Hi guys, so I am more than a little concerned about my current position and the prospect of being considerably out of pocket here.
Very briefly I purchased an iPhone 5 second hand from eBay months ago (please don't immediately think uh oh, thousands of people do this).
It recently became defective (signal issues) so I rang apple to discuss exercising the warranty (it had around 9 months left).
Apple, after doing extensive troubleshooting/diagnostic checks over the phone offered to replace it - there is no Apple store near me so they shipped out an empty box for me to put the iPhone in and ship back to them.
For anyone who hasn't used this service before, basically Apple send out a pre-paid empty box for you to send back to them with the defective product in - they then repair/replace then send back to you.
So anyway I did this, I followed their instructions and got a 'proof of purchase' which contains a tracking code. Here in the UK Apple use Royal Mail to do this.
After sending it back to them I waited a week and it hadn't got there. I reported this to them and they asked if I had a proof of posting, and I of course (and at the time thankfully) said yes. They said 'great!' and they then asked 'do you have an original proof of purchase' and I said I got the phone from eBay, would that do (proof of transaction etc) and they said no, 'this needs to be from an apple authorised vender' - i.e. a network provider or themselves (apple) - again I was not the 'original' purchaser of this phone.
There was a bit of a pause then and they then said well we will leave it a few more days and see if it shows up.
I am obviously now very concerned about the idea that I do not appear to have the required information/proof to be covered here. I may well have just lost out on an iPhone 5 which I think, tentatively speaking, isn't at all my fault..
It wouldn't be likely that the person I bought it from on eBay would have the original proof of postage, again this was months ago and I am not sure I could even get in contact with them, or they would be compliant, or that they were the original owner themselves perhaps.
It is disappointing as firstly I thought that Apple warranty was tied to the device by the serial number (and not the individual), and that original proof of purchase was not required - and I am also disappointed that Apple did not mention this when setting up the repair, I even said I was not the original owner and they said thats fine and set up the repair in my name etc. I have also followed their instructions to the letter re the repair (getting/retaining the proof of postage) - I even photographed the front of the parcel before I sent it (perhaps I was tempting fate). It was they that chose the courier service and paid for it, it should be on them to pursue a lost in the post claim with Royal Mail surely?
So this is a heads up I guess to I am sure the many many people that buy or have bought their apple products 'second-hand' and were thinking they had a full and effective warranty and that they would be covered in the above scenario, without proof of purchase.
* They haven't outright said (yet) that I will definitely not get a replacement if it is indeed lost, so there is still a chance, but I think you can understand the fact that I am quite alarmed given what they have asked for so far..
Sorry for the long post!
Very briefly I purchased an iPhone 5 second hand from eBay months ago (please don't immediately think uh oh, thousands of people do this).
It recently became defective (signal issues) so I rang apple to discuss exercising the warranty (it had around 9 months left).
Apple, after doing extensive troubleshooting/diagnostic checks over the phone offered to replace it - there is no Apple store near me so they shipped out an empty box for me to put the iPhone in and ship back to them.
For anyone who hasn't used this service before, basically Apple send out a pre-paid empty box for you to send back to them with the defective product in - they then repair/replace then send back to you.
So anyway I did this, I followed their instructions and got a 'proof of purchase' which contains a tracking code. Here in the UK Apple use Royal Mail to do this.
After sending it back to them I waited a week and it hadn't got there. I reported this to them and they asked if I had a proof of posting, and I of course (and at the time thankfully) said yes. They said 'great!' and they then asked 'do you have an original proof of purchase' and I said I got the phone from eBay, would that do (proof of transaction etc) and they said no, 'this needs to be from an apple authorised vender' - i.e. a network provider or themselves (apple) - again I was not the 'original' purchaser of this phone.
There was a bit of a pause then and they then said well we will leave it a few more days and see if it shows up.
I am obviously now very concerned about the idea that I do not appear to have the required information/proof to be covered here. I may well have just lost out on an iPhone 5 which I think, tentatively speaking, isn't at all my fault..
It wouldn't be likely that the person I bought it from on eBay would have the original proof of postage, again this was months ago and I am not sure I could even get in contact with them, or they would be compliant, or that they were the original owner themselves perhaps.
It is disappointing as firstly I thought that Apple warranty was tied to the device by the serial number (and not the individual), and that original proof of purchase was not required - and I am also disappointed that Apple did not mention this when setting up the repair, I even said I was not the original owner and they said thats fine and set up the repair in my name etc. I have also followed their instructions to the letter re the repair (getting/retaining the proof of postage) - I even photographed the front of the parcel before I sent it (perhaps I was tempting fate). It was they that chose the courier service and paid for it, it should be on them to pursue a lost in the post claim with Royal Mail surely?
So this is a heads up I guess to I am sure the many many people that buy or have bought their apple products 'second-hand' and were thinking they had a full and effective warranty and that they would be covered in the above scenario, without proof of purchase.
* They haven't outright said (yet) that I will definitely not get a replacement if it is indeed lost, so there is still a chance, but I think you can understand the fact that I am quite alarmed given what they have asked for so far..
Sorry for the long post!