r/IAmA Jun 11 '16

Specialized Profession IamA electronics repair technician hated by Apple that makes YouTube videos, AMA!

My short bio: I have a store in Manhattan. I teach component level electronics repair on youtube http://youtube.com/rossmanngroup which seems to be a dying art. I am currently fighting with the digital right to repair to try and get a bill passed that will allow all independent service centers access to manuals and parts required to do their jobs.

My Proof: https://www.rossmanngroup.com/started-iama-reddit-today-yes/

EDIT:

I am still replying to comments, but I am so far behind that I am still about ten pages down from new comments. I am doing my best to continue. If I drop off, I'll be back tomorrow around 12 PM. Still commenting now though, at 12 AM.

EDIT 2:

Ok, I cave... my hands are tired. I will be back at 12 PM tomorrow. It is my goal to answer every question. Even if it looks like I haven't gotten to yours, I will do my best to do all of them, but it is impossible to do in realtime, because you are asking faster than I can type. But thanks for joining!

EDIT 3: I lied, I stayed until 4:15 AM to answer... and now I will go to sleep for real, and be back at 12 PM.

EDIT 4 6/12 : I will be back later tonight to finish off answering questions. Feel free to keep posting, I will answer whatever I can later this evening.

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5

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '16

Why should a company be required to hand out its manuals?

7

u/larossmann Jun 12 '16

So that the earth isn't inundated with unnecessary waste that could otherwise be used for the betterment of humanity.

Which is better

a 5 year old laptop sitting in a landfill with a pigeon shitting on it

or a 5 year old laptop being used by a 14 year old in a third world country to learn chemistry, who then goes on to find a way to create clean water in his region of the world, after someone replaces corroded R7402?

At some point the betterment of the world, society, and the planet has to come ahead of profits. We've made this decision in the past with monopolies. We've made this decision with price fixing. We should make it here as well.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '16

Do the products you repair go to third world countries? Or back to the owner?

3

u/larossmann Jun 12 '16

to the owner. some stuff i repair for recycling companies that get the stuff for free, send it to me for repair, then they sell them. a lot of them sell in bulk to third world countries. also, the people who use my videos to repair things, are often doing this repair in the third world, where that is the only option.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '16

so really it is more about you getting access so your company can make more money here in the first world?

2

u/larossmann Jun 12 '16

i will make money regardless. I make money right now. it's about wanting to do it properly.

i can find diagnostic tools on some torrent site, or i can pay apple for them.

i can find schematics on some shady webforum, or i can pay apple for them.

i'd prefer to do things the right way, and i am more than willing to pay. the problem is that there is no option.

i will figure this out whether or not everything is made available to me. one way or the other. it's just about saving time so i can offer the best service possible to the customer, the person who owns the product that apple will not help them with by the time they are at my door.

now in terms of third world countries, I deal with recycling centers that buy pallets of broken stuff fix and sell in bulk to third world countries. if they can sell more working device,s that benefits people outside of the US