Apple's Incredible Support

[keysofanxiety]

Just had to share this story that happened last week. My housemate had a 17" Early 2011 MBP. Radeongate; the old girl finally gave up when he was doing work on Final Cut Pro X. Wouldn't boot into recovery mode, into the OS... you know the score.

He took it into the Apple Store. Immediately failed on graphics test. Because he's in the U.K. with consumer law and because it was originally purchased through the Apple Online Store, they offered him a brand new 15" 2017 with the 460 Radeon and 512GB SSD.

No quarrel, no quibbles, just went in and they did that for him.

So just a quick bit of reassurance: if you're also struggling with Radeongate, you're in the UK, and your MBP was originally purchased through Apple, it's worth a shout to take it in to a store. You never know!

All my best.

 

[abaloney]

So just a quick bit of reassurance: if you're also struggling with Radeongate, you're in the UK, and your MBP was originally purchased through Apple, it's worth a shout to take it in to a store. You never know!

Which store?

 

[caspergirl]

Same thing happened with my iPhone 5s (2,5years old- not within warranty period) that stopped working without any reason last year (Westfield -white city Apple Store). They told me that due to consumer rights they will exchange it for free if they check that I didn't opened the phone myself and there is no contact with water. In less than half an hour they gave me a new one

 

[keysofanxiety]

Which store?

Well any official Apple Store. But the one in this example was Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

[Vazza]

What does consumer law say specifically? How far back does it extend?

 

[brookter1]

What does consumer law say specifically? How far back does it extend?

The law changed in 2015 and your rights are slightly different depending on when you bought the kit. This Which article goes into the details. http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act

I've also had really good experiences with Apple over this. Earlier this year my 2015 MacBook developed a problem with the keyboard -- the space bar was sticking. It was out of warranty by then, and I didn't have AppleCare, so I was expecting a large bill. I took it into the Apple Store in the Arndale Centre in Manchester. The assistant played with it for five minutes, agreed there was a problem and said that it wasn't acceptable on a less than two year old computer so they'd replace the keyboard free of charge under the consumer rights legislation (providing their detailed tests showed it didn't have any water damage).

The point is, I hadn't asked for anything at that point -- I'd only shown her the problem: she said they'd replace it without any prompting from me. That's the difference with Apple for me -- many other companies would not have mentioned it without me asking and I expect I have had to insist.

 

[keysofanxiety]

The point is, I hadn't asked for anything at that point -- I'd only shown her the problem: she said they'd replace it without any prompting from me. That's the difference with Apple for me -- many other companies would not have mentioned it without me asking and I expect I have had to insist.

Exactly what happened here. I wouldn't even know how to start a claim with consumer law, but Apple cited it unprompted and straight out gave him a new laptop.

 

[Vazza]

The law changed in 2015 and your rights are slightly different depending on when you bought the kit. This Which article goes into the details. http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act

I've also had really good experiences with Apple over this. Earlier this year my 2015 MacBook developed a problem with the keyboard -- the space bar was sticking. It was out of warranty by then, and I didn't have AppleCare, so I was expecting a large bill. I took it into the Apple Store in the Arndale Centre in Manchester. The assistant played with it for five minutes, agreed there was a problem and said that it wasn't acceptable on a less than two year old computer so they'd replace the keyboard free of charge under the consumer rights legislation (providing their detailed tests showed it didn't have any water damage).

The point is, I hadn't asked for anything at that point -- I'd only shown her the problem: she said they'd replace it without any prompting from me. That's the difference with Apple for me -- many other companies would not have mentioned it without me asking and I expect I have had to insist.

Thanks for the link...looks like a claim has to be made within 6 years of purchase if the item is deemed faulty at time of buying but burden is on the consumer to prove it i.e with an expert report.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Thanks for the link...looks like a claim has to be made within 6 years of purchase if the item is deemed faulty at time of buying but burden is on the consumer to prove it i.e with an expert report.

I imagine the 2011 dGPU issue would qualify without burden of the consumer due to the repair program and widely documented issues. Regardless, amazing of Apple to give him a £2700 laptop without having to go through the normal channels...

