Faulty iPod Touch - Apple/Currys Problems

Magic_Numbers

Hi, 1st time post for me on here.

I have an issue with a 3-4 month iPod Touch. It was a Christmas present for one of my 2 sons.

We bought 2 of the iPods in our local Currys store in December. One has had no problems, whilst the 2nd has developed a charging/syncing problem. I had a look myself & noticed the pins in the problem iPod were bending every time it was plugged in.

After comparing the 2 iPods, the faulty one's pins are completely exposed, whilst the working one has some sort of rigid board or bracket around the pins. It looks as if something is missing inside the charging socket.

I took it back to my local Currys store where a sales assistant had a look & agreed that there was an issue & that it should be able to be repaired under warranty. Great I thought.

He then took me over to the cash desk, where I thought he was going to organise a replacement or something, but all he wanted to do was give me Apple's technical helpline phone number. Apparently if you have a faulty Apple product then the store are "not allowed to deal with any warranty problems" and the customer has to deal direct with Apple. I accepted this at the time as I thought maybe this was correct.

I contacted Apple as advised, they immediately organised a returns package to be sent to me. This arrived & I duly sent off the iPod.

It arrived back 3 days later, unrepaired, with a standard tick-sheet saying that the fault had been caused by some sort of accidental damage and not something they would repair under warranty.

The iPod has no visible damage externally, and there was no explanation given as to what the alleged damage was & how it had been caused.

I immediately called Apple and had a discussion with their representative, asking for further information as to their diagnosis, as we have the 2nd iPod & I would kinda like to know what we have done wrong to cause this so I don't manage to kill a 2nd iPod. Also there does not seem to be any sign of the gadget being opened for testing etc. I think they have simply given it a cursory look & sent it back hoping I don't push the issue.

He was unable to elaborate on what the engineer had found, and simply kept repeating that it was accidental damage & I could send it back in again & they would repair it for around £90.

He did say I am welcome to make an appointment at my "local" Apple store for them to have a look at it for me, but this is a big problem for me as I live on the other side of the country from my "local" Apple store (Glasgow) and I will probably have to take a day off work to go through, incurring travel costs as well.

I have since thought about this and I wonder if Currys should actually be responsible for handling the repair or replacement. I was maybe naïve in accepting the sales guy's advice at the start.

I am not particularly switched on when it comes to consumer law etc, but have been reading up a little. I would like some advice as to whether I have any further course of action to follow, as I have a gutted child whose 3 month old favourite Christmas gift is at the moment useless, and from what I can see he has not broken it himself.

I am not happy with this outcome, and would appreciate any advice you can offer.

Thanks.

unholyangel

You could try, but if it comes back as damaged by consumer, you wont get any better result.

Nothing to lose by asking them though and if they do dig their heels in....you'll be looking to either fund an independent report and hope it contradicts apples diagnosis (cost of which would be refundable if found in your favour) or taking apple up on their £90 repair offer.

If its the pins that the charger/usb cable fits into, charger ports on ipods/phones can be damaged by pulling the device off the charger rather than disconnecting it properly. Or perhaps the charger end being bent while in the socket or something similar.

Magic_Numbers

Cheers for the reply, my issue is that I am not aware of any mishaps with the ipod, certainly not with the charging side of things. I get that if I have broken it, then of course it is my problem, but surely they cannot be that fragile?

The pins appear to be missing their housing/board and are just sitting there exposed so of course they are going to get bent when you charge it, we actually stopped using it as soon as we noticed the problem so as not to cause any further damage.

What bugs me most is that they have not & will not give me any information relating to why they are refusing to repair this (other than the "accidental damage tag". It seems highly unfair and a tad cynical to refuse to fix under warranty (without proper explanation) & then offer to repair for an exorbitant fee.

Don't get me wrong, if I have to pay the £90, it WILL be paid - but I will double it & buy a Google Nexus tablet or similar instead, there is no way I will be putting more money into Apple. If their products are only going to last 3 months that to me is highly unacceptable, particularly given the high price of these gadgets.

Money normally doesn't grow on trees as we all know, but it certainly seems to grow on the Apple tree!

Fosterdog

How long was it used for with no issues before the charging and syncing problems happened?

If it is a recent fault then it is most likely to be physical damage, if the pin housing was missing from the start you would have known about it when it was first plugged in, how old is your son and has he been allowed to use it unsupervised?

To be fair to apple products, if this was caused by accidental damage then changing to a Nexus isn't much better, I see a lot more of them needing repairs from accidental damage than iPads and iPhones ( can't comment on iPods as we don't sell them).

In fact any brand is going to be as fragile, you are buying an expensive but rather delicate piece of kit, they need to be well looked after and are not built or designed to be tough and hard wearing devices. If you could get a harder wearing one it would cost a lot more than just double the repair costs of the iPod.

As for Currys passing you on to apple, yes under SoGA the retailer is responsible for sorting it out however all they would do is send the item to apple for them to carry out the repair on the retailers behalf. Lately Apple have been refusing to take repairs without speaking to the customer first (again at least in the company I work for and I believe they are also doing it to Currys, Argos and JL so maybe all retailers) although the store could have phoned apple for you while you were there and just passed the phone over when they needed to speak to you.

bris

The end result will be the same even if you do insist Currys deal with it, they will just give you it back like Apple.

They claim user damage, the onus is now on you to prove otherwise with your own report from your own expert, then they would have to accept it, which they wouldn't anyway.

The problem you also have is the fact that you really don't know the extent of abuse your child, with a £500 toy, has inflicted on the device. So while you say there has been no abuse, you can't possibly know that.

Fire_Fox

Not being aware of mishaps doesn't mean they have not taken place. Agree how old are your sons and are they putting the iPods on charge or taking them off charge unsupervised?

Altarf

Magic_Numbers wrote: »

We bought 2 of the iPods in our local Currys store

Buying from a company renowned for their great customer service. That is always going to end well.

Magic_Numbers wrote: »

all he wanted to do was give me Apple's technical helpline phone number

And at the point the retailer abdicates responsibility, I simply take their details, say "Thank you very much", and go home and simply send a letter to my credit card company submitting a Section 75 claim advising them that the retailer has refused to assist, then sit back wait for the credit onto my account.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

mattyprice4004

Altarf wrote: »

Buying from a company renowned for their great customer service. That is always going to end well.



And at the point the retailer abdicates responsibility, I simply take their details, say "Thank you very much", and go home and simply send a letter to my credit card company submitting a Section 75 claim advising them that the retailer has refused to assist, then sit back wait for the credit onto my account.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

...and then wait for the credit to be taken back, when the retailer replies to the claim saying they didn't get a chance to help, which Head Office will do as they have no idea you've been to store.

Excellent advice, well done.

Altarf

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

...and then wait for the credit to be taken back, when the retailer replies to the claim saying they didn't get a chance to help, which Head Office will do as they have no idea you've been to store.

The credit will not be taken back, since the retailer and the credit card company are jointly and severally liable.

You don't actually ever need to approach the retailer in the first place, but on any faulty goods could just go straight to the credit card company.

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

Excellent advice, well done.

Thank you. I am glad you appreciate my help.

visidigi

Altarf wrote: »

The credit will not be taken back, since the retailer and the credit card company are jointly and severally liable.

You don't actually ever need to approach the retailer in the first place, but on any faulty goods could just go straight to the credit card company.



Thank you. I am glad you appreciate my help.

Oh and dear.

Altarf

visidigi wrote: »

Oh and dear.

Perhaps again, but this time with more clarity to your problem.