Warranty Issues in Europe

[badman89]

I'm planning to buy a new iPhone (never had an iPhone before) but I have some questions about the warranty.

I know that under normal circumstances the iPhone warranty is only valid for the country in which it was originally sold / purchased. However, I've heard that there is some exception in the European Union which allows the warranty to be valid in any EU country as long as it was originally sold / purchased in an EU country. Is this true? Is there any written documentation in support / against this claim?

Also, I'm really disappointed to note that Apple has such limited warranty options. I'm originally from India but I'm going to spend the next two years in various places in Europe. It looks like there is no way I can have a warranty for these two years

 

[Merkie]

Any Apple Store around the world will take in your iPhone if you have a problem with it. There are official Apple Stores in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, the UK and The Netherlands I believe.

 

[ThatsMeRight]

I'm planning to buy a new iPhone (never had an iPhone before) but I have some questions about the warranty.

I know that under normal circumstances the iPhone warranty is only valid for the country in which it was originally sold / purchased. However, I've heard that there is some exception in the European Union which allows the warranty to be valid in any EU country as long as it was originally sold / purchased in an EU country. Is this true? Is there any written documentation in support / against this claim?

Also, I'm really disappointed to note that Apple has such limited warranty options. I'm originally from India but I'm going to spend the next two years in various places in Europe. It looks like there is no way I can have a warranty for these two years

I don't think so. It seems that you are stuck with Apple's own 1-year warranty if you want to make use of it in any other country than where you bought it.

I'd advise you to buy the iPhone in an official Apple Store. Maybe this way you could get two years of warranty all across Europe (since Apple is the seller), but I think they only have to offer you the warranty in the country where you bought the iPhone.

----------

Any Apple Store around the world will take in your iPhone if you have a problem with it. There are official Apple Stores in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, the UK and The Netherlands I believe.

Apple will only take in the iPhone within the first year - not the second year.

 

[blueroom]

Buy AppleCare or wait till you're home to get it fixed.

 

[ThatsMeRight]

Buy AppleCare and get a full three.

Apple doesn't offer AppleCare with three years of warranty for the iPhone. For the iPhone, they only offer two years of warranty - and those two years of warranty is what they need to offer by law already.

 

[Merkie]

Apple will only take in the iPhone within the first year - not the second year.

I know, never disputed that ?

 

[badman89]

Any Apple Store around the world will take in your iPhone if you have a problem with it. There are official Apple Stores in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, the UK and The Netherlands I believe.

Why are you giving advice when you don't know what you are talking about? If you take your iPhone to any Apple store around the world, they will simply tell you to take it back to the country in which you bought it. This is Apple's official policy and practice. If you are trying to dispute either the policy or the practice, please provide some evidence (hint: there is none).

Note: This policy and practice applies specifically to the iPhone. All other Apple products (macbook, etc.) are serviced globally.

Buy AppleCare or wait till you're home to get it fixed.

Waiting till I get home to fix the problem is certainly one obvious solution! I was just hoping for a better one. Buying AppleCare does not help in this case. AppleCare extends the warranty period from 1 year to 3 years but it does not expand the area of coverage (i.e. your 3 year warranty is still valid only in the country of original purchase / sale).

 

[Azzin]

Why are you giving advice when you don't know what you are talking about? If you take your iPhone to any Apple store around the world, they will simply tell you to take it back to the country in which you bought it. This is Apple's official policy and practice. If you are trying to dispute either the policy or the practice, please provide some evidence (hint: there is none).

Note: This policy and practice applies specifically to the iPhone. All other Apple products (macbook, etc.) are serviced globally.

I'm afraid it's you that is mistaken here.

All of Apple's "mobile" products (iPhones/iPads/iPods/laptops) all have a worldwide warranty and it's been this way for quite some time.

I've had my iPad 3 replaced under warranty in a UK Apple store, despite it being purchased in New York and the web is littered with people saying the same things (there was even an Apple PDF floating around, pointing to the actual clause number where it showed it).

Waiting till I get home to fix the problem is certainly one obvious solution! I was just hoping for a better one. Buying AppleCare does not help in this case. AppleCare extends the warranty period from 1 year to 3 years but it does not expand the area of coverage (i.e. your 3 year warranty is still valid only in the country of original purchase / sale).

Again, you're mistaken.

Applecare adds 1 extra year of warranty, to make it 2 in total.

Oh, and BTW, my iPad was replaced in the UK under Applecare +, despite AC+ only being available to buy in the USA.

