New Airpods cheaper than repair
Thursday, 13 Mar 2025
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That response is actually kind of funny 😂
Well at least he is honest
because the product itself was never designed to be repairable, so of course the repair is more expensive
“I have no clue” 😭😭😭
To “repair” the iPods would require an employee taking the time to order new iPods, unpacking them and handing them to the customer, then throwing the old ones into the trash. So, basically the added labor costs.
Repair can easily be more expensive than the cost of a new unit. One is mass produced, the other is a custom service.
It’s because the people repairing this will not work for a dollar a day.
One of the many things wrong with consumerism.
As a customer service rep, I respect the answer, lol. We don’t know why things are the way they are sometimes. They just are. Like, don’t be mad at the rep. Buy the new pair of AirPods, or don’t. They don’t care, they are literally just doing their job, lol.
Repairs are always more expensive, if for no other reason than transport and installation of individual parts is more expensive than working on an assembly line from barrels of parts.
There used to be comparisons published between a new car and the much larger cost of assembling the same car from parts.
Appreciate the honesty from them. I reached out before to apple support about price matching for air pods. They told me to buy them from Amazon cause the deal was better lol.
a robot shitting out buds can do it cheaper than a skilled technician taking a day to carefully assemble your buds under a microscope? No way….
I love it when support teams just straight up answers. Needs a reddit for that
Labor. This is why you gotta fix everything yourself now
To incentivize people to buy the new product so you can say “hey look how many people are buying the new product!”
It’s very similar to home appliances- they just want you to buy a new washing machine instead of getting the old one fixed.
He knows exactly why, but he cannot say it because the convo is being recorded “for quality purposes”
To be fair, the customer service/repair guy doesn’t set the prices lol.
Tf you think this is, the pricing department? 😂
Most folks who can repair small electronics like to get paid well because they have a skill set.
Most folks who work for a factory that’s mass produces headphones make less money than the skilled folks.
That’s why it’s cheaper to replace than to repair.
It’s more expensive because it makes their numbers look better. Think about it; low repair numbers and a high number of purchases? Sounds like a high quality product if you threw it up on a power point.
Because they glued the battery to the actual frame of the air pods to make sure its impossible to repair.
Rare support employee being honest.
They got sued for this exact reason before
If more than one component needed to be fixed, the individual replacements would be more expensive than the packaged whole. It’s like if you get in a car accident, and the repair cost is more than the car’s worth; the insurance company will just total it. It sounds like your AirPods were totaled, lol.
There are tons of inexpensive wireless ear buds out there don’t buy apple
You know what’s mildly infuriating?
Not knowing what kind of company Apple is before you buy ANY of their products.
iPad that costs $500 has an issue – $300 to repair
Trackpad not working on your $1500 laptop – oops the trackpad is part of the motherboard/logic board and to replace that is $900. But hold on a brand new Macbook is $1800 why wouldnt I just spend $900 more instead of repairing a 2-3 year old laptop?
This is Apple from day 1 nothing new, maybe higher repair costs but this is a classic scam from the Steve Jobs era we cant even blame Tim Crook.
The whole point of my story is that unless you have money coming out of your ears buying any Apple product without AppleCare+ Warranty (not allstate, not costco) is just about the stupidest thing anyone can do.
Airpods are the best value for AppleCare+ i wish someone had informed you of this. For $30 (many stores like Costco give it away for free to you) you have 2 years full coverage. Every Airpods pair ive purchased Ive contacted Apple (like it’s within my rights) and told them my buds were not carrying a charge (again not a lie) and they sent me two new buds (pretty good for $30 even if they didnt send me a case)
Dropped 3500 on a laptop 4 years ago, towards the end the keys were getting stuck and the trackpad was a little weird. Completely usable you wouldnt know. I sent it in and AppleCare+ replaced the entire top case of my laptop, replaced my keyboard and trackpad, my speakers, my BATTERY which had 1000s of cycles on it, and most importantly replaced my entire logic board. Cost of repair was $0 but the receipt for Apple’s end showed $2300+ meaning if i had no Apple Care thats what they would have charged me on a 3 year old laptop that i paid $1000 more for. Instead I got what amounts to a brand new laptop for free.
Before this with M1 i had heating issues, sent it in 3 times, AppleCare+ cut me a check to buy a new M2.
I can confidently say that you should NOT buy any Apple laptop or desktop without a warranty because only Apple can repair them and they will fuck you hard to the point where buying a new unit is better
**TLDR: GET APPLECARE IF YOU BUY APPLE PRODUCTS, also this was not a post to shit on OP but to educate everyone so they dont get taken advantage of like my friends and family have**
Had a similar issue with an in store support appointment. I was trying to fix a static issue. Tapir was going to more than a new pair of AirPods. Replacing each air bud was going to be the sense price as a new pair too. I just said that sucks but I’ll wait for the new AirPod pro 2 to come out, and they replaced both buds for free. The he human element of the instore support is great, and if you are close enough to one, I strongly recommended that route.
That’s a “we don’t want to do the job” kind of price.
Same when contractors give you extremely high quotes because “we don’t want to do the job”.
Remind me why are people still buying apple products? Like youre literally begging for someone to rip you off
Isn’t the case for just about everything we buy now? It broke. Just throw into a landfill and buy a new one. It’s cheaper. There’s no quality or pride of workmanship anymore. Our wine fridge broke after 18 months of use. Warranty is for 12 months. They won’t repair or take it back. So into the trash it goes.
It’s so cheap to make them that repairing, while good for the environment, etc, is too costly unless the worker repairing is paid less than automated machinery and Chinese labor.
Unfortunately, fixing this issue would likely lead to less profits or pass the additional costs straight to the consumer.
Not sure why your being a dick to the guy. He just letting you know…
The honesty makes me see why he’s a genuis
same with monitors, i had a broken monitor which cost like £150. no one wanted to repair it they just just get a new one as it will probs be cheaper.
Can’t wait till France right to repair movement goes into law and Apple are once again getting rightfully shafted by EU laws
I don’t think they repair the airpods either way, just send you a new pair.
That’s actually funny, the response AND the fact Airpods costs around 60$ in production
Because it makes more money. Why would they let you repair something.
I went to get a new watch screen and the guy said if we touch Apple products to repair, we lose our license to sell them.
A lot of time this happens. Original price is usually low because of how cheap they pay manufacturing. But repairs involve full price parts, state side labor costs and shipping of parts multiple times. Most devices even non apple are like this. Go get a tv or computer monitor screen replacement you might as well buy a new one.
“I do not know”
Your AirPods are totaled
They are mass produced with a lot of machine involvement, whereas a repair is usually a manual endeavour
You can get a replacement at 60% of the full price if you say your battery last 1 hour.
There is a special price for replacements because of battery issues.
I got a similar message, just to replace 1 single AirPod, it’s more expensive than a new pair.