Defective iPhone - Purchased from Very

Fosterdog wrote: »

If the Apple genius had believed it was an inherent fault they would have arranged a repair or exchange without any cost to you, they only charge if it user damage or outside any warranty.

They did not. They said as it was purchased from a third party that they had no obligation to do so and it would be at a cost to me if I wanted to go ahead with it. They did however advise me that I could go through Very to have a repair/replacement at no cost.

bris wrote: »

Apple are very good at this, they always claim, when not bought direct from them about your rights whilst having no liability, but when they do have the liability their tone changes.


Did you get this expert report from them in writing? No I know you didn't because they never put their claims in writing.

As you state no I didn't as they said that is was not something they do as a company.

SMW83 wrote: »

They did not. They said as it was purchased from a third party that they had no obligation to do so and it would be at a cost to me if I wanted to go ahead with it. They did however advise me that I could go through Very to have a repair/replacement at no cost.

As both bris & I commented on, this is typical of Apple. I would also expect them to have included something along the lines of "well if you had bought from us directly, we'd have fixed it free of charge but since you didnt....."
Only (going by threads on here) if you do buy from them direct, they then want a report (or if you're lucky, they might offer you a reconditioned model for a fee), which brings me to my next reply.

SMW83 wrote: »

As you state no I didn't as they said that is was not something they do as a company.

Again this was part of the problem with apple products. They're basically the only ones with the expertise to write such a report reliably. Except doing so would likely leave liability at their door (with you claiming from the retailer then the retailer claiming from them). So you can see why they would have little incentive to provide this as a company.

SMW83 wrote: »

Since initially contacting Very they have exhausted every possibility to try not to deal with this such as referring me back to Apple, saying that I can only return it even if faulty within 30 day and now that I would have to get an independent report to prove it is an inherent fault.

I have stated that as it is under 6 month old that burden of proof and any associated costs and such lie with them and am now waiting for a response. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do next should they continue to adhere to consumer law?

Also, I don't know if this has any bearing on the issue but since the crack appeared the screen around the button is becoming extremely hot to the touch so much so that I've had to swap phones now. Should I mention this to Apple/Very?

Very can be a bit of a pain when things go wrong. Their frontline staff are very much "this is company policy, company policy is king" and can be a nightmare to reason with when enforcing consumer rights (being as direct and succinct as possible helps). Sometimes you need to be completely blunt with them.

I'm not sure I would mention the heat tbh. The goods are already assumed to not conform to contract and they may try and use it to disclaim liability (ie most of the damage is from you continuing to use it while damaged). Its up to them at this point to show it didn't inherently fail to conform so let them do that. Ideally you should have stopped using the phone straight away though (and I hope you keep that in mind for any similar situations in future).