Opinions on pursuing Apple due to faulty MacBook

Marty82

Hey all,

I purchased a MacBook in August 2009 but it has now developed a fault. It will only run off the mains and not the battery. My local Apple Store says it will need EITHER a "Battery Connector with Sleep Switch" at £23, a "Board, MagSafe, DC-in" at £5 or a "Logic Board, 2.13GHz" at £265. A labour charge of £24 would also apply. I don't mind paying for either of the cheaper parts but replacing the logic board would amount to almost a third of the cost of the laptop! The store said they won't know which part it will be needed until the open it up.

I have contacted the seller (ebuyer.com) and Apple by telephone and neither want anything to do with me.

My questions to you are:

Do you think the battery should have failed by now? I don't!

Do you think I have any hope of assistance from either company? I've looked at the following page (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/how-to-complain) and the "SAD FART" paragraph makes me think my laptop should have lasted longer as it cost me over £700 rather than a cheap £200 unknown brand from Tesco.

Thanks in advance.

Martin

System

it depends exactly what the problem is, batteries are generally not covered by any warranty as far as i can remember, and if it's a broken connection where something moveable like the battery is, i would imagine they will claim it is user fault, the only company i have dealt with with warranty issues is hp, i hope for your case apple are better!

jaydeeuk1

Marty82 wrote: »

I've looked at the following page (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/how-to-complain) and the "SAD FART" paragraph makes me think my laptop should have lasted longer as it cost me over £700 rather than a cheap £200 unknown brand from Tesco.

Well thats where you thought wrong, although tbf its not your fault, Apples PR machine is bloody good.

Your beef should be with ebuyer, not apple in this case.

Ebuyer used to be really good at CS, but over the last 12 months they're now bloody useless, so good luck!

Have a read of this

http://www.oft.gov.uk/business-advice/treating-customers-fairly/sogahome/sogaexplained/

HappyChappy84

Everyone keeps harping on about how good apple are. That fact of the matter is when it comes down to it they are actually !!!!!! I don't have enough time or will to detail my bad experiences with apple but they are like any other company, quick to take your money but when things go wrong they will quite happily tell you what the problem is and how much it will cost. They won't discuss SOGA (I brought this up in my local apple store recently and I was told that they don't enter into discussions of that nature or anything about how long a product should last) and if you aren't willing to pay up you will find yourself being shoved out the door.

I can't fault my Mid 2009 15" MacBook Pro (apart from what I thought was a faulty SuperDrive, but after taking it apart and cleaning it it's now working fine *touches wood*) My iPad 1 was great, my iPad 2 suffers badly from 'Light Leak' but otherwise is fine but due to the hassle and grief I have had with replacement iPhone 4's I'm reluctant to swap my iPad 2 for a reconditioned unit.

MacAttack

HappyChappy84 wrote: »

Everyone keeps harping on about how good apple are. That fact of the matter is when it comes down to it they are actually !!!!!! I don't have enough time or will to detail my bad experiences with apple but they are like any other company, quick to take your money but when things go wrong they will quite happily tell you what the problem is and how much it will cost. They won't discuss SOGA (I brought this up in my local apple store recently and I was told that they don't enter into discussions of that nature or anything about how long a product should last) and if you aren't willing to pay up you will find yourself being shoved out the door.

I can't fault my Mid 2009 15" MacBook Pro (apart from what I thought was a faulty SuperDrive, but after taking it apart and cleaning it it's now working fine *touches wood*) My iPad 1 was great, my iPad 2 suffers badly from 'Light Leak' but otherwise is fine but due to the hassle and grief I have had with replacement iPhone 4's I'm reluctant to swap my iPad 2 for a reconditioned unit.

Sounds you have just been unlucky.
I had my iPod Touch 1G home button brake after 2 years of usage, called Apple knowing I'm well out of warranty, while they said we can fix it for £50, I said i was looking to buy a new one which they gave me £70 pounds off a brand spanking new one.

My only bad experience was with the iPad2 backlight but my beef was with the reseller StormFront who refused to replace it, spoke to their ASM and said all the SOGA and how I'm complaining to Apple blah blah, needless to say they refunded me and I got a new one from Apple.

