WARNING: don't buy an iPod from the Apple shop

westernpromise

Someone bought me an iPod in November and last month it packed up.

I tried to return it to the Apple Store in Regent Street, where it was bought, and they refused to accept it. Instead they directed me to their website.

This takes you through a procedure whereby you are sent a replacement via UPS. You give a credit card number and if you don't return the defective product within 10 days you are billed for the replacement at full price. Fair enough - if they're going to send the replacement out before they've seen the dud, they're exposed to fraud.

So far, so simple...except it's not. First, they do not tell you that 'return' means 'return to the Netherlands, only via Apple's UPS courier collect service, with collection only from the address we delivered the replacement to".

They delivered to my home address and I didn't have the defective iPod there. I then went away on business, have just got back, and need to return it by Monday.

I now find that they won't collect it from my office address. They'll only collect it from my home address, and only Monday to Friday. This means of course that it won't get there in 10 days.

So I ring Apple to point out this is unclear in their T & Cs, and can I please have either some extra time, or a collection from my office?

The answer, after 29 minutes and 16 seconds waiting on an 0870 number?

No. And no reason given except "the system's not set up to allow that".

As far as Apple are concerned they are quite entitled to refuse to accept the goods back at their shop and quite entitled to charge me for delivery if it comes back late.

I pointed out that if they charged me for the replacement of a defective product, after I have made reasonable efforts to return it including a personal visit to their shop, I would take them to the small claims court to recover any charge. Such contract terms seem to be to be very probably unenforceable.

At this, the manager refused to continue the conversation and hung up.

I am going to send them their crummy iPod back, late, and if they charge me anything, I will sue them online.

The lesson here though is that Apple do not 'get' customer service. If John Lewis sell you something that doesn't work, you just return it. If Apple sell you something that is defective, it is not their default assumption that they should replace the goods at your convenience. You do things their way to the letter or they will dishonour the warranty.

The product itself may be OK, but based on this, I will never buy an Apple product from Apple again. I might buy one from a high street store with a decent returns policy, but not from Apple.

richardjames73

I had the complete opposite experience with Apple. My headphones packed up after 10 or so days. I logged a fault on their website and they sent me out a new pair, they arrived the next day and I did not even have to return the faulty pair. I appreciate headphones are propably classed as disposable, but I was still really impressed with the speed and efficiency I was treated with by Apple.

RT7

richardjames73 wrote:

I had the complete opposite experience with Apple. My headphones packed up after 10 or so days. I logged a fault on their website and they sent me out a new pair, they arrived the next day and I did not even have to return the faulty pair. I appreciate headphones are propably classed as disposable, but I was still really impressed with the speed and efficiency I was treated with by Apple.

Do you have the website address please?

Thanks

richardjames73

https://www.apple.com/uk

westernpromise

richardjames73 wrote:

I had the complete opposite experience with Apple. My headphones packed up after 10 or so days. I logged a fault on their website and they sent me out a new pair, they arrived the next day and I did not even have to return the faulty pair. I appreciate headphones are propably classed as disposable, but I was still really impressed with the speed and efficiency I was treated with by Apple.

Exactly, they're disposable. In my case they are essentially saying that they're going to charge me £50 for replacing a product they acknowledge is defective, unless I take a day off work to wait in for UPS.

You can't actually not agree to this. You don't get that option. Their website does not allow you to delete terms you don't aree with. Neither can you return it to the shop where it was bought instead, and let them deal with the return themselves. I see this as attaching unreasonable conditions after the event of the purchase and it is why IMnonexpertO they will be unable to defend it in a small claims court.

That is not how it would work if it had been bought anywhere else. If I'd bought it from John Lewis, they'd have simply handed me a new one in a box and they'd sort the rest out.

I don't say "don't buy anything made by Apple", because you can't generalise about their products' reliability based on one example, but I do say "don't buy anything expensive from Apple", because you can generalise about their returns policy - this is what they always do if it's the actual iPod that's defective. You pay for your in-warranty, defective product to be replaced unless you do things exactly to the letter how it suits Apple.

westernpromise

RT7 wrote:

Do you have the website address please?

Thanks

The one I used was http://depot.info.apple.com

misskool

The problem with Apple in the UK is that they do not have a servicing here, they are based in Ireland and other places in Europe.

First of all, they have sent you out a replacement (which in fairness is excellent customer service). And really, if a company is to prevent fraud as much as possible surely it is not too much to ask them to collect from the same address they delivered to? If not, how are they to confirm that the same person has received and returned the item? Phone calls do not confirm the person's identity.

Also, with call centers, if someone can't or won't help me, I will just hang up and try another one.

westernpromise

misskool wrote:

And really, if a company is to prevent fraud as much as possible surely it is not too much to ask them to collect from the same address they delivered to?

They haven't sent me a replacement - they have sent me an additional one which they will bill me for unless I do things their way. Not the same.

If they are worried about fraud they should either accept returns to the place of purchase, or provide a UK address to which I can post it, or allow me to specify different addresses at the time of registering the original complaint, which everyone else on the planet can do but somehow Apple cannot.

jojo1978_3

My head phones gave in about 4 months ago, but are under warranty til october and i just got round to going through the whole replacement thing,
After 2 missed deliveries, i asked them to deliver to my hubbies work address, which they did, i opened the box, which was full of returns paperwork etc, but alas no headphones, i have fired off an email, and am awaiting a response

boufje

Totally agree with the first post. The staff at the apple shop are rude, when I took a pair of headphones I had bought less than 24 hours ago back to their regents street store because I opened them and they were cracked, I was accused of lying and of having trodden on them.

When I explained that I was simply exercising my statutory right to return faulty goods, they got the security guard to eject me from the store. No response from my email to their customer services.

I now buy all my techie stuff from John Lewis - as they also give you free extra years warranty.

rick_x

Totally aggree with the OP. Why, if a product is defective, should a customer lose a days salary waiting for a product to be collected. I have been through a similar situation recently and wasted a whole day waiting for a collection 'between 9 and 6.30'. Guess what time they arrived, 6.30.