
Apple Products and EU-wide Consumer Laws - 001sky
https://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/
======
k-mcgrady
It's funny to see this here today. I've been on the phone and in store with
Apple and my carrier today trying to get a faulty lock button sorted. Here's
what I've learnt so far:

It's the second time it's happened in 10 months but unfortunately the phone is
1 month out of the Apple 12 month warranty. Even with a cracked screen (glass
not LCD and working fine) Apple was willing to replace it to fix the lock
button until they noticed it was 13 months old (out of 12 month contract). At
this point the EU warranty comes in (6 years in the UK - Apple actually
informed me of this but I was already aware). It is the seller who has to
cover it though and as I bought it from the carrier Apple pointed me to them.

The problem is (and Apple actually warned me about this) the local carrier
store manager. He's actually asked the local Apple store to stop informing
people of their 6 year warranty rights and refused to help me.

On the phone they have been just as useless failing to acknowledge any EU
warranty laws. At this point I'm waiting to hear back from some higher up at
the carrier.

Fortunately I contacted Apple via phone and they were much more helpful. I'm
still waiting to hear back (the person on the phone had to speak to someone
more senior) but as it's just out of warranty and the second time I've had the
fault it sounds like they might replace it.

tl;dr The EU warranty laws apply to the seller not the manufacturer. Don't buy
from a carrier (they are assholes), buy from Apple. If Apple sets up your
contract with the carrier they become the seller and will be more helpful.

~~~
sp332
Since it's the second time it's happened, can you claim that they didn't fix
it properly the first time (when it was under warranty)?

~~~
k-mcgrady
Apparently they can't fix the lock button. First time round they just gave me
a brand new device. It seems like the lady on the phone now is going to help
me out (although she's probably pulling a few strings). The moral of the story
is that carriers suck and even out of warranty Apple is at least trying to
help.

------
logn
I commented yesterday on another thread, worth repeating in case it helps
people in the US:

 _If you read their iOS and iPhone EULA 's, they disclaim all sorts of
liability but don't disclaim iPhone hardware damage caused by iOS. I argued
with them for three days after an iOS update bricked my phone (outside of its
warranty period) but only after pointing out this issue in the EULA did they
finally replace the phone free of charge (with a refurb that had a scratched
camera lens and bad battery)._

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6631457](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6631457)

------
jkldotio
Years ago here in Austria I bought an iPhone 3G that from the beginning
frequently didn't have reception where all other phones did, including a
situation where I needed to call an ambulance because someone was in urgent
need of medical attention and couldn't, and they never replaced it and gave me
the run-around every time I contacted them. Finally they claimed that the
liquid detectors being slightly off-white, rather than pink or red, meant it
had been dropped in water when it was obviously just from humidity, a practice
for which they were later sued.[1] They were also sued on the reception issue
which affected thousands of phones, but again not in my jurisdiction. They
have extremely poor service if they think they can get away with it, they are
only kept honest in countries that have strong consumer protection laws. It's
simply disgraceful to sell a multi-hundred dollar piece of equipment that
can't perform its core function and then not replace it.

[1] [http://www.imore.com/apple-pay-53m-iphone-warranty-
settlemen...](http://www.imore.com/apple-pay-53m-iphone-warranty-settlement)

------
arrrg
Doesn’t really matter if the national implementation sucks. In Germany the
burden of proof flips after a mere six months (from seller to consumer), so
the two years aren’t worth much. How are you, as a consumer, supposed to prove
that the defect was present when you were sold the device?

At least until a few years ago that was also Apple’s point of view, making all
the EU consumer protection laws completely useless in Germany.

~~~
jnky
Yet in practice, I never had any trouble getting products repaired for free
after 23 months or something along those lines. It may be that the burden of
proof is on the buyer after six months, but in reality no company (except
maybe Apple) really makes a fuss about it. Burden of proof is one thing, but
as an EU citizen I expect my electronic devices to work at least two years. If
a company were to argue that I have to proof a defect is really their fault
after just a year, I would definitely never buy from them again.

------
josteink
With Apple acknowledging EU's consumer laws, maybe they should start looking
into Micro-USB connectors as well?

~~~
netcan
I'm really surprised Apple don't do this just for user friendliness. I have
lots of USB cables and chargers that have accumulated. That means that I can
plug in at work, in the car, at home.. etc. I only have one lightning cable
that usually lives at work. I also have a cheap-crap 30 pin that I can never
find for my old ipod that a rarely use.

Basically this means that my ipad often runs out of juice and my ipod gets
used even less. My guess is that there are a lot of old ipods that will not
get a retirement job because they outlived their connectors.

~~~
Osmium
> I'm really surprised Apple don't do this just for user friendliness.

I can't stand proprietary connectors as much as the next person, but there's
no denying that their Lightning connector is much much better than any USB.
It's reversible for one (size and robustness aside).

~~~
vikaveri
Reversible always comes up when asked what makes it better. Always reversible.
Sometimes there's some other thing, but you can count on reversible.

How hard it is to feel which way you're holding the USB cable? They are often
asymmetrically designed, you know?

I can do it half asleep in pitch dark.

If someone can't plug in a cable in the right way, I seriously doubt they
should be using a smart phone in the first place... or any technology more
sophisticated than a pointy stick.

~~~
Osmium
> If someone can't plug in a cable in the right way, I seriously doubt they
> should be using a smart phone in the first place... or any technology more
> sophisticated than a pointy stick.

Sure, I'll take that bait. There are innumerable disabilities which might mean
people have trouble manipulating small objects. That seems like an obvious
reason for making it reversible for one. But congratulations for managing to
do it half asleep in the dark (anecdotes don't make a convincing argument: I
could share several contrary anecdotes myself).

But as for other benefits? There have been USB standards that have been
deprecated because they were so fragile (I forget which–Mini?). The Lightning
connector is solid, not hollow, and so seems more robust. The Lightning
connector is also designed to support much higher power ratings than USB, so
can charge devices faster.

~~~
vikaveri
I doubt Lightning is that much bigger than USB that it helps handling it.

And I didn't say anything about whether Lightning is better or worse than USB,
or more versatile or what ever. Just that can we please stop with the "But
it's reversible" thing? It just sounds like something to say when people can't
come up with better reasons.

~~~
frou_dh
Not everything has to be grand. Iterating away small annoyances is a worthy
part of design and is often noticeable.

