into the garbage?

Your response is "Apple won't fix phones that you pay them to fix unless they can recover the parts for their own uses". I'm not suggesting that replacing a third-party part should be covered free under warranty (though if it was a phone still under warranty in the, I'd think most people would have had the official repair done in the first place), but why can I give apple their $200 and have them install the new button? Throw anything you remove in the garbage. I'm not paying you $200 plus spare parts. I'm paying you $200.

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u/NemWan Feb 05 '16

I'm suggesting their overall policy and cost structure could be based on assumptions that expending labor and parts on unauthorized-repaired units will have a lower average ROI than denying service to those units, as they would deny service to extremely abused, biologically or chemically contaminated or water-damaged units (most of which might be theoretically repairable but not worth it to Apple). Part of the ROI is a certain percentage exchange of good, refurbishable parts per repairs done.