Which phone, laptop and tablet brands break down the most? (Marketplace)

it's the people versus the tech giants this phone is worth nothing top brands side by side unfortunately it was projected over 3 000 canadian share repair nightmares which brand and device breaks down the most 1300 for a phone is ridiculous and how to get the deal you deserve this is your marketplace we're setting up a tech repair clinic to try to fix all those broken down devices you depend on i was trying to charge it up and it just failed to charge it just doesn't boost it won't even turn on when you open it up and try and start it up it turns gray and has funky red stripes on it smartphones laptops tablets were revealing the truth about nearly every top brand i've got a samsung cell phone as well as an acer laptop i think it was about 15. it's about 1500. plus this cost me another two like another hundred dollars you got a whole pile of things there i do david i do while we put these three repair pros to the test we're testing the tech giants with a one-of-a-kind national survey we're asking more than 3 000 canadians to share their stories revealing which brands break down more than others they market slick products make big promises like oops resistance and claim long battery life but do they deliver how long should they last powerful and efficient it really is the most annoying issue to do with and to get the inside scoop on whether our favorite device makers may be stiffing us we're calling in a consumer rights hero only hiccup the border is closed but that's not gonna stop us worry in canada but that's the u.s because the fight against a multi-trillion dollar tech giants the biggest fighter she's an american first up though is our survey on smartphones top sellers going head-to-head it's apple versus samsung i've always been a samsung guy the samsung has 20 phone when i got it out of the package it started experiencing problems we're starting in brace bridge ontario with roofer jason boulder the problem i had with it was that the moment i started it up is the excessive boot time which was really strange i started dropping media calls the phone got excessively hot so hot jason says the screen cracked were you outside in the blazing sun no he's now having to keep his phone out of the heat a roofer who can't take his phone on the roof not answering calls from potential customers how much is it worth to you right now this phone is worth nothing here's the thing our survey says jason is like most of us almost three out of four have had at least one device break down in just the past five years and here's a stunner 65 percent have had multiple device breakdowns in that time the last one is uh the most difficult a two-year-old two-year-old it is also giving us this blue screen the blue screen of death i guess basically i have an iphone xr yeah and the screen is all cracked yeah i can come up take a look lots of repair nightmares but wait for it jason's samsung s20 plus 5g is only two weeks old still under warranty and a 15-day return policy but both samsung and the store refuse to take it back and say these problems are all jason's fault it's just within days of getting it this is in within less than 24 hours of getting wow how much that phone costs this phone is a 1800 phone that's a lot of money in our survey there are 563 reports about samsung phones you mind if we come with you to tell us uh for sure jason is going to the store where he bought his phone less than two weeks ago while he's seeking a resolution for his samsung we want to know how his experience stacks up to apple please enter your pin followed by the pounce ricardo borgia owns a three-year-old iphone 7 but the audio only works if it's connected to bluetooth right now i'm listening through my uh car and i would be talking through the microphone of my car so this is a pretty expensive headset welcome plus the battery drains really fast i'm going to a repair shop for my phones i went to apple and now i wanted to get a like a third-party opinion like an independent opinion to see if they have anything different to say our survey says of all the high-tech we own smartphones break down more than any other device after pleading with the shop jason's not doing any better with a nearly new but broken device they're still saying it's still going to be my problem that i still have to be out of pocket cost for it because they're claiming that it was the user fault in this first round jason with samsung and ricardo with apple both have tough tech problems but when we look at the device market shares and crunch the numbers our months-long investigation reveals more of you have had samsung break down so apple wins this round but it doesn't feel like that for ricardo who's leaving the repair shop disappointed the best thing that they can do is to just outright replace the phone give me a new one for the cost of 405 why is it so hard to fix our phones apple told them the same thing forced to replace instead of repair that is something that that that kind of sucks as a pattern as a whole like if you look at consumer electronics is that they're making them less and less repairable at home you're seeing people talk about it but nobody's taking action we ask apple to come on camera to talk about ricardo's experience and our survey results but they decline they do tell us they have a new repair program that's making it easier to get phones fixed as for samsung they say they're going to look into jason's situation and tell us they believe their galaxy products are some of the industry's most durable many of you tell us electronic devices are generally tough to fix or cost too much to repair that's why we're heading all the way to the border itself to find out why here we are in these coveted times an american and canadian we can talk but not in each other's country not keeping to our own sides but gay gordon burn is always on the side of consumers she's the head of an american movement to fight for better rights amazingly enough repairs are now roughly 50 percent or more of the cost to replace the device and in her words that means it's time for a rebellion to get big tech companies to be more responsible how will you know if you've won this fight uh when when we get a law passed and what's that law look like it'll be a law that says in order to do business in our state or in our province you mr manufacturer must provide fair and reasonable price access to parts tools diagrams