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Comment by photoGrant | Hacker News Reader

I find it quite sad that you have 14 days max to return, though I appreciate why from a business perspective. Why extend that risk?

But as a consumer, I absolutely do not have time to fully test/sit with this device in enough contexts to find my issues with it. Could be a month before I can finally get to it, or the software finally reaches a point that it reveals the flaws and my mini mortgage just turned into a paperweight

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Well, if this gives you any solace in other countries you can’t return even in the next second once your payment is through. (I know, I know. It should rather be better in other countries and even much better in USA).

Out of interest, what other countries did the headset release in?

Is this head/eye-gear is the only thing that has return policy in USA and not elsewhere? :)

To answer your question - a worldwide launch outside USA is yet to be done.

> in other countries you can’t return even in the next second once your payment is through.

You may want to be more specific about what countries in particular. Many other countries allow returns, even for software, past 14 days. The USA is actually one of the worst first-world countries for consumer rights and returns.

>Why extend that risk?

What risk? Wouldn't it increase the likelihood of a purchase to begin with?

That I don't know, but I assume there's a balance that involves wanting to shorten the window of return where you avoid potentially giving the user enough time to decide to return. People are faster to do than undo. I'm faster spending than I am returning.

I think in the EU it's illegal to provide less than a month of trial period, but I could be wrong, does this count as defective?

That's not true. 14 days is the legal mandatory EU return period for online purchases. Any longer than 14 days is a voluntary courtesy from the shop, like 30 days from amazon.

Also returns don't apply to hygiene senzitive products that are worn on the body, products tailor made or made to order, so those Zeiss lenses tailored to your diopters or the facial interface sized to your face plus the hygiene angle where the strap and facial interface on the used items will be full of sweat and oils, might legally disqualify you from a refund.

I'm sure Apple has taken steps to account for large numbers of returns and have a program to refurbish and resell them back on the market, but based on these limitations they're not mandated to accept them by law.

There's no such a thing as "trial period" in the EU. You have 14 days to return the product without a reason but only if it was an online purchase. If you bought the goggles in a brick-and-mortar store you'd be out of luck.

However, if the product is defective you have 2 years to return it regardless of where you bought it.

One thing that may complicate the remote purchase law for the Apple Vision Pro is that there is an exemption for specially crafted products (as well as things like cosmetics for hygiene reasons). I think the prescription lenses would fall under this category, as stores cannot be reasonably expected to sell those to someone else.

I'm not 100% sure how the purchase process works, but from what I've heard they tell you to scan your head using the iPhone's depth camera thingy to get the headset properly fitted for you. I think they're just selecting presets for generic parts, but if they do any kind of customisation for you as part of the process, you may not be able to force them to accept your return.

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