Secret shop of Tech repair stores reveals violations in users privacy.

[dalekphalm]

On 10/20/2023 at 8:11 PM, LAwLz said:

Nathan Fielder had a solution for this ages ago. Too bad it didn't catch on. 

 

Anyway, I am not surprised. At the end of the day it's just a person who is repairing your device, and people are curious. 

The irony of this video being geoblocked in Canada.

On 10/21/2023 at 4:43 AM, jagdtigger said:

*sigh*

An another smear campaign? I find it very intrreyting that most(if not all) of these researches only look at 3rd party repairs when the manufacturers repair services do the same  thing (ppl are ppl regardless where they work and under what rules).

I think the reason they looked at 3rd party repair facilities only is due to practical logistics.

 

You can just walk into Best Buy, Staples, Mobile Klinic, etc, and drop off a computer and get service. Outside of Apple Store, you really can't do that with an OEM 1st party repair. Almost all Windows based third party repair centres are depots where you have to mail the computer in.

 

On top of that, many Computer OEM's actually have agreements with Best Buy, etc - where the retail store will do the OEM repairs for them.

 

This is not a smear campaign. It is simply focused on one specific aspect that your typical consumer is likely to experience.

[jagdtigger]

8 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

This is not a smear campaign.

When someone puts in bad light a subset of the maeket while conveeniently ignoring the compefition which is know  to dump on said subset that is very much a.smear campaign....

[dalekphalm]

11 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

When someone puts in bad light a subset of the maeket while conveeniently ignoring the compefition which is know  to dump on said subset that is very much a.smear campaign....

No it's not. Your own biases are, IMO, colouring your judgement here.

 

CBC isn't doing a hitpiece on Apple's behalf if that's what you think. And besides, if they did do first party manufacturer repairs, and then only did the Apple Store (because Lenovo, Samsung, HP, Dell, etc, don't have repair stores you can just walk into), wouldn't that just be a different form of ignoring the competition unfairly?

 

You can take a Mac to Staples or Best Buy for repair, the same as a Windows PC. I know - I used to work for Staples doing PC Repairs, and we got Macs in every now and then (plus when we sold a Mac, we sometimes did setup services, like doing a Bootcamp build, etc).

 

They are simply looking at third party repair stores that the regular public can easily use.

[wanderingfool2]

5 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

And besides, if they did do first party manufacturer repairs, and then only did the Apple Store (because Lenovo, Samsung, HP, Dell, etc, don't have repair stores you can just walk into), wouldn't that just be a different form of ignoring the competition unfairly?

The difference is that Apple does have a store you can walk right into.

 

Also, Apple is the one who shouts to the world that they respect privacy.  It should be one of the stores they test then, given they are calling out the other large competitors of walk in servicing.

 

Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't do it as well because they might know the likely response from Apple is to just replace their computer.

 

I don't think it's a hit piece, but I do think it's incomplete and likely still some form of biased reporting (after all, no mention of the companies that did pass).  No mention of the dialogue they used when explaining the issue to the tech.   Sure they highlighted the most serious cases they came across, but if hypothetically they have 20 "violations", but 1 was for snooping pictures and 19 were for opening up their "history" if they said they were having issues loading some sites.

 

Or for the "broken USB" port, if they said "I have this USB that I can't access the files from my computer" and when they fixed the issue with the USB; if the technician tried opening a file on the USB to verify it's working.  It's why I think knowing the dialogue and exact circumstances are important.  Because in the hypothetical of the broken USB, a client who messed up their USB in software is also likely to have messed up their USB itself (and trust me, if you call them that it's fixed and their USB is corrupt you will never hear the end of it)

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

The difference is that Apple does have a store you can walk right into.

Yes, and I covered that in the comment you replied to. If they did Apple but not Dell, Lenovo, etc - how is that any less biased?

3 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Also, Apple is the one who shouts to the world that they respect privacy.  It should be one of the stores they test then, given they are calling out the other large competitors of walk in servicing.

I do think Apple should be tested in this method. I would suggest a follow up investigation in which 1st party repair services are tested. I do not think it's any more fair to only test Apple and not the other OEM's if they're going beyond third party repair shops.

3 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't do it as well because they might know the likely response from Apple is to just replace their computer.

That is fairly common for Apple to do - but more likely Apple would just perform a format, especially if it's a software issue. This is, IMO, similar to third party repair shops where management pushes a reformat as the solution because it's easy and quick to do.

3 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

I don't think it's a hit piece, but I do think it's incomplete and likely still some form of biased reporting (after all, no mention of the companies that did pass).  No mention of the dialogue they used when explaining the issue to the tech.   Sure they highlighted the most serious cases they came across, but if hypothetically they have 20 "violations", but 1 was for snooping pictures and 19 were for opening up their "history" if they said they were having issues loading some sites.

I agree that they should independently release a report with the full results.

3 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Or for the "broken USB" port, if they said "I have this USB that I can't access the files from my computer" and when they fixed the issue with the USB; if the technician tried opening a file on the USB to verify it's working.  It's why I think knowing the dialogue and exact circumstances are important.  Because in the hypothetical of the broken USB, a client who messed up their USB in software is also likely to have messed up their USB itself (and trust me, if you call them that it's fixed and their USB is corrupt you will never hear the end of it)

That could be relevant if it wasn't a hardware USB issue. I agree that there could be better details in the article.

[jagdtigger]

53 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

No it's not. Your own biases are, IMO, colouring your judgement here.

CBC isn't doing a hitpiece on Apple's behalf if that's what you think.

They could buy them by the kilo and having a spine is quite the rarity these days, as it was presented by car manufacturers and their smear campaign on right to repair. I might have bias but im not so ignorant to rule out a very real thing that can and will happen....

 

56 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

if they did do first party manufacturer repairs, and then only did the Apple Store (because Lenovo, Samsung, HP, Dell, etc, don't have repair stores you can just walk into), wouldn't that just be a different form of ignoring the competition unfairly?

So in your read its not a repair workshop if ppl cant simply walk in? Thats some interesting interpretation. As for you little misleading example it would be the same bad as punching the lowest hanging fruit with the article linked by the OP.....

[dalekphalm]

27 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

They could buy them by the kilo and having a spine is quite the rarity these days, as it was presented by car manufacturers and their smear campaign on right to repair. I might have bias but im not so ignorant to rule out a very real thing that can and will happen....

Obviously bias in journalism can and does happen. I just don't see any specific evidence of it here.

27 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

So in your read its not a repair workshop if ppl cant simply walk in? Thats some interesting interpretation.

Don't put words in my mouth. I did NOT say that it's not a repair shop if people can't walk in. In fact, I quite clearly mentioned Depot repair centres that are mail in services. If you're not going to argue in good faith, I won't continue the discussion.

27 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

As for you little misleading example it would be the same bad as punching the lowest hanging fruit with the article linked by the OP.....

I don't even know how to respond to this. Punching the lowest hanging fruit? They're looking at the most common type of repair shop, the type you can walk into - also the type the vast majority of consumers are likely to experience.