manuals and the software when it comes to slow buggy phones sometimes the issue is that operating system it's the software behind it yep and the manufacturer just won't update it anymore what is that doing for consumers well it's obsoleting the equipment before it's physically obsolete it's a tactic we're getting to the point where we don't own the things that we think we do and we're winding up getting into a position where we can't keep them going we literally have to go buy new ones and throw away the old ones because we're not allowed either by design or by policy to fix them time for round two laptops two of canada's top selling brands it's hp versus acer you're right it's definitely uh stressful back at our repair clinic with pros ryan paul and alvin melchior is desperate for a fix how's your laptop uh finicky finicky the usb ports all four will work sometimes they don't work other times and the battery doesn't hold the charge anymore melchior's dad only watched youtube on this acer laptop so it's been barely used it's not working at all like it won't turn on or what sometimes it does work sometimes it doesn't joanna has come to us with her hp laptop a crucial but failing tool for her family of six so having a laptop must be important for you homework and everything else i don't have any more laptops kids are using my iphone why don't i just replace it well my daughter is hearing impaired and all the expenses basically ate the budget and with a plot some years back everything that we saved went out because of all these expenses of which yes it all adds up so costly it's either a new laptop or hearing aids for her daughter it's actually really important to this family to try to get it running again okay problems with the battery problems with the display yup for taking a look sure joanna and melchior say their laptops are both 10 years old and our research shows most canadians keep their laptops between three and five years we brought this computer in everything boots fine the issues are the battery ryan one of our tech pros tells melchior he can buy a new battery and check acer software updates to see if that might fix it but no guarantees we reach out to acer and their fix they'll give him a discount if he buys a new computer well let's see if i can see what's going on but he's not giving up on joanna's hp laptop and her family needs it do you have any ideas with this uh what's up with it round two is wrapping up joanna with hp and melchior with acer both with busted laptops when it comes to those two brands our analysis says canadians have experienced more breakdowns with hp over the last five years they won't come on camera but in a statement say to us they disagree with our findings they point to their own research which suggests some of their newest laptops have the lowest failure rates they also say they care about sustainability you're right when it first starts up you can see the hp logo very very dim very very dim and then it goes dead hp may have lost the face off with acer but our techs haven't given up the battle with joanna's laptop nope back with our repair squad ryan's struggling but suddenly catches a break this is your computer and it seems to be working got it running joanna is heading home working computer in hand well no guarantee though it'll last and when we tell hp about her issues they promise to send her a new laptop she's happy but survey says 8 out of 10 of us have devices at home sitting around unused because they're broken outdated or obsolete they are trying to churn these things out at a very low price point and then when something does break it's hard to get into the device just to be able to fix it are you saying that they're basically building it as cheaply as possible and as a result it's really shortening the lifespan absolutely yes it's time for round three tablets apple versus everyone else stacked this way because apple dominates the market where we're going now there's no big repair clinic we're north way north to hear about tech troubles and tablets we don't have i.t techs i have to travel 100 kilometers to yellowknife we're in the northwest territories one of the toughest spots to get hands-on help for devices my three-year-old grandson and my nine-year-old they're fighting for this ipad so they eventually fought over it and they dropped it marjorie black has an apple ipad canada's top selling tablet she's driven 90 minutes from beshico to see if keegan payne can fix it at his yellowknife shop should take about an hour and a half marjorie needs the repair her grandkids cracked her screen and she can't afford to replace the tablet marjorie doesn't care about you know the the fanciest newest features and a lot of people don't they just want the device they own to work as she's waiting to find out what happens time for another ranking in the battle between apple and every other tablet when we crunch the numbers ipads win but margery sure doesn't feel like a winner and sorry to tell tablet owners compared to all other devices experts tell us tablets are the toughest to repair they say you might want to save your money in yellowknife keegan's done as much as he can unfortunately there wasn't much i could do i tried but now it is close to the garbage so margery is gonna have to trash it adding to more than 750 000 tons of e-waste in canada a year when we tell apple about margaery they say they care about the environment and aim to make all their devices from recycled or renewable materials they should stand by their product they should think of their consumers it's a huge fight we're not done yet there's one brand that tops our breakdown list on your marketplace we're taking the tech giants to task in a one-of-a-kind national survey to see which brands you say break down the most uh tablet yes yeah it's of no use to you now correct we'll charge for about two seconds so we try to wiggle it a bit right and it just died it shouldn't die after two years yeah at our expert repair clinic the techies ryan paul and alvin certainly see what we hear from you troubleshooting tech is tough here's where you want to make sure we haven't damaged anything right just like brain surgery yeah just like brain surgery right this american consumer advocate says making repairs so challenging is just how the tech giants generally operate that's a huge fight it's a huge fight is it acceptable well it would be acceptable if people dropped stuff and then they got them fixed or if