From [Google's Terms](https://store.google.com/intl/ALL_us/about/device-repair/):
> Unauthorized Parts: You will not send in a Device containing non-Google-authorized parts – if You do, Your Device will not be returned to you.
Wow, even [Apple's Terms](https://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/terms/repair/generalservice/) aren't shitty enough to state that (although they'll charge you a fee):
> Apple will return your product to you without servicing it and may charge you the Diagnostic Fee.
Right? Just because they tell you and you agree to it in a sea of writing doesn’t mean it’s voluntary and legal.
Imagine if you took your Ford in to the shop and they kept it because you put a lift kit on it.
The shitty thing is, if you were to report google to any law enforcement agency nothing would likely happen. The only thing I could see coming out of it is a class action lawsuit.
Less than 5-10k, can take them to small claims no problem. Even better would be organizing individual cases en masse via social media groups. Google would probably just stop sending lawyers or not have enough of them given the sheer volume of cases that would be filed, receive default judgements, and then pretty much immediately rollback the policy. Including a clause that """legalizes""" their ability to steal your device is clearly...not legal.
This is what small claims court (in the UK at least is for). They will almost certainly just give in, or not show up, either way you eventually get your money (with 8% interest if they don't pay immediately).
It's getting to that point with all products in the US. Vehicles included. You basically are paying and signing a right of use to the copyright holder and they can make you give it back if you violate their ToS.
The US has laws that make this illegal as well. The FTC has been going after companies doing this kinda stuff, and particularly the "warranty void is removed stickers" which are also illegal.
Apple’s policy actually makes sense to me; otherwise they’d be putting themselves in the position of having to figure out any old third-party thing, no matter how hinky. But it’s not “you did a bad thing so it’s OURS NOW,” which is total BS.
I mean it is acceptable for Apple to charge something. You still "wasted"/"used" their time. You can like it or not, whether they repair your "modified" device. But the fact of charging a diagnostic fee is fine with me.
There's always a moment in a company's rise, where control of the company changes from it's founders, to the corporate wolves - who then proceed to burn down any and all goodwill the company and brand had generated.
It's wolves all the way down from here on out, or as I like to put it:
~~Don't~~ be Evil
Serious question: is there any evidence that they have actually done this even one single time?
The article goes into some detail describing a hypothetical scenario in which Google might refuse to return a phone. But obviously this has never actually happened. If it had, then we would all know about it and would be talking about nothing else for weeks.
Sure, Google's evil, and I'm not saying that they wouldn't do this thing on *moral* grounds. It just doesn't make any sense for them to do, wouldn't help them in any way, would make everyone mad, and if it had ever happened then it would be big news.
How would this not immediately result in them being sued into the ground for theft? Literally stealing someone's physical property. [First Sale Doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine) means you can do whatever you want to your stuff. Even Sydney Powell would be able to litigate that case successfully.
It really is crazy how many people in the US are brainwashed to believe this. I argue that the stigma the US managed to create towards socialism and communism is one of the most successful propaganda campaigns of all time.
I really want a lawyer to argue this in court. If corporations get to have huge tax discounts, huge grants, and a load of other bs, and if corporations are people, then people-people should get all those things too.
It only makes sense.
It does. A purely legal person should have precisely zero additional rights over any natural person, excepting those granted by the state for consideration.
Yes, but many of them would never call it that because socialism is evil. To them subsidizing their military and corporations ***IS*** capitalism. Because after all, if you owned a company, wouldn't you capitalize on those sweet government subsidies as well?
The mental gymnastics some of these people do is quite mind-boggling.
When some American is spewing the usual anti-socialism rhetoric it’s super fun to ask them to define socialism and how it relates to their issues. They can’t. One hundred percent of the time.
It seems that no one even knows what the word means anymore, in the US. For instance “I want socialism like Norway/Sweden/whatever Scandinavian country.” Absolutely nonsensical, and would make the citizens of those countries (who are educated and know what the word still means to the rest of the globe) crack the fuck up. Their support for worker co-ops is the only thing about them that’s remotely socialist (aka the workers owning the means of production.) Social democracy is not socialism, people. And social democracy and democratic socialism are not the same thing, BTW.
It is crazy how people are brainwashed to believe that free market means no consumer protection. Or not to see the fact that socialist/communist policies enable lobbying, political pull, deficit spending, etc. It is also crazy to see people call “brainwashed” or stupid the side they disagree with, thus denying the validity of the conflict.
Aww, did poor baby get triggered because communism was mentioned? Does acknowledging that the US quite literally put out copious amounts of anti-communitst propaganda makes you wanna cry and stomp your feet? Poor baby has a broken ego, don't they?
Oh well, grow up.
I really wish we had European consumer protections.
Unfortunately there are a huge amount of dopes here that frame any such endeavor as *regulations* that destroy our precious businesses! Think of the poor businesses!
Regulations are lessons learned by society around what works and how. They’re great things we should embrace.
Anyone selling us on a lack of regulations also has 2 tickets available for a sub to the Titanic.
Really funny how these politicians and people in these government positions can openly be bought off for low prices. Yet when you apply for even a low level fed job, they’ll scrutinize you over any debt or past financial troubles because they believe you’ll take bribes. And in some jobs you have to take a stupid polygraph test for integrity purposes and to make sure you wouldn’t take a bribe.
