apple Louis Rossmann just had 20 Apple batteries seized by US Customs

[Carclis]

What I wanna know is why these goods are simply confiscated and that's it. If the goods are sold as genuine Apple parts then isn't the onus on the seller to make sure they're genuine? Why would the buyer be punished for what is the seller's problem? If it is however the case that the parts purchased were never disclosed as being original then it would seem that the responsibility would lie with officials to prove otherwise. Is it just me or is "innocent until proven guilty" totally amiss here?

[Master Disaster]

1 hour ago, asus killer said:

i went to my local customs and saw personally people got their nikes stoped. You are the one that have to prove they are legit, and of course they aren't or you would by them in your country. This is not rocket science.

Do you really believe is claims that those 20 batteries (and all the ones he says he imports) are removed from legit apple products. Oh come on let's be real here.

Please learn the difference between counterfeit and refurbished.

[Brooksie359]

9 hours ago, Spotty said:

Louis Rossmann purchases the batteries from a non-authorised supplier in China. I do not believe he would know the original source of the batteries beyond the Chinese seller that ships the parts in to the USA. His claim was that US Customs wouldn't know the difference between a genuine battery and a counterfeit battery bearing the Apple^TM logo and branding as they lack the technical knowledge - and that it was possible that the batteries may be genuine batteries, such as batteries taken from old recycled devices as you suggested. However it is noted that he does not outright claim that this was the case, merely offers it as a possible explanation, and also offers not supporting evidence to suggest the goods were genuine.

 

Another poster in the thread has noted that previously Rossmann has purchased "genuine" apple parts, only to receive the items and further investigate them to find that they were indeed counterfeit. I'm not sure if they have a source for these claims (@indrora Was it a youtube video where Rossmann shows off counterfeit parts he has received? Link?), but here is their quote

 

 

There's a very real possibility that Louis Rossmann believed he was ordering genuine/recycled parts, however the supplier from China shipped him fake/counterfeit parts instead. Rossmann has not received the goods, and at this stage he has no way of knowing the authenticity of the items beyond the legal notice he received from the United States Customs and Border Protection office which states the goods are counterfeit, and any claims made by him are purely speculation and assumptions without any supporting evidence.
 

If Louis Rossmann takes this matter to court, the alleged counterfeit parts will be presented as evidence and his legal representation will have an opportunity to argue the authenticity of the items, and will have the opportunity to have the goods inspected by an independent third party expert/witness. There is the possibility that if Rossmann decides to pursue the matters in court, then it *may* be determined that the goods were indeed genuine Apple parts and that the US CBP made a mistake in their initial claim that they were counterfeit - in which event Rossmann would be able to counter sue the US CBP for legal fees, as well as loss of business as a result of withholding the parts. If the matter goes to court the evidence will be presented and hopefully the court documents made public and we can look at the court documents and evidence submissions, along with expert testimonials as to the authenticity of the goods (which, if this is Rossmann's defence he will most definitely need), and then make our own judgements based on the information presented.

 

At this point of time there are two sides to the story in regards to whether or not the batteries are genuine. Side A) is presented by a department of the United States Government in the form of a legal document that states that the goods have been inspected and have been determined to be counterfeit - A claim that if found to be made incorrectly could have serious legal repercussions. Side B) is presented by Louis Rossmann in a youtube video who claims that Apple is evil and it's all a conspiracy theory to get him.

 

The US CBP are able to make the claim that the goods seized were counterfeit, as they have intercepted and inspected the goods in order to make that determination. Rossmann has no basis to make claims that they are genuine parts as he has not inspected the goods and has no supporting evidence to indicate that they are genuine, other than, and I'm paraphrasing here; 'Our supplier in China tells us these are good batteries and the Louis Rossman store has a good customer rating; so these must be genuine batteries' (6:02).

 

Am I completely disregarding the possibility that these were indeed genuine parts removed from recycled machines that were seized by customs by mistake? Absolutely not - However, with the limited information provided to us currently, there's no reason to believe this to be the case. It's still open as a possibility, however there is no information at this time to support this theory.

Likewise, until there is factual information provided to support the claims by Louis Rossmann, any claim that the seizure of goods by the US CBP was undertaken on behalf of Apple in an attempt to get revenge on Louis Rossmann for participating in a CBC report is nothing more than a conspiracy theory.

