Someone from our village was today recounting to me his attempts to get the
battery of his iPad replaced. This unit was originally purchased at John Lewis
in Ashford, during the short period of time that this store *was* a JL. This
was some years ago. He asked them to transfer all his apps and data from a
previous iPad to this new purchase, and they kept the it for 24 hours while
this was done. He says this is the only time his iPad has been out of his
possession since purchase.

Now: fast forward some years to now and the battery is now only holding charge
for a few hours, so he looked into getting the battery replaced. He took it to
a store locally (not a 'proper' Apple Store but an accredited re-seller) who
said "No problem", and gave a quote of around £150 or thereabouts. Then they
send him an email with a new quote, and this salient comment:

"After running diagnostics on your iPad, they did fail due to your battery and
therefore it does need the battery to be replaced. We did notice however that
your digitiser for your display was replaced with a third party alternative.
Due to the third party tampering inside the device, we will have to quote you
to replace the entire iPad which would be £301."

It seems that their battery repair policy is to replace the entire iPad with
an exact replacement at a "battery cost" but if and only if the ONLY fault is
the battery. Otherwise they want to charge full price for that older model.

Now my question is, what is all this about a "third party digitiser"? How
could this be? Did John Lewis replace the digitiser before delivering the
device? Is it some sort of grey import (but then why would JL have them)? Did
the factory use some illicit cheaper parts to save themselves some money
without telling Apple?

If this chap went to a proper Apple Store, could he get more info based on the
serial number, and then be able perhaps to ding JL for selling a fake import?

--
Tim

On 23 Feb 2024 at 19:06:11 GMT, "TimS" <tim@streater.me.uk> wrote:
>
> If this chap went to a proper Apple Store, could he get more info based on the
> serial number, and then be able perhaps to ding JL for selling a fake import?

Sounds more like the shop is putting him on in the hope of palming him
off with a different ipad instead of doing the work at all. Perhaps
their het gun has failed.

Cheers - Jaimie

--
'It's one of those irregular verbs, isn't it? `I protect the
lives and property of my citizens; you keep the public
safe from an unreasonable and trouble-generating
minority; he maintains a totalitarian regime of
thought control.' -- Bernard, Yes Minister

On 23 Feb 2024 at 19:20:29 GMT, "Jaimie Vandenbergh"
<jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:

> On 23 Feb 2024 at 19:06:11 GMT, "TimS" <tim@streater.me.uk> wrote:
>>
>> If this chap went to a proper Apple Store, could he get more info based on the
>> serial number, and then be able perhaps to ding JL for selling a fake import?
>
> Sounds more like the shop is putting him on in the hope of palming him
> off with a different ipad instead of doing the work at all. Perhaps
> their het gun has failed.
>
> Cheers - Jaimie

*heat gun
--
People who think they know everything really annoy those of us who know we don't
-- Bjarne Stroustrup

On 23 Feb 2024 at 19:20:29 GMT, "Jaimie Vandenbergh"
<jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:

> On 23 Feb 2024 at 19:06:11 GMT, "TimS" <tim@streater.me.uk> wrote:
>>
>> If this chap went to a proper Apple Store, could he get more info based on the
>> serial number, and then be able perhaps to ding JL for selling a fake import?
>
> Sounds more like the shop is putting him on in the hope of palming him
> off with a different ipad instead of doing the work at all. Perhaps
> their heat gun has failed.

It seemed to me that they wouldn't be doing a physical repair in either circ.
For a battery-only fault, he'd get a new iPad at £150. If there was anything
*else* wrong, he'd get a new iPad at £301. But in both cases it would be the
same model that he was getting "repaired", not a recent new model.

--
Tim

On Feb 23, 2024 at 2:06:11 PM EST, "TimS" <tim@streater.me.uk> wrote:

An iPad is always an iPad.

> Now: fast forward some years to now and the battery is now only holding charge
> for a few hours, so he looked into getting the battery replaced. He took it to
> a store locally (not a 'proper' Apple Store but an accredited re-seller) who
> said "No problem", and gave a quote of around £150 or thereabouts. Then they
> send him an email with a new quote, and this salient comment:

Being an "accredited re-seller" does not mean you are authorized to do repairs
with genuine Apple parts. Sounds to me like they might be trying to just screw
him.

How old is this iPad? What model is it? Settings, General, About will show
the model name and number. If it is still being supported by Apple, take it to
an actual Apple store and see what they say.