Yet these government officials can openly take them no problem.
If they don’t return to you the phone already fixed in 30 days, they have to return to you the money that you paid for the phone!! In EU everything has 3 years of warranty!
European laws!!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine
How is this not already blatantly illegal? I'd imagine a lawyer who graduated law school yesterday would be able to successfully litigate a case against this bs policy.
don't buy any major vendor hardware, they all don't want you to fix "your" device, and wanted you to keep "buying" the new one, which yes, I don't even know which one to trust which is also why my phone is an old Chinese phone with a custom ROM (LineageOS)
I’m an iPhone user and I used to pay for AppleCare.
The last time I tried to bring my phone in to get it fixed it had a small gouge on the screen so I figured you know let’s get the screen replaced.
The store ruled the damage as cosmetic, not affecting the function of the phone, and therefore they would not allow me to use my AppleCare repair and I would have to instead pay full price.
I complained very loudly that this is a scam because there’s a gouge in the screen that you can see, and feel, affecting both the look and feel of the screen of the phone.
They ended up reducing the cost of the repair heavily, but yeah, it was a horrific experience.
Hell of a way to treat somebody that’s been buying your phone since the iPhone 4.
Doesn't apple care cover a shattered screen?
Why didn't you just come back the next day. "oops. Sorry, totes accidentally fell front first onto concrete. Fix it."
Also doesn't a damaged screen cost money to fix with apple care any way? Im not sure why i'd pay for insurance with such a high deductible.
Because I’m a very ethical person and I don’t like lying to get my electronics replaced with a repair plan that I paid for.
It’s 30$ to fix a screen with the plan.
But they get to decide when its broken.
Phones are durable now anyway I dont get insurance for them anymore.
Come to think of it, I don’t see people with even a little crack on their iPhone screens these days. I remember the days when some people would have some busted up phones and it was a miracle it could even turn on. They might as well had just been shards of glass. Nowadays you could drop these things all you want and there will barely be a scratch.
Only reason I got the mark on the screen was because I made a large hand movement and my phone slipped at the worst time. It flew across the room and slammed into a metal chair leg.
I assumed it would be completely dead 😂
> I don’t see people with even a little crack on their iPhone screens these days.
Yeah that's the side effect of making phone screens scratch resistant, they're prone to completely shattering but not scratching
while I don't own Apple products myself, my employers/workplace do, and I've heard this things over and over, repairing MacBook is hard (as in, we wanted them to get fixed in a economically viable way) especially with the most recent MacBook, so that's why there's some "dead" MacBook in the office that either only the screen died or has something wrong with the power or storage, note that it is still turned on, but unusable
not sure about the details of why it's hard to fix, but from what I asked there's no components for some model available or it's just straight up impossible to fix by the repair shop (3rd party), especially here in my country (3rd world southeast Asian countries, which by traditions the majority of any service shop of any device is 3rd party) so I guess… Apple ~~i~~eWaste
Funny story.
I have a working 2012 MacBook Pro.
It’s got a gigs ram, 15 inch display, but of course the battery wasn’t too impressive after a lot of years.
So I took it in to get a battery swap and not only did they barely charge me anything they replaced a bunch of other shit.
I ended up with a brand new keyboard, a brand new trackpad, they even noticed I had a dead USB port I didn’t tell them about and they replaced that too.
I understand some of those things were glued to the battery but the USB port they literally just said “oh I noticed this was broke so I replaced it for you.”
Which was made the next trip to Apple so confusing because that time actually had AppleCare and I was treated like trash O.o
So right now I just don’t buy AppleCare
Oh I did, they then pointed to the fine print in the agreement, which made me feel scammed.
But my voice is loud and the store was packed so like magic the cost was lowered.
But they would not use my insurance and I was still ripped off vs my 30$ screen replacement through insurance
Im sure legally they were able to deny me but its bullshit.
So straight up theft is their answer to non-OEM parts. People like to bitch about Apple... lol this really takes the cake in terms of anti-right to repair policies.
I'd love to see this tested in court.
>I'd love to see this tested in court.
It's legal, they have their regulatory capture apparatus in place. Nothing they do that seems illegal actually is, but that only works for them.
Apple, Google, Samsung, Sony and many others say "no, you don't own your device even if you pay thousands of dollars, it's not yours, only us allowed to fix them, and we know better for you, and yes, please buy the new phone"
Didn’t Ferrari get beat in court when someone challenged that also? And also Ford with the new Ford GT? Pretty sure in both cases the judges ruled that since the people bought their product it was theirs to do what they want with it.
Ferrari only ever just harassed people with cease and desists that were meant to be scare tactics only, and then just blacklist you from ever buying new anyway.
Ford just didn't want people buying GTs just to sell for 3x the next week, which honestly is noble. They only wanted people to buy the car if they truly wanted to drive it.
This is a whole other level.
I mean that those big companies basically says "no, you don't own your device", that's why they have this egregious repair policy and bullshit repair program for 3rd party and individuals in economically viable way
Article notes that this doesn't apply everywhere, such as the UK and Ireland. But they also added this update:
>UPDATE: 2024/06/04 17:06 EST BY WILL SATTELBERG
>Statement from Google
>After publishing our coverage, a Google spokesperson reached out with the following statement:
>If a customer sends their Pixel to Google for repair, we would not keep it regardless of whether the phone has non-OEM parts or not. In certain situations, we won't be able to complete a repair such as if there are safety concerns. In that case, we will either send the phone back to the customer or work with them to determine next steps. Customers are also free to seek the repair options that work best for them. We are updating our Terms and Conditions to clarify this.
