Apple Ipod - Warranty no good!

[jotty]

I bought my lad an Ipod for xmas, the 5th gen one with video, which he uses whilst at the gym. He came home a few weeks ago and showed my that the colour screen had a fault in that around 25% of it was unreadable. Of course I asked the usual question of have you dropped it but he assured me he hadn't plus there was absolutley no sign of damage anywhere on the thing. I sent it back via the online Apple warranty service, but got it back 5 days later basically saying tough its your fault and not coverered. I found on further inspection that the screen fault has now got much worse during this process and was now completely u/s.

 

I complanied over a long phonecall and even emailed phoyos of the Ipod to prove its condition. Answer still same from them tough its not our fault.

 

Had this been down to neglect I would have simply claimed on house ins, but it is clearly a fault.

 

Any advice on what to do next please.

[Seminole]

Where did you buy it from?

[jotty]

I bought it direct from Apple online in November 2005.

[Seminole]

That's a shame. It might have been easier to deal with a retailer.

 

I have to go out now but when I'm back I'll look up a link to a summary of statutory rights that's been posted up here before. I'm pretty certain that you can insist on a refund or exchange for a fault that's occurred so soon after purchase.

[jotty]

Thanks as ever seminole, I await your reply with hope.

[LondonPam]

Did you pay with a credit card ? If you did you may be able to claim the money back from them.

[jotty]

No I used my Barclays Connect card, or is this the same as a Visa card with regard to this type of thing.

[Leo1]

Do you still have a copy of your warranty details? (this should be with your receipt).

 

This happened to me too when I bought an Ipod mini, it broke and when I sent it back to Apple (i did this online) they said my warranty was out of date. It wasn't so I had to fax them a copy of the warranty. Everything went fine after that, and you can track progress on apple's website.

[Movingon]

Warranties are simply the result of a company selling you something you already have rights to IN LAW. They are in my view criminally fraudulent; I NEVER EVER buy a "warranty" because I have rights which exceed them.

 

Now, unfortunately, it's possible that "Apple Online" sales are governed by Laws in the United States; in which case you're screwed. However if the sale took place within British Law, then you will likely have a case under the Sale of Goods and Services Act 1984, which gives consumers rights to certain levels of quality, fitness for purpose, and a reasonable life expectancy of the product, as long as the failure is brought to the attention of the Vendor within a reasonable time frame.

 

Give us full details of where, when, how, what, what terms and conditions were on their site and so on and we may be able to help you come up with something.

[Leo1]

I bought my Ipod mini in the US, but Apple online still accepted the warranty in the UK once I faxed them a copy. It wasn't a purchased extended warranty, Ipod come with a one year manufacturer guarantee.

[Movingon]

Guarantees and Warranties are completely separate things; a Warranty is effectively insurance which you purchase (which gives you NOTHING over what the law already gives you) and a Guarantee is a statement that the item will not fail by a manufacturer or retaler. Neither affects your rights under Consumer Law in the UK. However having purchased yours in the States, the only recourse you had was the Guarantee - the Sale of Goods and Services Act could not have been applied to your purchase.

[Bookworm]

Trading Standards

 

and more specifically:

 

this

 

 

They are taking the p!ss, short and simple. Don't stand for it. If they have proof that it is down to misuse (and I'm not saying it is, but my daughter had a bottle of coke spill down her handbag where her mp3 plyer was, and THEN, played pool with it dangling from he rneck and then complained when it died! lol), let them show you how.

 

And to add to this:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4286294.stm

[jotty]

Thanks to all, I have written to Apple just over a week ago but surprise surprise haven't had a response yet, so based on the advice given I have drafted another letter quoting the sale of good act directly with a 14 day time scale to respond.

 

We shall see

[jotty]

Quick update, sent Apple a letter on 20th stating that under the Sale of Goods Act that they where in breach etc, and that unless they responded I would seek a refund through the courts.

 

They rang me today repeating what they had said from the start, that their engineers had examined it and the faulty screen was caused by misuse. I continued to ask what this assumption was based on as there is no physical evidence at all to back this up, but the guy on the phone tried to fob me off. I explained that I would give them 14 days to respond which he said he would try and do.

 

So now what do I do, I am quite prepared to go to Small Claims court on this but just need the right advice.

