S75 and Apple Store purchases

FB13

I am about to purchase a new MacBook Air from the Apple Store. The laptop comes with a one year warranty. If I am willing to assume that Apple will honour that warranty and that any faults which were present in the laptop at the time of purchase would surface within that year, does s75 provide any benefit in practice in this scenario? The ability to try to see if the credit card would pay more than a year after purchase? 

I get 1% cash back on my Chase debit card vs .5% with Amex. All things being equal, I would obviously prefer the higher cash back. 

bris

Technically it's possible and if you can pay by CC then it's better than nothing.

S75 gives the CC the same rights as the retailer and as Apple will never admit their products have inherent faults you have to do this part which isnt an easy thing to do.

Amex match the S75 credit cards offer or at least so they say. In practice it may be a bit more difficult.

Sandtree

bris said:

S75 gives the CC the same rights as the retailer and as Apple will never admit their products have inherent faults you have to do this part which isnt an easy thing to do.

Amex match the S75 credit cards offer or at least so they say. In practice it may be a bit more difficult.

I think you mean systemic faults? Apple have admitted to a reasonable number, certainly more than the likes of Dell, and I've had the battery replaced for free under such a wholesale manufacturing issue. Individual items, rather than alleging that every item made has the same problem, is different and does somewhat depend on how you address it... personally had a couple of items replaced under SOGA and subsequently CRA rights with post manufacturer warranty issues without any issues from Apple (as the retailer).

S75 protection is part of the Consumer Credit Act, AmEx gets no choice about "matching" it or not, if its a credit card then that is a CCA regulated product and S75 applies in whole. Given the OP is talking about it being a cashback card then it is an AmEx credit card as only their credit card products offer cashback. 

Chargecards are not regulated by the CCA because they have to be paid off in one payment (CCA requires 4 or over 12 months from memory). As such AmEx Chargecards (of which there aren't many these days) do not get S75 however AmEx instead offers purchase protection on some of these. I wouldn't say its in any way "matching" S75, its very different as for example it covers theft of the item which S75 doesn't whereas its very time limited and S75 is broadly 6 years.

To the OP - S75 would mirror your rights under the CRA to your card issuer and so the real question is if you think you'd likely have an easier time proving your cracked screen after 18 months was a manufacturing issue to AmEx or Apple and if this is worth giving up 0.5% cashback?

CardinalWolsey

Or buy from John Lewis and get a free two-year guarantee.

Sandtree

CardinalWolsey said:

Or buy from John Lewis and get a free two-year guarantee.

But a much longer process for repairs etc having to send the item off to their chosen repairer etc -v- Apple Store repairing it in store (and if you are lucky, on the day). Was lucky on the battery replacement that they did it on the day, when an iPhone developed a fault they simply switched it for a brand new one.

John Lewis on the other hand took 6 weeks to attempt to repair an item under their warranty. 

jon81uk

Sandtree said:

CardinalWolsey said:

Or buy from John Lewis and get a free two-year guarantee.

But a much longer process for repairs etc having to send the item off to their chosen repairer etc -v- Apple Store repairing it in store (and if you are lucky, on the day). Was lucky on the battery replacement that they did it on the day, when an iPhone developed a fault they simply switched it for a brand new one.

John Lewis on the other hand took 6 weeks to attempt to repair an item under their warranty. 

Apple don't normally switch to a brand new one for a repair. You would be given a refurbished phone and then they repair and refurbish yours to give to the next person etc. Many repair places do this now with standard items.

Sandtree

jon81uk said:

Sandtree said:

CardinalWolsey said:

Or buy from John Lewis and get a free two-year guarantee.

But a much longer process for repairs etc having to send the item off to their chosen repairer etc -v- Apple Store repairing it in store (and if you are lucky, on the day). Was lucky on the battery replacement that they did it on the day, when an iPhone developed a fault they simply switched it for a brand new one.

John Lewis on the other hand took 6 weeks to attempt to repair an item under their warranty. 

Apple don't normally switch to a brand new one for a repair. You would be given a refurbished phone and then they repair and refurbish yours to give to the next person etc. Many repair places do this now with standard items.

Was a brand new factor sealed item but it was less than a month old when it went faulty and I'm sure for older items then they will swap out for refurbs

pulliptears

Sandtree said:

CardinalWolsey said:

Or buy from John Lewis and get a free two-year guarantee.

