My Laptop Is in Memphis
My Laptop Is in Memphis
My guitar tuner ran out of battery recently so I ordered a new one, popped out the old one and replaced it. It took no time at all and cost me a couple of bucks.
The battery in my laptop started to fail so I took it to the Apple store, as recommended, and had them look at it. Yep, needs a new battery, they said. $249. But Apple devices are not designed for us to pop out the batteries and replace them. They designed these things so that they, and only they, can change them out. It’s annoying, but okay. I expected to hand them my computer for an hour (maybe two), pay them the $249 and take home my device, newly empowered.
Let me tell you. It did not turn out that way. The first shock was when they told me it would take 3–5 days. I thought that I’d just have to bring back my laptop in 3–5 days for another appointment but no, it turns out, I’d have to surrender my laptop for 3–5 days. They were going to “send it out” but this was the best option because if they did it “in house”, it would take 5–7 days. So, without any preparation, I surrendered my laptop and hoped for the best.
The next morning, I got an email saying my computer had arrived at the repair center and five hours later, it had been “repaired” (i.e. they put the new battery in). Two hours after that, it had been “shipped.” Now — I assumed that they’d sent my computer to some warehouse in New Jersey and “shipping” it back to the Grand Central Station Apple Store where I’d left it, would mean sticking it in a white van and driving it across the river. I thought I’d have it back in my hands in a couple of hours.
The next day, after no further updates, almost 24 hours after the last one, I noticed that there was a FedEx tracking number that I hadn’t seen before, so I clicked it. This is how I discovered that my laptop had been sent to Houston, Texas for a battery change.
For my international readers, let me help you understand how far away Houston, Texas is from where I live in New York City. It is approximately 1,418 miles (2281 kilometers) away. It would take more than 30 hours to drive there. Houston is in a different time zone. This means that, in order to change my laptop’s battery, they put it on a plane, flew it approximately 1.5k miles away, on a plane that burned something like 7000 gallons of jet fuel on the trip.
The FedEx tracker tells me my laptop is currently in Memphis, Tennessee, where it has been since 9:23 am. So, they either put it on a truck and drove it the 568 miles from Houston or put it on another plane. How will it travel the remaining 1000 miles? Who can say? But it is expected at Grand Central sometime before noon tomorrow.
I cannot believe they flew my laptop over one thousand miles to change the battery. What a colossal and flagrant waste of resources! We are in a climate emergency and one of the biggest corporations in the world is burning gallons and gallons of fossil fuels to change a single battery? What the hell? Is there no one in New York City who could have changed a battery? Who thought this was a good idea? I guess I see why they’re charging $249 for a battery. It costs at least that to travel so far.
This all feels like an incredible example of enshittification and the rot economy. Apple knows they have us over a barrel. They design their devices so we can’t repair them ourselves or even change their batteries. They get us attached to them and make it hard to leave. I’ve had an Apple computer since the mid 90s, all my files, all my software is Apple-centric. I almost switched when I bought this laptop (the one currently languishing in Memphis) four years ago but couldn’t face what it would mean to lose all my music files, my video files, etc. Apple reduced my storage on the laptop. They changed and reduced my inputs so I had to buy extra equipment to just plug in a USB mic or mouse or anything. It just gets shittier and shittier. And now, to simply replace a battery (something with a known lifespan) I have to surrender my device for days at a time, reducing my ability to work, take care of tasks, support my creativity. To simply replace a battery, I unknowingly participated in a shamefully wasteful outlay of fossil fuels. And if I had decided to have someone besides the official Apple folks take care of this, I might have been penalized for “unauthorized repairs.” They’re not even trying anymore, I think. They don’t feel like they have to.
And, you know, okay, if I lived somewhere far away from a tech hub or I had some kind of highly specialized problem, I’d understand that you’d need to send my computer to Texas to fix it. But I live in New York City. And the only thing wrong with my laptop was an old battery. If you don’t have enough staff in a major metropolitan area to be able to change a battery, you need to hire more staff! Or make your devices better — so a battery change could be as easy it is with almost EVERY OTHER OBJECT that USES THEM IN THE WORLD.
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Originally published at http://artiststruggle.wordpress.com on October 14, 2024.
