Opinions on pursuing Apple due to faulty MacBook

Hammyman

wba31 wrote: »

What exactly are ebuyer supposed to do? the laptop is 2 years old, and you are out of cover as you did not purchase apple care? how long do you expect the item to work for.

For Macs, at least 3 years.

wba31

Hammyman wrote: »

For Macs, at least 3 years.

As a mac owner, i agree, i have a macbook that is now 4 years old, and i have a 13" pro that is over 2 years old, both work fine (albeit a little bit slower than day 1 of purchase).

on my pro i paid for the additional 2 year apple care, knowing that if something broke after 1 year, it's generally my problem and up to me to pay for it if i havent purchased apple care. it's clearly there for a reason.

I agree that the OP should be given a clear indication of what the fault is, so they face a 1 payment to repair if they choose to, but unfortunately sometimes these things break, and when the option of cover is there to be purchased, i think thats where Apple in this case have put faith in their machine to work for 3 years. If they simply allowed cases like this to be sorted for free, it would make a mockery of the many people that pay £200 (or £50 with student discount) for apple care as they dont want to take the risk...

wba31

Marty82 wrote: »

I get what you're saying and I would accept that if it was a cheap £199 laptop from Tesco but I, perhaps stupidly, expect better from an Apple product!

About this Mac states:

Health Information:
Cycle count: 95
Condition: Normal

and as you mention Apple them self mention 1000 cycles.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1519

Will try contacting Consumer Direct as my local trading standards was about as much use as a chocolate teapot. The contents of the Sale of Goods Act was a mystery to them!

correct me if im wrong though, your friend tried a different battery and still the same problem? so the issue is hardware within the mac rather than a battery issue? the 1000 charges guideline is on the battery

m5rcc

wba31 wrote: »

What exactly are ebuyer supposed to do? the laptop is 2 years old, and you are out of cover as you did not purchase apple care? how long do you expect the item to work for. If we were in July of next year would you be arguing that it should work for 3 years? i think you need to get real. Apple give indications of roughly how many charges their batteries should last for, the macbooks had roughly 1000. This was dependant on appropriate care being given to the battery, such as recallibrating every so often etc, but there is no definate answer.

i think you should give up the fight and accept it's just broken.

try contacting consumer direct, and please let us know what they say in here...

+1 You have absolutely zero rights on eBuyer and/or Apple being able to assist you on a two year old item. In future, whilst you work at home, remove the battery if plugged in the mains

Marty82

wba31 wrote: »

As a mac owner, i agree, i have a macbook that is now 4 years old, and i have a 13" pro that is over 2 years old, both work fine (albeit a little bit slower than day 1 of purchase).

on my pro i paid for the additional 2 year apple care, knowing that if something broke after 1 year, it's generally my problem and up to me to pay for it if i havent purchased apple care. it's clearly there for a reason.

I agree that the OP should be given a clear indication of what the fault is, so they face a 1 payment to repair if they choose to, but unfortunately sometimes these things break, and when the option of cover is there to be purchased, i think thats where Apple in this case have put faith in their machine to work for 3 years. If they simply allowed cases like this to be sorted for free, it would make a mockery of the many people that pay £200 (or £50 with student discount) for apple care as they dont want to take the risk...

I understand that people choose to buy Apple Care and I am not attempting to make a mockery of those that do but I am simply following a process that Martin (or one of his minions) actually sets out on this site! I think it come down to what is wear and tear and what a reasonable time is to last. This site states the following:

What is a 'reasonable' length of time?
The law also states things should last a reasonable length of time. This is a deliberately vague description, where the answer depends on common sense judgement...

Most would say it's reasonable for a £1,000 plasma TV to last 18 months, but not for a 50p plastic torch.

In a way this means if legitimate wear and tear breaks the product the likelihood is you have no claim. Yet if it was an unreasonable fault, you do; however the burden of proof here is on the consumer...

The problem with your rights, especially with goods you believe should last longer, is stores often won't agree. If that happens your only recourse is to take them to court - see the full Consumer Rights guide for more on this, and the Sales of Goods Act.

