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John Lewis or Apple?

N

NStocks

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 3, 2008
1,569
18
England
I'm looking to buy the standard config 15" MBP, likely the 512GB version.

With student discount and AppleCare, the cost from Apple directly is around £250 more than John Lewis. JL offer only 2 years warranty/accidental damage versus Apple's 3 years. Apple also give free beats headphones but I'd never use them.

Any major benefits of buying direct from Apple over JL? Is it worth £250 for the extra 1 year?
 
macman4789 said:
What extra warranty are you referring to? What are you entitled to?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Currently, if you bought your MBP from Apple within the EU, and it failed out of warranty with a hardware issue not caused by damage within 6 years, an EU Consumer Law Claim can be made. Even though bought from Apple, you will require your invoice/receipt, have to be the original purchaser, and be a consumer, i.e. not bought by a business. If claiming you fill in an Apple claim form, this and a copy of your proof of purchase are uploaded when the repair job is entered and the tech ticks an option for the claim. It generally takes an extra day as the repair is marked for revue.

If bought from JLP, they don't have such an accommodating interpretation of the EU law, you may have to initiate a small claims court case. Also, JLP Apple computer repairs are shipped by the store to Regenersis in Scotland for repair, which with shipping both ways can take up to 3 weeks. Walk in repairs at an ARS or AASP are usually faster

How the eventual outcome of Brexit will effect this is anyones guess.
 
Techiesteve said:
Currently, if you bought your MBP from Apple within the EU, and it failed out of warranty with a hardware issue not caused by damage within 6 years, an EU Consumer Law Claim can be made.
Click to expand...

I think you may have this bit wrong. It is not a warranty for 6 years - you just have 6 years to make a claim.

"The Sale of Goods Act 1979 – now the Consumer Rights Act 2015 – provides that consumers are entitled to a repair or replacement or refund where goods are faulty.
"If the fault occurs after six months, the consumer has to prove that the problem was down to a fault or issue at the manufacturer, as opposed to wear and tear or misuse.
"In accordance with a law known as the Statutes of Limitations, consumers have this right for six years in England and for five years in Scotland."

Also, it does not matter whether the item was purchased from Apple or John Lewis, the law is the law no matter what.

BTW, the EU law referred to is incorporated into the UK with the Consumer Rights Act, as mentioned above. It is not EU law, but UK law.
 
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I think you also need to prove the issue was present from when the item was purchased etc - so this consumer law isn't exactly a 6 year warranty, and shouldn't be thought of as such.
 
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Ifti said:
I think you also need to prove the issue was present from when the item was purchased etc - so this consumer law isn't exactly a 6 year warranty, and shouldn't be thought of as such.
Click to expand...

Yes indeed. The relevant bit is in the second paragraph of the link in my original post.
 
Even the JL canteen staff are probably more knowledgeable than the guys on 'Genius bar' so I'd go with them.
 
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There is no ’fixed’ duration for the implied warranty under consumer law. The test is that it should function as described for a ‘reasonable’ amount of time. Six years is often cited as being the duration, but it is not strictly correct.

From JL you’ll get an additional 1 year no quibble hardware warranty added to the end of Apple’s standard 1 year warranty. After that period of time, if something fails in the device, other than standard consumable items such as the battery, through wear, you would be entitled to ask for it to be repaired at no cost to you, under consumer law. The responsibility/obligation of JL and Apple to honour this are the same. The only difference with buying through JL is that it might be a little slower, as they may act as the go between, to Apple. But my own experience of JL is that they are very good at keeping the customer happy.

The rights under consumer law are not as straightforward as a ‘warranty’ but if the failure is genuine, and you make a good case that they must honour it, then it can certainly work.

Apple have made it easy to argue what a reasonable amount of time is, by offerring the free keyboard replacement for a period of 4 years all over the world.(because their design is so failure prone, -looks already like I’m going to need a second replacement on my 2018 15” MBP, as the double spacing is starting again) So it is entirely reasonable to argue that the laptop should function for at least 4 years, by their own admission.

Hope this helps.

James
 
macman4789 said:
Interesting, so you have 6 years to make a claim but your standard warranty still applies?
Click to expand...

Yes, correct. So any special warranties or incentives offered by the seller are still important.

So the answer to the original poster is choose whichever seller gives you the best offer. You might consider, given that you are a student, that accidental damage cover is worth a great deal. Depends how clumsy you are really!
 
Zerosopher said:
I guess you are living in UK. If you buy from Apple, one major benefit that you can get is the extra warranty for few years due to the EU consumer law. I am not sure if John Lewis covers this as well.
Click to expand...

The same law applies to JL - your contract and rights are always with the seller, not the manufacturer.

