It's harder and harder to like Apple

"El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!" (lightningzone)
10/07/2020 at 09:38 • Filed to: None

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DISCUSSION (31)

Cash Rewards > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 09:47

I don’t know, this is pretty cut and dry. Hard to paint apple as a bad guy here, this is shady and contract-violating on the part of the recycler.

Imagine if a car company kept some cars for CPO sales and sent the rest to be crushed. Instead of crushing them, junkyard is selling them out the backdoor, undercutting CPO sales. That’d be all sorts of bullshit.

My X-type is too a real Jaguar > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 09:47

Why? Apple hired a company to dismantle, recycle and dispose of old Apple products. They paid this company to do just that. The company then resold the products. That’s double dipping that’s gonna get you sued.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 09:48

Not sure why this is such an issue. The firm was hired by Apple to dismantle devices for recycling, and instead they sold them without permission. Apple has every right to sue to stop the unauthorized third-party sale of their devices.

Now, if you want to have a discussion about Apple not wanting to sell devices that are otherwise worth still being used rather than recycled, that is a fine discussion to have. But I do have a problem with Apple wanting to recycle devices to keep e-waste down.

Nothing > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 09:49

I don’t get the issue here. Apple sent the recycling partner devices to recycle, not to refurbish and resell. It’s not like they dropped old iPhones off at Goodwill for a donation, and then sued a Goodwill for selling them.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 09:51

I don’t know, if you pay someone to do a specific job...

I assume Apple determined these phones were not worthy of refurb (which they could’ve made a lot more money from instead of selling to a recycler).

I’ve had an old iPhone nearly blow up because the battery was too far gone - so it really is a safety consideration as well with lithium batteries.

Cash Rewards > My X-type is too a real Jaguar
10/07/2020 at 09:51

Didn't even notice the double dipping aspect. You're right

Svend > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 09:54

While Apple could of refurbed some and resold them.

The recycling company were given a job to recycle the devices and should of done just that.

I'm not an Apple person myself, too much crap to go with having and using a damned phone.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
10/07/2020 at 09:54

But it’s not reducing e-waste. It takes away from the market phones and components that still had life in them. It’s increasing e-waste by making people buy new phones and components.

hillrat > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 10:09

This looks terrible at first glance: Apple sues recycling firm. Then you read the story and you realize that the recycling firm was very clearly wrong.

I hate Apple and their fuckshit, just barely a figleaf of plausible deniability, planned obsolescence business model too but they’re not the bad guy in this story.

Chariotoflove > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 10:11

Remember, Apple pays this company specifically to dispose of and recycle these components in an environmentally safe way. When these inferior components get resold and then fail, they not only hurt Apple’s quality reputation, they also get dumped into trash and end up in landfills. Apple suing to stop this is pretty much their only responsible choice.

Sovande > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 10:13

Reselling the items they are contractually obligated to dismantle is theft.

Roadkilled > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 10:14

Apple’s business model is based on positioning the iPhone as a high-end product and making sure that customers replace their older phones with new phones on a regular basis.

Placing refurbished phones on the market could tarnish that “high-end” image, and it would reduce the sales of new phones. Apple wants to retire as many older devices as possible rather than refurbishing and reselling them.

The question isn’t in respect to the particulars of this one case. It’s whether it is environmentally bad to disassemble de vi ces that could be refurbished and reused.

Apple’s profits are shifting, and they are making less money from hardware and more from services now. Maybe they should learn from the game console business. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft seem to be happy with old consoles remaining in use. They make money off the games and not the hardware. Somebody who buys a refurbished console for $150 has more money left over to buy games than somebody who buys a new console for $400. It’s surprising how few game consoles go to landfills. They seem to get used for extremely long times.

dogisbadob > Cash Rewards
10/07/2020 at 10:21

Junkyards do this sometimes. Cars that go to the junkyard that are still driveable often do get sold as whole cars.

facw > Cash Rewards
10/07/2020 at 10:24

I mean that would be good. Reusing is way better than recycling from an environmental standpoint. Apple is being bad for wanting to recycle devices that still had life in them, not because they are enforcing their contract with the recycler.

Urambo Tauro > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 10:30

I really appreciate GEEP’s desire to reduce and reuse , as opposed to Apple’s jumping straight to the recycle part. Besides, I tend to lean more towards a one-man’s-trash-is-another-man’s-treasure attitude to disposal. Moreover, while this quote is technically correct, it’s also fear-mongering at its finest:

“Products sent for recycling are no longer adequate to sell to cons umers and if they are rebuilt with counterfeit parts they could cause serious safety issues, including electrical or battery defects,” the company tells The Verge.

