I know some guy who had to live a week without his Apple laptop after the power supply broke. He went to the store immediately, then they kept his laptop for a week.
Meanwhile, I had a new component of my own built desktop PC broken, went with it to the store and said it didn't work, and they just took it and immediately gave me a new one without any questions asked or even checking the faulty one. Then I also asked if I could buy a PC speaker to hear the motherboard beeps, and they gave a tiny speaker with two wires, for free!
Both of this was in Belgium. So yes, something is wrong with Apple's warranty in Belgium, compared to other shops.
In which ‘the store’ is an Apple Product Reseller (not owned by Apple). There are no Apple Retail Stores (stores owned by Apple) in Belgium yet [0] (all surrounding countries but Luxembourg have them, though).
Apple Retail Stores are renowned for their excellent, lenient customer service. APRs, not so much. Third party retailers receive minimal discounts on Apple products, which makes it hard for them to give away freebies or give consumers the benefit of the doubt [1]. Now, that doesn't excuse them, but it might explain the difference in customer experience.
"Apple extends only a tiny wholesale discount on its Macs and iPads to your retailer of choice. The actual numbers are a closely guarded secret, protected by confidentiality agreements between Cupertino and its resellers, but the difference probably amounts to only a few percentage points off the official price that you find at Apple’s own stores. With such a narrow gap to tinker with, most retailers can’t offer big discounts and still hope to turn a profit." [1]
Do you mean the power connector or something internal, rather than power supply? Because the power supply on a Macbook is an external AC adapter, no reason at all for the Macbook to be kept.
Comparing a laptop to a self-built desktop PC isn't exactly a fair comparison. Try walking in to your local PC hardware shop with any PC laptop suffering from a bad power distribution board (an internal component). They're unlikely to have one on hand.
I had a similar problem. My laptop would not startup, so I bought a new laptop from them. Then my old one startup up again (it need to be left on for 4 hours), and I returned the new one for free. YOu have 15 days free use from it.
I think if the Belgian consumer group is successful in it's case, Apple will have to seriously consider complying with EU law, or face one lawsuit after another in each member state. It would be a public relations nightmare.
Edit: apparently I wrote some unreadable stuff here :) So simple rewrite:
- people accidentally drop liquid (bottle of water, coke, coffee, tea) on their macbooks
- people bring the laptop to Apple (or official partners)
- Apple says (rightfully so) that it's not covered by their warranty
- Apple says (in all cases, over 10 i've seen) that the motherboard is gone and needs replacement, which costs E800-E1200 depending on your Macbook
- after repair Apple (partners) refuses to return the broken motherboard to the paying client
Now, i'm saying that in the cases people found it too expensive and didn't have the macbook repaired (by Apple) that the motherboard was not broken at all and fixable within a few hours by themselves or friends (like me).
So my question: why do they refuse to return the old, broken motherboard to someone who owns the macbook and is paying to have it fixed?
Dear Tycho, I'm well versed in English and Dutch, but I have no clue what you're trying to say.
As for dropping quantities of liquid on your Mac: don't do it, or at least get yourself some proper computer insurance. Apple's standard warranty doesn't cover accidents, AppleCare doesn't cover them either. If you bring your water damaged computer to an Apple Store (try Amsterdam), they might take pity on you and replace your computer on the spot, but they're in no way obligated to do so.
I always figured that these are not "official" stores thus having limited stock and resupply makes them willing to fight consumers over every small repair, replacement and warranty issue.
When these Apple Stores are charging money for repairs that should have been under warranty or pushing their Apple Care products by stating you only have 1 year warranty they are basically taking advantage of uneducated consumers.
Apple stores in Belgium are an extremely negative experience to say the least, I hope this will change eventually.
Until then you should buy your Apple products through the online apple store, no problems there. ( if you happen to be Belgian )
> Apple stores in Belgium are an extremely negative experience to say the least, I hope this will change eventually.
There are no Apple stores in Belgium yet, only resellers working on scary thin margins. They've been consolidating in preparation for the arrival of Apple's own stores, but I doubt it will be enough for them to last very much longer.
Although they are absolutely right, it should also be said that Apple is far from unique. Many electronics shops and manufactures have warranty policies and try to sell extra warranty whilst EU consumer laws already mandate minimal warranty standards. As a consumer you almost always have to explicitly assert your rights or you'll get screwed.
Apple has just made itself a high profile target with it's AppleCare Protection Plan, and it doesn't help that Apple is being systematically uncooperative when consumers claim their warranty rights.
It doesn't help either that Apple markets itself as premium quality hardware rather than cheap junk. If you were buying cheap chinese knock-offs, you wouldn't gain much sympathy when they didn't honour the two-year minimum, but when you buy 'the premium brand', it's a different story.
I do hope they eventually turn their attention to Google's complete opacity. I still find it absurd that it is impossible to call Google about a problem with nearly any of their services.
