Applecare a ripoff in Europe with new warranty law?

[j26]

Small claims court only costs a fiver and is done in a couple of weeks.

A MacBook on Edu discount would be under the threshold for small claims. PC laptops can cost far less.

And small claims court is a court, so decisions can be (and probably have been) made pretty quickly. Once it's established for a particular good, it follows across the whole class.

But I agree - it's no an insurance policy, but it is a far better level of consumer protection than most people think they have, and unexplained failures that were not due to user behaviour within the two years should be covered under it.

 

[ChrisA]

Since January 1st last year all products bought in the EU have a standard 2 year warranty by law as far as I know. Seems that Applecare is not worth it then since it would only add 1 year.
Any legal people here that know if this is true? Thinking about buying a Macbook soon so I'd like to know this.

Erik.

I wonder if the price of a mac in Europe is the same as in the USA? My gues is that in the EU you are paying already for Apple care manybe even twice over. The cost of the one year USA warenty is built into the retail price and I'm sure the cost of a manatory two year warenty is built into the european retail price. You don'r get anything for free.

But Appleccare gives you more then a warenty. You get some support and servive too.
Is it worth the price? The normal advice is to only buy insurance for losses that you absolutly can not afford to loose. Insurance companies always know the odds and add a bet more in for themselves. So you ak yourself can you afford to replace a logic board in a MBP? What are the chances you would have to? May bdepend on local tax law too if the machine is used for bussines

 

[NATO]

http://www.gkh-law.com/reviews/article.asp?id=36

From the sounds of it, you'll realistically still need Applecare even with this EU Directive. From the article:

"Although this period is often misinterpreted as a mandatory two-year warranty period, it is not the case"

"...resellers should clearly state the duration of warranty periods on the product labels and documentation, especially when the warranty periods are less than two years. This will assist the manufacturers and resellers to create accurate consumer expectations for the performance of the Product."

I don't think we get much extra protection with this directive than what we had before... oh well, it was worth a try

 

[Macky-Mac]

Small claims court only costs a fiver and is done in a couple of weeks.

A MacBook on Edu discount would be under the threshold for small claims. PC laptops can cost far less.

And small claims court is a court, so decisions can be (and probably have been) made pretty quickly. Once it's established for a particular good, it follows across the whole class.

But I agree - it's no an insurance policy, but it is a far better level of consumer protection than most people think they have, and unexplained failures that were not due to user behaviour within the two years should be covered under it.

this is from the link that Nato provides in the post above;


"If, however, the product was purchased without defects but began to demonstrate reduced functionality after a reasonable period of wear and tear during the first two years (such as a battery that begins to lose its charge capacity over time), the consumer would not have a claim against the seller under EU 1999/44."

and another quote;

"From six to twenty-four months, however, it is the consumer’s obligation to prove that the defect in the product existed at the time the goods were delivered to the consumer."

if that opinion holds up in court then consumers will be facing a very difficult challenge in winning their case

 

[j26]

But batteries are a consumable and are user replaceable. A logic board or something similar is not


Anyway, I'm off on holidays, so we will have to differ.

 

[gnasher729]

UK readers should have a look at

http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/Warrant.htm

which describes your rights quite well. I can't find anything saying that there is a two year statutory warranty on anything in the UK, and it seems that Apple doesn't do anything like the scams described there. As an example, Dell has managed to reduce its warranty to 90 days by some clever tricks in the past.

You should also check out what is covered by your home contents insurance. Mine did buy me a new Macintosh a few years ago, when it was damaged by lightning (the insurance people told me that they had to pay out for a few hundred computers that day), and theft and accidental damage may also be covered.

 

[steven_t]

2 year warranty

You can get this if you buy your mac from John Lewis- they tend to lag behind a bit in terms of the latest gear though!


st

 

[JFreak]

I wonder if the price of a mac in Europe is the same as in the USA? My gues is that in the EU you are paying already for Apple care manybe even twice over. The cost of the one year USA warenty is built into the retail price and I'm sure the cost of a manatory two year warenty is built into the european retail price. You don'r get anything for free.

Yep. Take a Mac Mini for example (prices ex.tax):

US price: 599USD
Euro price: 549EUR

Today's currency exchange rate is 1.28, so the euro price would be a whopping 702USD -- which means euro price is relatively 17% higher than the US price.