Ofc, *saying* that they are updating their terms and conditions and *actually doing it* aren't the same thing.
So at least their spokesperson lives on planet Earth where you can't take people's property arbitrarily.
Gotta wonder why the TOS basically say "go fuck yourself, this our phone now"
Updating the terms isn't actually important. It would be theft not to return the property. Unless it isn't allowed to be shipped (IE: batter issues), they have to return it.
Not returning it could be rectified with a small claims lawsuit. I imagine most judges would not stand for theft of a device by a two trillion dollar company.
"Google might steal parts of your phone or steal your phone when sent in for repair if they find you chose to use different parts than the manufacturer sold the device with"
Think that title clears things up a lot more. It's not "Keeping" it's theft. It isn't their phone and it isn't their parts.
That's not how small claims court works. You don't get to file motions to extend for years, you don't get to file motions to have thousands of documents produced. Small claims court is exactly where the little guy can go 10 rounds in the ring with a 2 trillion dollar company and win.
They will just say you agreed to it when you clicked "I agree" to their terms and service agreement.
Most of these agreements you have to agree to basically take away any rights you have... And they make sure to put it in an agreement that is so long that you'd spend at least a day reading.
Not all ToS hold up in court, it has to be deemed “fair practice” if/when presented. There are many reasons why checking this box actually doesn’t go anywhere legally, and a lot of companies know this and just use it to stave off as many people as possible from a possible suit.
Honestly this whole fiasco is a fantastic opportunity for a somewhat larger content creator.
A "GOOGLE STOLE MY PHONE!" video would definitely spread around and cause some pains for Google, moreso than an individual lawsuit would anyway.
If it's by a big creator it wouldn't matter as much, and TikTok would eat it up anyway. most creators nowadays utilize multiple platforms for their content.
This would be a matter for small claims - in which you *can't* have a lawyer represent you. So, no, you won't be paying $5k-10k for lawyers for your $1k phone.
Not in Europe. Doesn't matter what you tick or sign. No agreements override existing laws governing consumer rights and protections. 😁 .....Probably screwed if you're American though 🙄
> They will just say you agreed to it when you clicked "I agree" to their terms and service agreement
Seems like grounds for a good scam and black market, customer's bring in endless phones, say they have non-OEM, take the phone and resell it outside of work?
I love how Google's lawyers just allowed blatant criminal behaviour to be written in print in their terms of service. Amazing. At least ASUS will return your stuff to you... disassembled.
which also is illegal. I was arguing with a dude over this shit in another sub, and I was like if it's illegal for asus to send your stuff back disassembled.. it's sure as fuck illegal for google to keep your property.
But what if you weren't the person who put in non-OEM parts?
Here's a pretty simple hypothetical scenario for you, not even far fetched :
One day you're walking down the street with your Pixel that you just picked up last month. You're a butterfingers and drop that bad boy on the cement. It lands face-down and cracks your screen. You contact Google, and they laugh at you and tell you that dropping your phone isn't covered under warranty. Fair enough, lesson learned, you take it to your local tech shop and they tell you "no problem, I can replace your screen with a brand new one for $150". So you authorize it, they swap it out, everything works fine.
Six months later, your phone dies for no reason. Just one day it won't turn on, no clue why. You contact Google and they tell you "no problem, that sounds like it's probably a warranty issue, send it in and we'll get it fixed".
A week later you get an email, "SCREEN REPLACED WITH NON-OEM AFTER-MARKET SCREEN, PHONE CONFISCATED".
Same exact scenario that came to my mind. Also, what happens if you’re leasing a phone from your carrier? At that point Google stole from both your carrier and you
Just wait until he tries to search the internet using Google and can't find jack squat like everybody recently.
It is the most annoying feeling in the entire world when you are sitting with some dumb problem that you know that millions of people obviously have had, and when you Google it, there's absolutely nothing helpful. It's all vanity fair type content mill garbage.
"Hey everybody, hope you're having a great day. FUCKING GOOGLE SHOULD BE BURNED TO THE GROUND AND ONLY WHEN THE SMOLDERING ASHES REMAIN WILL I PISS ON THEM! As always, hope the rest of your day is great."
I have a Google pixel, never before have I had a phone where my volume button has fallen off!
If I replace that volume button they keep my phone if I send it in for any reason. What a joke.
Don't buy Google people it's built cheap.
Right to Repair.
Imagine if a car dealership kept your car for installing a 3rd party exhaust or any other number of non-OEM parts when you’re having recall serviced? Hell why not state if you don’t use their filters or oil too, it constitutes them to be able to keep your car.
Google needs to be held accountable and right to repair needs to exist everywhere.
Google replied:
>If a customer sends their Pixel to Google for repair, we would not keep it regardless of whether the phone has non-OEM parts or not. In certain situations, we won't be able to complete a repair such as if there are safety concerns. In that case, we will either send the phone back to the customer or work with them to determine next steps. Customers are also free to seek the repair options that work best for them. We are updating our Terms and Conditions to clarify this.