I came here to say this; it's completely weird that Google escapes this; even if you make money for them or pay for their services. Probably because the 'buy X' => 'support X' is not as clear with Google, but their practices are somewhat weird. I had good and bad experiences with adwords, adsense, apps, gmail, analytics and youtube. Mostly bad and all have in common that you actually cannot contact someone who will help you. Vague answers why you have been shot down and no-one seems to care unless they have been affected themselves.
Seems worse than Apple to me, at least I can walk into a shop and just get an answer or get annoyed until they fix it (and they do, no complaints here).
[+] [-] Aardwolf|13 years ago|reply
Meanwhile, I had a new component of my own built desktop PC broken, went with it to the store and said it didn't work, and they just took it and immediately gave me a new one without any questions asked or even checking the faulty one. Then I also asked if I could buy a PC speaker to hear the motherboard beeps, and they gave a tiny speaker with two wires, for free!
Both of this was in Belgium. So yes, something is wrong with Apple's warranty in Belgium, compared to other shops.
[+] [-] Samuel_Michon|13 years ago|reply
In which ‘the store’ is an Apple Product Reseller (not owned by Apple). There are no Apple Retail Stores (stores owned by Apple) in Belgium yet [0] (all surrounding countries but Luxembourg have them, though).
Apple Retail Stores are renowned for their excellent, lenient customer service. APRs, not so much. Third party retailers receive minimal discounts on Apple products, which makes it hard for them to give away freebies or give consumers the benefit of the doubt [1]. Now, that doesn't excuse them, but it might explain the difference in customer experience.
"Apple extends only a tiny wholesale discount on its Macs and iPads to your retailer of choice. The actual numbers are a closely guarded secret, protected by confidentiality agreements between Cupertino and its resellers, but the difference probably amounts to only a few percentage points off the official price that you find at Apple’s own stores. With such a narrow gap to tinker with, most retailers can’t offer big discounts and still hope to turn a profit." [1]
[0] http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/
[1] http://www.macworld.com/article/2024257/how-apple-sets-its-p...
[+] [-] huxley|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bradleyland|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] megablast|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beedogs|13 years ago|reply
http://gigaom.com/2012/12/21/italy-fines-apple-again-over-ap...
[+] [-] bitcartel|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tluyben2|13 years ago|reply
Edit: apparently I wrote some unreadable stuff here :) So simple rewrite:
- people accidentally drop liquid (bottle of water, coke, coffee, tea) on their macbooks
- people bring the laptop to Apple (or official partners)
- Apple says (rightfully so) that it's not covered by their warranty
- Apple says (in all cases, over 10 i've seen) that the motherboard is gone and needs replacement, which costs E800-E1200 depending on your Macbook
- after repair Apple (partners) refuses to return the broken motherboard to the paying client
Now, i'm saying that in the cases people found it too expensive and didn't have the macbook repaired (by Apple) that the motherboard was not broken at all and fixable within a few hours by themselves or friends (like me).
So my question: why do they refuse to return the old, broken motherboard to someone who owns the macbook and is paying to have it fixed?
[+] [-] Samuel_Michon|13 years ago|reply
As for dropping quantities of liquid on your Mac: don't do it, or at least get yourself some proper computer insurance. Apple's standard warranty doesn't cover accidents, AppleCare doesn't cover them either. If you bring your water damaged computer to an Apple Store (try Amsterdam), they might take pity on you and replace your computer on the spot, but they're in no way obligated to do so.
[+] [-] megablast|13 years ago|reply
I think you are saying that in water damaged macbooks, you have to pay apple, and apple get to keep the mobo? They probably recycle them safely.
Maybe you are suggesting they reuse the parts, but I find that highly unlikely.
[+] [-] smashu|13 years ago|reply
There is no such thing, the law refers to something else. Check this: http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/
[+] [-] vacri|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Bvalmont|13 years ago|reply
I always figured that these are not "official" stores thus having limited stock and resupply makes them willing to fight consumers over every small repair, replacement and warranty issue.
When these Apple Stores are charging money for repairs that should have been under warranty or pushing their Apple Care products by stating you only have 1 year warranty they are basically taking advantage of uneducated consumers.
Apple stores in Belgium are an extremely negative experience to say the least, I hope this will change eventually.
Until then you should buy your Apple products through the online apple store, no problems there. ( if you happen to be Belgian )
[+] [-] Luc|13 years ago|reply
There are no Apple stores in Belgium yet, only resellers working on scary thin margins. They've been consolidating in preparation for the arrival of Apple's own stores, but I doubt it will be enough for them to last very much longer.
[+] [-] rickmb|13 years ago|reply
Apple has just made itself a high profile target with it's AppleCare Protection Plan, and it doesn't help that Apple is being systematically uncooperative when consumers claim their warranty rights.
[+] [-] vacri|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fusiongyro|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tluyben2|13 years ago|reply
Seems worse than Apple to me, at least I can walk into a shop and just get an answer or get annoyed until they fix it (and they do, no complaints here).
[+] [-] rimantas|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicholassmith|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
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