Oh yes, with this pricing the AppleCare should be included.

 

[NJuul]

Yep. Take a Mac Mini for example (prices ex.tax):

US price: 599USD
Euro price: 549EUR

Today's currency exchange rate is 1.28, so the euro price would be a whopping 702USD -- which means euro price is relatively 17% higher than the US price.

Oh yes, with this pricing the AppleCare should be included.

Wrong, we pay pretty much the dollar price, plus import tax, plus sales tax.
But the euro price is set at the time of the product introduction (or upgrade). So, the mini costs 599 USD, it was introduced Feb. 1st, EUR/USD ~1.2 (might be off, can't remember), x 1.05 (EU customs tax, think it's 5%) x sales tax (don't know what it is in Finland, but in Denmark it's 25%).

You'll find in the end that the price are pretty much the same, just multiplied with lots of taxes.
Us poor Europeans and our taxes...

 

[PekkaR]

Wrong, we pay pretty much the dollar price, plus import tax, plus sales tax.
But the euro price is set at the time of the product introduction (or upgrade). So, the mini costs 599 USD, it was introduced Feb. 1st, EUR/USD ~1.2 (might be off, can't remember), x 1.05 (EU customs tax, think it's 5%) x sales tax (don't know what it is in Finland, but in Denmark it's 25%).

You'll find in the end that the price are pretty much the same, just multiplied with lots of taxes.
Us poor Europeans and our taxes...

22% here in Finland. (less for some products like movie tickets or medicine (8%) or food (17%) of course)

I don't find our tax system all that terrible. I know lots of people in US would like our health care / health insurance system, or not having any fees to study in universities etc. (I don't know if the university fee thing is common in the rest of Europe or just Scandinavia or what.)

People also tend to forget that US prices on the web don't even include every tax yet because they differ from state to state a bit. While Apple prices still seem pretty high considering the current value of euro, there was a slight drop in Macbook Pro pricing in Europe when the Macbook came out. So the prices get updated eventually even if euro stays high or climbs even higher.

 

[NJuul]

22% here in Finland. (less for some products like movie tickets or medicine (8%) or food (17%) of course)

I don't find our tax system all that terrible. I know lots of people in US would like our health care / health insurance system, or not having any fees to study in universities etc. (I don't know if the university fee thing is common in the rest of Europe or just Scandinavia or what.)

People also tend to forget that US prices on the web don't even include every tax yet because they differ from state to state a bit. While Apple prices still seem pretty high considering the current value of euro, there was a slight drop in Macbook Pro pricing in Europe when the Macbook came out. So the prices get updated eventually even if euro stays high or climbs even higher.

The MBP was updated when the Macbook came out (CPU increased from 1.83 -> 2.0 & 2.0 -> 2.16). With every update, the price is updated to reflect the current exchange rate. This is how Apple has done it for years.

Anyway, I don't really mind our taxes either, free university, free health care, pensions, guaranteed housing (no homeless), money if you are unemployed, etc. We do get a lot for our taxes, but we also do pay a lot of taxes. Wouldn't mind it being just a little bit lower. If you make more than 40.000 EUR per year, here they'll tax you by almost 70%!

 

[PekkaR]

The MBP was updated when the Macbook came out (CPU increased from 1.83 -> 2.0 & 2.0 -> 2.16). With every update, the price is updated to reflect the current exchange rate. This is how Apple has done it for years.

Yeah, but I meant an actual price drop. At least the low end 15 inch MBP models droppeb by 90-100 euros in the Finnish Apple Store and I remember seeing reports from some other countries in Europe too. Price didn't change in US store so people decided it was an adjustment because of the high value of euro.

 

[SuperSnake2012]

25% and i complain at 17.5%

I complain at 8.375%

 

[NJuul]

Yeah, but I meant an actual price drop. At least the low end 15 inch MBP models droppeb by 90-100 euros in the Finnish Apple Store and I remember seeing reports from some other countries in Europe too. Price didn't change in US store so people decided it was an adjustment because of the high value of euro.

When they update the product, they update the prices so they reflect the exchange rate to USD at the time of the update.

 

[PekkaR]

When they update the product, they update the prices so they reflect the exchange rate to USD at the time of the update.

Makes sense.

Will be funny if we see the price drop here when they do a new revisition and add more features.