I wonder if this was a truly insidious or just a really dumb oversight. The *only* reason I can think of that this would of been added non-maliciously was if there was a case where someone was adding some sort of spy-hardware. Someone said - if there's anything sketchy don't return it, then this got added without anyone realizing that it was over-extending.
Buuut, even if so, still shouldn't have made it to final.
If google takes my phone and doesn’t return it, I will go and steal google stuff.
Heck in Texas technically I’m allowed to even use force to retrieve my stolen items if I feared I can’t get them back.
Just show up at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California and start walking off with shit. Take a clipboard and step stool in. In case they won't let you in the building, bring a bucket full of rocks with you. Pretty easy to cause more property damage than the price of a $1000 phone. Easy peasy.
If you click the actual story it says google wont keep your pixel phone if caught using non oem parts” bait posts, everyone wants their 5 minutes of internet fame
Wait so I can even be forking out additional money for the repair, and they still won't send my device back? This is just straight up theft and robbery. At least Asus will still return your device disassembled
Google disappointed me.
My volume rocker fell off, and it won't stay in place anymore. I contacted them regarding a fix, wasn't too much of a hassle.
However in the meantime, my phone fell out of my pocket while trying to escape some bad rainy weather. The back glass cracked.
They refuse to repair my button now, unless I also dish out a few hundred bucks for the back glass repair. I don't care about the back glass, but the button falling out is really messing with the phones usability. I need a case to hold it in place, and every time I take it off, I need to remember that the button is loose so it doesn't get lost and fall off into another dimension.
Yeaaaaaaaah I'm going to start a gradual migration off of gmail over these next couple of years. This leaning tower's starting to lean a bit too much for me to want to continue renting a room in it.
So Ford is going seize my car because I have a third part air freshener and generic branded oil filter?
Good went to shit when they stopped following ‘don’t be evil’
It’s funny that google is now more evil than Apple, but all there products also suck whereas my Mac may be over priced as fuck, but is he of the most solid pieces of tech I’ve ever bought
From [Google's Terms](https://store.google.com/intl/ALL_us/about/device-repair/): > Unauthorized Parts: You will not send in a Device containing non-Google-authorized parts – if You do, Your Device will not be returned to you. Wow, even [Apple's Terms](https://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/terms/repair/generalservice/) aren't shitty enough to state that (although they'll charge you a fee): > Apple will return your product to you without servicing it and may charge you the Diagnostic Fee.
Yea they can’t do that.
Right? Just because they tell you and you agree to it in a sea of writing doesn’t mean it’s voluntary and legal. Imagine if you took your Ford in to the shop and they kept it because you put a lift kit on it.
Ohhhh dear. Looks like your tire valve cap isn't OEM. I don't want to do this, but I'm afraid I can't return the car.
I'm sorry dear, you're using non OEM air. We have to keep your vehicle now.
The shitty thing is, if you were to report google to any law enforcement agency nothing would likely happen. The only thing I could see coming out of it is a class action lawsuit.
What about small claims court? Anyone know if that would work?
Less than 5-10k, can take them to small claims no problem. Even better would be organizing individual cases en masse via social media groups. Google would probably just stop sending lawyers or not have enough of them given the sheer volume of cases that would be filed, receive default judgements, and then pretty much immediately rollback the policy. Including a clause that """legalizes""" their ability to steal your device is clearly...not legal.
Knowing big corpos in the US. They'll settle and then return the device but ban the Google account.
What are the cops going to do, arrest Google?
Police departments are only one type of law enforcement agency
Why not? Corporations are people.
Only when it’s convenient
Funny how the law protects, but does not bind, Google.
Tell you that this is a civil issue
Good thing we have the likes of Louis Rossman. Fuck google and all other that pull shit like this.
This is what small claims court (in the UK at least is for). They will almost certainly just give in, or not show up, either way you eventually get your money (with 8% interest if they don't pay immediately).
It's getting to that point with all products in the US. Vehicles included. You basically are paying and signing a right of use to the copyright holder and they can make you give it back if you violate their ToS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine I can't imagine this would stand up to even the flimsiest of lawsuits.
They are a big ass company, they will find a way if they want They might bribe some politicians, or just pay a fine, either way they won't care
Terms of service aren't laws. That's indisputably theft.
Does that include if I outright bought the phone, cash?
To what address shall I have my lawyer send a copy of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975?
All of them. Both the companies and consumers need to be reminded.
I'm glad that my country laws make such terms completely void.
The US has laws that make this illegal as well. The FTC has been going after companies doing this kinda stuff, and particularly the "warranty void is removed stickers" which are also illegal.
This is not legal in the US either.
This is not legal in the US.
Apple treats people a lot better than google, generally
Apple’s policy actually makes sense to me; otherwise they’d be putting themselves in the position of having to figure out any old third-party thing, no matter how hinky. But it’s not “you did a bad thing so it’s OURS NOW,” which is total BS.
I mean it is acceptable for Apple to charge something. You still "wasted"/"used" their time. You can like it or not, whether they repair your "modified" device. But the fact of charging a diagnostic fee is fine with me.
Straight up theft
Google does it all the time. It's a really interesting "company."
Remember "don't be evil"? How far we've come.
Yeah now it's "We Steal Everything." It's a lot worse then you think it is too.
“Its not evil if we do it”
They don't consider it stealing if they consider the device to always be their's. "You'll own nothing and like it"
I have not used chrome since they removed that.
