They got a £1000 repair on their out of warranty iMac repaired under the Sales of Act at no cost.
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Apple Drops Price of Mac Mini Internationally
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They got a £1000 repair on their out of warranty iMac repaired under the Sales of Act at no cost.
Sorry, but this is simply not good enough for an explanation. That would imply that Apple thinks that UK customers are much stupider than anyone else. That kind of reasoning would only work for a country in the Third World in which people are illiterate and lack of access to information.
^^ This ^^
I went to the Apple store recently to upgrade my last gen Mac Mini and walked out with no product, which really surprised me. Now I've been buying PCs and Macs for almost 20 years and my latest PC is a 4 grand water-cooled, 3-screen monster gaming rig so I'm not one to shy off at expensive parts. I had an Apple rep ready to sell me the product until I saw the price. It was something utterly ridiculous like £750... There's no way I could justify that kind of money for what is essentially 3-4 year old, entry-level desktop specs, in small form factor.
"The second support said that since it broke just 6 months out of warranty he would make an exception."
Yes, it's always worth a try to ask nicely, and it worked for that person.
It's not proof that Apple replaces out-of-warranty Macs on a regular basis. And it's especially not proof that they would HAVE TO do it within a 3-year period.
Actually, this would be easy to prove. If all computer manufacturers were FORCED to replace defects for free 2-3 years after the product was bought, I'm sure EVERY newspaper and magazine in the UK would state this as a fact.
I'm not saying UK customers are stupider, I'm saying there is an ignorance of the facts. The law is there, but people don't look through the laws as a matter of course.
The UK public are, by and large, simply unaware of their rights under the Sale of Goods Act. So they go off and buy extended warranties. I'm not pointing the finger just at Apple. Dell's warranty pricing is similar. Go into an electronics store for a new washing machine and chances are you will get asked if you want an extended warranty.
I'm not saying that extended warranties are all bad- they provide peace of mind and can avoid arguments when a fault occurs.
However, I find that just being polite and reasonable with a manager can work wonders. They are people too and often understand the problem. If not, fall back in the Sale of Goods Act.
EDIT
They are. So long as 2-3 years is a reasonable length of time to expect it to last, and the fault is, on balance, not the fault of the user. It is just that nobody enforces this as nobody bothers to take them to small claims over it. That doesn't change the fact that the law is there and is clear.
It's the same here in Australia. If your Mac breaks down within a couple of years, you are covered by the Trade Practices Act. No-one knows their rights here either.
There's no specific time periods, but it is based on the reasonable expectation of life expectancy. Pricing is also important. In the government's example, they say that a $1000 watch can be expected to last much longer than a $12 watch.
809 for base Mac Mini was ALWAYS too high. Glad that Apple figured out that the price was a huge rip off. At 809, it was way too close to the iMac
Those prices include the 19% German sales tax (MwSt). You'd be better offer to compare tax-free prices (assume the same costs for Apple to sell in the US and DE.)
Sweet. I wonder if we'll see any price change in the US?
The Mac Mini is a great PC replacement machine, as you can keep your familiar monitor and keyboard if you want. My wife is pretty happy with the Mini as her main computer.
The Mac Mini is a great PC replacement machine, as you can keep your familiar monitor and keyboard if you want. My wife is pretty happy with the Mini as her main computer.
I just did a quick look on the Dell website. I priced up two equivalent Adamo laptops and the prices were:
US - $999
UK - 999GBP
When taking the VAT out (17% right?), the base price in the UK would be 854GBP.
Using today's exchange rates, that converts to $1,364.77.
That is a non-taxed price difference of 36.6%. You can check my math as I did this very fast.
Seems to me that Apple isn't doing all that bad.
GL
We don't got a price cut. Everyone wondered why the new Mini was $699 but 799, the old one was $499 and 499. They just gave us Europeans a hefty $125 tax on top.
699 = $873,75
799 = $998,75
You pay $1000 for an entry Mini? Then please don't request a price cut.
You only hear about defective units because nobody ever writes about how great their computer runs.
