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Apple Clarifies Warranty Coverage Options for Customers in European Union
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Incorrect. It is Apple interpreting the laws incorrectly. It is for Apple to prove that the defect was not a manufacturing or inherent defect. The customer's consumer protection is far greater than Apple thinks!
That case (with the 10 consumer organisations) is still going on.
And no, I can't show you a case where Apple was sued for not giving a two-year warranty period. I'm sorry, but Europeans aren't like "Oh my god, I stumbled in a store... I'm going to sue this company for $1 million." I can, however, give you enough examples of complaining Europeans.
A lot of people in Europe try to avoid dealing with Apple directly because Apple is known for its bad customer service (in Europe).
Never heard of that. Ever. Most new Apple customers that I know don't believe you at first that they can go to an Apple store with a problem and someone will actually help them. That concept is to many computer users completely alien.
It looks like many people here are just writing to keep their finger in good shape without actually knowing how things go through here in EU.
Twice in the last few years I had Apple products that proved to be defective after the (supposed) 1 year warranty period was over. Both times Apple repaired them, in both cases the faults happened well after the purchase
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Telling them that if they wouldn't repair the faults I would have been forced to give a call to my lawyer and sue them for not respecting the EU laws was more than enough to shut them up.
They don't like to advertise it, but they just have to respect the law.
FYI I live in Rome, Italy
Twice in the last few years I had Apple products that proved to be defective after the (supposed) 1 year warranty period was over. Both times Apple repaired them, in both cases the faults happened well after the purchase
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Telling them that if they wouldn't repair the faults I would have been forced to give a call to my lawyer and sue them for not respecting the EU laws was more than enough to shut them up.
They don't like to advertise it, but they just have to respect the law.
FYI I live in Rome, Italy
Let me rephrase my question then
I have an iPad from Germany (from a genuine Apple Store), and after 15 month of purchasing it, I happen to be in US for business or pleasure etc. What happens if my iPad fails and I go in any US Apple Store? Will they decline me because of my original purchase location?
It has nothing to do with the location. The US Apple Store is not the seller, and EU laws don't apply to them anyway, so they won't repair it as the seller. And Apple Inc., as the manufacturer, only gives one year manufacturer's warranty.
Similar if you buy an iPad in Germany at PCWorld (no idea if they have a branch there), and after 15 months you bring it to an Apple Store in Germany, they won't fix it. They are not the seller, PCWorld is. And manufacturer's warranty is one year only.
Now in both cases, I am quite sure that Apple employees have a policy of "keep store customers happy, unless they try to rip us off", and "keep Apple customers happy, unless they try to rip us off", and there is a chance that they might help you for free; worth trying in an emergency. But there would be no legal obligation.
I read a bit through Apple's legal bits and pieces, and here is what they (Apple) say: You can take a non-working product to a store, they will look at it, and if they think it was defective when you received it they will fix it. So the easiest way to get proof is to get a store employee who agrees. If they don't think it was defective, well only then do you have to worry about proof. You might assume that they have some training where they balance the cost of the repair, the probability of being proven wrong anyway, and the benefits/disadvantages of having a happy/unhappy customer who will tell his friends how excellent/awful Apple's customer service is.
Of course if it is an Apple Store and an Apple product, the stores also act on behalf of the manufacturer, so if it is within twelve months and Apple Inc. has to fix it anyway, the store will do it.
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You're not gonna start the debate "free market Americans versus European socialists" are you?
It is a moral choice to take the risk you are mentionning, to make sure consumers don't buy expensive crap that breaks down after a year.
If the manufacturer wants to increase the prices, he's free to do it; but the free market (yes, we still do have that
EU law (which I don't always defend, believe me) in this case takes a simple approach: products are supposed to work for a reasonable amount of time, and 2 years for an expensive piece of hardware seems fair to them; on which I agree.
Not at all. Apple has to conform to the EU laws when selling to the EU. I'm just stating the fact that nothing is really free and the price reflects the warranty cost (i.e. don't complain when Apple products cost more in the EU).
Also, to the person above who said that Apple will get their money back through the suppliers, that's not true for the following two reasons.
Example - You get a few dead pixels after a year and 1/2.
1) The suppliers in the EU have to warranty their parts the same way Apple does but this doesn't apply to most of the places Apple buys it's parts (i.e. a Chinese display maker will never refund money to Apple for pixels that are reported dead after 1 1/2 years),
2) Even if the company repays Apple for the defective part, it does not change the fact that nothing is free. In the case of the display with the dead pixels, the display manufacturer will increase the cost of the display to cover the warranty. That increased price will be passed to Apple who will pass it to the consumer.