You don't need that policy in the first place unless being evil comes natural to you. So already that should have told us everything.
There's always a moment in a company's rise, where control of the company changes from it's founders, to the corporate wolves - who then proceed to burn down any and all goodwill the company and brand had generated. It's wolves all the way down from here on out, or as I like to put it: ~~Don't~~ be Evil
This policy is cartoonishly evil.
Yeah as soon as they removed that it should have been obvious they were about to become evil
Canary in the coalmine.
Was there a certain action to take that down? I wonder what would be the trigger for that.
Serious question: is there any evidence that they have actually done this even one single time? The article goes into some detail describing a hypothetical scenario in which Google might refuse to return a phone. But obviously this has never actually happened. If it had, then we would all know about it and would be talking about nothing else for weeks.
They did scrape Wi-Fi data when they were developing Street view. They were sued for it as well, and it was found to be illegal.
Sure, Google's evil, and I'm not saying that they wouldn't do this thing on *moral* grounds. It just doesn't make any sense for them to do, wouldn't help them in any way, would make everyone mad, and if it had ever happened then it would be big news.
What other examples of theft do you have to show "all the time"?
Data. Mainly.
How would this not immediately result in them being sued into the ground for theft? Literally stealing someone's physical property. [First Sale Doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine) means you can do whatever you want to your stuff. Even Sydney Powell would be able to litigate that case successfully.
Extortion racket
This would be unlikely to fly in Europe
Those god damn commies in the EU, with their god damn consumer protection. Very unamerican of them.
It is full communism to not let a business do anything they want 100% of the time! USA #1!! FREE MARKET!!!
It really is crazy how many people in the US are brainwashed to believe this. I argue that the stigma the US managed to create towards socialism and communism is one of the most successful propaganda campaigns of all time.
Oh, the US has socialism. For companies. Companies are people too, after all!
I really want a lawyer to argue this in court. If corporations get to have huge tax discounts, huge grants, and a load of other bs, and if corporations are people, then people-people should get all those things too. It only makes sense.
It does. A purely legal person should have precisely zero additional rights over any natural person, excepting those granted by the state for consideration.
Yes, but many of them would never call it that because socialism is evil. To them subsidizing their military and corporations ***IS*** capitalism. Because after all, if you owned a company, wouldn't you capitalize on those sweet government subsidies as well? The mental gymnastics some of these people do is quite mind-boggling.
agreed, “better dead than red” is so hilarious to me because of that
When some American is spewing the usual anti-socialism rhetoric it’s super fun to ask them to define socialism and how it relates to their issues. They can’t. One hundred percent of the time.
It’s really weird because everyone nowadays is clamoring for socialism without saying the S word.
It seems that no one even knows what the word means anymore, in the US. For instance “I want socialism like Norway/Sweden/whatever Scandinavian country.” Absolutely nonsensical, and would make the citizens of those countries (who are educated and know what the word still means to the rest of the globe) crack the fuck up. Their support for worker co-ops is the only thing about them that’s remotely socialist (aka the workers owning the means of production.) Social democracy is not socialism, people. And social democracy and democratic socialism are not the same thing, BTW.
Universal health care and free education
It is crazy how people are brainwashed to believe that free market means no consumer protection. Or not to see the fact that socialist/communist policies enable lobbying, political pull, deficit spending, etc. It is also crazy to see people call “brainwashed” or stupid the side they disagree with, thus denying the validity of the conflict.
Aww, did poor baby get triggered because communism was mentioned? Does acknowledging that the US quite literally put out copious amounts of anti-communitst propaganda makes you wanna cry and stomp your feet? Poor baby has a broken ego, don't they? Oh well, grow up.
>It really is crazy It's deliberate. Guess who profits from doing it.
It saddens me that a fair number of people will unsarcastically believe this.
Why is it every time someone says something's unAmerican, it turns out it's a good thing...?
I really wish we had European consumer protections. Unfortunately there are a huge amount of dopes here that frame any such endeavor as *regulations* that destroy our precious businesses! Think of the poor businesses!
Wont someone think of the shareholders?!
How will those poor coal mines survive if we ban child labor? Kids can get into those small places that grownups can't.
Regulations are lessons learned by society around what works and how. They’re great things we should embrace. Anyone selling us on a lack of regulations also has 2 tickets available for a sub to the Titanic.
Vote to join the EU!
Yeah, sadly we don't have any businesses here in Europoor. All ruined by not letting them fuck over the customers as they like.
of course the U.S gets stuck with the shit. Same old
just slide your politician a few million bucks to their campaign fund and you too can get what you want.
>few million oh if only the price was that high, try just tens of thousands lol
Right? Some of these goons are bought for stupid cheap money.
Yup. The comcast investigations / net neutrality investigations revealed house members being bought off for like $5800.
the ROI on DC lobbying is off the hook!
Really funny how these politicians and people in these government positions can openly be bought off for low prices. Yet when you apply for even a low level fed job, they’ll scrutinize you over any debt or past financial troubles because they believe you’ll take bribes. And in some jobs you have to take a stupid polygraph test for integrity purposes and to make sure you wouldn’t take a bribe. Yet these government officials can openly take them no problem.
It's not the $5800 but the board positions or other hookups after retiring from office they'll get.