But all in all my CS with Apple has been great my friends say they same, I really think you must have got some guy with a thorn up his @$$.

prowla

I had a very positive experience with Apple recently, where my son dropped his iPod Touch and cracked the screen. They gave us a new one to replace it.

rtho782

Your problem will be that as the item is 2 years old, SOGA says it is down to you to prove the item suffered an "inherent fault", that is, something due to a manufacturing defect.

Only at that point will eBuyer have any interest in helping you.

The only way you can do this would be to commission an engineer to do a report on the unit and hope this supported your case, the problem would be that a battery can legitimately be classed as a consumable item, they have a finite service life, and will run for a limited number of charge/discharge cycles.

People quote SOGA like it is magic, failing to mention that outside the first 6 months there operates a reverse burden of proof and you have to prove an inherent fault....

HappyChappy84

MacAttack wrote: »

Sounds you have just been unlucky.
I had my iPod Touch 1G home button brake after 2 years of usage, called Apple knowing I'm well out of warranty, while they said we can fix it for £50, I said i was looking to buy a new one which they gave me £70 pounds off a brand spanking new one.

My only bad experience was with the iPad2 backlight but my beef was with the reseller StormFront who refused to replace it, spoke to their ASM and said all the SOGA and how I'm complaining to Apple blah blah, needless to say they refunded me and I got a new one from Apple.

But all in all my CS with Apple has been great my friends say they same, I really think you must have got some guy with a thorn up his @$$.

Well, I would call more than 8 replacement iPhone 4 in the first year more than unlucky! Each one with more issues than the last. The 7th phone had reception issues. They told me it was just the network and to go away (albeit it politely). I told them I wasn't happy as my warranty was just about up and that other niggly little faults were telling me something was seriously wrong (song playback issues being one of them). "Don't worry, we know you've been in and we are quite flexible with warranties" said the manager. 3 weeks out of warranty I wasn't getting any signal at all so I went back and "sorry, can't help you as it's out of warranty now. I can see how much a replacement would be if you like?". No record of me being in and what was said the previous time. Eventually when the manager appeared, "oh, I thought it was just you imagining things, it really has got a problem". Then I reminded him what he said previously "Oh but it's 3 weeks now when I said flexibility I meant 2 or 3 days". Half an hour of arguing it took to get a replacement phone and I'm sure they only did it to get rid of me.

Then there was the "Genius" that called me a liar (if anyone has a thorn up his yaris it's this guy!) That same "Genius" 6 months later didn't do his job properly because he couldn't replicate my problem in store so ended the appointment after about a minute. Once I got home the problem replicated itself and I ended up with a blown speaker. I have had a few war of words with them in my local store about him, I even lodged a complaint but nothing was done. When I asked the manager for a complaints line/email address she persuaded me out of it and said that she would deal with it herself. A month later I found out from a mutual friend that works there that nothing had been done so I did go higher up and complain. A week later when I went in to the store they all avoided me, no one wanted to help and when I did corner one I could tell he didn't want to be there. I guess that's what I get for grassing up one of their own.

If I have a problem now I'm going to Glasgow and I refuse to spend another penny in my local store.

HappyChappy84

rtho782 wrote: »

Your problem will be that as the item is 2 years old, SOGA says it is down to you to prove the item suffered an "inherent fault", that is, something due to a manufacturing defect.

Only at that point will eBuyer have any interest in helping you.

The only way you can do this would be to commission an engineer to do a report on the unit and hope this supported your case, the problem would be that a battery can legitimately be classed as a consumable item, they have a finite service life, and will run for a limited number of charge/discharge cycles.

People quote SOGA like it is magic, failing to mention that outside the first 6 months there operates a reverse burden of proof and you have to prove an inherent fault....

And where on earth do you get an independent engineer? Plus you have to pay for it and I doubt it would be cheap. If the engineer sides with you then you are entitled to a refund of the report but if not, it could cost you dear.

robt_2

HappyChappy84 wrote: »

Well, I would call more than 8 replacement iPhone 4 in the first year more than unlucky!

Indeed - I would call it user error.

rtho782

HappyChappy84 wrote: »

And where on earth do you get an independent engineer? Plus you have to pay for it and I doubt it would be cheap. If the engineer sides with you then you are entitled to a refund of the report but if not, it could cost you dear.

You are totally right!!

You can go somewhere like Comet or Currys... but with it being a Mac you will probably find they won't touch it.

Backstage are one of the larger and more reputable Apple repairers... http://www.backstageservices.co.uk/Home.html

But they will probably tell you it is not an inherent fault....