Well, I'll do it anyway so you can hear both sides of the story:
My unibody Mac mini runs fine, I usually have Safari, Mail, iTunes, TextWrangler and Adium opened, usually with ImageReady CS2 too (and that's a PowerPC program that runs under Rosetta, which means it requires even more RAM and CPU power to run).
I often also have Chrome, Opera, Firefox, VMWare with WinXP to test websites with IE7 and FaceTime opened. Mind you, I did upgrade to 8 GiB RAM since IMHO 2 GiB wasn't nearly enough for most tasks, especially with ImageReady CS2 and VMWare.
I also play Starcraft II, Left 4 Dead 2 at low/medium settings in low resolutions but I do get 25-40 FPS depending on what's happening on the screen. The 320M is much better than the 9400M.
I ordered my Mac mini the day it was announced, so maybe there's a manufacturing batch between then and now that has problems. All I know is that mine runs fine.
Ok so a Mac mini isn't 1000$USD but it's not 699$USD either. What is your cost if you remove the taxes? Because the tax percentage varies for each state (and in Canada, in each province), it cannot be included in our advertised prices.
Ontario, for example, has a 13%HST while Quebec has a 7.5%PST added on top of the sales price + a 5%GST. Yes, we pay a tax on an already taxed amount.
You're forgetting one thing, the tax. Our prices include VAT but US price does not include sales tax. E.g. Mini is 709 in Fin store. That's 546 without VAT (23%) and that is equal to 764$. There's still 65$ "Apple tax" but life is not always fair.
Meh, still $749 in Canada, even though the US/Canadian dollar have been almost on par for a while.
I rated this negative only because no story on Macrumors can only have positive ratings!
Lol +1
Your co,mention reminded me of some eBay feedback left a while ago, it said something like this:-
'Although you did nothing wrong, I have left you negative feedback to teach you that the universe is arbitrary and unfair'
pac
By the price of the original Mac Mini and how it was marketed.
I wrote earlier and no-oen commented on, that the cost of the Mac Mini has gone up about 50% from the most expensive G4 Mini to the cheapest 2010 Mini.
yay, now they are only 30 - 40% too expensive for 2008 tech....
true..
Apple garbage is STILL ridiculously priced..
this.....
...for no functional or necessary reason other than Apple or its 'fans' can avoid valid comparisons by saying size is a virtue or specification. How many desktop customers really *need* SFF? The mini is useless as HTPC, where SFF is crucial as it doesn't have BD.
I have a space 3x3x2 for a 'PC' I want the best bang for my buck..
do I buy a tower PC with i5 and 4gb ram for £399 or a '2007' mini for £200 more.
OSX may (or may not) be better...
http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/a...er-Snow-Leopard-and-you-should-too/1253136981
but the cheaper PC saves me time by doing things quicker.
The mini clearly isn't selling great (hence price drop) and before you quote market share. Remember that Apple's 2010 share is still only around 3% of the global PC market.
I've taken Apple to small claims court on more than 1 occasion with faulty hardware, PM me if you want more details so as not to clog the thread.
why do people in the UK buy Apple care? They are borderline idiots and cant be bothered to use the law as intended, its called apathy.
true..
Apple garbage is STILL ridiculously priced..
this.....
...for no functional or necessary reason other than Apple or its 'fans' can avoid valid comparisons by saying size is a virtue or specification. How many desktop customers really *need* SFF? The mini is useless as HTPC, where SFF is crucial as it doesn't have BD.
I have a space 3x3x2 for a 'PC' I want the best bang for my buck..
do I buy a tower PC with i5 and 4gb ram for £399 or a '2007' mini for £200 more.
OSX may (or may not) be better...
http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/a...er-Snow-Leopard-and-you-should-too/1253136981
but the cheaper PC saves me time by doing things quicker.
The mini clearly isn't selling great (hence price drop) and before you quote market share. Remember that Apple's 2010 share is still only around 3% of the global PC market.
I've taken Apple to small claims court on more than 1 occasion with faulty hardware, PM me if you want more details so as not to clog the thread.
why do people in the UK buy Apple care? They are borderline idiots and cant be bothered to use the law as intended, its called apathy.