Apple Warrenty Charges Gripe

Cork selfbuild

Hi there,

OH got an iPhone 5 and it never worked properly, really bad buzzing in the handset when making a call and the person she calls cannot hear anything but crazy buzzing.

Apple gave 2 options,

1. Send phone for repair

2. A new phone sent by courier

For the new phone, first they charge you €600 deposit to make sure you give back old one, which is fine, no major issue here as its refunded ASAP, however they said there is a €30 courier collection charge, in my opinion, for an expensive new phone that's more use as a paper weight than doing what it's designed to do, faulty from day 1, they want to charge you another €30 for them to send you the new phone, I think this is a little unfair since the problem is theirs in the first place... It's her 3rd iPhone over the years...

Did anyone get around this or just suck it up and pay?

Jimdagym

Cork selfbuild wrote: »

Hi there,

OH got an iPhone 5 and it never worked properly, really bad buzzing in the handset when making a call and the person she calls cannot hear anything but crazy buzzing.

Apple gave 2 options,

1. Send phone for repair

2. A new phone sent by courier

For the new phone, first they charge you €600 deposit to make sure you give back old one, which is fine, no major issue here as its refunded ASAP, however they said there is a €30 courier collection charge, in my opinion, for an expensive new phone that's more use as a paper weight than doing what it's designed to do, faulty from day 1, they want to charge you another €30 for them to send you the new phone, I think this is a little unfair since the problem is theirs in the first place... It's her 3rd iPhone over the years...

Did anyone get around this or just suck it up and pay?

Not often you hear someone complaining about apples warranty service. My phone is with them now. iPhone 5. Courier took it wed, scheduled to be delivered back Tuesday. Apple had it for 3 hours before they issued a replacement. If the phone is pretty useless, and you don't want to pay the €30, just be without for a week.

space2ground1

I got my 4S replaced. Told the chap I needed it and shouldn't have to pay €30 to put a problem right on a phone I only owned for 3 weeks. He agreed and waived the fee. I suppose its down to who you talk to and the nature of the problem.

Cork selfbuild

Ya the phone is only a few weeks only, the buzzing also wifi is really poor as in range, somOH decided on a new replacement, just thought it better than a repair, seems a bit of a lemon tbh...

Space2ground1, ya I think she needs to firm up when she rings again in the morning, hopefully with success like you had...

It's not the money per say just the fact, it's new, it's faulty and they looking for a handling charge....

Zapp Brannigan

Did you buy it from Apple? If not then they're doing you a favour as your guarantee is with the seller.

flyguy

So just to clear things up for you; you only pay the €29 for the advance replacement option (free if you've apple care). In this case you receive a new phone before you sent the faulty one back.
If you don't want to pay -and can wait- then it's free and the faulty one will be collected, assessed and still replaced. So in both cases you will receive a new (refurb) phone.
If we would live in a country with an apple store you could just walk in and get it swapped for a new one (Belfast is an option).
Don't see how this is bad though, name me one other (phone) manufacturer that doesn't send you back to place of sale and let's you wait without a phone before they take their time to fix it... Oh and it will probably be done by a 3rd party repairer which is instructed to look for anything to blame the customer so they can charge you for the repair or in case you choose not to, charge you a "investigation fee"...

Cork selfbuild

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Did you buy it from Apple? If not then they're doing you a favour as your guarantee is with the seller.

Well Apple offer a 12 month manufacturer warranty, under supply and sale of goods and services act, seller also offers a guarantee so one can pick which ever they deem fit, going to manufacturer normally can be quicker... Anywho, this is not the issue...

Flyguy, Apple said it would be repaired, no mention of still being replaced, due to the various issues, OH decided on a replacement, that's why we had a gripe if going for replacement, the courier charge...

Oh and don't get me wrong, I think Apple Care is good, I had a problem before with purchases on my iPad that got lost and within a few minutes, everything was fixed and account credited, so I have no problem with Apple Care, just the charge.

guil

I have sent an iPhone 4 for repair in the past and a 5 just last Wednesday, both were replacements and i didn't pay a cent.
Got an email yesterday to say the refurb has left Tamworth so i should have it Tuesday or Wednesday.

