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Applecare a ripoff in Europe with new warranty law?

I just checked on the Apple website, Denmark, and it also says "1 year limited warranty". But when I read "terms and conditions" it says that these rules apply "if legal", if not, local they act as a supplement to local laws, so that you no matter where in the world you are, are guaranteed one year warranty from Apple. Actually pretty good...

Text in Danish, so I wont post link, but I'm sure it says the same on your local on-line apple store.
 
NJuul said:
I just checked on the Apple website, Denmark, and it also says "1 year limited warranty". But when I read "terms and conditions" it says that these rules apply "if legal", if not, local they act as a supplement to local laws, so that you no matter where in the world you are, are guaranteed one year warranty from Apple. Actually pretty good...

Text in Danish, so I wont post link, but I'm sure it says the same on your local on-line apple store.
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Sure, but many of us were led to believe that we were extending our warranties from 1 to 3 years, effectively buying two years of extended coverage. I was told this at the Apple Store on Regent Street. I am sure that they believed what they were telling me as well. It would seem to me that should buy us a year extension to 4 years of coverage overall. That would be great.
 
So can anyone actually post a link to a place where it says in the UK what warranty you get.
 
netdog said:
Sure, but many of us were led to believe that we were extending our warranties from 1 to 3 years, effectively buying two years of extended coverage. I was told this at the Apple Store on Regent Street. I am sure that they believed what they were telling me as well. It would seem to me that should buy us a year extension to 4 years of coverage overall. That would be great.
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They might believe that, or they might have instructions to tell you that. Anyway, isn't AppleCare more like an insurance, so that if you drop the laptop or crack the screen somehow, they will still repair/replace it?
 
number 17 is the one i think we are looking at , so what does this mean for us brits with bought extended guarantees ? Mis selling ?

BBC Watchdog anyone :D
 
Warranty in Sweden is one year.. But since a few years ago you can complain(reklamation in swedish) up to three years after purchase and have your product repaired or exchanged for free if the defect is a manufacturor defect and the manufacturor/seller cant prove that it was you who were responsible for the damage done to the product. If its past 6 months since purchase, you are the one who has to prove that it is a manufacturor defect and not caused by you. Obviously things like a crack in the display is hard to prove that it was a manufacturor defect.

In practise the extended complaint works like the original manufacturors warranty... And this is why some people inter-change warranty with this complaint law. Also if a store in Sweden is offering an extended(like two years) warranty for free, then they are basically just taking advantage of the complaint law and rewording it so it sounds better.
However a lot of customers do not know about this extended complaint law and do not use it, wich is a shame.

And as far as I know applecares best point is the 24h/7 telephone support if you now need it. I believe things like applecare are more important for governments and companies who need a fast and reliable support anytime.
 
NJuul said:
They might believe that, or they might have instructions to tell you that. Anyway, isn't AppleCare more like an insurance, so that if you drop the laptop or crack the screen somehow, they will still repair/replace it?
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No, it doesn't cover any user damage such as liquid damage, dropping it or dropping something on it.
 
Arbiter said:
And as far as I know applecares best point is the 24h/7 telephone support if you now need it. I believe things like applecare are more important for governments and companies who need a fast and reliable support anytime.
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which brings us to consumers like me who have bought extended guarantees for all sorts of electrical items including my Mac's to ask



do we really need to pay for it ?
 
I've got a year and a half old Toshiba DTR. It keeps shutting down when the P4 overheats. Are you guys telling me that it would be under warranty? Toshiba had said not.
 
netdog said:
I've got a year and a half old Toshiba DTR. It keeps shutting down when the P4 overheats. Are you guys telling me that it would be under warranty? Toshiba had said not.
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Why not send a complaint(to the government that takes care of consumer issues) or whatever the equivalent name is in your country? Then they will decide if it should be repaired/exchanged. It wont cost you anything :)
 
liketom said:
which brings us to consumers like me who have bought extended guarantees for all sorts of electrical items including my Mac's to ask
do we really need to pay for it ?
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Yes I know that feeling. I bought it for my tv 7 years ago. A so called 5 year extended warranty that I never used once.

My parents bought a very cheap tv for the equivalent of 300 euros and extended three year warranty for an additional 100 euros.. that was ridiculous. If they had consulted me before the purchase, I would have told them not to buy the extended warranty. :rolleyes:

Good stuff for people in UK http://technovia.typepad.com/technovia/2005/09/what_to_do_when.html
 
Apple: iPod Warranty Complaints in UK

"For many, the rot has set in with the must-have music player. Phillip Inman looks at how complaints over durability are pushing at the margins of users' patience, DTI guidelines - and the law."

http://money.guardian.co.uk/consumernews/story/0,,1783814,00.html

I don't think this is a well-written article, but it gives you the gist.

