'Apple stole my batteries'

Celebrity repair guy Louis Rossmann takes his complaint to YouTube, trips over agenda.

Waving a notice of seizure of “20 Apple Laptop Batteries” from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Louis Rossmann called it a “crazy coincidence” that he happens to be the unauthorized Apple repair guy who starred in a recent Canadian Broadcasting Corporation investigative report—one that caught an Apple genius recommending $1,200 of unnecessary repairs. (See Bad genius, caught on video.)

• One problem: His timing is off. The CBC report aired on Oct. 8. The batteries were seized more than a month earlier, on Sept. 6.
• Bigger problem: Rossmann’s offhand suggestion that the $15 LCD cable in the CBC report may have been accidentally bent, most likely by somebody “trying to install their own screen,” lends support to the theory that the opening scene in the CBC report may have been a set-up, designed to entrap an unsuspecting Apple staffer.

Cue the video, which by Saturday morning had drawn more 500,000 views and 7,000 comments.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVL65qwBGnw&w=840&h=473]

My take: Louis Rossmann may be the Michael Avenatti of the right-to-repair movement. If the CBC reporter brought that laptop to an Apple Store knowing about the dysfunctional cable, will Tim Cook demand a retraction?