Full circle then?
A Ye Olde Shoppe...
Selling products, advice, and fixing them, all in one place?
I thought the high-street was dead and it was all the interwebs fault?
Cupertino is reportedly planning changes to Applecare with a move towards shop-based iDevice repairs and a lucrative subscription service scheme. The AppleCare and AppleCare+ schemes look likely to be overhauled in America this autumn, with the altered services rolled out across the world afterwards. Tara Bunch, an Apple vice …
factory is usually manned by people who have no idea about any of the parts or processes that they are doing. Simply put bit A on bit B and pass to the next person. Someone who is skilled in repairing electronics knows that screens are fragile and anti static is important - not merely a reason not to be sacked.
"There will also be more online support offered, with specially commissioned video content and websites designed to tackle common complaints."
Complaints, what complaints? You wouldn't think the iSheeple have any complaints based on the feedback by the commentards. Oh, right! Its just a feature phone!
I think this could be both good and bad depending on the circumstances. At the moment, if your battery fails you get an all-new case on your refurbished phone for the battery service fee: if they just replace the battery you won't get that.
On the other hand, if you drop your phone and smash the screen, then is the cost of a replacement screen going to be less than the former replacement price?
...and a note for Ian 62: "A the old shop" doesn't make sense - ye is an alternative spelling of the, and the 'e' on the other words is silent. Perhaps you meant "Ahh, the old shop..."?
"So this is basically Apple iNsurance?"
The iThing approach doesn't really work on the word insurance because of how it's pronounced. :)
My thoughts, though, were of the times they've been slapped down in some places for selling Applecare to people who don't need it. Wrap it up differently, try again...
I don't know about Apple Care and iPods/pads but I recently took my MacBook into a London Apple Store for repair under warranty. They botched it so badly it ended up not even booting. They said they'd try again – turned out they didn't have the parts but didn't have the courtesy to tell me before I went to collect it. The genius was adamant that a replacement was not an option and, even if it were, I'd have to wait 2 weeks for them to order one in. After giving the genius the benefit of my views, he finally gave in, "cheated the system" and gave me a replacement from stock.
Make sure you don't have anything sharp in your pockets if you have to take anything back for repair! Getting the buggers to do anything in one the "Temple of Jobs" is like arguing with the speaking clock. Far better going through a reseller like John Lewis, Apple control the market to tightly it's usually the same bloody price anyway and JL will at least treat you like a human being when you have a problem.
I used to like the old swapout policy... ITunes does a very good job of backup and restoring a full phone...
and apples quick and easy nearly new phone has pleased me when I had my iphone 3G replaced twice and my partners iphone4s - refurbed yes, but new batteries & new cases = better than what I handed in...
Every single time I've dealt with applecare, or a friend has, they've managed to severely nark me.
They wouldn't fix the fan on my G5 iMac, even though it was making more noise than the speakers, because it wasn't covered by Applecare.
They wouldn't give us a replacement reocovery media (something HP have done for me in the past) and wanted my to pay ~£80 for a new OS.
They refused to fix my boss' laptop which they admitted had a "bad logic board" causing it to crash dead when an external monitor was plugged in. He had to either splash £750 for a new "logic board" or buy a new laptop.
The crowning turd in the water closet is a friend who got a replacement reconditioned iphone with two years of applecare, only to find out that they back dated it to the initial sale of the phone and wouldn't fix it when he broke it.
How they manage to have a good customer service reputation is beyond me. Anyway, rant over.
All were out of warranty, but within Applecare, that being the reason that Applecare was purchased for all of them.
It's just another "extended warranty" scam, except they (in my experience) never bother actually fixing anything under it.
Another problem that Apple have is that they call the staff in the shop who supposedly fix your stuff and advise you "Geniuses". It makes is pretty difficult to talk to them when you know more about computing from electronics up to Enterprise infrastructure than everyone else in the shop put together. I don't go into apple stores any more, it's too much of a trying experience.
"They refused to fix my boss' laptop which they admitted had a "bad logic board" causing it to crash dead when an external monitor was plugged in. He had to either splash £750 for a new "logic board" or buy a new laptop."
they replaced a powerbook logic board for me - twice - when it was still under AppleCare, for that very problem: it would put the fans full on and shut down with a temperature error - when plugging in anything 1920x1200 or larger.
(Second one apparently failed because they hadn't put the heat-sink properly back on the GPU, so it failed too. C'est la vie.)
They wouldn't replace an iMac logic board 6 months out of AppleCare though.
Just managed to get an out of (1 year) warranty work iMac repaired using Euroland law. iMac is 18 months(ish) old with no AppleCare warranty, the screen was very dark in places and needed replacing.
The dealer we purchased from had since gone bust and our preferred dealer wasn't interested if we didn't have additional AppleCare. I contacted Apple, spoke to a support chap and directed him to this link: http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/
He promptly assigned warranty repair status to the iMac serial number and told me I could go to any dealer that I preferred.
I called back our preferred dealer and quoted the serial to them, they checked it out and arranged collection for repair.
AppleCare wouldn't appear to be very good value for money anyway if Euro law provides better statutory rights...
I was about to post exactly this.
The Sale of Goods Act requires that goods are free from defects at the time they are sold, as described, and work for a reasonable period of time. For electronics, a fault within 3 years could easily be considered unusual and most consumer protection experts would say your device should last 3 years minimum.
Certainly, if you've bought an iDevice with a two year mobile phone contract then all non-user caused repairs (i.e. faults, broken connectors from normal use, dodgy switches etc) must be repaired under warranty. If they're selling with a two year contract, then it's reasonable to expect your device to last two years.
Also remember: your contract is with the retailer not Apple (unless you bought from an Apple store). So don't let your network fob you off to Apple. It's their problem to sort out.
"This move is likely to be welcomed by eco-warriors, as there is less waste involved, and customers too, because they may be able to keep their phone's contents."
Given the sheer pain involved in doing a backup and restore of an iPhone (I've sat and watched with disbelief at how slow and painful it truly was when my Brother had to have his iphone4 replaced twice) this can only be good news.
I'll stick with my little green robot thanks all the same.