People need to base their opinions based upon the information that is provided to them and not be either a Rossmann or Apple fanboy just believing whatever suits their own agenda and bias. There are far too many people in this thread that are blatantly believing any claim Rossmann makes without any supporting evidence simply because of the fact that they do not like Apple or their business practices.

Many people don't like Apple because of their practices and what they have done to stop third party repair. All their previous actions against third party repairs indicate they don't like the idea of it and want to prevent it. That information would give apple motive which would be some information to base the position people are holding that you find baseless. Not saying I agree with them but to think people are basing their opinion off of nothing is just a lie.

[Brooksie359]

9 hours ago, mate_mate91 said:

That's their own fault. If you are stupid enough to stand in a line on the streets and spend many nights in the tent to get a phone for 1000$ and be beta tester for company which makes billions out of you and your alikes that's your fault. No one is to blame here! No one forced you to do that. I like what apple does to it's customers, they deserve it! They transformed iphone into a luxury phone. Nothing, i mean NOTHING is luxury about that phone except the price! They made it the device by having which you have some kind of social status. I and many people do not think so! Apple will exist until people like this (iSheep) will exist. I am not spending thounds of dollars on tech. I always buy devices which i need! I play on them, i watch movies on them, i do not have to buy different dongles for them, when they get damaged i can always repair them by changing damaged part and get them in working condition and this costs me very cheap. Also they are prety modern and good looking devices. My laptop for example T440s. 1.56 kg 1080P IPS display 2 batteries and you can put 3 SSDs in it. q 2.5" and 2 M.2. Tell me which macbook can have 3 SSDs in it? Also it has shitload of ports. 3 USB3.0, VGA, mini display port, RJ45, 3.5 jack, sim card slot, SD card reader, smart card reader and a docking port with posibility to extend ports quantity by 3x. It's relible much more relible then any macbook and also has spill resistant keyboard.

 

Again, does someone force you to buy that? Why do not buy product which is cheaper? If you can't afford it there are many options. Just do not buy! Do not get ripped off! If you need tablet get older model, get new one after some months used, search for alternatives, wait for discounts. There are people who have Galaxy S8 and when S9 was released they went and bought that. Where is logic? What is a difference between S8 and S9? Those people clearly have money but no brains. They are brainwashed by commercials. Just put those devices side by side and tell me why would you want to buy S9 if you already have S8. What S9 can do that S8 can't? 

Someone can do something that doesn't make financial sense and still be intelligent. I mean I have made purchases that make little sense but I wanted to do it anyways fully aware of that. How people spend their money is up to them and doesn't determine their how smart they are. It seems to me that you simply hate people who buy apple products. 

[Master Delta Chief]

This comes to me as somewhat unsurprising as Apple's towards the regular repair shops have been somewhat unfriendly... I get it to some extent that they want to 'protect' the customer from getting 'improper' repairs or replacements from certain shops, but if Apple themselves do not provide the necessary tools nor the necessary parts, then they get these kinds of situations. The timing with Rossman's situation is rather interesting since they knew about those questioning from the CBC's a few months before. 

 

Regardless, the way that the Customs have handled this issue is unprofessional. Do they even have the proper way to identify the product as not being a counterfeit anyway? Don't they normally do investigations on whether it's true or not? Too much time consuming I suppose? These handlings have to stop and things regarding the law behind it have to change. One way or another, some sort of larger controversy is gonna drop one day and Apple will regret it, a lot (at least that's what I'm hoping for). The public must get more aware of these practices.  

[Brooksie359]

3 hours ago, Carclis said:

What I wanna know is why these goods are simply confiscated and that's it. If the goods are sold as genuine Apple parts then isn't the onus on the seller to make sure they're genuine? Why would the buyer be punished for what is the seller's problem? If it is however the case that the parts purchased were never disclosed as being original then it would seem that the responsibility would lie with officials to prove otherwise. Is it just me or is "innocent until proven guilty" totally amiss here?

I feel like he should at least be able to see the products himself to be able to determine if they are genuine and he should fight it or they are fake and should let it be. I mean being in a situation where you have to fight it saying that the products aren't counterfeit without actually knowing if that's the case is kinda crappy. 

[abazigal]

Looks like Louis is just up to his old tricks again. Take a small issue, blow it out of proportion, get all the attention while the truth gets ignored. 

 

Seems he is slowly turning into the very thing he claims to be fighting. 