JL are probably the most reputable high street retail chain in the UK. I got a MS Surface book from them a couple of years back, and when it failed within their 'no quibble' guarantee period they refunded me with no fuss.

If you have a nearby JL store that may be more convenient than dealing with Apple (also, you can pick up, drop off at Waitrose grocery stores).
 
Thanks for the information. I may interpreting this wrong being a non expert in law but does this mean if the hardware fails within 6 years, say the screen fails after 5 years and there is no apparent fault of the user then it will be replaced or fixed under this law?
 
macman4789 said:
Thanks for the information. I may interpreting this wrong being a non expert in law but does this mean if the hardware fails within 6 years, say the screen fails after 5 years and there is no apparent fault of the user then it will be replaced or fixed under this law?
Click to expand...

Depends on wether you can prove that it was an inherent manufacturing fault, often by referring to similar faults in the same model as experienced by others.
 
Thanks for your input. I decided to go with Apple. Never had experience with JL and Apple is so-so but I'd hope Apple would be better if anything goes wrong!
 
I chose Apple over John Lewis because of the appalling customer service they had with a laptop I purchased 4 years ago.
The laptop (MacBook Air) broke down before the 2 year warranty, it went back in their service, they fixed it and then 2 years later is totally broke down again. Unrepairable they said. I quoted the Consumer Rights Act 2015 with them but to no avail. The only solution was to either accept a 300£ compensation from them or take them to the Small Claims Court.

Needless to say, after speaking with countless incompetent Customer Service agents (most of them were hanging up the phone on me), I lost my will to fight and took the compensation.

NEVER EVER JOHN LEWIS!
 
Techiesteve said:
Currently, if you bought your MBP from Apple within the EU, and it failed out of warranty with a hardware issue not caused by damage within 6 years, an EU Consumer Law Claim can be made. Even though bought from Apple, you will require your invoice/receipt, have to be the original purchaser, and be a consumer, i.e. not bought by a business. If claiming you fill in an Apple claim form, this and a copy of your proof of purchase are uploaded when the repair job is entered and the tech ticks an option for the claim. It generally takes an extra day as the repair is marked for revue.

If bought from JLP, they don't have such an accommodating interpretation of the EU law, you may have to initiate a small claims court case. Also, JLP Apple computer repairs are shipped by the store to Regenersis in Scotland for repair, which with shipping both ways can take up to 3 weeks. Walk in repairs at an ARS or AASP are usually faster

How the eventual outcome of Brexit will effect this is anyones guess.
Click to expand...
Just buy in from JL, load it up with AppleCare (so if £250 saving it's like getting AC free) & you're good to go. Only benefit from Apple direct is if you don't plan to get AppleCare.
 
Based on the Guardian consumer affairs pages, John Lewis‘s service has really deteriorated lately. I tend to go direct with Apple these days. An added benefit is that they offer good Avios offers through BA’s eStore, which helps the travel opportunities (in normal times anyway!)
 
Shogun87 said:
I chose Apple over John Lewis because of the appalling customer service they had with a laptop I purchased 4 years ago.
The laptop (MacBook Air) broke down before the 2 year warranty, it went back in their service, they fixed it and then 2 years later is totally broke down again. Unrepairable they said. I quoted the Consumer Rights Act 2015 with them but to no avail. The only solution was to either accept a 300£ compensation from them or take them to the Small Claims Court.

Needless to say, after speaking with countless incompetent Customer Service agents (most of them were hanging up the phone on me), I lost my will to fight and took the compensation.

NEVER EVER JOHN LEWIS!
Click to expand...
Wow, I'm surprised about this. I wonder if it would've been worth taking them to the small claims court. Once they'd received a summons, maybe they would've settled.
 
randomtask said:
To counter Shogun87 - John Lewis are fantastic and I purchase EVERY tech item from them.
Click to expand...
I also purchased mostly everything tech from John Lewis (TV, iMac, MacBooks, tablets, you name it). I did that because I thought their customer service was great. I think lately something changed in their customer service. I'm not sure if they moved it to reduce cost, but the current one is horrific.
Imagine staying in the call center queue for 15-20 min, explaining your problem for 10 min, being put on hold and then the customer agent disconnecting the call. It happened 3 times in a row and I was super polite. After that, I started asking their names before they were putting me on hold or asking for a supervisor.

Quackington said:
Wow, I'm surprised about this. I wonder if it would've been worth taking them to the small claims court. Once they'd received a summons, maybe they would've settled.
Click to expand...
I thought it might be a complicated process, especially with this lockdown. But in hindsight, I should have. The point is that I wouldn't expect any of this from a company such as John Lewis, renowned for their great customer service.
 
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