Apple's Repair Contract & the Conversation

A few folks have been kind enough to point out that Apple's policy is laid out on its Repair Terms and Conditions page. So last week I did take a look and read through all the fine print to find the salient point. Under #4 of 12:

Apple will retain the replaced part that is exchanged under repair service as its property, and the replacement part will become your property. Replaced parts are generally repairable and are exchanged or repaired by Apple for value. If applicable law require Apple to return a replaced part to you, you agree to pay Apple the additional cost of the replacement item.

And I've included a scan of the contract. Can't read it? Neither can I--it's not even in black type; it's in light gray so as to be more difficult to read. Still, I'll own up to not reading all twelve gray paragraphs before I gave permission for the repair.

So two items are of interest here. First, the policy does indeed state that Apple will keep the part and even that they profit from refurbishing the part. As a point of curiosity, I wonder under what law Apple would be required to return a part to a customer? Perhaps something regarding privacy over the data that is contained on customers' hard drives?

The second item of interest is (broken record time here) Apple's PR response to this issue. No one at Apple would speak to me about this policy, even to confirm its existence. I have to wonder why the store manager didn't simply quote me this bit of text from the repair policy that I'd obviously signed. Instead, he refused comment and directed me to the PR department, who have also refused comment despite my repeated requests for Apple to have a voice in this conversation.

So instead, Apple lovers like myself are debating this issue in the blogosphere and podosphere without the benefit of any official word from Apple itself. It's disappointing that such a forward-thinking company won't join in the electronic conversation.