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Comment by abawany | Hacker News Reader

IME, they've really hobbled the functionality of independent repair shops, making it necessary to supplicate to the Apple Store. I was trying to get the battery replaced in a 2015 MBP and the independent shops were 'required' to keep my machine for about 7 days since they had to first 'diagnose' that the battery was dying, order it, wait for it to arrive, and then replace it. In contrast, one could make an appointment at the Apple Store to get the battery replaced while one waited.

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This level of customer-hostility would cause a huge uproar for any other "Pro" or "workstation" vendor.

Apple fans seem okay with this and also not being able to install apps outside the app store.

What gives you that idea?

When my Macbook battery ballooned up on me I just replaced it myself. It's not hard at all and can be done in 15 minutes, I have no idea why people in tech take their machines to repair places to do it.

Because people want a genuine part (reliable battery). I would pay the price if the battery was max 200eur. Nope, Apple is greedy. In my case they wanted 400Eur (together with top case)

So buy a genuine battery then? They aren't hard to find and are under $100.

Wait, it is possible to get a genuine* battery replacement for an Apple device? And no, I'm not being sarcastic, my friend was told by an Apple Store that even an attempt to open the Macbook chassis voids warranty. They refused to replace the battery EVEN WHEN HE WAS READY TO PAY "because there was an unauthorized attempt to open the device". He finally had to go to a repair shop and get it done under an hour (because now the warranty was void anyway).

genuine = guaranteed by Apple to not break your warranty

There is no genuine original battery on the market. Only option to get it is from Apple for 400eur. Every seller is lying about originality.

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck...well who cares if it calls itself a swan.

Anyone paying $400 for battery is out of their minds. My $100 apparently ‘fake’ battery performs identical as the one Apple sells. Who cares at that point.

There is plenty of people who lack the skill or ability to do fine repairs. Especially with batteries, if you have no idea what you're doing, it can easily lead to insurances not paying in case you do get injured or damage something.

Its usually less that they are ok with these problems and more that the alternatives have even more problems. Most OEMs copied apples designs so everything is shit. Rather than taking your laptop to the local apple store you now have to send it off to china and face all the same problems.

Windows also isn't useful for productivity and linux is only viable for certain jobs.

> Windows also isn't useful for productivity

Can you expand on this? I think it's the contrarian position to be taking here.

There are so many anti features in windows. They seem to change all the time and depend on what version of windows you have but the main ones are forced updates that can't be done while you use the computer, MS teams poping up and nagging you to sign up when you never installed or use it, adverts in the start menu, dark patterns in the setup page making it tricky to not register a microsoft account. And whatever flavour of the month anti feature windows includes.

Its getting slightly better with the the new WSL but its still not as good as OSX and linux.

> Rather than taking your laptop to the local apple store you now have to send it off to china

For "pro-grade" laptops Apple is the odd one out by not offering on-site warranty repairs at all, instead requiring you to travel somewhere.

I use Linux fine and it is a requirement that I be able to run Linux before accepting a job. When it comes to Android though, they already allow external apps through a security permission that I use for F-Droid and sometimes other apps outside of F-Droid, like Kodi on my Fire TV.

I didn't say it wasn't fine. I use it as well but I work in one of those jobs where it works fine. You aren't going to use linux if your job is video editing or CAD.

We buy Lenovo ThinkPads for work. We pay a bit more (not that much, like £50 a laptop I think) for the warranty package. When something goes wrong they send a tech out who repairs it onsite. More minor things like hard drive issues they just ship us a new NVMe drive and we swap it.

I think the techs work for IBM, weird they still keep this bit.

Apple "fans" are less bothered by this than they would be bothered by the problems of the alternatives. Or they are locked into the ecosystem.

Indeed and it's this utter nonsense that made me finally give in and switch to Windows. Turns out it's nicer than I thought.

But which version do you run? The only version I would consider currently is the Enterprise version of Windows 10.

I have both pro (Home desktop) and enterprise (Work laptop). I don't notice a difference. But we don't really take advantage of the group policy very much.

It used to be Home versions couldn't get more "Enterprise" features, like full partition encryption and the ability to join a Domain. Naturally GPO doesn't apply to a home user.

These days, I run Pro on pretty much everything and don't seem to miss anything. Perhaps "Enterprise" comes with less Candy Crush and other bloatware pre-installed?

I used to use Pro so I could use NFS with Windows.

I don't think there is any difference between pro And enterprise except for some of the ways licensing is implemented and some group policy stuff.

Now that i've check it seems Enterpise get's the feature sof Pro for Workstations. https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/windowsforbusiness/compare

Apple generally ships parts overnight to shops. I've worked somewhere that had an AASP as part of it. Occasionally there's a delay but around 90% of the time our guys could order up to about 4PM EST and have it come in for the midday FedEx Express dropoff the next day. And this wasn't in a major metro area where overnight delivery is common/easy.

2-3 days would have been a plausible turnaround time. 7 is laziness or a long queue.

It's fine if an Apple Store is near my home. I prefer such service but also right of self repair.

