Edit: Other parts also have a return credit... camera, display, etc.
The idea is that you are buying new or refurbished products to replace broken parts. So you pay a core fee so you return the broken parts so that they can rebuild them and resell them.
This is common for automparts stores because as long as the cast metal parts are not damaged and within spec then there is no reason they can't be rebuilt. Alternators, water pumps, etc.
You are not obligated to return the parts. You can keep them yourself and if that is the case then they just keep the deposit.
You will lose a ton of money trying to buy a 15 year supply of starters and keeping them in a warehouse for 20 years (remember your sales only start once a car is out of warranty/production).
Car parts tend to fail in waves, so all the water pumps from 2012 Volkswagens are going to start coming in - and getting remanufactured - around the same time people are looking for them. You just buy a few from the OEM to bootstrap.
For phone and computer batteries, it would be kinda nice. After going through ifixit, I've now got a pile of old lithium batteries that I have to figure out how to get rid of.
Distributor obligations - All distributors must: Offer free take back on WEEE; Accept WEEE for free from customers supplied with like-for-like products, regardless of whether this is done in store, online or by mail order
(You're Seattle based so not applicable in your circumstances)
[Source https://www.gov.uk/guidance/regulations-waste-electrical-and...]
Home Depot has bins just inside their stores and accept lithium and usually even nicad batteries. Other recycling locators located on the EPA information page: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-lithium-ion-batteries
This program–the deposit–is strictly about increasing recycling quotas. They do have a refurb program but they'll actually pay you for hardware that can be used for that.
Man I hate that. Only reason used devices are a turn off. Battery has 100% capacity, cycle it, nope 60% actually "brand new, OEM".
Write a comment about this, removed, great
This was a bad scam too because a lot of pretty naive folks got suckered in (battery says 100% but phone is dying, must be something wrong with phone)
Maybe, but that's still a problem they created for themselves. Knockoff sellers would never have marketshare (and thus less economies of scale, reducing their cost advantage) if you can buy the genuine thing for a reasonable price as conveniently as you can buy the knockoff.
A lot of third-party/aftermarket parts are used not even because of cost but availability. Amazon offers same or next-day shipping for a lot of these knockoff batteries.
This reminds me of an incident when I needed to replace a lost AirPod - I was ready to pay and yet couldn't just walk into an Apple Store and buy the part. I had to instead set up a "repair" and wait for shipping and then UPS screwed it up twice. It took weeks and hours of annoyance over email/phone for something that should've taken 15 minutes to buy at the Apple Store on my way to the office.
Don't disagree, they should make genuine batteries broadly available.
The Reichmont nonprofit does the same thing. (I love throwing in nonprofit status. I don't know how they get away with that business entity.)
(NCWAA has been fighting for access to parts since the 70's with zero progress.)
Apple displays and cameras are certainly not something you can buy in bulk on the open market as a device manufacturer.
It'd be awesome if I could head on down to a phone parts store and pick up a couple of components so my phone can live perpetually in repair, but we're not quite that far along yet.
And your problem with this is what, exactly ?
If you are genuinely repairing something then we're only talking a small window when you will be out of pocket (the time between receiving the part, replacing old one, sending old one back).
Apple do the same thing with iPhone exchanges under Apple Care. They'll send you out a brand new iPhone in advance (to allow you to transfer data etc. as required), but they'll take a deposit. If you don't send your broken iPhone back, they'll keep the deposit. Seems perfectly fair to me.
AFAIK in one way or another, the practice is widespread in the IT industry. For example, I recently replaced a Dell monitor on warranty. They didn't take payment up-front, but they certainly made it clear to me in no uncertain terms that I would be charged if I failed to return the monitor.
In terms of Apple specifically, its basically the way they work with their Authorised Service Providers. If the AASP fails to return parts, then the cost is billed to their company's account with Apple.
The reality is that in the world we live in, these sorts of parts/repair services are subject to fraud and other malicious use. So manufacturers (whether Apple or otherwise) are perfectly entitled to protect themselves.
That's if you look at it on an individual quantity. In volume quantity there may be other considerations at play.
> This is clearly a bad-faith effort to make stocking up on parts impossible and make the entire process more inconvenient than it needs to be.
Give me a break !
For a start, this isn't a "parts stocking" programme, it is a self-repair programe. You obtain relevant parts on a Just-In-Time basis. Jeez !
If you want to stock parts, go become an Apple Authorised Service Provider. You even get a credit account so you don't have to pony up the cash up-front.
Why can't it be both? Most existing "self-repair" programmes (before such things had to have a specific name instead of just "buying parts") such as the ones for cars work just fine on the model of "show up at the dealership, give them a part number & payment card and walk out with your new part". They don't care if you're buying these parts to repair your car now or keep it for later and managed to stay in business for decades just fine.
> You obtain relevant parts on a Just-In-Time basis.
One major advantage of a self-repair programme (as opposed to just doing the repair at Apple or an AASP directly) is that you can work around some of the logistics and make the operation quicker/more efficient.
If you are particularly careless and smash your phone frequently (or your friends do, like in my case) you can keep spares of commonly-broken parts in advance so that the actual repair process is really quick and only involves a couple hours or downtime.
Having to order parts in advance and having to return the old part in a specific timeframe means you need to schedule the entire thing and plan around the logistics of it and it can no longer be a "I have a couple hours to kill tonight, let's make my phone new again" thing, at which point you get back most of the inconveniences of doing an official repair such as scheduling it, waiting for shipping, etc. I suspect this might be the point of these restrictions.
> If you want to stock parts, go become an Apple Authorised Service Provider.
Can I become an AASP if I do one repair a month? If so sign me up!