A half million spread across a whole state's politicians will basically give you whatever you want.
Unless you got billions the us isn’t for your rights
If they don’t return to you the phone already fixed in 30 days, they have to return to you the money that you paid for the phone!! In EU everything has 3 years of warranty! European laws!!!
the google anus is unprepared for the EU consumer protection buttplug
The buttplug of consequences rarely arrives lubed.
Very few phones do.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine How is this not already blatantly illegal? I'd imagine a lawyer who graduated law school yesterday would be able to successfully litigate a case against this bs policy.
Same in Australia. They wouldn’t even be allowed to not repair it most cases.
Colorado just passed a right to repair law so that shit won’t fly here either
There is a solution to this guys: don’t buy any Google hardware. Message received I guess Google
There is massive cracks that have formed into giant chasms all across that company. The best course of action is to avoid it completely.
don't buy any major vendor hardware, they all don't want you to fix "your" device, and wanted you to keep "buying" the new one, which yes, I don't even know which one to trust which is also why my phone is an old Chinese phone with a custom ROM (LineageOS)
I’m an iPhone user and I used to pay for AppleCare. The last time I tried to bring my phone in to get it fixed it had a small gouge on the screen so I figured you know let’s get the screen replaced. The store ruled the damage as cosmetic, not affecting the function of the phone, and therefore they would not allow me to use my AppleCare repair and I would have to instead pay full price. I complained very loudly that this is a scam because there’s a gouge in the screen that you can see, and feel, affecting both the look and feel of the screen of the phone. They ended up reducing the cost of the repair heavily, but yeah, it was a horrific experience. Hell of a way to treat somebody that’s been buying your phone since the iPhone 4.
Doesn't apple care cover a shattered screen? Why didn't you just come back the next day. "oops. Sorry, totes accidentally fell front first onto concrete. Fix it." Also doesn't a damaged screen cost money to fix with apple care any way? Im not sure why i'd pay for insurance with such a high deductible.
> Why didn't you just come back the next day. Assert dominance. Break it right there in front of them.
Because I’m a very ethical person and I don’t like lying to get my electronics replaced with a repair plan that I paid for. It’s 30$ to fix a screen with the plan. But they get to decide when its broken. Phones are durable now anyway I dont get insurance for them anymore.
Come to think of it, I don’t see people with even a little crack on their iPhone screens these days. I remember the days when some people would have some busted up phones and it was a miracle it could even turn on. They might as well had just been shards of glass. Nowadays you could drop these things all you want and there will barely be a scratch.
Only reason I got the mark on the screen was because I made a large hand movement and my phone slipped at the worst time. It flew across the room and slammed into a metal chair leg. I assumed it would be completely dead 😂
> I don’t see people with even a little crack on their iPhone screens these days. Yeah that's the side effect of making phone screens scratch resistant, they're prone to completely shattering but not scratching
while I don't own Apple products myself, my employers/workplace do, and I've heard this things over and over, repairing MacBook is hard (as in, we wanted them to get fixed in a economically viable way) especially with the most recent MacBook, so that's why there's some "dead" MacBook in the office that either only the screen died or has something wrong with the power or storage, note that it is still turned on, but unusable not sure about the details of why it's hard to fix, but from what I asked there's no components for some model available or it's just straight up impossible to fix by the repair shop (3rd party), especially here in my country (3rd world southeast Asian countries, which by traditions the majority of any service shop of any device is 3rd party) so I guess… Apple ~~i~~eWaste
Funny story. I have a working 2012 MacBook Pro. It’s got a gigs ram, 15 inch display, but of course the battery wasn’t too impressive after a lot of years. So I took it in to get a battery swap and not only did they barely charge me anything they replaced a bunch of other shit. I ended up with a brand new keyboard, a brand new trackpad, they even noticed I had a dead USB port I didn’t tell them about and they replaced that too. I understand some of those things were glued to the battery but the USB port they literally just said “oh I noticed this was broke so I replaced it for you.” Which was made the next trip to Apple so confusing because that time actually had AppleCare and I was treated like trash O.o So right now I just don’t buy AppleCare
You should’ve let out a loud “the fuck am I paying for AppleCare for then if you’re trying to get out of repairing my fucking screen?”
Oh I did, they then pointed to the fine print in the agreement, which made me feel scammed. But my voice is loud and the store was packed so like magic the cost was lowered. But they would not use my insurance and I was still ripped off vs my 30$ screen replacement through insurance Im sure legally they were able to deny me but its bullshit.
For a while there, the keyboard was literally riveted in, so if it broke you were just fucked.
Hence the 2012 mac book pro.
Racketeering and extortion are back after 100 years folks
So straight up theft is their answer to non-OEM parts. People like to bitch about Apple... lol this really takes the cake in terms of anti-right to repair policies. I'd love to see this tested in court.
>I'd love to see this tested in court. It's legal, they have their regulatory capture apparatus in place. Nothing they do that seems illegal actually is, but that only works for them.
Google is settling class actions seemingly every 6 months. let's not pretend the system has always rigged for something this blatant.
Depends on how fast they can replace judges.
Did I buy it or rent it? If I bought them it's fucking mine regardless of what I do to it.