Bottom line is Apple's warranty is in addition to your statutory rights. We are covered for 6 years in the UK, but Apple (like other manufacturers) likes to conveniently forget about this. However the burden of responsibility is on the consumer to prove there was a fault in the product. Of course it's usually easy for Apple to fob you off at this point. Unless it's a widespread problem, like iMac capacitors, iBook logic boards etc. that they can't get away with ignoring, heh :p
 
I doubt it

To be honest, I doubt this is the case. As with all EU directives it is up to the individual states to implement as I don't know where this has been done in the UK. The fact that the directive says "Member States may also provide for a limitation on the period during which consumers can
exercise their rights, provided such a period does not expire within two years" probably means we didn't.

We aren't really all that with consumer protection and you would have found something on Google if it were the case. I have had 2 episodes recently of things dying just out warrenty with Apple and all they say is if its out then thats it. They can do this, thats not to say I dont think its unfair, especially when you get some smarmy git in the Apple Store telling you that but thats the way it is. What frustrates me is that it is so inconcsistant. On the way out of the store after one of these incidents, I overheard another 'genius' agreeing to give a man a free iPod (which he had put in the washing machine) but I had previously been denied a new power adaptor for my £1200 Powerbook as it was 3 months out of warrenty. I emailed the manager but got no response.
 
Well, I cannot speak for England, but I have done more research in the meantime and in The Netherlands the law has changed. It's at least 2 years, but there is an extra catch that you can expect a reasonable lifetime of a piece of equipment. For an expensive laptop that may well be more than 2 years.
Anyway, I am not going to pay a huge amount for Applecare with I am protected by the law already.

For the people that read Dutch, you can check this:
http://www.computerconsument.nl/pages/redartikelendetail.php?redartID=192
 
Well it's incorporated into Irish Law in Statutory Instrument 11/2003

Note in particular Section 5 of the instrument that brings it into Irish Law
Irish Government said:
Goods to be in conformity with contract.


5. (1) The consumer goods delivered under a contract of sale to the consumer must be in conformity with that contract.

(2) For the purpose of these Regulations, consumer goods are presumed to be in conformity with the contract of sale if they —

(a) comply with the description given by the seller and possess the qualities of the goods which the seller has held out to the consumer as a sample or model,

(b) are fit for any particular purpose for which the consumer requires them and which he or she made known to the seller at the time of conclusion of the contract and which the seller has accepted,

(c) are fit for the purposes for which goods of the same type are normally used,

(d) show the quality and performance which are normal in goods of the same type and which the consumer can reasonably expect, given the nature of the goods and taking into account any public statements on the specific characteristics of the goods made about them by the seller, the producer or his representative, particularly in advertising or on labelling.
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It would seem to me that using the telephone rather than the internet, and in particular asking the question "Will this MacBook moo?" (or other particular question you are interested in) would incorporate it in the contract, provided it was the answer you want - it would then be part of the contract and you can rely on the directive. Otherwise you could be in for a bit of a row over what you should expect (the bit I bolded), even though you'd probably still win

Good days for Irish consumers :)
 
I think that people are assuming that the EU directive would give them the same sort of parts and labor repair warranty that they get from Apple.....but that may not be the case

In the directive, if you read some of the links that other posters have provided, there's an awful lot of focus on the condition of the product at the time of delivery and not about things like sudden failure of parts further down the road. It looks like that two year time frame is for the consumer to discover that the product was not in conformity at the time of sale
 
True, but the Irish law related to what you can reasonably expect. You can reasonably expect a laptop to last four years. If a component dies and it's not through user abuse within the 2 year period you "should" be able to rely on the directive (a latent defect in the product).
 
j26 said:
True, but the Irish law related to what you can reasonably expect. You can reasonably expect a laptop to last four years. If a component dies and it's not through user abuse within the 2 year period you "should" be able to rely on the directive (a latent defect in the product).
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unfortunately determining what's the reasonable time a product should last is going to be a problem with this directive.......who determines that?
 
Macky-Mac said:
unfortunately determining what's the reasonable time a product should last is going to be a problem with this directive.......who determines that?
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That will be determined in the courts in a series of test cases that will undoubtedly be fought on the issue by manufacturers or their representative organisations, but it's safe enough to assume that a laptop would be considered to be a consumer durable in that it is expected to last several years.

There is also some sort of defective products act out there somewhere that covers goods for 10 years :eek: from manufacture, but I think that only relates to dangerous defects. I'll try to hunt that up and see if I can find any cases if I get a chance.
 
j26 said:
That will be determined in the courts in a series of test cases that will undoubtedly be fought on the issue by manufacturers or their representative organisations, but it's safe enough to assume that a laptop would be considered to be a consumer durable in that it is expected to last several years....
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unfortuantely it could be years before those cases are resolved, or before any cases are even started. In the meantime you can expect manufacturers to take a position that the enforcable requirements of this directive are much more limited than many consumers would like.

my point is that this EU directive might not turn out to be all that some people are assuming
 
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