 

[SteveJUAE]

This is not Apple this is UK/Euro consumer protection at it's best on a well document fault

Now you know at least one reason why Apple costs more in UK

 

[lobo1978]

Paid with Apple tax...

This is why I trust Apple. Period. Have not tested Apple support yet but I am very confident I will be not left to myself (like with Lenovo crappy/anonymous support)

 

[duervo]

Paid with Apple tax...

This is why I trust Apple. Period. Have not tested Apple support yet but I am very confident I will be not left to myself (like with Lenovo crappy/anonymous support)

You get what you pay for. If you paid for (or just took the default "this is what it comes with standard") the Lenovo support option where you have to send it in to a depot after remote phone support diagnosis, then that's what you'll get. That's the cheapest support option, BTW.

If you pay for one of the on-site options, a person shows up at your door with possible parts on hand (based on the symptoms that you provide) to fix the issue on the spot.

FWIW, I've had both good and bad support experiences with Apple. (You get ignorant workers at any company.) As far as I'm concerned, they're no better or worse than any other tech company in that regard.

 

[Bassy182]

Im sure I've heard them say in store before that they will only honour this if it is bought directly from apple themselves and not a reseller..

Not 100% though..

Im in the UK and just got a tb 2017 13" not sure weather to purchase apple care or not..

 

[keysofanxiety]

This is not Apple this is UK/Euro consumer protection at it's best on a well document fault

Never said it wasn't, but the truth is that they just came out and offered it without even a passing mention about rights from the consumer. If it was HP, or Lenovo, you'd definitely have to fight the case. The fact they were so open with somebody who didn't have a clue was quite a noble and forthright act.

It's encouraging, that's all. And a new £2700 laptop for a broken 6 year old one. Even if Apple went by the book with consumer law, they could have offered a lower spec TB 15" or even the 2015 model as it matches/exceeds the original specification; but they didn't.

You can quote rights but ultimately Apple allowed the process to be hassle free, made the offer, and reassured somebody who didn't think they'd be able to use a Mac (or even any other laptop) again in the foreseeable future due to cost. So a lot of the story can be considered to be "Apple's support". I don't think that's unfair to say.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

WOW that was very nice of them.

 

[Queen6]

WOW that was very nice of them.

Apple is merely following the local legislation, the good is Apple was open and upfront. If same occurred to one of my older MBP's, Apple staff would highly likely be sympathetic, equally I'd be facing a major repair bill or a new notebook, as no such protection exists here.

If Apple was so confident they would offer longer warranties by default, they don't, just the bare minimum. Last two notebook's I personally purchased both came with 2 year international warranties, nor do I anticipate any significant issue in the unlikely event of hardware failure.

Q-6

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Apple is merely following the local legislation, the good is Apple was open and upfront. If same occurred to one of my older MBP's, Apple staff would highly likely be sympathetic, equally I'd be facing a major repair bill or a new notebook, as no such protection exists here.

If Apple was so confident they would offer longer warranties by default, they don't, just the bare minimum. Last two notebook's I personally purchased both came with 2 year international warranties, nor do I anticipate any significant issue in the unlikely event of hardware failure.

Q-6

The good thing about the consumers laws in Europe, they are more supportive than in the U.S. Here in the USA, it's one year and 90 days of phone service.

 

[Queen6]

The good thing about the consumers laws in Europe, they are more supportive than in the U.S. Here in the USA, it's one year and 90 days of phone service.

I'm predominately based in Asia, so can be variable equally good companies still stand by their products, like the last two nor do I have any qualms.

Q-6

 

[JohnnyW2001]

I'm in the UK. Here's two of my three experiences with Apple customer support here in the UK:

I bought an iPad 3. It was so amazing. I loved it. After two months of owning it I dropped it on a tile floor. It popped out of the expensive case I'd bought, landed on its corner, and cracked the glass. I was devastated. It was brand new and cost a fair chunk

I'd heard great things about Apple's customer care. I travelled to the Apple store in London with my iPad to see what they could do. This was on Regent's street, when they had that great glass staircase going upstairs to the genius bar.

