Comment by bbrian | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bbrian | Hacker News Reader

In Ireland, there are no Apple stores but I've often been to the repair section of the main retailer (chargers!) and their policy is obviously deception. When there's a problem they ask is the device under warranty (one year) and unless you're aware of your EU consumer rights, they won't tell you and are hoping you'll walk away, the truth being:

"Under Irish consumer law, consumers are entitled to a free of charge repair or replacement, discount or refund by the seller, of defective goods or goods which do not conform with the contract of sale. These rights expire six years from delivery of the goods." [1]

My other negative experience was when my iPhone 5 was covered under recalls for the battery [2] and sleep/wake button [3], but Apple refused to fix it without a full screen replacement, for a "crack" so small I hadn't even noticed before sending it in for repair. It became a party piece of mine to challenge people to find the crack.

[*] http://imgur.com/a/6qtBi

[1] http://www.apple.com/ie/legal/statutory-warranty/ [2] https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-will-replace-your-defective-... [3] https://www.apple.com/support/iphone5-sleepwakebutton/

The Apple warranty is with Apple itself (and the authorized repairshops). The EU warranty (2 years minimum, varies throughout countries) is with the seller of the device.

I once had a defective SSD in a macbook air out of the 1 year apple warranty period and in the 2 year EU mandated period. Bought on the Apple online shop. There were warnings on the website that it might end up costing money and it really seemed like apple was disliking the EU mandated warranty. I was sent that evening to an authorized repair shop. There they told me that the repair will take longer (up to a week) as the device does not have the 1 year warranty anymore and needs to get cleared by Apple to get repaired. On the next morning at around 8 AM I got a call that I can pick my device up.

EU mandated warranty is not a warranty that people have in mind when they say that word. EU barely mandates that the manufacturer has to replace/fix a product which has manufacturing faults up to 2 years after purchase(this actually extends up to 6 years in some cases).

However, it's up to you to show that something is a manufacturing fault - an incorrectly assembled iPhone case for example, you can expect Apple to fix that within 6 years of buying the phone, and they can't say it's out of the original 1 year warranty so they won't fix it. But if your phone dies 2 years after buying it, they don't have to fix it by law, unless you can prove that it died because of a manufacturing error.

almost spot on. the caveat you cite - that you have to demonstrate it's a fault in manufacturing - is how they try to get away without replacing the device.

however, to cover all bases, within the first six months of device life it's the manufacturer that has to prove the fault was not caused from a manufacturing defect.

Just in case you're not aware and it makes your life a bit easier there is an Apple store in Belfast which I've generally found very good when it comes to repairs and warranties. Depends where on the island you are but it might be worth the trip in the case of a broken Mac or something expensive.

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