Just a thought I had tonight while I was bored...

[WB2Colorado]

Tonight I was sitting in my bedroom reading news articles when a thought entered my mind. What happens to iPhones/iPods/iPads that are found to be defective? Apple probably tests their mobile devices every once and a while when they come off the assembly line right? So what happens if one iPhone in a batch of them is tested to make sure nothing is wrong with it? and what if an iPhone in said batch is found to be defective? Are all the iPhones tested for defective parts then? Are they sent back for repairs, or does Apple just throw them out?

I've always wanted to get my hands on a batch of defective iPhones (for reasons that I won't discuss).

I dunno. Just a random thought I had tonight that has now started bugging the hell out of me.

 

[QuarterSwede]

That's where they get refurbs from.

 

[secondhandloser]

That's where they get refurbs from.

Refurbs are usually returned from a customer.


It depends on the nature of the problem. Most companies will have a test procedure to identify the problem, fix it, and sell the item.

 

[R94N]

I'd imagine they'd send them back to get either repaired or the parts disassembled so they can be used to produce new devices.

 

[Heilage]

To my knowledge, it all gets repaired by Apple.

 

[roadbloc]

Landfill.

 

[belvdr]

That's where they get refurbs from.

Refurbs are usually returned from a customer.

Correct. Refurbs are items that are factory fresh, but cannot be sold as new. In other words, they have been in a customer's possession. Since these phones hadn't left the factory, they are still considered new.

It depends on the nature of the problem. Most companies will have a test procedure to identify the problem, fix it, and sell the item.

I imagine if one tests bad, they will test another random sample from the same batch. If more test bad, they may remove the batch from shipping. As you stated, the test procedures would specify what is considered a normal ratio of good to bad units.

 

[Tomorrow]

Correct. Refurbs are items that are factory fresh, but cannot be sold as new. In other words, they have been in a customer's possession. Since these phones hadn't left the factory, they are still considered new.

This isn't strictly true of all refurbs, although it may be true of Apple's policy.

Items that are returned to the manufacturer from the vendor are also refurbs, even though they've never been sold to a customer.

 

[belvdr]

This isn't strictly true of all refurbs, although it may be true of Apple's policy.

Items that are returned to the manufacturer from the vendor are also refurbs, even though they've never been sold to a customer.

That's correct too. A "customer" from a manufacturer's perspective can be either a consumer or a distributor, although I would think the seals on the box would make a difference in whether it's resold as new or refurb.

In the post above, though, I have never heard of defective products at a factory declared as refurbs.

 

[mammadon]

probably scrap them, or recycle the functional parts and scrap the rest.

I'd think Apple though would have quite hefty quality control. Which company selling any good wouldn't?

 

[Winni]

I'd think Apple though would have quite hefty quality control. Which company selling any good wouldn't?

*cough*

QA certainly is not one Apple's strengths. If it were, we wouldn't have read so much about "Antenna Gate", "Yellow stint issues", not properly connected Airport cards and all the other problems that Apple products have.

 

[*LTD*]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

probably scrap them, or recycle the functional parts and scrap the rest.

I'd think Apple though would have quite hefty quality control. Which company selling any good wouldn't?

Yet they're #1 in customer satisfaction for god knows how many consecutive years now.

When something goes wrong and it's about Apple, you hear about it. Dell and Acer defects don't make the news because no one cares.

 

[Dalton63841]

QA in most factories works like this:

1. Pick up a test sample
2. Physically check it out.
3. Test it.
4. If test passes, move on. If it fails, then EVERY batch made since the last QA test must be pulled, then a unit from each batch is tested by another QA worker.
5. Since they are mass produced, they assumed that if one in a batch is bad, then all in that batch are bad.

Some companies fully disassemble the defective products and put the raw parts back into the process to make new ones. Others disassemble the defective units just enough to repair the issue and then they go back to QA.

 

[maccompaq]

Thinking, such a dangerous habit.

 

[roadbloc]

When something goes wrong and it's about Apple, you hear about it. Dell and Acer defects don't make the news because no one cares.

No, it's usually because their defects aren't as amazingly daft as Apple's. You don't hear Dell releasing a product that has difficulty doing it's primary function (like Apple's iPhone 4 antenna) or messing up on something as simple as a clock do you? Their defects are usually shruggable and more of a pinch on the quality of the product rather than a major design **** up or managing to break something so simple.

Come on... let's hear it... "6 Billion Quarter"...

 

[Mousse]

No, it's usually because their defects aren't as amazingly daft as Apple's. You don't hear Dell releasing a product that has difficulty doing it's primary function (like Apple's iPhone 4 antenna) or messing up on something as simple as a clock do you?

The antenna issue is forgivable, but the clock problem isn't. That's why people have cellphones, right? To tell time?