I don’t think that’s true for all Apple Stores. I just got my battery replaced last week from an Apple Store and it took them a week to do it.

You could have also done it yourself in about 15 minutes. I've done my 2015 MBP twice now, it's not hard at all.

I'm not sure why people in tech bother paying inflated prices for easy repairs. Just because you work with software doesn't mean you have to be afraid to turn a screwdriver ;)

After my futile efforts to get it repaired at the independent shop and the Apple Store (they never came for me even with my appointment and I wasted an hour sitting in that place for no reason), I bought a third party battery and a set of guitar strings to replace it myself. I was successful but the battery was garbage so I had to return it and go back to the original swelled battery to be able to use the laptop albeit plugged in; I gave up and asked work to order me a new MBP instead. Total waste of time: 3 hours plus a perfectly good MBP going probably to the landfill thanks to a difficulty that Apple created for no good reason. Edit2: the guitar strings were used to saw off the nasty glue strips holding the original battery, along with d-limonene as a solvent to weaken their deathgrip.

In contrast, replacing the battery in my HP Elite x360 was a piece of cake - no nasty glue, no proprietary screws, and oem batteries available everywhere. HP sent me the battery under warranty (shipped next day) when I called them to buy one and I was able to replace it in minutes. Now that's a repairable product. Edit: clarified that HP in fact covered the battery cost under the included 3 year warranty.

Edit3: want to say that it was a bit uncalled-for of you to assume that I couldn't do the replacement myself. This was a work laptop (i.e. not my property) so I didn't feel it was my place to dink with it.

I replaced it with the string method as well. I didn’t find a recipe to soften the glue before. Thanks

I just ordered one off ebay, let my current battery discharge until the mac shutoff (risk of fire is greatly reduced completely discharged), and yanked out the old one with no special care or care about the glue. Set the new one in place, works perfect.

The second half of my comment was clearly tongue in cheek. Sorry if it seemed personal, it wasn't.

I didn't mind - just wanted to clarify that I did try to make this work :) . Thanks for clarifying your intent. Edit: you lucked out that your eBay battery was good - mine was unfortunately a total dud even though it claimed to be OEM (and had labeling on the battery to match) but caused the machine to shutdown randomly. Edit2: I was also responding to a thread on how Apple treats its certified shops, which is why I left out the details on my endeavors to replace the battery after my attempts to get it done properly failed. Edit3: all of the procedures I saw (iFixit, Youtube) showed a fairly complicated procedure with that nasty glue removal so I am surprised your battery came off easily - perhaps it was previously replaced?

Totally understandable. No the battery wasn't replaced previously, I am the first owner. I think the difficulty of the glue is overstated (especially iFixIt's guide where you take apart half the machine to use some solvent, wtf). Just pull the battery cell at an angle so you don't bend it too much, it'll come off.

> In contrast, replacing the battery in my HP Elite x360 was a piece of cake - no nasty glue, no proprietary screws, and oem batteries available everywhere.

Replacing the battery for my Surface Pro was a different story. The shop told me there's a high probability that removing the screen will break it. Warrant repairs from Microsoft consist of them taking your surface and shipping you a refurbished machine in exchange.

I remember the earlier Surface machines got a pretty bad repairability rating from iFixit but it seems newer models get better ratings. I bought the HP precisely because of its repairability.

I'm curious if it's possible to build a 2015 MBP from scratch with aftermarket replacement components...

I don't like working with mobile / laptop parts except for user replaceable, or very easy ones. They make all kind of decisions with no repairability in mind. It can be very error prone. All that said, IDK how hard a MBP battery is. The HTC m8 I tried to replace the battery on, it was one of the last parts you could remove and a bit of a mess of wires, glue, ribbon, and tape. Of course that was a cell phone and a laptop should be easier.

I broke an iphone a couple of years ago while replacing the battery. I follower all the instructions but some small part accidentally snapped. I swore Id never touch such tiny corcuitry ever and instead go to a repair guy who charges quite decently, depending on the model. Sometimes its now worth fixing it, the parts and fixing fee are a bit above buting a refurb.

Yeah, I completed a mid-2011 screen replacement. The screen worked, but it'd never leave sleep. It's a very repairable device. I'm sure people that do it all day have an easier time. I was able to fix my projector, which was pretty cool. A rare win.

The iFixit guide for battery replacement on the mid-2015 MBP [1] is a 74 step process involving the use of a nasty chemical solvent to remove the glue that holds the battery. You must have found some enormous shortcuts to have replaced your battery in 15 minutes!

I'm quite comfortable opening most electronics, but my MBP is one of the few I would hire a professional to handle.

[1]: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Retina+Disp...

The late 2015 model is, relative to the mid-2015, much simpler. Only removing a few ribbon cables and prying the old battery out (heat and fishing wire works ok, I didn't need solvent).

It was more like 30 minutes for me, but maybe if I need to do it again it'll be quicker.

All this was neccesary because I'm in Poland which doesn't have 1st-party Apple stores and none of the AASP would touch it.

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