they if the batteries ran out and then they could get the batteries replaced because accidents happen right but when you can't get them fixed that's a real problem and that brings us to an issue we hear about again and again in our survey batteries are an issue we hear out a lot i can't see i'm surprised echoed in our repair clinic this battery battery battery battery this is my giant ipad pro doesn't hold a battery charge um even when it's plugged in some batteries they just like there's some of them when they get below 50 they'll just stop working our survey says one in four devices has a battery issue so the battery life starts to slow down um it won't hold a charge for as long as it used to and when it comes to smart phones it's one in three plus just as many smartphones are also slowing down experts tell us that's often caused by a battery problem it's almost like they build the batteries not to last that's what it feels like let's talk about batteries they want to make repair the incident that takes you back to the store they don't want you fixing something and replacing the battery and getting another two years of life out of it they want you to go back to the store and buy a new one it's a business model what's it been like for you carrying out this battle take 28 trillion dollars in market cap and say we're gonna fight them and then wonder why it's hard and speaking of fights remember ricardo he still wants to fix his iphone 7 because he wants to do his part for the environment but he's facing an uphill battle hello cbc so i'm back from the apple store we get this surprise message from him he's looking into quebec's warranty laws and finds out if a product doesn't last as long as another just like it the manufacturer might have to repair it free replace it or refund it it's when i spoke about the consumer protection laws here in quebec that the things seem to take another speed or another protocol when it comes to consumer protection laws across canada experts tell us quebec's are the strongest and ricardo plans to fight for his rights he makes a lot of calls like this and had to learn about the law on his own makes you wonder if companies want consumers to know their rights for replacements they're sneaky you know if if we don't know our our rights then they don't tell us that we're entitled to have a replacement phone at no charge they would have charged me five four hundred dollars in the end ricardo prevails apple replaces his phone but ricardo might not have been able to get a replacement if he lived outside of quebec because the laws aren't the same i hope these laws become a standard in all of canada i'm grateful that they exist in quebec time for the great reveal which brand breaks down most i wish i'd done my research before and will the tech giants talk do you have a story you think marketplace should investigate next tell us all about it on email twitter and facebook it's the people versus the tech giants we asked more than 3 000 canadians about their tech repair nightmares time to unmask the device and brand our analysis shows has broken down the most that title goes to lg smartphones well i used it for maybe about two months and lori hood in canmore alberta is the not not-so-proud owner of one of them i started using the phone and it wasn't holding a charge very well her smartphone came with problems the battery wasn't charging the phone overheating and then it cracked but the certified repair shop says if she wants it fixed she has to pay i wish i'd done my research before um i didn't i just bought the phone and i'm not blaming myself but that's really a drag thirteen hundred dollars for a phone is ridiculous in the end after months of fighting lori says lg covers the repair it took me four months and i would say um i think it would be fair to say about 20 hours of emails and on the phone we tell lg about lori's experience and they say they're going to look into it and when we tell them about their place on our survey they say they stand behind the quality of their devices and claim they don't limit parts for phone repairs they say they want to make it easier for customers to get their phones fixed after a long day our repair clinic is winding down in the end our technicians looked at more than 15 devices only two go home repaired time to share our findings with the consumer technology association they represent a lot of the tech companies and for weeks we've been asking for an interview there are some experts who are actually saying this is all deliberate that device makers are are churning out devices and making them cheaply so that consumers are essentially forced to buy new rather than being able to repair or keep them for a longer period of time they never call us back please try your call again later thank you okay not getting any answers there either but consumers want answers many are tired of what they see is the run around i would repair this myself if i could if i had the tools i've been sending more emails and communications and after months of fighting jason tells samsung he's been talking to us i did finally receive a phone call and bingo he gets his phone fixed no charge it's repaired so yay but as for how all this played out i think they should stand behind their policies i think they should uh think of their consumers what's your message to the the manufacturers out there if they are going to charge the amounts they're charging which i feel are exorbitant in the first place they should stand by their product and treat their customers better you know inside canada's hospitals we're going to be burning through this ppe pretty quickly a national spa jack the only reason i haven't gotten sick it's ppe where does our ppe come from i am devastated looking at this canada is complicit next week on your marketplace you

Channel: CBC News

Views: 436,306

Rating: 4.1973476 out of 5

Keywords: Phone, Smartphone, Cellphone, Laptop, Tablet, Apple, Samsung, LG, HP, Acer, CBC, CBC News, CBC Marketplace, Tech, Technology, electronics, personal electronics, consumer, business, shopping, buying, Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Yellowknife, Bracebridge, Canmore, Alberta, David Common, investigation, survey, market analysis, market

Id: yBnkUA3wnn0

Length: 22min 30sec (1350 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 08 2021

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[u/BlendeLabor]

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