But the law is the law. If you threaten civil action they'll either acquiesce before the case gets to court, or be forced to acquiesce after it gets to court, because there's no defence.
I have had 3 warranty replacements from Apple at around 18 mo. point and the way they handle it disgusts me:
They show you a receipt that states the full price replacement and make you sign it and say I must pay. I say no, its within the warranty period. Twice they have then said "unfortunately you did not buy it from Apple so they cannot perform a retailer's replacement" but in both cases I had (from their website). Once they then said "did you buy from Apple business?" I accidentally said yes and they tried to use that to extract payment. In each case, once you have the dodged the bullets, the genius finally says a prepared statement along the lines of "it is out of warranty so it will cost £xxx but because <insert excuse> we will waive the charges this time". The <insert excuse> is something like "safety reasons".
It is just so damn deceitful. They are not "waiving charges" and they introduced multiple pressure points to unfairly obtain payment. What really happened was they were compelled to replace a 14 month old product they borked with a software update. I have no idea what the thing with size 6 pt. text and full price listed was that they make me sign. I have to assume they train and incentivise Apple Shop staff to trick you into paying for replacements. Scumbags.
Well I went through an approximately similar process in an Apple Store in the UK.
What was proper shit is the Genius Bar dude tore the original printed receipt in half for the initial purchase (handed over to act as proof of purchase) and wouldn't issue a receipt for the replacement machine. Total PITA from a receipt/warranty/tax claim POV and probably completely illegal.
I flipped my shit, spoke to the store manager and was simply asked to leave and there was nothing more they would do.
So yes, scumbags. Makes Dixons and Argos in the 1990s look good.
Edit: ironically my boss just came back from lunch after flipping his shit at them because they want to charge him £200 to replace his iPhone 6 after the WiFi packed in.
This is also described on Apple's website at http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/