Marty82

wba31 wrote: »

correct me if im wrong though, your friend tried a different battery and still the same problem? so the issue is hardware within the mac rather than a battery issue? the 1000 charges guideline is on the battery

Yeah, that appears to be the case.

grizzly1911

I have never been drawn into the Apple psyche but understand them to be a quality brand that you pay a premium for. For any item of this sort of value/nature regardless of brand I would expect a reasonable life.

I accept that batteries are consumable items and that they do not figure in any warranties (perhaps 6 months would be fair though).

As for the actual hardware providing it hasn't been abused I would expect it to last longer than 2 years. I would have thought a life of 5 years would be fair.

Whilst I would accept that you couldn't expect a brand new machine I do believe a repair or a sizeable contribution to a repair/replacement should be expected so I am with OP on that one.

When I have hit this point on other items I have let them look at it and then debated when they know what the issue is. It is quite possible they will accept a proportionate responsibility at that point. If you can recover the data before hand what is to stop you simply telling them to keep it, if you are not happy with the response/aren't willing to pay the bill, you are in no worse position than you are now?

I am completely ignorant on Applecare but am guessing it is no different to any other warranty- trying to get you to shoulder some of the risk of their obligation.

wba31

I appreciate fully where you both come from, but for me this "reasonable period of time" is set out by Apple as 1 year, like most companies do, which is why they offer additional cover. yes we pay £1000 for a computer, for it to only last 1 year seems rediculous, but in my short time as an adult buying electrical goods, these things arent built to last anymore, because in 3 years time they are dramatically out of date. I have had a Samsung 32" LCD tv for 4 years, and it's starting to play up. My parents bought a Mitsubishi tv from rumbelows in west brom in 1991 (i still remember going as a 6 yr old) and it worked fine until 2009. My mate Dave's (we all have one) dad has a classic old stereo from the 70s, beautiful thing, still works a dream, you buy a modern unit and it needs replacing in 3/4 years time.

If i were you Marty, I would approach Apple again, explain that you know it's not a battery issue, and ask them to repair it as a not fit for purpose machine. i have learnt when dealing with the genius bar to approach the smaller stores, they are much more helpful, for example i live in Walsall, rather than go to Birmingham Bullring, i travel round to Solihull as they are much more helpful.

neilwoods

From what the OP says, it does point to the battery failing or the contacts failing to the battery (possible dry solder). Plus with only 95 cycle count, which is very low for a 2 year old Macbook. So it sounds like the macbook was continuously plugged into the mains for long periods of time, assuming the macboook was used on a daily or every day basis. Plus how was the macbook used, was it on a table where it had plenty of airflow or used a cushion or a lap where no airflow.

Most common killer of batteries in laptop's is heat due to not being looked after, next is being plugged into main for long periods of time.

I have a £200 medion netbook, almost 4 years old, working perfectly. So paying more doesn't always means buying better.

As for SOGA, it just means you have upto 6 years to make a claim, doesn't mean it has to last that long

wba31

neilwoods wrote: »

From what the OP says, it does point to the battery failing or the contacts failing to the battery (possible dry solder). Plus with only 95 cycle count, which is very low for a 2 year old Macbook. So it sounds like the macbook was continuously plugged into the mains for long periods of time, assuming the macboook was used on a daily or every day basis. Plus how was the macbook used, was it on a table where it had plenty of airflow or used a cushion or a lap where no airflow.

Most common killer of batteries in laptop's is heat due to not being looked after, next is being plugged into main for long periods of time.

I have a £200 medion netbook, almost 4 years old, working perfectly. So paying more doesn't always means buying better.

As for SOGA, it just means you have upto 6 years to make a claim, doesn't mean it has to last that long

The macbooks have a bypass that once the battery is fully charged the power cable is no longer charging the battery, but instead purely powers the machine, and the battery is bypassed. I believe this was introduced 3/4 years ago so should include the OP's macbook.