After 90 days how does support work?

[Star Destroyer]

After the 90 day phone support runs out, how will i go about getting help for the rest of the year? I dont have an Apple anywhere remotely close to me so i have to call to explain my problems and then they would tell me to send it in for repair.. so can i still call? or will i have to drive to a store ?

and apple care will extend my phone support right?

 

[Silentwave]

you can a) call and be charged money for phone support, b) go to the distant apple store, or c) buy the applecare protection plan (up until 1yr of the purchase date) and you get phone support with that.

I think its probably a good idea that if you cant afford AppleCare at the purchase time, either ignore it until 90 days are up and you have more $, or if a problem crops up within 1 yr buy it otherwise wait until the year is almost up and buy it if you plan on keeping it.

 

[PatrickF]

Since I don't know where you are, in the UK I would simply inform them of their obligation under UK law. They cannot charge you for warranty repairs and since in a lot of cases that is the only way to get to Apple they will just have to put up with it.

Just to let you know though they are bloody cheeky! I had informed the person at AppleCare what I had done to attempt to fix the problem (dead harddrive in my MBP) and he'd told me that those things are the only things they would have asked me to do over the phone.

I was then informed that I could take it to my local Apple authorised dealer or do the mail-in. However, to do the mail-in they would have to try and fix the fault over the phone, which requires AppleCare (so either buy the extended AppleCare or fork out £35 per incident). This is bloody cheeky considering it was a clear hardware fault and the person had already told me that they wouldn't be able to do anything else over the phone anyway.

Since my local Apple dealer (not Apple owned) is only 5 minutes away from me I took it there but if they weren't I would have made them send a box out without paying them a penny.

UK consumers have some pretty strong legislation backing them. If they had refused that then you could always invoke the Sale of Goods Act, which gives a customer the right to a full refund if the item was mis-sold or is "not fit for purpose."

Overall though AppleCare (in the UK at least) are completely appalling!

 

[Wilden]

People in the UK can always flash this piece of information at Apple.

http://www.dti.gov.uk/consumers/Fact%20Sheets/page24700.html

Just tell them that if they don't repair or replace it free of charge you can take them to court for the amount you would have to pay.
Pay special attention to this:

• For up to six years after purchase (five years from discovery in Scotland) purchasers can demand damages (which a court would equate to the cost of a repair or replacement).

From my understanding this means a company would have to repair/replace a product if it does not last as long as would be expected for that product for up to 6 years, even without a warranty. I would say that a computer is supposed to last at least 5 years, so I'm sure it would be feasable to claim up to that amount of time.

Hope this helps, I've had this page bookmarked for a while, though never had a chance to try it on Apple, as I still havn't got around to getting my first Mac yet.

 

[PatrickF]

A friend of mine managed to claim that his iBook was unfit for purpose under the Sale of Goods Act as it kept breaking. In the end he managed to get a new MacBook out of it. He was lucky to have a solicitor as a friend though so he did have some legal clout behind him.

You just have to have the patience to persistently badger Apple before they do anything. It's a shame their products are so good (ok, not as happy with the quality of the MBP but OS X is great) because their "support" really spoils it.

Greatest thing was they sent me a survey e-mail the day after I called AppleCare. Let's just say they received a bit of an essay and didn't score very well.

 

[Wilden]

Greatest thing was they sent me a survey e-mail the day after I called AppleCare. Let's just say they received a bit of an essay and didn't score very well.

Amazon.co.uk got one of those from me when being 100th in the pre-order que I didn't get one of the 7000 Xbox 360s they had for launch day. Needless to say they sent me a copy of Perfect Dark Zero with my 360 (which arrived 2 weeks late). Complaining gets you such a long way in this world, it's great.

 

[Dunepilot]

Since I don't know where you are, in the UK I would simply inform them of their obligation under UK law. They cannot charge you for warranty repairs and since in a lot of cases that is the only way to get to Apple they will just have to put up with it.

Just to let you know though they are bloody cheeky! I had informed the person at AppleCare what I had done to attempt to fix the problem (dead harddrive in my MBP) and he'd told me that those things are the only things they would have asked me to do over the phone.

I was then informed that I could take it to my local Apple authorised dealer or do the mail-in. However, to do the mail-in they would have to try and fix the fault over the phone, which requires AppleCare (so either buy the extended AppleCare or fork out £35 per incident). This is bloody cheeky considering it was a clear hardware fault and the person had already told me that they wouldn't be able to do anything else over the phone anyway.

Since my local Apple dealer (not Apple owned) is only 5 minutes away from me I took it there but if they weren't I would have made them send a box out without paying them a penny.

UK consumers have some pretty strong legislation backing them. If they had refused that then you could always invoke the Sale of Goods Act, which gives a customer the right to a full refund if the item was mis-sold or is "not fit for purpose."

Overall though AppleCare (in the UK at least) are completely appalling!

I've been thinking about this for some time now, and have actually posted about it previously. As far as I can tell, they are not really complying with their statutory obligations with regard to providing a one-year guarantee if, as I've experienced, they insist on charging you to diagnose a fault with you know to be with their hardware.

Why hasn't anyone taken Apple/care to court over this?

 

[meanpeoplesuck]

Over here in Ireland, I studied business for a while and I think it's quite similar in the UK.

What I learnt was that the warrantys companies provide you with are actually worthless. If Apple told you that you didn't have a 1 year warranty, but instead a 1 month warranty, then it would make no difference at all.

A warranty can only ADD to your rights, they CANNOT take anything away. By Law.

AFAIK, this means that if after 1.5 years your MacBook cuts out due to some manufacturing fault (the heat, fans, whatever) and you have NOT purchased AppleCare, then UNDER THE LAW Apple still have to fix it or give you a refund. Why? Because a laptop should not break after 1.5 years, simple as.

Trust me on this though - Most companies will do anything to avoid obeying this law, but keep pushing and they will HAVE to comply. I spent a month in a dispute over a mobile phone in a similar incident to this, and eventually backed down and just stopped bothering, I found out a month later talking with a Lawyer that I was in the right, and simply by backing down I proved why most companies, Apple included, will never obey the law - because most people don't have the balls to keep pushing for their rights.

That's in Ireland anyway.

 

[Jovian9]

In the U.S you have to put a $49 deposit/payment down in case it is a software issue (3rd party apps/themes/etc) that could be causing the problem. Once they determine it is not software but is hardware your $49 is refunded and they will replace it under warranty.

 

[manosaurus]

OMG! I can't believe someone busted out the code for Cobra! Cobra was awesome!

 

[Mord]

you just have to do some ball busting "i don't need or want support i have a clear hardware fault which you are obliged to sort for me" if they demand a credit card just tell them you don't have one, hell i actually don't and would never give them it even if i did.

you just have to be firm with them and tell them exactly what they have to do for you.