Consumer Rights Act - England (6 years)

dwaynet

David713 said:

dwaynet said:

Hi MoneySavingExperts users,

they told me to get a diagnosis report for free from an official Apple store which I did yesterday from the Arndale centre in Manchester and to send them a copy once done and they would either carry out a repair or refund me back for the MacBook.

What exactly did the report state regarding the cause of the anti-glare coating coming off?
For it to be of any use in enforcing your CRA rights, it would need to state that the problem is due to a manufacturing defect as without this, the problem could have arisen because of something that you did (such as cleaning the screen with the wrong products).

If the report is satisfactory and accepted by JL, they may well offer you a refund (which can be a partial one to cover the 4+ years you have had use of the computer) and I doubt if this would be too much as in reality, how much is a 4 1/4 year old MacBook worth?

Thanks for replying back to my post.

This is the diagnosis below.

Kind Regards,

Dwayne

Problem Description/Diagnosis

Issue: 
The coating layer of the display is coming off.

Steps to Reproduce: 
Verified in store, the coating layer has started to come off all over the display.

Cosmetic Condition: 
No damage.

Proposed Resolution: 
The display would need replacing at the current out of warranty cost of £565.7
The customer is going to try and claim consumer law with John Lewis but they needed confirmation from us of the issue.

dwaynet

m0bov said:

How did you pay for the item?

Thanks for replying back to my post.

I paid for it with PayPal.

Kind Regards,

Dwayne

dwaynet

Manxman_in_exile said:

dwaynet said:

powerful_Rogue said:

dwaynet said:

Hi MoneySavingExperts users,

Hope you can help and thanks for reading my message.

I purchased an Apple MacBook Pro at £1999 from John Lewis online back in December 2016 and it came with a 3 year warranty with them and has of course now expired in December 2019.

The product itself as had very little use, due to me mainly using my iPad, last month I noticed something didn’t look quite right with the display and it turns out it’s a known problem with MacBooks and it’s the antiglare coating on the display peeling off, no fault of my own what so ever.

I rang John Lewis up and spoken to 2 different advisors and I mentioned to both of them the consumer rights act, they told me to get a diagnosis report for free from an official Apple store which I did yesterday from the Arndale centre in Manchester and to send them a copy once done and they would either carry out a repair or refund me back for the MacBook.

I spoken to a few advisors today at John Lewis as I have now provided them with the diagnosis report that they wanted me to get. They have basically said they will not be carrying out this repair or refund as they said for this problem to come under the consumer rights act the MacBook has had to have been in for at least one repair previously.

Now from what I have told you are they correct or am I being fobbed off?

Kind Regards,

Dwayne 

Just checking there hasn't been some miscommunication.

If they had repaired it once, and the same fault returned, you could reject it for a refund. Did you specfically ask for a refund? Maybe this is what they meant.

Thanks for replying back to my post.

Just to confirm, this MacBook has never had a fault or been repaired previously.
John Lewis told me once I get the diagnosis report from Apple, then they would either repair it or refund me as sometimes repairing something can cost more than what was originally paid for it.

Are you certain that is what they said?  Is it possible they said that depending on what the report said that they might repair or refund?  If you think about it, there would be little point in asking you to get a report if what it said would make no difference to what they would do, would it?

They only need to repair or refund if the Apple report shows that the fault was inherent (ie caused by sub-quality materials or components or faulty manufacturing process) at the time you bought it.  After four and a half years that might be difficult to establish.  And any refund can be reduced to reflect the four and a half years use you have had of it.

Does Apple's report show that they used sub-standard materials or manufacturing process?  If it doesn't, JL don't need to do anything...

EDIT:  You may be confused because you've put "6 Years" in the title of your thread as if it is relevant - it almost certainly isn't.  Many people think the law says that products must last for a minimum of 6 years - it doesn't.  What the law says is you can't make a claim after 6 years - which does not mean that products must last for 6 years.

Thanks for replying back to my post.

It all over the internet this known problem, in my eyes it is a manufacturing defect.

Put these searches exactly into Google.

apple-still-repairing-eligible-macbooks-for-anti-reflective-coating-issues

12th January 2021 9to5mac

 And

macbook-ar-coating-repairs-mail-in-policy

12th January 2021 MacRumors

Kind Regards,

Dwayne

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

dwaynet said:

In addition, I had advised that Section 23, titled Right to repair or replacement does not apply in this instance as that applies when the item is within the guarantee period. The only time in which this would be applied outside of the guarantee period is if there is a product recall from Apple as the manufacturer.

 

As per Apple's website linked below, there is no recall program, or service program for your MacBook which would render Section 23 non-applicable in this instance.

 

 

They are mistaken with this part. You have the right to a repair if the product does not conform to the contract.

Once aspect of goods conforming is the requirement for them to be durable which is the point on which your claim hangs. 

Send them a letter before action requesting either the repair or the amount which equates to £1999 minus 4 years use

The actual use you've had is irrelevant, I'd ignore "second hand" values but look at the expected life of the product to work out what the reduction in value is for the 4 years of ownership. 

David713

dwaynet said:

Thanks for replying back to my post.

This is the diagnosis below.

Kind Regards,

Dwayne

Problem Description/Diagnosis

Issue: 
The coating layer of the display is coming off.

Steps to Reproduce: 
Verified in store, the coating layer has started to come off all over the display.

Cosmetic Condition: 
No damage.

Proposed Resolution: 
The display would need replacing at the current out of warranty cost of £565.7
The customer is going to try and claim consumer law with John Lewis but they needed confirmation from us of the issue.

To be honest, that report will probably not be acceptable to JL as it states what the problem is but not what caused it to occur.
As has already been mentioned, you need a report stating that it was due or likely due to a manufacturing defect, something that isn't stated or implied in that report and for all JL know, you may have used strong glass cleaner on the screen and this is what has weakened the coating.
Submit it anyway and you may be lucky and get a customer service agent who is happy enough to accept it as it's written.

sheramber

From the links you quoted this only applies to United States.

that customers may still be able to get free MacBook display repairs in the United States.
...............
 Unfortunately, there’s no mention if the repair program is still valid for other countries as well.
.......................

According to an internal memo picked up by MacRumors, Apple has told its Authorized Service Providers that they can no longer repair these machines themselves. Instead, they must be mailed to a central hub. As you can imagine, that's going to take a little longer than waltzing into a local store.

The new policy went into effect January 4, 2021 and means that customers who take an eligible 12-inch MacBook or MacBook Pro exhibiting this issue to an Apple Authorized Service Provider will have their notebook mailed to a centralized Apple depot for the repair to be completed, likely resulting in longer waiting times in most cases. It is unclear if the policy applies to any countries outside of the United States at this time.

 

Manxman_in_exile

So your report from Apple only confirms that there is some sort of fault, but not that it was "inherent" over 4 years ago when you bought it.  If Apple can't confirm the cause of the fault was inherent, I'm not surprised JL will not take any action.

sheramber

As Apple have quoted a cost to ' repair out of warranty' they are not considering it an inherent fault.