Amazon - Apple Watch

HantsAgent

Hi all, Happy New Year and I hope someone can give some advice.

I purchased an Apple Watch from Amazon shortly after Christmas, partly using Amazon vouchers and partly from my own funds. The retailer in this instance is Amazon and not a third party and as per my many previous experiences with Amazon, the package arrived promptly the next day.

When I opened the package I found that the watch strap and charger plug were missing.

I contact Amazon using their online chat function, but didn’t get the desired outcome at first. I suggested three options;

1. Send me a strap and charger plug to complete the order.
2. Send me a complete replacement and I’ll return the incomplete order.
3. Give me a partial refund for the cost of a strap and charger plug, which I calculated to be in the region of £75.00 for official Apple products.

They were unwilling to do any of the above and instead could only offer a full refund. They claimed not to have a replacement available.

I was unhappy with this outcome, so I persisted and ended up calling them later in the day. I eventually got them to agree to refund me £80.00 so that I could go and purchase my own strap and charger plug.

However, I then removed the watch face from the box and put it on charge (using a universal USB plug I already had) to set it up.

I then discovered during set-up that the watch is locked to someone else’s Apple ID, which clearly means that the watch isn’t new as described.

I called Amazon back to let them know and the customer services representative didn’t know what to do. His words were “oh my god, that’s really bad. This is potentially quite a serious issue…”

He told me he needed to pass this on to a different team and placed me on hold for over 30 minutes (he did keep coming back to me apologising for the wait) before coming back to me saying that the issue had been escalated internally and that someone would call me back within 24 hours.

That was on New Year’s Eve at about lunchtime, so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and accept that New Year’s Day (bank holiday) is excluded from that timeframe.

But I suppose my question is, what can I expect here? They will no doubt offer a refund, but that’s not what I want, I want the watch, as described and at the agreed price. If they offer a refund I will likely have to pay more elsewhere for the same item.

Can I insist that they honour the original deal? We have all the elements of a contract in place and they are in breach of that contract.

KatrinaWaves

What is so unique about the price/item that you want a replacement rather than a refund? Apple watches are a fairly standard item so not something that would usually be a problem for Amazon to replace. Whats the story here?

davidmcn

In theory yes you can sue for loss of bargain, but is it worthwhile? How much cheaper is it than elsewhere?

HantsAgent

They claimed not to have any in stock, but I can see on the site that they do (at least, they're offering them for sale again, who knows if they can fulfil the order).

They're also now claiming that Apple won't let them issue a replacement within a week of ordering the original one - I've no idea why and my contract is with Amazon and not Apple in any case.

To buy another one is hassle. I've already spent a morning trying to sort it out and it's far easier (from my point of view) for them to replace it.

I've just called them again and been told it's been escalated to the "technicals team" and I will be called within 24 hours - which is what I was promised two days ago.

pinkshoes

Perhaps they were offering it cheap because it’s blatantly a returned item?

Just return it for a full refund and get another from somewhere else. Perhaps even a better brand...

born_again

Was it a sealed box?
Warehouse deal?

HantsAgent

born_again wrote: »

Was it a sealed box?
Warehouse deal?

No, not a sealed box but advertised as a brand new product.

I should have realised as soon as I opened it really. I've never had an Apple Watch before (so I was unaware, for example, that the strap is usually boxed separately - Youtube showed me that) but I've had other Apple products in the past and everything is usually packaged very well.

The charging cable wasn't wrapped like Apple's cables usually are, the box wasn't sealed. The watch face didn't have any protective film on it (but it did have a soft felt sleeve over it).

My guess is that someone has probably returned this item and it's mistakenly found its way into the "New" stock.