On 23/02/2024 19:06, TimS wrote:
> Someone from our village was today recounting to me his attempts to get the
> battery of his iPad replaced. This unit was originally purchased at John Lewis
> in Ashford, during the short period of time that this store *was* a JL. This
> was some years ago. He asked them to transfer all his apps and data from a
> previous iPad to this new purchase, and they kept the it for 24 hours while
> this was done. He says this is the only time his iPad has been out of his
> possession since purchase.
>
> Now: fast forward some years to now and the battery is now only holding charge
> for a few hours, so he looked into getting the battery replaced. He took it to
> a store locally (not a 'proper' Apple Store but an accredited re-seller) who
> said "No problem", and gave a quote of around £150 or thereabouts. Then they
> send him an email with a new quote, and this salient comment:
>
> "After running diagnostics on your iPad, they did fail due to your battery and
> therefore it does need the battery to be replaced. We did notice however that
> your digitiser for your display was replaced with a third party alternative.
> Due to the third party tampering inside the device, we will have to quote you
> to replace the entire iPad which would be £301."
>
> It seems that their battery repair policy is to replace the entire iPad with
> an exact replacement at a "battery cost" but if and only if the ONLY fault is
> the battery. Otherwise they want to charge full price for that older model.
>
> Now my question is, what is all this about a "third party digitiser"? How
> could this be? Did John Lewis replace the digitiser before delivering the
> device? Is it some sort of grey import (but then why would JL have them)? Did
> the factory use some illicit cheaper parts to save themselves some money
> without telling Apple?
>
> If this chap went to a proper Apple Store, could he get more info based on the
> serial number, and then be able perhaps to ding JL for selling a fake import?

The alternatives would seem to be:

1) Someone at JL swapped his brand-new iPad for a refurb (of what was at
the time a brand-new model) that they just happened to have on hand at
that time for reasons that are not at all obvious?

2) Apple's repair records are wrong and/or their product specs are wrong
and the alleged "third party digitiser" is actually a genuine, factory
fitted Apple part.

3) The current shop are hoping to charge £301 for a repair but only pay
Apple £150 and pocket the difference? (And risk losing their reseller
accreditation if caught out.)

4) The villager did in fact, at some point, break the screen or the
fingerprint button and sent it in for repair and he's forgotten. (Or a
relative did and managed to get it fixed without him knowing!)

5) The current shop have mixed-up two customers?

All but the last seem a bit improbable, tbh.

--
Bruce Horrocks
Surrey, England

TimS <tim@streater.me.uk> wrote:
> Now my question is, what is all this about a "third party digitiser"? How
> could this be? Did John Lewis replace the digitiser before delivering the
> device? Is it some sort of grey import (but then why would JL have them)?
> Did the factory use some illicit cheaper parts to save themselves some
> money without telling Apple?

Supposedly there's a menu you can see whether the device has been repaired
or not, and what kind of parts were used:

https://support.apple.com/en-asia/102658

It also tells you the date of repair.

Theo

On 23 Feb 2024 at 23:25:18 GMT, "Tyrone" <none@none.none> wrote:

> On Feb 23, 2024 at 2:06:11 PM EST, "TimS" <tim@streater.me.uk> wrote:
>
> An iPad is always an iPad.
>
>> Now: fast forward some years to now and the battery is now only holding charge
>> for a few hours, so he looked into getting the battery replaced. He took it to
>> a store locally (not a 'proper' Apple Store but an accredited re-seller) who
>> said "No problem", and gave a quote of around £150 or thereabouts. Then they
>> send him an email with a new quote, and this salient comment:
>
> Being an "accredited re-seller" does not mean you are authorized to do repairs
> with genuine Apple parts. Sounds to me like they might be trying to just screw
> him.

I think they were always going to send it off to be repaired. No, wait, that's
a contradiction as they were always going to *replace* it with the same model.

> How old is this iPad? What model is it? Settings, General, About will show
> the model name and number. If it is still being supported by Apple, take it to
> an actual Apple store and see what they say.

I have no more detail about the specific model at the moment. Our nearest
Apple Store is at Bluewater, some 45 miles away. There's also a John Lewis
there. My friend is in two minds as to whether to bother, but I suspect he (or
I, if I go with him) will get better info at the Apple Store. Anyway a trip to
Bluewater is always a larf. We can take the SWMBOs with us.

He's a retired dentist but is something of a technophobe and a Mac neophyte.
He's bought a MacBook to replace the now-flaky iPad, although this latter may
have been driven by offspring. I shall be trying to help him with that.

--
Tim