I sent my Series 5 White Ceramic Apple Watch in for a battery replacement and somebody at Apple or UPS stole it and replaced it with a cheaper, beat up S3 Aluminum watch and mailed that back to me. I wrote a letter to Tim Cook and a member of their executive relations team got back to me to say that during their investigation, UPS admitted responsibility and Apple would like to replace my missing watch with a new one. However, they only offered a base model Aluminum watch (priced at $529), when the one I sent in was originally valued at ~$1300 + tax. I politely followed up with a suggestion that they should replace my stolen watch with a model of comparable value. A friend of mine recently had his S5 Ceramic replaced via Apple Care and they put an ~$1400 charge on their credit card to secure the advance replacement, so this is a replacement value from Apple themselves.
Today, I received a follow-up call that Apple changed their mind and won’t compensate me at all. They also refuse to put anything in writing and I have no recourse with UPS because Apple is the company I paid for the shipping label and package to ship the watch to them for service. That means only Apple can file an insurance claim and UPS won’t even talk to me because I’m not their “customer” here.
This is the short version of the story. I'm happy to provide further details if anyone is interested. But I just wanted to warn the community that If you are sending in a watch (or anything) to Apple for service, you have ZERO recourse if the shipping company or Apple decides to steal your item. I even have photos of the watch, packaging, and receipts from every step of the process but it didn't matter.
I'm certainly not going to file an homeowners claim for something like this since the deductible is too high and it's not worth the risk of a rate increase or non-renewal. However, now my favorite watch has been stolen from me and my confidence in Apple is completely broken. To say I'm disappointed would be an understatement. Now I have to figure out what (if anything) to do next…
Today, I received a follow-up call that Apple changed their mind and won’t compensate me at all. They also refuse to put anything in writing and I have no recourse with UPS because Apple is the company I paid for the shipping label and package to ship the watch to them for service. That means only Apple can file an insurance claim and UPS won’t even talk to me because I’m not their “customer” here.
This is the short version of the story. I'm happy to provide further details if anyone is interested. But I just wanted to warn the community that If you are sending in a watch (or anything) to Apple for service, you have ZERO recourse if the shipping company or Apple decides to steal your item. I even have photos of the watch, packaging, and receipts from every step of the process but it didn't matter.
I'm certainly not going to file an homeowners claim for something like this since the deductible is too high and it's not worth the risk of a rate increase or non-renewal. However, now my favorite watch has been stolen from me and my confidence in Apple is completely broken. To say I'm disappointed would be an understatement. Now I have to figure out what (if anything) to do next…