If it is the Apple Care yes. If it is the EU warranty, then perhaps. IF you bought it from Apple. If you bought it from someone else, no. You have to go to that someone else for the EU thing.
That said, if Apple in the US covers it, you'd likely have to call Apple Care not go to a store. Because the in store systems probably don't have the needed overrides for coverage dates, but Apple Care likely does. HOWEVER you would have to prove that the issue was there when you took delivery of the item and that's basically impossible to do. If the issue was there it is almost always evident within a matter of days at the most. There's rarely a defect in production that takes 1-2 years to show up
Exactly. It is useless. Because you can't prove it was there but you just couldn't see it. Most defects in production are evident right off.
The law is the law
I am the biggest Apple fan in Italy, however I totally agree with the court and Apple must respect the law. Everybody does. I've got my Mg Tf engine totally repaired after 1.5 years of purchase beacuse it has a faulting cooling system. LaCie does it. Samsung does it. Chevrolet does it. Kia motors, Lg, and so on...
Every country has its rules, and you must respect them if you want to make business, try to sell a gun in a shop here in Italy or let an italian wine maker sell his bottles to an 18 years old in the US
If we all have to respect those rules, why a company should be able avoid a law globally applied?
I am the biggest Apple fan in Italy, however I totally agree with the court and Apple must respect the law. Everybody does. I've got my Mg Tf engine totally repaired after 1.5 years of purchase beacuse it has a faulting cooling system. LaCie does it. Samsung does it. Chevrolet does it. Kia motors, Lg, and so on...
Every country has its rules, and you must respect them if you want to make business, try to sell a gun in a shop here in Italy or let an italian wine maker sell his bottles to an 18 years old in the US
If we all have to respect those rules, why a company should be able avoid a law globally applied?
And I bet if you did a little research you'd find that a single dead pixel is within spec for such a display and as such isn't deemed a defect and so any non Apple seller would certainly try to use that to refuse to replace said item outside of their return policy or any legally required 'no questions asked' period. Particularly if it didn't turn up for over a year because then they could say that your use was such that it caused that pixel to burn out and thus wasn't a manufacturing defect etc.
I lived in Europe and the UK for a time and I've heard all kinds of such from 3rd party companies. Whereas I went to an Apple Store, pled my case and although they wouldn't give me a free replacement on, for example, my iPad they let me buy a replacement from the service bar as a favor and it was still a major discount off a new one (I work in the film industry so visuals are important in my equipment) and I was happy with that. And this was about 16 months after purchase (I had Apple Care, boss insists on it)
Totally wrong.
When I first bought my macbook pro 17 years ago (g4) it completely dead after 3 weeks. I called the customer service monday morning. The next day I got it shipped by a carrier that came to my office for the pickup.
The g4 flied to holland same day.
Got repaired the next day and flown back to Italy.
Next day I got it in my office again.
Without going so back in the past.
Sept 2010 bought 2 imac 27". One had some dust behind the glass.
Got it shipped and changed in 5 days.
Not only. I shipped an imac with 1tb hard drive and got back a new one with 2tb. Of course at no extra costs.
Customer care here works.
Generally you can't prove that it broke because it was defective. Which is a key part to the EU laws in almost every country. Whether it was defective at delivery or in excess of acceptable use.
If it is a borderline issue they will comply to shut you up and get rid of you, all companies do this.
on the contrary, they 100% follow the law. To the letter. If the local law says that it is on you to prove you didn't do anything to the device, they stand by that. Again, most companies do this. Especially electronics ones.
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Exactly. But what is 'normal use' and how do you prove it.
Normal use for me with my iPad is up to 16 hours at a time, lots of video playback and recording. Pretty much non stop. If I'm not playing back a video for the stunt actors, I'm taping a rehearsal run. Or on a FaceTime chat with the other unit for the director to approve costume choices. Or writing up the call sheets for the next day, sending out script revisions etc.
But that's not normal use for most folks. The average person does probably 1/4 of my amount of use in a day. So which measure is the correct one.
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Who defines that period. I think that it is very reasonable that my iPhone should last 5 years. But someone else thinks that the 2 years of my contract is reasonable. Whose definition is the one used legally.
I think my computers should run for 10 years. Someone else says 3 years is plenty reasonable. Whose definition is the one used.
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And THAT is likely why they did it. to shut you up. NOT because you could prove there was an actual defect in the items.
Apple's not stupid. They know that sometimes just getting you the hell out of the store happy is more important than the truth. Especially in this age of everyone having a Facebook page etc where you could go and blast them and make yourself look like a martyr being bullied by the big bad corporation.
