The CBC’s The National’s undercover report on Apple is not investigative reporting, but instead a one-sided, skewed attack just looking to get views.
*Full disclosure, I spent several years as an Apple Genius, but I no longer work for Apple. I am an Apple fan, but I also criticize them when it’s appropriate.
If you haven’t seen it, and you might not have because it was a story that ran on a Canadian TV station, the CBC’s The National, a program known for hard hitting investigative journalism, ran a piece that went “undercover” to an Apple store in Toronto and exposed an Apple employee trying to up sell a customer from their broken computer. It then devolves into an expose on how Apple doesn’t let third parties repair their products, and ends recycling a nearly one year old Batterygate issue which Apple has since addressed. The video glaringly misses and neglects to mention several key facts and interviews only those who help build their case.
The piece starts out with the undercover journalist going to an Apple store with a MacBook Pro with a non-functioning backlight on his display. The technician goes to the back to open up the computer and comes back with bad news. The computer has been liquid damaged and if Apple were to repair the computer it would cost well over $1000. The Genius points out that purchasing a new computer would be a better option. The journalist acts surprised and pushes to see if anything can be done. The Genius finally says, “no.”
Skip to New York City, where the National visits Louis Rossmann, a Youtube computer repair personality who takes a look at the computer. It turns out that the backlight issue isn’t caused by the liquid damage, but from a bent pin in the display cable. Once bent back, the backlight issue is resolved. Note I said the one issue is resolved. The computer is still liquid damaged AF and I’m sure has a load of other issues. The report goes on to claim that the Genius was maliciously trying to sell him a new MacBook for something that coiuld have been fixed in a few minutes.
This is the first red flag for me. Pins don’t bend themselves inside computers. Just like computers don’t get themselves full of water. Clearly, someone opened the computer, bent a pin to cause the issue, then liquid damaged the computer before taking it to the Apple Store. They knew of Apple’s policies and procedures and bent the pin along with giving the laptop a drink. You can read the policies yourself on Apple’s website, but essential it boils down to, Apple will not do partial repairs on a device if they see other components are damaged. It’s to cover themselves as any smart business would do. Imagine Apple repaired a computer that was dumped in a swimming pool. They replace only the display. A month later the customer comes back saying the display isn’t working again. The display gets replaced again. Then a month later the same thing. Ends up being that the logic board is shorting the display cable because it has corrosion in the connector. So, now Apple has gone through three dispalys and now has to replace the logic board. They need to cover themselves and follow procedures. Any smart and thorough repair centre, for any product, would do the same.
I will concede that there is an issue with Apple retail stores and their ability to be thorough. The craziness of an Apple store has some negative effects on service, namely the time that is given to a customer. In this case, if the Genius were allowed to take time to closely inspect the MacBook Pro, he may have found the bent pin, which wouldn’t have needed a repair and would have resolved the immediate issue. That would have changed the whole story. Instead, because of the frantic nature of an Apple store and the pressure from management to take as many customers as possible, Apple often fails to properly inspect devices with the alotted time. That Genius was setup to fail.
The more journalistic approach would have been to bring in several computer with different issues to different stores to see what the Apple store would say to those repairs. But, the report doesn’t do that, because they know that they could only make their point with a liquid damaged computer. One liquid damaged computer doesn’t tell the whole story.
The piece then moves on to Rossmann and this whole right to repair movement. I’ve never heard of it, but the main argument is that Apple doesn’t allow third parties to repair Apple products and that Apple controls all aspects of repair.
What they neglect to mention is that there are thousands of third party authorized repair centre around the world and that repairs at unauthorized and often shady repair shops can lead to subpart to disasterous repairs.
Then there’s some weak argument that Apple’s parts are proprietary and expense which is just another way of gouging the customer. This isn’t news. Apple products have always been proprietary and that’s why it’s expensive. They customize and patient everything and they’ve been doing it since the original Macintosh. It’s not to gouge customers, it’s just a unfortunate by-product of how they design their devices.
The report ends with a, late to the game, look at Batterygate which Apple has addressed since it all came to light late last year. Now, I don’t believe they were forcing people to upgrade their phones as this story suggests, but I do feel Apple should have been more transparent with what they were doing throttling customer’s older iPhones. Having said that, the story doesn’t do anything to explain natural battery depletion, battery replacement costs, and countless other important factors before rendering a judgement. They also, conveniently, don’t mention how Apple addressed the throttling with the update to disable it, or the performance increase in iOS 12. It’s just shotty, and misleading reporting.
In a time of accusations of fake news being thrown around, the media, more than ever, has to be at their best. This showing from CBC’s The National was not at all their best. The whole story is just a witchhunt directed at Apple with manipulated scenarios, targeted interviews and a lack of understanding and prospective. It’s clickbait. The National used to be better than this.
