Hello everyone. It's been a long time since I've updated you here. Lots has happened.
TL;DR: just read the second screenshot in this post to have my entire situation summarised in a neat single paragraph.
Let's start with where I last left off on this thread. Someone replied to my last post:
No completely.
If you didn't buy it from apple, its not linked and it will not suffice as a proof of purchase.
This is correct. However, I still have rights to it as the 'gift recipient' under Australian Consumer Law (full rights as if I were the original purchaser, which makes sense, it's not fair to receive a defective macbook for Christmas if Apple still got paid), so I checked with ACCC about this conundrum in consumer law, and, they said it's up to the dispute resolution process to work that one out. (Obviously, I'd win in this case. Apple
knew I was the only user as iCloud activated since day one and not a thief of the laptop, LOL, so they were just trying to deny me my remedy, once again.)
Jesus. So let's summarise everything from then to now. I'll try to make this as concise as I can.
My case is
still ongoing, and I am
still aiming to hold Apple to account for how hostile and anti-consumer they have been and continue to be regarding this disastrous keyboard defect. I knew this fight could take months. Well it's been 2 months so far.
Apple has done so much wrongdoing under consumer law, in my case, that if I really wanted to, it's possible I could sue Apple for MAJOR AND EMBARRASSING REASONS, which I didn't actually realise when dealing with Apple early on in July.
So, to remind you of where we left off, I posted my second letter of demand
here. In it I demanded a refund within a reasonable / normal amount of time, or I'd sue.
In response, Apple surprised me with this news: they would now offer me a 2018 unit as a replacement remedy, with the explanation being
because, the representative said (and this time just for today this is a paraphrase quote from memory), "We don't manufacture the 2017 model anymore". (What a BS excuse for only NOW offering me the 2018 fixed model instead of the 2017 model which is all I asked for in the first place. Obviously, it was because I had just refused to accept this outrageous coercion and unconscionable behaviour of saying that it would take up to 2 months for me to receive my refund after I returned my MacBook Pro to Apple.)
Once they offered me this remedy, I realised that I had a lot more dirt on Apple than I first could see. I gave myself a week due to busyness in work and life, then sent the following third letter of demand (in the form of an email) in which I now demanded an UPGRADED unit as a form of compensation for all the lost time, productivity and stress that I had been put through as a result of Apple's sustained breaches of consumer law and misconduct towards me, or I'd sue to get it that way instead:
My thinking was, that they either comply and the case finally ends and I just focus on sending the ACCC as much info as possible and urge them to investigate Apple on this issue as much as possible, or if they refuse, I will make the most of my situation and allocate more of my time to sue the F U C K out of Apple for the sake of all consumers in Australia and even overseas.
You know what I realised? The Keyboard Service Program ITSELF is unacceptable! Why should we accept a defective part being replaced only with the SAME defective part? It should have been a VOLUNTARY RECALL, and there ought to be a class action lawsuit in CA just for this issue itself. There should be one in every country Apple sells in, until they change it to a recall program.
In response to this (in which I become more aware of my PR leverage in relation to this case), I was referred to Apple's Executive Relations department, who will be the person to deal with me from now on. After a phone call with them in which I stated the same firm assertion as in the email, the Executive Liaison allowed herself a week to apparently contact staff in Apple's legal and engineering departments, then got back to me saying that no, they would only offer me a 'like-for-like' 2018 replacement, and not with a few upgrades and AppleCare+ in the compensatory form that I had demanded above.
And yeah, all while pretending that everything I had gone through simply didn't happen. (No apology, no nothing.)
So today, I filed an official Consumer Complaint with NSW Fair Trading to have them demand the compensation on my behalf. See the summary here:
So that's where it's at.
I've now realised that if I really wanted, I could pile so much on Apple in the case of a court case or tribunal case.
As a consumer, I could sue Apple (i.e. seek compensation from them)
for the nature of their Keyboard Service Program itself. (It doesn't even repair the defect!)
As a consumer, I could sue Apple
for refusing to offer the consumer of a 2016 or 2017 macbook pro a replacement with a 2018 macbook pro and only offering a defective replacement units in full knowledge that they're doing this, which I didn't realise in the first place. (How easily we Apple customers just roll over with how Apple treat us! That's all changed now!)
Some of this stuff I could sue for, would probably require a decent lawyer though (but it could help my own compensation case to just lay it out as what Apple is doing to consumers, and make it a big media expose in the process). So depending on how things continue to go, I have a lot of options ahead of me.
It doesn't matter that Apple lawyers or PR people may be reading this post you're reading right now. It appears the consumer victory is mine to seize just depending on how much time I want to spend on it, and exactly what I want to sue for (and whether I can get assistance for that).
What I'm asking for from Apple to me is just a pittance - $1500 in compensation value on top of a reasonable replacement remedy.
What's important is my symbolic victory for all other consumers and Apple needing to learn that they can't mistreat consumers like they have with this keyboard defect.
If Apple are treating me like this, then they're doing it to others, and this has to be fought.
I'm fed up with this treatment from Apple, and just so you know my down arrow key has taken a turn for the worst since a week ago and it's a TERRIBLE experience trying to use it like a normal keyboard. All the better for demonstrating on TV!
Glen