 

[Merkie]

Why are you giving advice when you don't know what you are talking about? If you take your iPhone to any Apple store around the world, they will simply tell you to take it back to the country in which you bought it. This is Apple's official policy and practice. If you are trying to dispute either the policy or the practice, please provide some evidence (hint: there is none).

I've taken my iPhone (purchased in The Netherlands) to a Genius Bar in Germany, no problem. My brother bought his iPhone in the UK, got it serviced twice in The Netherlands. I'm a 100% certain that as long your phone was purchased in the European Union, you can take your phone to any official Apple Store in the EU. I'm 95% certain that this also holds for every Apple Store throughout the world.

But apparently I have no idea what I'm talking about, I must've imagined all of this...

 

[iPhone Warrior]

I've taken my iPhone (purchased in The Netherlands) to a Genius Bar in Germany, no problem. My brother bought his iPhone in the UK, got it serviced twice in The Netherlands. I'm a 100% certain that as long your phone was purchased in the European Union, you can take your phone to any official Apple Store in the EU. I'm 95% certain that this also holds for every Apple Store throughout the world.

But apparently I have no idea what I'm talking about, I must've imagined all of this...

All the countries you state are in the EU where it is considered 1 country.
per Apples Warranty info:
http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/iphone-english.html

IMPORTANT RESTRICTION

Apple may restrict warranty service to the country where Apple or its Authorized Distributors originally sold the Apple Product.

Have a look in the Apple iPhone discussions and you will see MANY users who bought in a different country and trying to get service in another and have been told to ship the phone back to the original country of purchase.

 

[Merkie]

All the countries you state are in the EU where it is considered 1 country.
per Apples Warranty info:
http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/iphone-english.html

IMPORTANT RESTRICTION

Apple may restrict warranty service to the country where Apple or its Authorized Distributors originally sold the Apple Product.

Have a look in the Apple iPhone discussions and you will see MANY users who bought in a different country and trying to get service in another and have been told to ship the phone back to the original country of purchase.

I saw that, but I've also read reports of Apple Stores that exchanged the phone without any questions asked. Anyways, the question was regarding Europe, so as long you buy your iPhone in the EU and don't go to Switzerland for service, I don't see any problems.

 

[gnasher729]

I'm planning to buy a new iPhone (never had an iPhone before) but I have some questions about the warranty.

I know that under normal circumstances the iPhone warranty is only valid for the country in which it was originally sold / purchased. However, I've heard that there is some exception in the European Union which allows the warranty to be valid in any EU country as long as it was originally sold / purchased in an EU country. Is this true? Is there any written documentation in support / against this claim?(

There are two different warranties: Warranty by the manufacturer, and warranty by the retailer. Apple's manufacturer's warranty is for one year and is valid anywhere in the world where Apple does business. And in the EU, the seller has to fix problems for some reasonable amount of time, typically 2 years - but that is the seller, so if you buy an iPhone in Rome and it breaks in London, you have a problem. So the best if you move around might be iPhone + AppleCare, which gives you the same world wide protection for two years.

And there is something in EU laws which says that _if_ the manufacturer gives you a warranty where you bought the product in the EU, you are covered by that warranty anywhere in the EU where Apple trades.

 

[badman89]

I'm afraid it's you that is mistaken here.

All of Apple's "mobile" products (iPhones/iPads/iPods/laptops) all have a worldwide warranty and it's been this way for quite some time.

I've had my iPad 3 replaced under warranty in a UK Apple store, despite it being purchased in New York and the web is littered with people saying the same things (there was even an Apple PDF floating around, pointing to the actual clause number where it showed it).



Again, you're mistaken.

Applecare adds 1 extra year of warranty, to make it 2 in total.

Oh, and BTW, my iPad was replaced in the UK under Applecare +, despite AC+ only being available to buy in the USA.

Both of the anecdotes that you relate are about the iPad. I never claimed that the iPad warranty is not globally valid. I have a MacBook Air that I purchased in the USA and have gotten it serviced multiple times in India. No problem. Apple's warranty is worldwide!

Except when it comes to the iPhone. The iPhone warranty is limited to the country of original sale / purchase.

I've taken my iPhone (purchased in The Netherlands) to a Genius Bar in Germany, no problem. My brother bought his iPhone in the UK, got it serviced twice in The Netherlands. I'm a 100% certain that as long your phone was purchased in the European Union, you can take your phone to any official Apple Store in the EU. I'm 95% certain that this also holds for every Apple Store throughout the world.

But apparently I have no idea what I'm talking about, I must've imagined all of this...

