Hi everyone, I'm a UK based iPhone 3G owner and I've recently been having troubles with my handset. I've visited my local Apple store on 3 occasions now in order to try to get the issue fixed, to no avail, and I'm now being fobbed off so I'm now in the unenviable position of being compelled to start using legal threats and, if required, legal action to get Apple to abide by their legal obligation.
I therefore thought I'd post my experience henceforth on here, so that the user community can see how Apple have responded, and continue to respond to my approaches.
So, here's the story:
I bought a 3G 17 months ago (25th November 2008) and had many months of satisfactory use out of it but a few months ago it developed a fault. During calls, usually a couple of minutes in, it switches itself into headphones mode. The workaround when this happens has been to put the phone into speakerphone mode but, naturally, there are occasions when this workaround isn't really appropriate so I decided to get the problem sorted. The phone has also intermittently been struggling to get a signal when other 3G users in my vicinity have been fine.
I made an appointment to get my phone looked at by someone on the Genius Bar at my nearest Apple Store.
His first recommendation was to get a new sim, as his sim appeared to make the phone more responsive than mine. Fair enough, I thought - he's the expert. So I got a new sim and tried it for a week. The signal issue appears to have been resovled but the headphone mode issue remained so I made a second appointment to visit someone on the Genius Bar.
He advised that I should do a factory reset of the OS, without then doing a restore, in case there was a corruption in software. He also opened up the handset and reseated some stuff (out the back so I didn't actually see what).
A week later, the problem remains so I visited the Genius Bar again today to see what they advised next.
The advice was that the phone must be faulty but, as it is more than 12 months old, it was a chargeable replacement. As you might expect, I wasn't impressed by this, but I had anticipated that this might happen and took along a copy of an issue of Which? magazine (I am a subscriber) so that I could present them with an example of a consumer with a similar problem with Dell.
The case cites the Sale of Goods Act which, to quote Which?, says that "Goods must be fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality. Among other things, this means they must last for a reasonable time. What's reasonable depends on the goods, and the cut-off point relates to the time you have to start court action - six years from the date you receive the goods."
Now, the key points here, in my opinion, are as follows:
1) By any 'reasonable' person's measure, it is fair to expect a phone to remain in perfect working order for the duration of the contract it was sold with (in my case 18 months.
2) The phone has been subject to no trauma, exhibits no signs of any trauma, and nor has it been damaged by water or any other kind of contaminant.
I would therefore argue that under the Sale of Goods Act, despite the phone being outside of the manufacturer's 12 months warranty, Apple are legally obliged to repair or replace the phone.
The manager that I spoke to in the store, having read the article, didn't disagree with me about where they stood in relation to the Act but said that he was not allowed by Apple to provide me with a free replacement, despite what the Act says, as his employer defines the rules that he personally has to abide by.
So now I'm at home with my faulty handset and about to start dealing with Apple corporate. Any predictions from anyone how this is going to pan out?
