Luke Tully writes that Apple wanted to charge him $2051, in Canadian dollars, to repair a "minimally damaged" laptop screen. This is more than the replacement cost of the entire machine.
This was the single most dissapointing interaction I've had with any tech support rep as far as I can recall. The numbers Joe suggested in this conversation are either entirely fabricated, or belong to the cost of replacing the entire machine if its experienced catastrophic damage. But, after clarifying numerous times about what the numbers actually represent and comparing to previous repair bills for the same issue, my belief is that the rep used a false and obscured repair order to persuade me to replace my girlfriend's minimally damaged screen with a new computer.
Among consumer electronics companies, Apple leads the way in limiting customers' legal right to repair what we own. The usual assumption is that they want to have a monopoly on repairs, but another way of seeing it is that Apple just doesn't want anything repaired at all. As Tully writes, they would rather we throw it away and buy new equipment.
