Right hopefully someone on here can help me and my girlfriend with a little issue we've come across.
My Girlfriend has had an iPhone 4S for about 18 months. It's outside of Apple's warranty and she hasn't got Apple care. Her WiFi option has greyed out. We've done our research and know it's a hardware fault. We've also been to our nearest Apple Store and seen a Genius to confirm this.
We already knew that living in the UK the EU consumer law applied and she should get a replacement under warranty regardless of Apple's policies.
To Apple's credit here the Genius told us what we already knew outright as one of the options to resolve the issue. He also said it wasn't the manufacturer who would need to replace it, but the seller of the product. She brought it from Phones4U. The Genius did say that had she brought it from an Apple store they would replace it free of charge even outside of her Apple Warranty.
So we went to Phones4U. After trying to convince my Girlfriend to pay £60 more than Apple to replace the phone, and/or sign no less than two different contract options for a new phone they put us on the phone to their head office. They told us that Orange (her network) count as the seller beyond 24 hours of the handset being purchased. Sounds like bull, probably is.
We rang Orange and they point blank declared themselves a SIM card provider. They don't apparently sell hardware. They 'in line with trading standards' lease/give the hardware through resellers from the manufacturer. Interesting if not slightly confused response. Orange claim Apple should replace it.
They also went as far as to say Apple are breaking the law and shouldn't sell products in the UK. Sounds suspiciously like someone not quite clued into the truth...
Anyway has anyone had a similar situation themselves?
If so is there an easy answer as to who should replace the phone? Or do the EU laws count for nothing?
My Girlfriend has had an iPhone 4S for about 18 months. It's outside of Apple's warranty and she hasn't got Apple care. Her WiFi option has greyed out. We've done our research and know it's a hardware fault. We've also been to our nearest Apple Store and seen a Genius to confirm this.
We already knew that living in the UK the EU consumer law applied and she should get a replacement under warranty regardless of Apple's policies.
To Apple's credit here the Genius told us what we already knew outright as one of the options to resolve the issue. He also said it wasn't the manufacturer who would need to replace it, but the seller of the product. She brought it from Phones4U. The Genius did say that had she brought it from an Apple store they would replace it free of charge even outside of her Apple Warranty.
So we went to Phones4U. After trying to convince my Girlfriend to pay £60 more than Apple to replace the phone, and/or sign no less than two different contract options for a new phone they put us on the phone to their head office. They told us that Orange (her network) count as the seller beyond 24 hours of the handset being purchased. Sounds like bull, probably is.
We rang Orange and they point blank declared themselves a SIM card provider. They don't apparently sell hardware. They 'in line with trading standards' lease/give the hardware through resellers from the manufacturer. Interesting if not slightly confused response. Orange claim Apple should replace it.
They also went as far as to say Apple are breaking the law and shouldn't sell products in the UK. Sounds suspiciously like someone not quite clued into the truth...
Anyway has anyone had a similar situation themselves?
If so is there an easy answer as to who should replace the phone? Or do the EU laws count for nothing?
