• Obinice@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    This must be nonsense. No huge company with competent legal experts are going to allow a policy of blatant personal property theft.

    They’re evil but they’re not stupid.

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        A youtube with an utterly idiotic grin on the front slide doesn’t make it any less illegal.

        Of course, in some jurisdictions their repair contract might hold water in a court. In most it won’t, for example over here in Germany plenty of our law automatically invalidates lots of stuff a company might put in their EULAs or TOS. They are allowed to write it in there, but even if you explicitly click accept, it’s invalid and has no legal bearing, as if it were simply not in there.

        But I had something similar happen before actually, where the item was “lost” basically. Net result was getting a replacement and a free upgrade for personal use (that is, I got the same phone back which was my work phone, and the better model explicitly to use personally as an apology).

        But that’s the thing, they know it’s cheaper to give 1 in 50000 people a free item and/or money in return for saving 1.2% on their personel cost and training cost for service centres. That’s why they do this. They institutionalized the incompetence resulting from their lack of training and staffing.

        • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          You say you’re in Germany; that is all the difference. The U.S. and its legal system, government and lawmakers have all been bought and paid for. Big businesses do what they want here.

    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      You didn’t read the article, did you? It’s in their repair contract that you must agree to before sending things in for repair.

      From a legal perspective, they didn’t steal it…

      …you gave it to them.

      • coffinwood@discuss.tchncs.de
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        5 months ago

        Depends. Where I live even signed contracts can be deemed illegal in parts if a clause is still seen as unexpected or surprising for the customer.

        If Google included a clause that states the customer loses a kidney to them, wouldn’t make it legal just because it’s written there.

        • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          It’s legal in the United States where consumer protection laws aren’t as strong as in some other places.

        • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          This one isn’t though. There’s no law against it in the United States, thus it is legal.

          Murder contracts specifically are illegal because they contract for an illegal activity. Giving your phone to Google isn’t an illegal activity. Yes, it sounds and feels like theft, but it doesn’t meet the legal definition of theft.

    • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It is actualy legally considered stealing. There might be countries where their service centre TOS are allowed to overwrite common law, but that would be outliers. In virtually all countries it’s just theft.

    • troed@fedia.io
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      5 months ago

      When you live in a sane country. I can’t imagine this applying anywhere in Europe for example.

  • macniel@feddit.de
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    5 months ago

    Why don’t they just replace the non-OEM parts and make the repair bill larger? Keeping the device is just theft.

    • Deello@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      If you send in a phone with non-OEM parts it’s safe to assume that it’s a bit on the older side. You’re probably sending it in instead of buying a new phone because you can’t find a repair shop that will work on your device because sourcing parts can be difficult for older devices. If you’re suddenly hit with a bill that costs more than the value of a new phone, or at least a replacement, suddenly paying becomes questionable. But yeah, you’re right. It feels like theft.

      • macniel@feddit.de
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        5 months ago

        Okay but there is a thing called Estimate and either the customer agrees with the bill or they need to give the item back.

        • Deello@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          Customer: my phone doesn’t charge

          Estimate:
          $100 USB charge board
          $50 labor
          $10 shipping $160 total

          Actual price:
          $120 Screen (OEM replacement)
          $75 fingerprint reader+assembly (OEM replacement) $40 speaker (OEM replacement)
          $100 USB charge board
          $120 labor
          $10 shipping
          $465 total

          I think most people would swallow the loss and use it as an excuse to upgrade. Use that same money for a new phone instead of a fixed phone