[Movingon]

OK... they sold you an item. It failed while in normal use. You asked for a replacement or your money back. They refused repeatedly.

 

That's all you need to tell the court. They have to PROVE misuse by convincing the Judge, who will likely believe your story anyway. Under the Sale of Goods and Service Act 1984 (as amended) you have rights to fitness for the stated purpose, reasonable quality, and matching the description given by the seller.

 

You claim the item failed "in normal use" and they claim the item was misused. Before you go to court, you should ask them to give a detailed description of what kind of misuse would cause the fault you observed and what a user could do to avoid such misuse. When they say what it is (likely they will say that it was dropped or some such) you note the complete lack of any other evidence for this; scratches on the corners etc. You then write them a Letter Before Action stating that if they do not replace or refund the item within 14 days you will take action without further notice. 14 days later you take them to court.

 

When you go to court, you tell the court about this lack of evidence, and you also tell them that the fault began with a small amount of display working and steadily got worse; finally becoming completely unuseable while the item was in Apple's care.

 

I reckon that without any legalese or any fancy flourishy language, you have a reasonable case.

[jotty]

Got a call lunchtime from Apple and the guy who had been dealing with my complaint stated that after speaking with the legal dept they will now agree to replace the Ipod outright. I am just waiting for the confirmation letter.

 

 

Thanks to all who helped, especially with the wording of letters, I couldn't have done it without you.

 

 

Now for Bank Charges !!!!

 

Garry:D

[Movingon]

Fantastic news mate; I knew you'd have a case; the legal people were probably horrified when they learned that the techies were trying to resist LOL.

 

Really pleased you got what you deserved...

[Bookworm]

I love this forum.

[Parisien]

Just to keep this thread alive, given the huge volume of these items shipped; my sons ipod also failed after just 4 mths, as did our neighbours. No joy with the anti-customer support service so got info from Jotty/Garry, off this board and my letter is also winging its way to Apple.

 

Will report back!

 

Parisien

[jotty]

Good Luck,

 

Just use the excellent advice from this board and dont take No for an answer.

 

Guy I dealt with in the end was call Stefan Wagner, who I have to say was spot on.

 

[podgydad]

Hard drive based MP3 players are a nightmare, the smaller the HD, the more likely it is to break. Flash based players that use no moving parts are far more reliable.

[Rich44]

Hardly you do know that flash memory only has a finite read/write cycles before it fails?

 

Hard drive based MP3 players should last a minimum of 2 years before suffering any form of failure look at most Hd manufacturers they warranty for 3 years and some for 5 years the trouble is after this time the drive isnt worth as much as the shipping charges to get it replaced lol.

 

Anyway thats another argument

[Parisien]

Guys, after the 14 day or I will take you to a small claims court letter........and a final phone call...no joy...so its off to the small claims court...any last minute advice before I plunge head first into an alien environment?

 

Thanks to all who helped, posted...repect!

[zara_goza]

I got an ipod nano and an video one. My boyfriend received an updated and start to intalled, but he press something in the ipod at same time and clash all the process. He phoned the Customer Service which is based in Ireland from 8 to 5 and then change to one call center in Canada. They told him to go to the shop back and he got a new one straight away.

 

On the other hand we got laptops frpm then and we purchase their AppleCare, we had to used it for one of the laptops as the CD/DVD recorded was failing for overuse and we received the laptop back with all the problems sorted and extras that we didn't ask for.

 

I think it depends with who you speak in their Cust Serv Dept, and also knowing a bit about the products. If they noticed you are a computer genious they realised you are not going to fall for the excuses.

[seaweasel]

I'm glad you got the iPod replaced, well done. I'm a little surprised at this though, I've had no problems with Apple warranties in the past. With my own iPod (the original one) they checked it out when I had sound problems and it turned out to be the headphones which they replaced. I've had more problems with my girlfriend's iPod (a 3G clickwheel one), the hard drive died after a few months so I took it to my local Apple dealer (who she didn't even buy it from) and they replaced it. The replacement then died (forget what it was) a few months later and I sent it back to Apple who replaced it; no problems since luckily. The only thing was that I was told that the warranty on the replacement was only 90 days, however it was less than this timeframe and even if it wasn't, I don't think this is strictly legal.