[Spotty]

32 minutes ago, abazigal said:

-snip-

 

 

So basically he knew that the batteries were likely coming from a factory that was not licensed/permitted to produce the batteries on behalf of Apple, and that these batteries carried the Apple logo and branding (without permission from Apple), and that he would normally have the supplier try to conceal the Apple branding to avoid being detected/seized by customs, and admits that in this case it's possible that the supplier failed to take steps to conceal the counterfeit items that lead to the customs seizure, or that Customs was more vigilant than usual in detecting the counterfeit goods...

 

He really should have just abandoned the shipment and moved on.

[79wjd]

@abazigal yep, that seems pretty par for the (Rossman) course.

[mrchow19910319]

someone read this ... im too lazy to explain

 

 

https://new.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/9pow06/louis_rossmann_admits_to_using_parts_from_a/

 

[abazigal]

26 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

someone read this ... im too lazy to explain

 

 

https://new.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/9pow06/louis_rossmann_admits_to_using_parts_from_a/

 

I just linked to it above.  

[Blademaster91]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

So basically he knew that the batteries were likely coming from a factory that was not licensed/permitted to produce the batteries on behalf of Apple, and that these batteries carried the Apple logo and branding (without permission from Apple), and that he would normally have the supplier try to conceal the Apple branding to avoid being detected/seized by customs, and admits that in this case it's possible that the supplier failed to take steps to conceal the counterfeit items that lead to the customs seizure, or that Customs was more vigilant than usual in detecting the counterfeit goods...

 

He really should have just abandoned the shipment and moved on.

Except with Louis admitting having the logos covered, he's probably had it done a bunch of times before without customs ever stopping his shipments, something doesn't add up especially after the CBC story, i'd still assume Apple had the shipment stopped on purpose. I mean tons of "fake" batteries get through every day, and are likely made in the same factories as the "real" ones. Even if the logos were not concealed, it having a logo shouldn't be stopping it from going though customs because it's not like they would know it's a "genuine" battery or not.

1 hour ago, abazigal said:

Looks like Louis is just up to his old tricks again. Take a small issue, blow it out of proportion, get all the attention while the truth gets ignored.

An r/apple thread, totally not a an echo chamber of diehard elitists that wouldn't sh*t on Louis every chance they get. Apple being one of the most anti right to repair companies that have punished 3rd party repair shops many times issues like this deserve some attention.

[abazigal]

9 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

Except with Louis admitting having the logos covered, he's probably had it done a bunch of times before without customs ever stopping his shipments, something doesn't add up especially after the CBC story, i'd still assume Apple had the shipment stopped on purpose. I mean tons of "fake" batteries get through every day, and are likely made in the same factories as the "real" ones. Even if the logos were not concealed, it having a logo shouldn't be stopping it from going though customs because it's not like they would know it's a "genuine" battery or not.

An r/apple thread, totally not a an echo chamber of diehard elitists that wouldn't sh*t on Louis every chance they get. Apple being one of the most anti right to repair companies that have punished 3rd party repair shops many times issues like this deserve some attention.

So it's easier to believe that Apple somehow has Louis Rossman in their sights and is going out of their way to screw with him, to the extent of actually being able to get the government to go along with their little gig, rather than the more likely explanation that Louis did in fact attempt to bring in a dodgy consignment of batteries which then (rightfully) got impounded by Customs, as per the law?

 

That he wasn't caught the past couple of times doesn't mean this wasn't right. It's like someone saying "But I wasn't caught speeding the last couple of times. OMG, Apple must have gotten the traffic police to book me this time round! Conspiracy!!!". 

 

Louis is either getting paranoid to the point where he is seeing Apple boogeymen where none exist, or he simply sees this as another opportunity to put out a video bashing Apple (which, last I checked, is totally raking in the view counts). Maybe even both. Ironic, really. He will likely earn more from said video to cover the costs of the confiscated batteries, and then some. 

[Canada EH]

On 10/18/2018 at 8:51 PM, S w a t s o n said:

They knew who's batteries they were seizing.

The government knew and did Apples bidding.

Corrupt as fuck!

[DrMacintosh]

9 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

The government knew and did Apples bidding.

Corrupt as fuck!

Oh noes, the government is enforcing the law! What are we ever going to do with the rampant corruption T.T 

[Mooshi]

Regardless of your opinion on this, these batteries wouldn't have had to been imported in like this in the first place if Apple weren't so pretentious in regards to their hardware. Getting a laptop battery replaced for ANY OEM should be no more difficult than picking up a bottle of soda from a convenience store.

