Sale Of Goods Act and Apple Macs

Hotsocks2

Apple Macs come with a 1 year warranty. Many users recommend Applecare which, for around £140 to £280 (depending on model), gives another 2 years warranty. A good reason is Macs have proprietary main boards that are ludicrously expensive to replace - might as well get a new Mac sometimes, whereas a new board for a high end PC would be say - £200.

How can this be reconciled with the Sale Of Goods Act when it requires goods to be of "satisfactory quality"? Surely as so-called "premium" computer manufacturer ought be able to make a computer last more than 1 year...preferably 3 at least, and if not, fix/replace without requiring you buy Applecare beforehand for this eventuality?

BTW, this isn't an anti-Mac troll post; I prefer Macs.

jonesMUFCforever

Why buy something known to be unreliable in the first place?
If everyone did go elsewhere they would soon either change the components or give the consumer a better free warranty.

Hotsocks2

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Why buy something known to be unreliable in the first place?
If everyone did go elsewhere they would soon either change the components or give the consumer a better free warranty.

Eh? PCs are no more reliable than Macs. So in that regard, there is nowhere else to go.

Apple are obviously aware what a repulsive experience a PC and Windows is to many people, and that's precisely why they can get away with this. It's a smart business calculation. And I do have a high-end games PC as well, btw.

My hope was to avoid a Mac vs PC war. That's not the point here. Instead, ask why the Sale of Goods Act isn't being deployed when any expensive computer fails to last, but yes, specifically, against Apple - because it costs more when theirs goes wrong. If they got some bad publicity over selling Applecare when it only provides what we're legally entitled to anyway (it seems to me), those of us who want to use Macs might be better off.

queen_of_leon

i agree hotsocks...but in my experience they very rarely go wrong!
we've got 3 and had no probs with any of them. if they did i would sooner buy a second-hand mac than a brand new pc...hate the ****ers!!

richt71

Hi Hotsocks 2,
I believe trading standards usually say 12 months is fit for purpose. If you want peace of mind for longer then I'd suggest you ring round the insurance companies as many do a special ekectrical goods policy much cheaper than the own brand/store warranties.

Hotsocks2

What makes you say that richt71, have you heard of a specific case? There's nothing in the Sale of Goods Act to say 1 year. It says up to 6 years. It obviously all depends on what the goods are and how much you paid for them, but if ever there was a case for more than 1 year, it ought to be a max hardware configuration MacBook Pro at £2,294 surely? Otherwise it's taking the you-know-what...

richt71

Hotsocks2 wrote: »

What makes you say that richt71, have you heard of a specific case? There's nothing in the Sale of Goods Act to say 1 year. It says up to 6 years. It obviously all depends on what the goods are and how much you paid for them, but if ever there was a case for more than 1 year, it ought to be a max hardware configuration MacBook Pro at £2,294 surely? Otherwise it's taking the you-know-what...

I had a case of a computer I had about 12 years ago that broke a number of times within the first year from PC world. My local trading standards wouldn't touch it as they said I'd had it a year (and it had been repaired). That's my thinking but it may be different becuase they repaired it or maybe it's more defined now.

Hotsocks2

As it was PC-World, perhaps they thought any acknowledgement of responsibility was already an unprecedented result.

traciekan

we have 3 and have had 8 and the only time they have gone wrong is when we do something stupid like dropping them or spilling something and when one did die after 4 yrs it was replaced with a brand new one by applecare! result!

haylibo

Hotsocks
You have a good point. I wish I could be bothered finding a good example but there have been cases of consumers who have taken companies to court over goods which have broken down outside of their warranty period and have won. There is uncertainty over how long is considered reasonable cons so consumers are exploited with extended warranty sales.
A washing machine for instance should be expected with normal use to last over 12 months but manufacturers often only guarantee them for this time. If you pay £700+ on a laptop you use 'normally' then yes, you should expect longer service than 12 months and I'd be tempted to push it with Apple if mine went 'ping' oustide of that time if it was within a 'reasonable time' and with 'normal use'.

haylibo

traciekan wrote: »

we have 3 and have had 8 and the only time they have gone wrong is when we do something stupid like dropping them or spilling something and when one did die after 4 yrs it was replaced with a brand new one by applecare! result!

Missed that one!