But a much longer process for repairs etc having to send the item off to their chosen repairer etc -v- Apple Store repairing it in store (and if you are lucky, on the day). Was lucky on the battery replacement that they did it on the day, when an iPhone developed a fault they simply switched it for a brand new one.

John Lewis on the other hand took 6 weeks to attempt to repair an item under their warranty. 

That has not been my experience.

I've had two different MacBooks repaired via John Lewis.  The first failed containing all DD's coursework.  JL turned it around in 4 days after we explained the problem.
Second time was a problem with my MacBook Pro, standard repair and was returned in 7 days.

jon81uk

Sandtree said:

jon81uk said:

Sandtree said:

CardinalWolsey said:

Or buy from John Lewis and get a free two-year guarantee.

But a much longer process for repairs etc having to send the item off to their chosen repairer etc -v- Apple Store repairing it in store (and if you are lucky, on the day). Was lucky on the battery replacement that they did it on the day, when an iPhone developed a fault they simply switched it for a brand new one.

John Lewis on the other hand took 6 weeks to attempt to repair an item under their warranty. 

Apple don't normally switch to a brand new one for a repair. You would be given a refurbished phone and then they repair and refurbish yours to give to the next person etc. Many repair places do this now with standard items.

Was a brand new factor sealed item but it was less than a month old when it went faulty and I'm sure for older items then they will swap out for refurbs

Ah that’s different, under 30 days old you are entitled to a full refund for faulty products under consumer rights legislation. So as you are entitled to a refund anyway it doesn’t make sense for retailers to repair products that are still available and in stock.

Sandtree

pulliptears said:

Sandtree said:

CardinalWolsey said:

Or buy from John Lewis and get a free two-year guarantee.

But a much longer process for repairs etc having to send the item off to their chosen repairer etc -v- Apple Store repairing it in store (and if you are lucky, on the day). Was lucky on the battery replacement that they did it on the day, when an iPhone developed a fault they simply switched it for a brand new one.

John Lewis on the other hand took 6 weeks to attempt to repair an item under their warranty. 

That has not been my experience.

I've had two different MacBooks repaired via John Lewis.  The first failed containing all DD's coursework.  JL turned it around in 4 days after we explained the problem.
Second time was a problem with my MacBook Pro, standard repair and was returned in 7 days.

Yes, so you were without the items for 11 days where as mine were under 11 hours... the peace of mind of an extra years warranty may be worth the fact repairs probably will take longer but for others the probability of quicker repairs and knowledge that the CRA is likely to give several years protection is more important. Especially if you take part in a BYOD type work scheme where you use a personal device for work. 

For my warranty repair with JL (not an apple device) it was 3 weeks before they could look at it, 2 weeks to get the part, 1 week to come and fit it and then realise it still didn't work. It was then about 3 months of arguing about the fact it was one of a matching pair and the item had been discontinued so breaking the pairing. 

pulliptears

Sandtree said:

pulliptears said:

Sandtree said:

CardinalWolsey said:

Or buy from John Lewis and get a free two-year guarantee.

But a much longer process for repairs etc having to send the item off to their chosen repairer etc -v- Apple Store repairing it in store (and if you are lucky, on the day). Was lucky on the battery replacement that they did it on the day, when an iPhone developed a fault they simply switched it for a brand new one.

John Lewis on the other hand took 6 weeks to attempt to repair an item under their warranty. 

That has not been my experience.

I've had two different MacBooks repaired via John Lewis.  The first failed containing all DD's coursework.  JL turned it around in 4 days after we explained the problem.
Second time was a problem with my MacBook Pro, standard repair and was returned in 7 days.

Yes, so you were without the items for 11 days where as mine were under 11 hours... the peace of mind of an extra years warranty may be worth the fact repairs probably will take longer but for others the probability of quicker repairs and knowledge that the CRA is likely to give several years protection is more important. Especially if you take part in a BYOD type work scheme where you use a personal device for work. 

For my warranty repair with JL (not an apple device) it was 3 weeks before they could look at it, 2 weeks to get the part, 1 week to come and fit it and then realise it still didn't work. It was then about 3 months of arguing about the fact it was one of a matching pair and the item had been discontinued so breaking the pairing. 

I wouldn’t put too much stock into apple time frames, they aren’t always fast. It took 48 hours to replace a phone battery at Trafford last month😉
i can live without a MacBook for a few days whilst JL repair. I can use other devices. My phone was a little trickier. Personally I’d rather have the additional warranty but each to their own.