[Carclis]

3 hours ago, Spotty said:

So basically he knew that the batteries were likely coming from a factory that was not licensed/permitted to produce the batteries on behalf of Apple, and that these batteries carried the Apple logo and branding (without permission from Apple), and that he would normally have the supplier try to conceal the Apple branding to avoid being detected/seized by customs, and admits that in this case it's possible that the supplier failed to take steps to conceal the counterfeit items that lead to the customs seizure, or that Customs was more vigilant than usual in detecting the counterfeit goods...

 

He really should have just abandoned the shipment and moved on.

A battery is not exactly anything special. Certainly not anything exclusive to Apple so I don't get what the problem is. Sure, there is an Apple logo on them, but as mentioned the logo was removed since they are no longer official Apple parts. This is literally Apple pulling a Nintendo; refusing to sell what people want to buy and then sending the law enforcement to crack down on those who pursue the only option. If Apple can't be arsed to provide the service that customers expect of it or to even sell the parts allowing the customer to service a product themselves then they have no business crying to the authorities when somebody else does.

In fact Apple should be glad that somebody else is manufacturing the old parts for devices they refuse to support because it reinforces their own values. What is more environmentally friendly than continuing to use the same device and reusing those materials?
Oh I know! Having customs incinerate your brand new parts for the device that you'd rather have go to landfill!

[jagdtigger]

5 hours ago, abazigal said:

So it's easier to believe that Apple somehow has Louis Rossman in their sights

Not just him, anyone who repairs their stuff...

[Master Delta Chief]

6 hours ago, abazigal said:

Louis is either getting paranoid to the point where he is seeing Apple boogeymen where none exist, or he simply sees this as another opportunity to put out a video bashing Apple (which, last I checked, is totally raking in the view counts). Maybe even both. Ironic, really. He will likely earn more from said video to cover the costs of the confiscated batteries, and then some. 

Well big influential companies/businesses tend to go to such lengths nowadays where they would just try to minimize the negativity in communities or just attempt to close down those with greater influence. Even those that seem to be doing something 'wrong' like with Apple for example: those who are hacking their devices and just 'jailbreak' them. In fact they should be happier that people attempt to do this since that's one of the ways to know whether if there's a bug or exploit that they can patch up. In other words, they could offer them a job to work for them. But instead, they just crack them down... 

 

With Rossman's case, the timing seems to be either just a coincidence or it's just some sort of retaliation against what he does. And to be fair, even if it is indeed true that he knows about the batteries not being 'authorized' by the original manufacture, if they're good quality and just work as they should be, then I don't see the problem at all. But of course, you can't fake it that it actually came from the original creators. Still, if he can't buy them from the original manufacture (like in this case) and he has to get it from somewhere else, then this is on Apple, not on him. 

[Tenelia]

On 10/19/2018 at 8:11 AM, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

On Rossmann's video, he mentioned that while the Customs Department claims they were counterfeit, they could've been actual legitimate batteries.

"Could have been".

[Amazonsucks]

On 10/18/2018 at 7:34 PM, mr moose said:

Whilst I don't know the particular details of these situations, After an extensive discussion on here earlier this year it would appear the US has some pretty dodgy laws in place to protect their corporate overlords.

As if theyre the only ones?

[Speed Weed]

21 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Oh noes, the government is enforcing the law! What are we ever going to do with the rampant corruption T.T 

Overthrow the government. This is when guns become legal for citizens to overthrow the government. 

[mr moose]

6 hours ago, Amazonsucks said:

As if theyre the only ones?

only ones what?,   This news is about the US customs being controlled by private corporations in the US.  I don't think other countries have that much control over US customs.

[Tenelia]

Er, I'm not sure if this Louis guy is fulltime tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist. As in, if someone were to tell me such stories about Intel or Microsoft I'd be super skeptical... I'd understand if it were once or twice, but really just to spend all that corporate resources on one person? Seriously?

[hobobobo]

Considering the fact that apple has its own inside police does not seem much of a stretch for them to have external police to deal with those evil do-no-goodders who strive to demolish a lush, sublime ecosystem apple has built for its loyal, valueable customers. I mean, companies 1/100 the size of apple have media damage control, some of them even have a significance cutoff of 10k views, which is nothings. Writing a bot to sift through the web in search of apple+negativity is a trivial task when you employs tens of thousands of programmers.

 

Dunno about you, fellas, but the only way to side with Apple on this, even considering lack of proper info, is to have their marketing department so far up your hole that it tickles the brain