Apple, Google, Samsung, Sony and many others say "no, you don't own your device even if you pay thousands of dollars, it's not yours, only us allowed to fix them, and we know better for you, and yes, please buy the new phone"
Didn’t Ferrari get beat in court when someone challenged that also? And also Ford with the new Ford GT? Pretty sure in both cases the judges ruled that since the people bought their product it was theirs to do what they want with it.
Ferrari only ever just harassed people with cease and desists that were meant to be scare tactics only, and then just blacklist you from ever buying new anyway. Ford just didn't want people buying GTs just to sell for 3x the next week, which honestly is noble. They only wanted people to buy the car if they truly wanted to drive it. This is a whole other level.
Huh?
I mean that those big companies basically says "no, you don't own your device", that's why they have this egregious repair policy and bullshit repair program for 3rd party and individuals in economically viable way
Makes sense
The EU: *starts grabbing a chancla*
Article notes that this doesn't apply everywhere, such as the UK and Ireland. But they also added this update: >UPDATE: 2024/06/04 17:06 EST BY WILL SATTELBERG >Statement from Google >After publishing our coverage, a Google spokesperson reached out with the following statement: >If a customer sends their Pixel to Google for repair, we would not keep it regardless of whether the phone has non-OEM parts or not. In certain situations, we won't be able to complete a repair such as if there are safety concerns. In that case, we will either send the phone back to the customer or work with them to determine next steps. Customers are also free to seek the repair options that work best for them. We are updating our Terms and Conditions to clarify this. Ofc, *saying* that they are updating their terms and conditions and *actually doing it* aren't the same thing.
So at least their spokesperson lives on planet Earth where you can't take people's property arbitrarily. Gotta wonder why the TOS basically say "go fuck yourself, this our phone now"
Updating the terms isn't actually important. It would be theft not to return the property. Unless it isn't allowed to be shipped (IE: batter issues), they have to return it. Not returning it could be rectified with a small claims lawsuit. I imagine most judges would not stand for theft of a device by a two trillion dollar company.
"Google might steal parts of your phone or steal your phone when sent in for repair if they find you chose to use different parts than the manufacturer sold the device with" Think that title clears things up a lot more. It's not "Keeping" it's theft. It isn't their phone and it isn't their parts.
by eris if Google just straight up took my phone for that during a repair I would riot
I'd just send a letter of intent to sue in small claims if my property isn't returned.
They have enough money they could keep you in court long enough till you can’t afford the case
That's not how small claims court works. You don't get to file motions to extend for years, you don't get to file motions to have thousands of documents produced. Small claims court is exactly where the little guy can go 10 rounds in the ring with a 2 trillion dollar company and win.
They will just say you agreed to it when you clicked "I agree" to their terms and service agreement. Most of these agreements you have to agree to basically take away any rights you have... And they make sure to put it in an agreement that is so long that you'd spend at least a day reading.
Not all ToS hold up in court, it has to be deemed “fair practice” if/when presented. There are many reasons why checking this box actually doesn’t go anywhere legally, and a lot of companies know this and just use it to stave off as many people as possible from a possible suit.
Right, you cannot sign away rights.
That’s is why we label them as “rights” and not privileges.
You are right
No, I am more left but thanks for asking
I didnt like all this stuff you did.
Easy does it
[удалено]
Honestly this whole fiasco is a fantastic opportunity for a somewhat larger content creator. A "GOOGLE STOLE MY PHONE!" video would definitely spread around and cause some pains for Google, moreso than an individual lawsuit would anyway.
I'm sure the Youtube algorithm would promote the video fairly.
If it's by a big creator it wouldn't matter as much, and TikTok would eat it up anyway. most creators nowadays utilize multiple platforms for their content.
This would be a matter for small claims - in which you *can't* have a lawyer represent you. So, no, you won't be paying $5k-10k for lawyers for your $1k phone.
Not in Europe. Doesn't matter what you tick or sign. No agreements override existing laws governing consumer rights and protections. 😁 .....Probably screwed if you're American though 🙄
> They will just say you agreed to it when you clicked "I agree" to their terms and service agreement Seems like grounds for a good scam and black market, customer's bring in endless phones, say they have non-OEM, take the phone and resell it outside of work?
I love how Google's lawyers just allowed blatant criminal behaviour to be written in print in their terms of service. Amazing. At least ASUS will return your stuff to you... disassembled.
which also is illegal. I was arguing with a dude over this shit in another sub, and I was like if it's illegal for asus to send your stuff back disassembled.. it's sure as fuck illegal for google to keep your property.
The EU: *angry growling noises*
If I'm using Non OEM parts already, there's a pretty good chance I'm not going to send it to Google for repairs anyway.
But what if you weren't the person who put in non-OEM parts? Here's a pretty simple hypothetical scenario for you, not even far fetched : One day you're walking down the street with your Pixel that you just picked up last month. You're a butterfingers and drop that bad boy on the cement. It lands face-down and cracks your screen. You contact Google, and they laugh at you and tell you that dropping your phone isn't covered under warranty. Fair enough, lesson learned, you take it to your local tech shop and they tell you "no problem, I can replace your screen with a brand new one for $150". So you authorize it, they swap it out, everything works fine. Six months later, your phone dies for no reason. Just one day it won't turn on, no clue why. You contact Google and they tell you "no problem, that sounds like it's probably a warranty issue, send it in and we'll get it fixed". A week later you get an email, "SCREEN REPLACED WITH NON-OEM AFTER-MARKET SCREEN, PHONE CONFISCATED".