When I got there I shared the sorry story and showed him the damage on my iPad. One three feet tumble onto my bathroom tiled floor and it was cracked. The helpful staff member told me I needed to book an appointment with a technician. I said, "Ok, let's do it". He replied, "No, you can't book it here. You have to book the appointment online". I was a bit incredulous. "Even though I'm here now, in the store?", I asked. "I'm afraid so", was his response. This seemed pretty silly to me, and to make matters worse, he said the earliest availability to see a technician was in a week's time.

So I duly went home, and booked my appointment online for a week's time with the technician.

Seven days later I traipsed back into London, once again with my broken iPad in tow. I got to the store at my appointed time and asked a staff member where I needed to go to see a technician. They told me to talk to one of the Apple staff upstairs.

So up I went, and I found a bunch standing around chatting to each other. I stood there a minute and eventually one of them decided to help me. I said I was here to see a technician. I had an appointment. He asked me was why I needed to see a technician in the first place. I told him the sorry story of my two month old iPad. Without looking at my iPad, or even mentioning a technician, he just told me that they could only fix it if I paid. And the cost for any fix, big or small, was £256.44. (That's $406 US dollars, American readers!)

I was a little taken aback. Why did I have to wait a week, book an appointment, come back to see a "technician", just for this? Couldn't the first guy have saved me some time? It was also very expensive (I could buy an iPad Mini for that price!), and I remarked that it seemed pricey. "Yes", he agreed, "do you want to go ahead?".

Apparently that was all the help they could offer.

Needless to say I was pretty upset at having to go through all this rigmarole only to be told by a member of the floor staff that there was nothing they could do. I could have saved myself a trip into London for one thing.

My second experience was when my iPhone 4S's wifi just broke one day. The chip inside started malfunctioning or something. Every time I turned on wifi, my phone would go nuts. Seriously nuts. Not responding. Crashing. Acting weird. If I turned it off, everything was fine. I'd kept it pristine. It was definitely an internal issue.

I took it into Apple (this time booking the appointment first). The technician took it away, came back and said it was a hardware fault. Great, it was less than two years old (well within the UK law), could I have a replacement/fix? No. Because I hadn't bought it directly from Apple, I would have to go back to the phone store I bought it from.

I went back to the phone store and they said Apple had to take care of it. Then they went bust. I was left with a broken iPhone 4S that was less than two years old. I hadn't even finished my contract.

Again, I left the Apple store incredibly frustrated.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Never said it wasn't, but the truth is that they just came out and offered it without even a passing mention about rights from the consumer. If it was HP, or Lenovo, you'd definitely have to fight the case. The fact they were so open with somebody who didn't have a clue was quite a noble and forthright act.

It's encouraging, that's all. And a new £2700 laptop for a broken 6 year old one. Even if Apple went by the book with consumer law, they could have offered a lower spec TB 15" or even the 2015 model as it matches/exceeds the original specification; but they didn't.

You can quote rights but ultimately Apple allowed the process to be hassle free, made the offer, and reassured somebody who didn't think they'd be able to use a Mac (or even any other laptop) again in the foreseeable future due to cost. So a lot of the story can be considered to be "Apple's support". I don't think that's unfair to say.

Whilst I agree generally Apple service is 2nd to none and they seem to have acted admirably in this instance but that's also in part due to all the users that finally got Apple to admit to the defect, had it been a few years back it would of been a different story and Apple were not quite as up front with "Apple's support".
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The good thing about the consumers laws in Europe, they are more supportive than in the U.S. Here in the USA, it's one year and 90 days of phone service.

Yes UK has more protection when push comes to shove but I would say in US your less likely to be pushed down that road as with more Apple stores around the experience is usually better and less reliant on approved stores who's service can very greatly in other countries

 

[c0ppo]

Apple is merely following the local legislation, the good is Apple was open and upfront. If same occurred to one of my older MBP's, Apple staff would highly likely be sympathetic, equally I'd be facing a major repair bill or a new notebook, as no such protection exists here.