I don't mean to accuse you of "having no idea what you're talking about." But, if you take an experience that happened to you once or twice and generalize it into a rule or a policy then that reasoning is not exactly "sound." Perhaps they simply made an exception for you. I do not have an explanation for why you got lucky.

But I do know that Apple's official policy and practice is to service iPhones only in the country of original sale / purchase. This is clearly stated on their own website, so why are you disputing it? Here is the link to their official policy: http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/iphone-english.html

Check out some users that have been shafted due to this policy:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3815656?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16559197#16559197

Just because you are one of the lucky few customers who's phones slipped through the system (or were granted exceptions) doesn't mean that everybody should assume they will be as lucky as you.

 

[tiptopp]

But I do know that Apple's official policy and practice is to service iPhones only in the country of original sale / purchase. This is clearly stated on their own website, so why are you disputing it? Here is the link to their official policy: http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/iphone-english.html

So, if you look at the words that you want us to look at, they say:

"Apple may restrict warranty service to the country where Apple or its Authorized Distributors originally sold the Apple Product"

That's not quite as hard and fast as you make out, is it? The exact same words are used in the iPad warranty document.

Interestingly, the two products that may connect to 'stuff' via a third party - i.e. a mobile carrier - both have this potential limitation. None of the others that I looked at (aTV, iMac, iPod Touch) have it. Not sure what that implies - just saying! Might have something to do with complications arising from agreements with mobile operators in some countries?

Tiptopp

 

[Azzin]

Both of the anecdotes that you relate are about the iPad. I never claimed that the iPad warranty is not globally valid. I have a MacBook Air that I purchased in the USA and have gotten it serviced multiple times in India. No problem. Apple's warranty is worldwide!

Except when it comes to the iPhone. The iPhone warranty is limited to the country of original sale / purchase.

Again, you are wrong.

If the product is portable, meaning that it can operate independently without a power cord, you may obtain warranty service worldwide.

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/Images/worldwidewarranty.html

Is that clear & concise enough?

 

[badman89]

Firstly, I want to thank everybody who has responded to this thread and then I want to apologize for the hostile and ad-hominem direction in which this conversation is currently heading (because, of course, this is largely my fault).

This all started a few days ago when I ran a google search for "is the iPhone warranty globally valid?" I was extremely surprised to discover a many threads on the Apple support forums where users were complaining that Apple refused to service their iPhone and asked the customer to take it back to the country of original purchase. I have already given a couple of examples (example 1, example 2) and you can find many more by running some simple Google searches.

Then upon examining the terms of iPhone's warranty as presented by Apple on their website, the following line was found: "Apple may restrict warranty service to the country where Apple or its Authorized Distributors originally sold the Apple Product." Then, I called my local Apple store to find out about iPhone pricing, warranty etc. and they told me the exact same thing.

When I came to these forums, I found that some people have had the opposite experience i.e. they were able to get their iPhone serviced in countries outside the original country of purchase. This made me very happy. But all I can conclude so far is that Apple may choose to honor your iPhone's warranty in other countries, but it also may choose not to. People have had both experiences. And there is nothing in the terms of the warranty that requires them to honor the iPhone warranty all over the world. This still means that it depends on my luck at the end of the day whether or not my warranty will be honored in a different country.

 

[Merkie]

Firstly, I want to thank everybody who has responded to this thread and then I want to apologize for the hostile and ad-hominem direction in which this conversation is currently heading (because, of course, this is largely my fault).

This all started a few days ago when I ran a google search for "is the iPhone warranty globally valid?" I was extremely surprised to discover a many threads on the Apple support forums where users were complaining that Apple refused to service their iPhone and asked the customer to take it back to the country of original purchase. I have already given a couple of examples (example 1, example 2) and you can find many more by running some simple Google searches.

Then upon examining the terms of iPhone's warranty as presented by Apple on their website, the following line was found: "Apple may restrict warranty service to the country where Apple or its Authorized Distributors originally sold the Apple Product." Then, I called my local Apple store to find out about iPhone pricing, warranty etc. and they told me the exact same thing.

When I came to these forums, I found that some people have had the opposite experience i.e. they were able to get their iPhone serviced in countries outside the original country of purchase. This made me very happy. But all I can conclude so far is that Apple may choose to honor your iPhone's warranty in other countries, but it also may choose not to. People have had both experiences. And there is nothing in the terms of the warranty that requires them to honor the iPhone warranty all over the world. This still means that it depends on my luck at the end of the day whether or not my warranty will be honored in a different country.

In the EU you're warranty always holds .