Listen, I understand unpairing the watch before sending it back in, and I know exactly what it does. What I have a problem with is that I have to un-pair it while on the phone with Apple Support before they will even start the return process. I am working and they won't even initiate the exchange process until they can see on their end that I've unpaired my watch. If I was sitting at home with nothing to do that would be fine. As it was I was in a hospital between cases and it wasn't something in my opinion that needed to be done right then and there just to START the return process. Its a completely moronic process and I should be allowed to do it on my own time before I return the watch to them.
And I'm sorry, but its pretty black and white to me. I pay for AppleCare plus. Apple has put a pending charge on my CC for the FULL price of a brand new Hermes Apple Watch. I should be getting a brand new Hermes Apple Watch sealed in its box. Its not my fault that the watch battery sucks and that the watch has problems. Watches are subject to wear and tear. They repurpose those and should be able to repurpose bands. And besides that, Apple has a huuuuge markup on the Hermès bands and wouldn’t be taking that much of a loss if they got back a band that was in poor condition.
You're telling me its ok for a trillion dollar company to charge me the full amount for a watch when that's not what they are sending me? If anything Apple should be willing to accept my entire watch and bands back no questions asked and if need be take a loss on the bands if they are in poor condition (which they aren't). Why in God's name should Apple be put in the position to win and the customer in the position to lose? It should be equal on both fronts. Apple has stacked the chips all in their favor and that is absolutely the wrong way to treat your customers. My watch is 31 days old and if they want to charge me the full price for a replacement, then they should be sending me the FULL replacement and not just part of it.
And please, don't talk to me about procrastination. I work and I travel, and its a huge inconvenience to me that I have to go through this process and that Apple only gives me 10 days to get this done. The watch is being delivered to my home tomorrow but guess what, I won't be there to collect it so it will sit on my desk until I get back home next Friday, which will give me one day to ship it back to them. And I can't have my wife do it because I want to check it and make sure its new and working properly before I just send it back no questions asked.
Think long and hard before you side with big companies instead of the consumer in situations like this. Apple should take each case individually and not just have a blanket policy for every single one of these cases as they aren't all the same. Siding with a large company like Apple over the consumer only gives Apple more power the next time they want to screw over a customer because they feel like they should be in the drivers seat no matter what the situation is or how it affects the said individual in their daily life.
Just consider the old proverb about walking a mile in another person's shoes. If you ran the repair organization, how would you do things? It doesn't matter whether it's a trillion-dollar company or a one-man repair kiosk. Well, there is a difference - it might be easier to intimidate the owner of a one-man kiosk if you disagree with his standard terms and conditions.
You seriously think Apple will custom-fit a solution to each customer's requirements? For the sake of consumer protection as well as corporate protection, they publish their policies, terms and conditions. Consumer law usually requires that of repair businesses. Same deal for everyone, because everyone is paying the same price for those services. You want custom-crafted solutions? You'll pay more because the transaction-handling costs will go up. You want custom-tailored clothing instead of off-the-rack? Hint: You'll pay more.
If you were doing an iPhone repair, they do not send a charging block, charging cable, or ear buds with the replacement phone, yet the non-return fee is the same as the retail price. The thinking is, "Who in their right mind would set up a repair with the intention of not returning the original goods, if they can get a new unit with all the accessories for the same price?" It's not supposed to be an alternative to making a retail purchase, it's supposed to be a process for getting a repair done in a way that ensures the customer adheres to his side of the deal.
If you were setting up a repair with someone over the phone, and turning off Find My iPhone was critical for you to accomplish the repair, you'd insist on it being turned off before you could go another step. "Please remember to unpair it before you send it in" totally guarantees that some people will not unpair it, and you will then have to deal with returning it to them so that they can unpair it (or talking them through the process of erasing the thing using Find My iPhone). Figure the entire process could add a half-hour or more to processing the repair. If we're talking about large numbers of repairs in progress, a bigger staff is required to handle the extra work. Time is money, no matter how big your company is. An ounce of prevention, and all that.
It is not a "pending charge." It is an
authorization. It's Apple asking your credit card issuer, "If we need to charge this, is it pre-approved?" "Pending" means the charge has been executed by the vendor, but the bank has not yet completed its end of the transaction. It is only charged if you do not return the old watch. The only "pending" about it is your personal intentions. If you'll be traveling, you can have it shipped to where you'll be. If it's going to be sitting on your desk doing nothing at all, why do an express replacement at all? Do a mail-in repair or drop it off at an Apple Store or authorized service provider and pick it up when convenient. No "pending charge" at all.
Again, if you expect a complete Hermes watch with band in the box, then expect to pay more somewhere along the line. It costs Apple more to provide that band, so that cost must be built into the repair fees/AppleCare coverage premium. It's that simple. Since you seem to be a businessperson, again, how would you deal with that added cost if you were the repair company?
Finally, if your time is so precious you can't manage to get the old watch to FedEx, why are you wasting so much of it debating with a bunch of people on the Internet? Nothing you say to us is going to change Apple's policies.