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Home buttons can break due to use. After all it's a mechanical part. so the damage was likely because of you, not the phone being bad. It could be argued that one year of getting mashed on a few dozen times a day is an acceptable use period which you were beyond.
Vodaphone has a vested interest in keeping you as a customer so they gave you a new phone. Classic CS move, could have happened with or without the whole EU law issue.
Well, just follow the court decisions on these matters in Germany and will realise that your idea of the how the law is applied in practice is incorrect.
I have a old macbook from late 2007 that was repaired 3 times under EU law.
I had some initial problems when calling apple asking for suport but after that they repaired always the notebook. (top case cracked right to trackpad).
the first top case replacement in 2008 more or less 8 months after i bought it,
the second time arround 1 year and half after i bought it
and the third and the last time arround 2 years and 2 months after several letters with my goverment consumer agency and apple , to prove that the cracked case was a manufactering defect that wasn't solved by apple.
Till now the case is perfect!! and the computer is working perfectly ... why should i buy other, if i have consumer law that protects my rights.
No thanks apple care.
I had some initial problems when calling apple asking for suport but after that they repaired always the notebook. (top case cracked right to trackpad).
the first top case replacement in 2008 more or less 8 months after i bought it,
the second time arround 1 year and half after i bought it
and the third and the last time arround 2 years and 2 months after several letters with my goverment consumer agency and apple , to prove that the cracked case was a manufactering defect that wasn't solved by apple.
Till now the case is perfect!! and the computer is working perfectly ... why should i buy other, if i have consumer law that protects my rights.
No thanks apple care.
There is some case law which you can use as a guideline but in the UK a Judge would decide what he/she considered to be reasonable. I've been involved in a few cases and it's not that complicated. Both sides put their case to a Judge in Chambers and the Judge decides what they think is reasonable. That's it. The Judge issues a judgement which is legally binding on both parties. There is no statute in place as to what is reasonable, its simply on a case by case basis.
We don't have a common EU law related to statutory warranties. Some member states have signed the proposed 2 year statutory warranty and some member states have not. We are separate countries with our own laws on this issue. You cannot issue a blanket statement like this, it has to be on a country by country basis depending on what the law is in each country.
I don't know if you live in Europe but this sort of thing is a real hot potato here. It's seen as a battle between the rights of sovereign nations to determine their own laws versus the commonality of the European Parliament.
Huh, Mabook pro G4 from 1995.
Expensive gear should have a Warranty longer than 2 years dependable on usage and price in My opinion.
Example, an Apple Macbook Pro with a price tag of 2199 Euro should have a minimum warranty of 5 years of normal use.
Normal use could be easily calculated depending on how many hours the Laptop was used for, it should be possible to get that data out of the Laptop and should be around 7000 hours.
If I bought a "cheap" 400 Euro Dell the warranty should be maximum 2 years.
A Car should have a minimum of 5 years or dependable on the milage.(Excluding wear)
A wash machine 5 years or dependable on the shape which it is in.(Excluding wear)
Tv's 5-10 years dependable on price.
This way it would force manufactures to make better stuff and as an added bonus less would end up in the dump.
Yes, you can claim warranty, but Apple (like most companies) won't give you you anymore than their standard 1year. This is because dutch law is totaly unclear what a proper product is. So if you have a claim not covered, you do have to go to court, and in most cases, this will cost you more than the product claimed.
It is not that hard to understand.
The EU law simply requires good functionality under normal use for these products for a period of 24 months. This means if I drop my iPad after 18 months, it is not considered normal use and is therefore not covered. If, however, the iPad's battery is faulty after 18 months, or the device stops functioning altogether because of an internal electrical defect, you have full coverage.
As long as you didn't cause the problem yourself by using the iPad abnormally (as defined by EU law, as well), you are covered for 24 months after purchase. One of the many benefits of living in the EU, actual consumer protection laws.
Should Apple make a big deal out of things, you contact your nearest consumer representative who will take care of the rest for you.
The EU law simply requires good functionality under normal use for these products for a period of 24 months. This means if I drop my iPad after 18 months, it is not considered normal use and is therefore not covered. If, however, the iPad's battery is faulty after 18 months, or the device stops functioning altogether because of an internal electrical defect, you have full coverage.
As long as you didn't cause the problem yourself by using the iPad abnormally (as defined by EU law, as well), you are covered for 24 months after purchase. One of the many benefits of living in the EU, actual consumer protection laws.
Should Apple make a big deal out of things, you contact your nearest consumer representative who will take care of the rest for you.
LOL. You watch too much Fox News. Actually, in the UK, we're not doing too bad thanks
If he watches too much FOX News, you haven't watched enough news the past five years...