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I guess AppleCare is actually useless after all?

S

stofferdk

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 22, 2007
200
0
Copenhagen, Denmark
Hi there,

I would love if you would take the time to read about me flaming Apple Care, and I would love to warn anyone against purchasing the ever expensive Apple Care.

I have Apple Care on all my gear, which never failed me - but out of nowhere, both my iMac and iPhone play tricks.

I call up the very kind Apple Care service line, and they are more than helpful and quickly diagnose my hardware. Chances 1:whatever, my iMac screen is broken, and iPhone dead (on the eve of 3.0).

Apple opens the repair cases, and redirects me to their service-shop which is almost right next to my apartment.

So far, so good.


Me: "So, when can I expect my two babies home again?"
huMAC service center guy: "Uhm, I would say... about 2-3 months".

BAM - I almost hit him.

I live in DENMARK, its not like I want Apple to fix my machines in the jungle or desert.

So I paid 5 000 dollars for my iMac (thank you tax system in Denmark), 1 000 dollars for my iPhone, and yet another 400 dollars in Apple Care.

Now I am without iMac and iPhone in at least 2 months, with the ****ing premium I paid.

I expected more from apple, I really did.
 
Wirelessly posted (BB 8900: BlackBerry8900/4.6.1.101 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/301)

Is there no AASP in Denmark? They are authorized to do work, and Applecare will foot the bill.
 
It's fine to vent, but his is totally irrelevant to the legitimacy of AppleCare, as you would get the same service if you were still in the first-year, factory warranty window.
 
Did you call applecare back. I think you should and explain to them that this is unacceptable and make sure to stress the fact that you can't be apart from you computer for that long. Even cars don't take that long to get repaired. Are they going to the moon or something!!!!!!!! :eek:
 
dave006 said:
The thread starter indicated that Apple directed them to that repair location. So it does indeed seem to be Apple's fault.

I would call Apple Support again and ask for other options at this point?

Dave
Click to expand...
But what I'm saying is, Apple has no control over how long the repair shop takes.
 
Although AppleCare ay be at fault for directing you to that shop, I wouldn't rule it out immediately.

Phone them back to give them a chance. If they do nothing, then you'll have a complaint.
 
benflick said:
But what I'm saying is, Apple has no control over how long the repair shop takes.
Click to expand...
True, but you'd think that Apple would have SOME control over the experience, like being able to redirect him to a shop that can complete the repair more timely, or arrange to ship him a new product and have him return the old one.
 
How much are the repairs costing you? I would image a screen on an iMac is pretty expensive, depending on of course which model it is and how long ago you bought it.

Now that I think about it, you didn't mention you had to pay anything for the repairs. That's what AppleCare is for, picking up the tab. It doesn't mean you're going to have your hardware back tomorrow, although I will admit 2-3 months is a bit ridiculous, that's more than likely an issue with the shop you brought it too.

As someone else said, I would take it somewhere else and see if the turn-around time is any quicker.
 
Every single time I've had a problem with an iPod/iPhone and had to send it in for repair it would take under a week for them to repair it and send it back to me.

I live in Spain and Apple gets UPS to send me an empty box to put my hardware in. Then I call UPS so they can pick it up and it gets shipped to the Netherlands for repair. It's usually in the Netherlands for about a day or two and then it gets shipped back to me.

My girlfriend had to repair her iPhone since the silent switch fell off. It took under a week for the whole process.

So yeah, I'm pretty sure you can call Apple and resolve this. 2 months is way too long for any sort of repair.
 
Ok - here is the deal, I called AppleCare up again; and as always, they were very kind.

There are only 2 actual Apple service centers in Denmark, all the rest of the stores ship the broken gear there... but it seems I live right next to the main service center with their own workshop.

I told Apple I was very confused with the extreme wait time - and they told me they only had 1 guideline: The service-shop MUST order the spare parts at the latest of 5 days after the gear has been admitted to the shop.
As long as the shop orders the spare parts, apple let them take the time they need to clear the queue, which is 2-3 months at the moment.

I have a MacBook, so while I will miss my iMac dearly, I am not ****ed.
my phone however..... my life is on that phone - it retired my Palm Pilot.

I must say I am so disappointed. I thought I was safe with Apple Care, and even though it might sound silly,.... I REALLY looked forward to play with OS 3.0 ):


and I know myself... I will buy apple gear again next time... but I am really sorry about this... really.
 
efp1 said:
Every single time I've had a problem with an iPod/iPhone and had to send it in for repair it would take under a week for them to repair it and send it back to me.

I live in Spain and Apple gets UPS to send me an empty box to put my hardware in. Then I call UPS so they can pick it up and it gets shipped to the Netherlands for repair. It's usually in the Netherlands for about a day or two and then it gets shipped back to me.

My girlfriend had to repair her iPhone since the silent switch fell off. It took under a week for the whole process.

So yeah, I'm pretty sure you can call Apple and resolve this. 2 months is way too long for any sort of repair.
Click to expand...

I asked, and they told me they only ship out empty boxes with UPS for hardware spare parts you can change yourself i.e. macbook harddisk or iMac ram. Full set, iPod and iPhone are to be handed in, in person...
 
stofferdk said:
and I know myself... I will buy apple gear again next time... but I am really sorry about this... really.
Click to expand...

You're appropriate to do the Steve Jobs e-mail at this point -- I think particularly in a case like this, it's actually really important that Apple senior management be aware of issues like this.

Apple takes a loss if they ship you another computer and then have to fix yours at their leisure and sell it as a refurb. But it's the right thing to do -- months of wait time is not reasonable, and not having a "guideline" prohibiting this is something that Apple in your country should fix.

So I would recommend you write Jobs and see if the exec office can't help you out.
 
After my experience with SquareTrade.com I'll never bother with Apple Care again. Apple Care is minimalist crap designed to protect Apple, not you. What does Apple Care for the iPhone even do? Screw 'em. I have SquareTrade coverage for all my computers....Mac, PC, iPhone, Fuze, Blackberry and soon-to-be Pre.
 
Luckily there are laws for this.

The Danish law clearly states that it may only take a reasonably amount of time to repair faulty equipment depending on the severity of the fault / defect.

Unfortunately it doesn't state the timeframe but several cases from the "ombudsmand" have it pinned at 3 - 4 weeks as a reasonably amount of time.

It is the seller that have the responsibility for getting the faulty part repaired in the reasonable amount of time, even if they wait for spare parts from a 3rd party.

Read more here (in Danish).
 
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