Well, the thing is, Apple is the only one following legislation laws in my own country (EU - Croatia). Even though they don't even have an Apple store in my country. All we got is iStyle shop, a specialized shop for Apple hardware and accessories. But Apple forced iStyle to follow their rules.

I work in a company that develops software products for mobile phones (mostly games). And we own a lot of hardware. Especially mobile phones (for testing purposes mostly). And if a Samsung phone is malfunctioning, well, sometimes we are about a month without that phone. A in most cases, repair shop will claim that it was our fault in one way or another.

Since we have a lot of Dell equipment (monitors and laptops mostly), we have a lot of experience with them. I can put it simply - our company banned dell laptops, especially the xps lineup. Their warranty is like having no warranty. But we still use their monitors, we have to, since there really isn't any good alternative out there.

Lenovo is in the middle. I personally use P50, but their support is far better then Dells, but not even close to Apple. When one of our MBP/iMac/Mac Pro is broken, we just take it in for repair, if repair can't be done in 1-2-3 days, we will get a replacement computer with no questions asked.

I criticise Apple a lot. But imho, only where they should be criticised. But I will always praise them where it's needed. And in my own experience, their support is far better then anyones else. It doesn't even come close. Now, I can't speak for USA (event though I highly doubt that anything there is different, since it seems that most of Dell users in USA hate dell support), or some asian country, but I can speak for my own country and a few other countries in EU. Apple simply beats all competition by far when it comes to support.

The good thing about the consumers laws in Europe, they are more supportive than in the U.S. Here in the USA, it's one year and 90 days of phone service.

Well, consumer law in EU works great in countries like UK, Germany, Norway, etc. So basically, countries that abide by their own laws. But most of EU isn't like that. Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Hungary... I wouldn't like to see you try to claim those EU consumer laws in those countries. Believe me, it's not a pleasant experience

 

[simonsi]

I'm in the UK. Here's two of my three experiences with Apple customer support here in the UK:...

Applecare would have included accidental damage on the iPad I believe, tiresome process I agree but the options are Applecare or fixed price repair so a bit oversimplified to state "there was nothing they could do".

On the phone - that is exactly what the legislation says, the retailer is responsible under that legislation, not the manufacturer, I guess there is a link between the phone store saying its Apple's problem (incorrect under the legislation), and going bust...

What was the 3rd experience? Good?

 

[Queen6]

Well, the thing is, Apple is the only one following legislation laws in my own country (EU - Croatia). Even though they don't even have an Apple store in my country. All we got is iStyle shop, a specialized shop for Apple hardware and accessories. But Apple forced iStyle to follow their rules.

I work in a company that develops software products for mobile phones (mostly games). And we own a lot of hardware. Especially mobile phones (for testing purposes mostly). And if a Samsung phone is malfunctioning, well, sometimes we are about a month without that phone. A in most cases, repair shop will claim that it was our fault in one way or another.

Since we have a lot of Dell equipment (monitors and laptops mostly), we have a lot of experience with them. I can put it simply - our company banned dell laptops, especially the xps lineup. Their warranty is like having no warranty. But we still use their monitors, we have to, since there really isn't any good alternative out there.

Lenovo is in the middle. I personally use P50, but their support is far better then Dells, but not even close to Apple. When one of our MBP/iMac/Mac Pro is broken, we just take it in for repair, if repair can't be done in 1-2-3 days, we will get a replacement computer with no questions asked.

I criticise Apple a lot. But imho, only where they should be criticised. But I will always praise them where it's needed. And in my own experience, their support is far better then anyones else. It doesn't even come close. Now, I can't speak for USA (event though I highly doubt that anything there is different, since it seems that most of Dell users in USA hate dell support), or some asian country, but I can speak for my own country and a few other countries in EU. Apple simply beats all competition by far when it comes to support.

Hear you on Dell They do make "some" decent hardware, equally there support has never impressed. Apple's definitely better than most, but there not bending over backwards here. That said Apple has been know to really help out some of it's customers, although I believe mostly confined to CONUS. Personally never has any real issue with Apple, not any glowing experience.

Apple's business support is good, only caveat is the limited hardware choices...

Q-6