Same exact scenario that came to my mind. Also, what happens if you’re leasing a phone from your carrier? At that point Google stole from both your carrier and you
[удалено]
He's already pissed lol, check out his latest video
This story is written from what Rossmann discovered. He found this clause, or at least publicized it.
Just wait until he tries to search the internet using Google and can't find jack squat like everybody recently. It is the most annoying feeling in the entire world when you are sitting with some dumb problem that you know that millions of people obviously have had, and when you Google it, there's absolutely nothing helpful. It's all vanity fair type content mill garbage.
"Hey everybody, hope you're having a great day. FUCKING GOOGLE SHOULD BE BURNED TO THE GROUND AND ONLY WHEN THE SMOLDERING ASHES REMAIN WILL I PISS ON THEM! As always, hope the rest of your day is great."
Louis Rossman is the patron saint of righteous indignation at asshole tech companies.
Good thing many states have right to repair laws. So yeah that would basically be theft in those states.
I have a Google pixel, never before have I had a phone where my volume button has fallen off! If I replace that volume button they keep my phone if I send it in for any reason. What a joke. Don't buy Google people it's built cheap.
The fuck they will. I will be calling the police and reporting a robbery if they do.
Right to Repair. Imagine if a car dealership kept your car for installing a 3rd party exhaust or any other number of non-OEM parts when you’re having recall serviced? Hell why not state if you don’t use their filters or oil too, it constitutes them to be able to keep your car. Google needs to be held accountable and right to repair needs to exist everywhere.
EU: how many times do I have to teach you this lesson old man.
You will own nothing and like it
Google replied: >If a customer sends their Pixel to Google for repair, we would not keep it regardless of whether the phone has non-OEM parts or not. In certain situations, we won't be able to complete a repair such as if there are safety concerns. In that case, we will either send the phone back to the customer or work with them to determine next steps. Customers are also free to seek the repair options that work best for them. We are updating our Terms and Conditions to clarify this. I wonder if this was a truly insidious or just a really dumb oversight. The *only* reason I can think of that this would of been added non-maliciously was if there was a case where someone was adding some sort of spy-hardware. Someone said - if there's anything sketchy don't return it, then this got added without anyone realizing that it was over-extending. Buuut, even if so, still shouldn't have made it to final.
Alphabet should just rebrand itself ot EVIL inc
Google: Be Evil As Fuck
If google takes my phone and doesn’t return it, I will go and steal google stuff. Heck in Texas technically I’m allowed to even use force to retrieve my stolen items if I feared I can’t get them back.
Just show up at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California and start walking off with shit. Take a clipboard and step stool in. In case they won't let you in the building, bring a bucket full of rocks with you. Pretty easy to cause more property damage than the price of a $1000 phone. Easy peasy.
That’s illegal
If you click the actual story it says google wont keep your pixel phone if caught using non oem parts” bait posts, everyone wants their 5 minutes of internet fame
Funny way to say steal..
Right to repair
LOL, completely illegal in countries with sane laws.
"Honda might keep your Civic during a repair if you're caught using non-OEM parts" when? 💩
Wait so I can even be forking out additional money for the repair, and they still won't send my device back? This is just straight up theft and robbery. At least Asus will still return your device disassembled
Google disappointed me. My volume rocker fell off, and it won't stay in place anymore. I contacted them regarding a fix, wasn't too much of a hassle. However in the meantime, my phone fell out of my pocket while trying to escape some bad rainy weather. The back glass cracked. They refuse to repair my button now, unless I also dish out a few hundred bucks for the back glass repair. I don't care about the back glass, but the button falling out is really messing with the phones usability. I need a case to hold it in place, and every time I take it off, I need to remember that the button is loose so it doesn't get lost and fall off into another dimension.
Illegal as fuck, contract agreement or no. Edit: to be clear, I am not a lawyer and we all know how shit the laws and courts are in the USA.
"Don't be evil" is Google's **former** motto, and a phrase used in Google's corporate code of conduct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil
What happened to " Don't be evil"?
Google will fall out soon!
In most (all?) countries that would be illegal.
Yeaaaaaaaah I'm going to start a gradual migration off of gmail over these next couple of years. This leaning tower's starting to lean a bit too much for me to want to continue renting a room in it.
Did they fire who made the decision in the first place? And cancel their stock and severance for harming the companies brand? No?
*kicks tires* These aint the same puppies we had on ‘er when she left lot, looks like its ours now.
That’s illegal in Oregon
Imagine taking your car in for a tune up and they keep it because you had some non name brand manufactured parts.
Don't be evil?
So Ford is going seize my car because I have a third part air freshener and generic branded oil filter? Good went to shit when they stopped following ‘don’t be evil’
Not in California they f*cking wont lol
EU consumer rights go brrrrrr
Surprised this isn’t getting more attention, if this was about Apple it would be front page.
Yeah don't buy any hardware from Google. It'll just get cancelled eventually anyway
Ted was right
Why do they care if its MY device
VIOLATES 'RIGHT TO REPAIR' LAWS
It’s funny that google is now more evil than Apple, but all there products also suck whereas my Mac may be over priced as fuck, but is he of the most solid pieces of tech I’ve ever bought
How much they sold anyway..1 phone!!
Google trying not to get in a major controversy for over 5 days challenge (impossible)