I hate it when companies like Apple fight so aggressively against right-to -repair efforts. But... a contract’s a contract. If Apple hired them to perform the job a specific way, and GEEP agreed to it, then Apple’s kinda got them by the balls here.

Cash Rewards > dogisbadob
10/07/2020 at 10:33

Right, but in those cases the junkyard doesn’t have a contract stating they won’t do that. If I pay you to do something, you say you do, but you don't, then profit again because of it, that's illegal. Plain and simple.

Cash Rewards > facw
10/07/2020 at 10:36

Did the article do into the level of reconditioning put in by the company?

And it doesn't matter either way. If you sign a contract saying you will do something, and I pay you to do it, and you say you do it, but you actually didn't, that's fraud. And when you turn around and profit off that fraud, that's a huge fucking problem

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 10:37

If Apple is using those recycled components to repair broken devices or reduce raw materials used to make new ones, then they’ve reduced their waste.

Cash Rewards > facw
10/07/2020 at 10:55

Also, yes I agree it's better for the environment to reuse. But let's not pretend the company willing to commit and profit off fraud is doing so out of concern for the environment and not to make a buck defrauding consumers selling pieces of shit that are past their usable lifespan

Cash Rewards > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 11:00

Who says they had life in them? The company commiting and profiting off fraud? Are we sure they're just not ripping off consumers as well as apple by selling pieces of shit with no lifespan or reconditioned with subpart components?

facw > Cash Rewards
10/07/2020 at 11:02

I’m not saying the parent company is good, I’m saying Apple is not being environmentally friendly. Both sides are in the wrong here.

Cash Rewards > facw
10/07/2020 at 11:05

Id have to read more to find out if Apple is really getting rid of products with usable lifespan or just more fraud from the recycler, but if so I'd agree with you

Chariotoflove > facw
10/07/2020 at 11:12

Except that this isn’t really an issue of reusing components with good life in them. Apple itself sells refurbished phones, and you can get refurbished units from sellers everywhere. These are components that Apple determined are no longer fit for use, and they pay extra to have them disposed of in an environmentally responsible way .

If this company resells these substandard parts, they end up damaging Apple’s quality reputation (which would be stupid to allow) and will get discarded in a way that is by no means guaranteed to be safe. A lot of them will get tossed into landfills.

Long story short, this practice is Apple being about as environmentally responsible as a large company can be.

Chariotoflove > Cash Rewards
10/07/2020 at 11:14

According to the article, Apple has deemed these components no longer usable for sale. If they were, they’d put them in their own refurbished phones and make profit instead of paying to discard them.

Cash Rewards > Chariotoflove
10/07/2020 at 11:26

Yeah, I'd guess that the company willing to defraud apple is willing to defraud consumers as well.

krustywantout > Roadkilled
10/07/2020 at 12:00

This is a great point! But apple, contrary to what everyone thinks about them, are capitalist, really good capitalists who use aggressive protection measures to maintain brand loyalty and access to their products. They do not care about the environment; they would rather you buy the newest iteration of their product before making software improvements that basically result in similar improvements. They have already shown to purposely slow down old phones to “preserve batter life” but we know why they really did it.

Roadster939 > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
10/07/2020 at 12:18

Its called Breach of Contract. They are being paid to do one thing, and they do another.

Grindintosecond > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 12:39

This is purely and only contract violation. That is it. Apples repair stance and wholly shitty attitude to customers is another issue and discussion. A much needed discussion.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
10/07/2020 at 13:44

I never did , never learned to use them, I have worked on their shows and they are massive dicks! I won’t work for them again.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > krustywantout
10/07/2020 at 14:19

Remind how many years of updates your typical Android phones get again? 2? 3?

Apple will support phones that are 5 years old. No Android phone has ever had software updates that far out from purchase. People bitch about Apple, but Samsung and all the other Android phone makers have been even more aggressive about obsoleting devices and just making new ones rather than prolonged support.

How about this, t here is no good mobile phone maker. They all suck. Google is a privacy nightmare. Apple is imperfect also.

The only good way to avoid problems is not to own a mobile device.

krustywantout > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
10/07/2020 at 14:55

I’m not comparing one or the other; I own products from both companies . My point is that Apple has an image of a liberal/ peoples company when in reality they are not. I think all the phone companies should be better about extending useful life and recycling. But they also shouldn’t be deliberately impeding performance of older devices.