Also just to clarify i don't think apple's 12 month warranty is under the sale of goods and supplys act unless you bought it from them, the contract is with the retailer.

flyguy

Cork selfbuild wrote: »

Well Apple offer a 12 month manufacturer warranty, under supply and sale of goods and services act, seller also offers a guarantee so one can pick which ever they deem fit, going to manufacturer normally can be quicker... Anywho, this is not the issue...

I don't think this is true, from my understanding of the law your contract/agreement is with point of sale. In case of any issue that's who is legally obliged to solve the problem. This would only be Apple if you bought it from them directly, the fact that they will take care of their products/customers regardless where you bought is service, not a requirement. Neither is -immediate- replacement, another nice gesture by apple. I could be wrong though...

Cork selfbuild wrote: »

Flyguy, Apple said it would be repaired, no mention of still being replaced, due to the various issues, OH decided on a replacement, that's why we had a gripe if going for replacement, the courier charge...

They probably did say that, in practice though the phone will be replaced. Like I said the charge is for the luxury of not being without a phone for a few days. As for shipping/courier, this is the same in both cases; your faulty phone is collected and a replacement is sent to you. In case of the €29 charge it's the other way around, but I would imagine a collection+delivery cost apple the same as a delivery+collection.

Cork selfbuild wrote: »

Oh and don't get me wrong, I think Apple Care is good, I had a problem before with purchases on my iPad that got lost and within a few minutes, everything was fixed and account credited, so I have no problem with Apple Care, just the charge.

Not sure if you meant the apple care I was referring to but apple care is just an extended warranty which includes free advance replacement in cases like these.

Overheal

I would figure if you take it to an apple store they can help you under circumstances where you have AppleCare

In lieu of that it's annoying but it depends on where you go. Had it been from my place of business we'd just perform a hardware swap same day without charge. I ordered my 4s online via my carrier though so I'm glad I had no such issues!

flyguy

Overheal wrote: »

I would figure if you take it to an apple store they can help you under circumstances where you have AppleCare

In lieu of that it's annoying but it depends on where you go. Had it been from my place of business we'd just perform a hardware swap same day without charge. I ordered my 4s online via my carrier though so I'm glad I had no such issues!

You don't need to have apple care to get it swapped in an apple store...
I can understand it's annoying that the phone is giving problems, the way apple deals with it can hardly be called annoying. With any other brand of phone if you go back to the store the next day with a problem they will not swap it for a new one nor will they provide you with a phone while you wait for yours to get fixed. The reason for this is they have no idea what happened to the product after you left the store, the fault/malfunction could be due miss use or other causes not covered by your warranty. The shop have no way of telling this, so you're gonna have to wait until it has been looked at...

Overheal

flyguy wrote: »

You don't need to have apple care to get it swapped in an apple store...
I can understand it's annoying that the phone is giving problems, the way apple deals with it can hardly be called annoying. With any other brand of phone if you go back to the store the next day with a problem they will not swap it for a new one nor will they provide you with a phone while you wait for yours to get fixed. The reason for this is they have no idea what happened to the product after you left the store, the fault/malfunction could be due miss use or other causes not covered by your warranty. The shop have no way of telling this, so you're gonna have to wait until it has been looked at...

Idk we always just apply common sense. There's not much a user can do to a phone to make some things occur, if it's not dropped and there's no moisture indication and a reset doesn't resolve the issue then at that point bugger it.

For all the millions our company probably loses on returns and exchanges in this manner, it makes up for it in customer loyalties. Sometimes that means taking a 10% loss on a laptop and reselling it as open box because someone wants "a fresh one" when they can't figure out why their internet is slow at home, but the alternative is a pissed off "last customer" who not only stops shopping with you but will parade their dissatisfaction however unjustified to anyone in earshot

flyguy

That sounds like great customer service. Unfortunately the average phone shop employee most people deal with will be clearly instructed to never swap a phone for new if it has left the shop...
Years of experience with scammers/chancers have probably ruined any chance of getting "common sense" in most places.

Overheal

flyguy wrote: »

That sounds like great customer service. Unfortunately the average phone shop employee most people deal with will be clearly instructed to never swap a phone for new if it has left the shop...
Years of experience with scammers/chancers have probably ruined any chance of getting "common sense" in most places.

We've had our fair share of scammers, but our policies started to relax more when we started using TheRetailEquation. Abusers eventually get locked out of returns and exchanges an this behavior is tracked across multiple retailer brands