They told me that £389 is a great price for an ipad 2, 16gb wifi and that i know "nothing about retail".
I asked them to do the decent thing and either exchange my mother's ipad for a new one for which i'd be willing to pay the retail reccommended price of £399 or give my mother a refund. They refused on both counts.
Get the law into it. I'm sure that there's something in the UK that mandates that all retail shops have to take back any undamaged product within a set period of time unless it is clearly marked as final sale, no returns. So find a local councilman etc type and verify this. Then go back to the store and demand a return per said law and when they say no, which they will because they are jerk, call said officials office on your mobile right in front of them to file a complaint. See how fast they jump to make good. But make sure they get you a full refund. Don't take an exchange because stores like that are also classic for selling second hand stuff as new and might not be authorized to sell ipads in the first place so you would have no warranty with Apple.
I did this once with a shop here in the US that pulled a similar stunt. Called the state attorney's consumer protection office right in the store. Thought the owner might piss himself. Course after he 'gave in to help me out' and gave me the refund I left the store, called back and filed the complaint. As you should also. Otherwise these type of folks will just do it to someone else. And if there's a Yelp or similar for retail shops in your area, post the whole story there too so folks know what they are up to
Oh and on the off chance they are an Apple Authorized Shop, contact your local Apple store and see if they can put you in contact with someone from Corporate to call and complain about what this store did. I'm sure that such stunts would be frowned upon by Apple and they could find their status pulled. Actually Apple no matter what, I'm sure they would also be interested in an unauthorized shop pulling games since that means that they probably "ordered" the ipad by going into a local Apple Store and bought an iPad 2 etc. And at least in the US Apple firmly states they sell to end users, not resellers in their stores so I bet it's the same in the UK (since authorized resellers can order for their own fulfillment division)
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There is nothing wrong with selling two year old technology at the right price.
I think that's part of the key. Apple still sells the iPad 2 so saying its 'old' tech is a bit off since Apple still thinks it's worthy of being officially sold.
but it sounds like she was led to believe she was getting an iPad 4 at a discount rather than an iPad 2 at a markup.So it wasn't really the 'right' price.
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Europe has more consumer protection laws than we have here in the US. Surely a visit to the store mgr is in order to see if the matter can come to a proper solution.
this sounds like it is a Mom and Pop shop so she was probably being helped by the 'store manager' already.
I wonder if one could use the whole "consumer protection law demands that the seller repair or replace any item delivered with a defect within one year and for the first six months the assumption is that the defect was there at time of delivery". I mean if the paper work doesn't say she was specifically ordering an iPad 2 then one could argue that it's defective because she was ordering an iPad with Retina Display (whatever processor, camera etc) and that's not what she got. I suppose they could try to 'repair' it 'illegally' (illegal since Apple doesn't let anyone 'legally' open iPads) but one could argue that a replacement is mandated since said repair is not authorized by the manufacturers. And if they say they don't have it in stock then raise a fuss for a refund.
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Since you bought it inside of the EU, you are allowed to return the product for a full refund.
That can get a bit iffy since the EU laws generally allow stores to set return periods for 'i didn't like it' returns. Of course if the law said, as similar ones in the US do, that said period has to be posted or listed on all paperwork and it's not then that would be another argument to use.
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they have to go buy it at all and that's like £429.
do they have a contact email on there. we could spam them with terse letters about their practices.
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Not a blame the OP post, but if you knew she had no idea what she was doing, why did you let her go alone?
Something tells me that the nice son that was leaving away from her told her what to get and to get it from Apple and she didn't listen to the last bit cause she's a sweet granny that likes to support local shops over big corporations and believes in the inate goodness of people and doesn't assume everyone is out to rip her off.
That's not a crime and not a reason to blame her for what happened. Or her son
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That could be libel. You could hold up a sign "These guys sold my mum an iPad 2 for £369 which is sold everywhere else for £319". That's not libel, it just demonstrates that they are excellent businessmen
Only if they did sell her an ipad 2. If the paperwork indicates or is suggestive that she was being sold an ipad 3 or 4 and they gave her a 2 then they are crooks not businessmen. And if the UK laws say they have to give her a refund because it isn't what they described it to be that just adds to the fire. Especially if that indication is in writing.