Apple Fined By Italy For Misleading Customers About Warranty Terms 218
beaverdownunder writes "An Italian watchdog has fined Apple 900,000 euros ($1.2m, £750,000) for failing to inform Italian shoppers of their legal right to two years of technical support, recognizing instead only a one-year standard warranty. This had led people to pay extra for Apple's own support service, AppleCare, which overlapped with the government-mandated guarantee."
Perfect Match (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple and the Italian government deserve each other.
Re:Perfect Match (Score:5, Funny)
It's almost a form of taxation. Apple takes Italian fanboi moneys, then the government fines Apple.
The real question is whether Apple comes out ahead or behind after the fine.
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Yay, do it some more and the Italians can fix their deficit.
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Re:Perfect Match (Score:5, Informative)
Tho years of guarantee on consumer goods is not just an Italian law, it is a European Union directive [europa.eu].
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Is a two-year guarantee the same as tech support? To use the mandatory car analogy, is saying "You've got to fix Bob's car if it breaks for two years" the same as "You've got to teach Bob how to drive and walk him through changing his oil"?
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I just wish the penalty had had more Teeth. As the company with more cash on hand than God, a $1.2M penalty barely a penalty.
"Oh no! $1.2M?!? I think I just wiped my ass with that yesterday... let me find that for you..."
Re:Perfect Match (Score:4, Insightful)
I just wish the penalty had had more Teeth. As the company with more cash on hand than God, a $1.2M penalty barely a penalty.
$1.2M penalty is a $1.2M penalty. If you were the lawyer whose job it was to check all the legal terms on Apple's Italian website for conformance with Italian laws, and the company just got a $1.2M fine because you didn't do your job competently, then you are in trouble. And you can bet that your successor is making sure it won't happen again.
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Is a two-year guarantee the same as tech support? To use the mandatory car analogy, is saying "You've got to fix Bob's car if it breaks for two years" the same as "You've got to teach Bob how to drive and walk him through changing his oil"?
No the 2 year term is for failures due to manufacturing defects present at the time of sale only. Applecare generally does provide much more coverage and is valid for 3 years, so the 2 are not equal. That said I applaud the Italian government for making sure companies correctly inform customers.
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Unless the deadline for implementing the directive has passed and the infringing party is associated with the public sector. Or if the directive was implemented (transposed) incorrectly. In which case the doctrine of direct effect would apply.
Re:Perfect Match (Score:5, Informative)
Not surprised... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not surprised... (Score:5, Informative)
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Never had a problem... when I take it to the shop, plop it down, and say "it's broke, make it work".
I did that with my iMac, and they replaced it in 90 seconds. From what you're saying, I feel lucky I live near Scottsdale, AZ then... because the reality distortion field is working in my favor.
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My coworker called Apple last Monday because his iPhone had problems. The replacement came the next morning by 10AM or so. I know that doesn't mean their customer service is always wonderful, but it shows that they're at least capable of it when they want to be. And from most accounts I've read, they usually want to be.
Re:Not surprised... (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't know anything about the service in Italy, but you seem to be rather ignorant of what Apple does offer:
- The OS reinstall disk has a hardware test routine. If you have a newer computer without a reinstall disk then it is built into the computer.
- Trying an OS reinstall is much quicker (for you) than sending something out for repair. Sometimes it is useless, but looking a the overall cost/benifit ratio it is not a bad idea in many cases.
- If you have a desktop you can ask for a technician to come to your house. That is part of the warrantee.
- If you have a laptop Apple will send you a pre-paid shipping box. Most of their laptop repairs do not happen in AppleStores but get sent to the same repair centers. So you can cut out the middle man. Note that this is mostly what Dell does as well.
And if you look at consumer satifiaction with AppleCare vs. their competitors, well Apple has been #1 for a very long time.
And if you think that Dell's folks don't walk you through needless stuff, then you have never been on the phone with Dell techinal support. I even got to use their special line for enterprise support and they made me go thorugh uselss gyrations. This is unfotunetely a result of having to make training programs for non-techical people (the support staff) that can cover working with non-techinal end users. Since the majority of both of those groups are non-technical people, it winds up making life more difficult for people who read slashdot. Since we are the small minority that is a logical and reasonalble aproach.
And remember brilian techinal folks are not going to last long at call centers for two reasons: a) the can get more money elsewhere, and b) it is going to bore them to tears.
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Think Different, indeed, just like all of the others.
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I don't own one, so I can't say for sure, but I'm fairly certain that Apple's laptops are not "button-less."
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Ah, right. You were comparing a ThinkBook to a mouse. That makes sense I guess.
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Most of what you said I can agree with (or at least concede) but:
This meme has been poked down a couple times. Conventional wisdom is that they are comparably priced with other similar hardware. I'm sure I could find an example and you could find a counter-example. One big difference is that apple only plays in the higher-end of the market, so you'll never find a barebones mac that could compare to a barebones PC.
No. You clearly have not done price comparisons, either recently, or ever. I did one just today, for someone essentially making the same claim as you, in another thread on this same story. Apple computers are very consistently around 90 to 100% more expensive than a typical PC with identical components. It can vary as much as 50-150%, but the disparity is usually greater the higher up the price scale you go.
Here's the example I gave earlier: h [newegg.com]
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Re:Not surprised... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not speaking as to the quality of the plan, obviously some are better than others; I'm just saying from a business standpoint they make a lot of money. This is why Best Buy, Apple, pretty much any major electronics retailer are so aggressive pushing them whenever you buy something that is even covered by one. You can't buy cables at Best Buy without someone trying to sell you a $3 replacement plan. Hell, even Home Depot pushes replacement plans on stuff now, doesn't matter what it is, doesn't matter who even makes it...
The "shady" part comes in when the business pushes plans to cover things that are already covered by law, not to mention other considerations (I know many credit cards have certain consumer protections if you use them to purchase a product, for instance). Curious as to how this will play out in Italy, but here in the States there is nothing illegal about taking advantage of a person's ignorance to their own rights as consumers. Ethically questionable, definitely, but not illegal. It's not their job to educate you as to what your rights are.
Personally, when I worked for a company that dealt with these things, I was always honest and open about the benefits to the customer, and if there wasn't one (customer taking product out of the country where it's not covered anyway, for instance) I wouldn't try to push it on them...which is probably why I didn't last long in that particular job nor had particularly impressive commissions. Nothing against those who subscribe to "the hard sell", but I just couldn't bring myself to capitalize on customer ignorance like that.
Re:Not surprised... (Score:5, Informative)
Apple Care is better though
No, it's really not.
They have stores all over the world
Yeah, just like most big brand stores, but this is not very relevant because the store you bought an item at is presumably local to you, so who cares if they also have a location in East Jabyyp? Unless you regularly travel a lot, the chances of this being useful is pretty low.
if you are supported, they an tell you that
There's the problem. It's not like Apple Care is one of those cell phone insurance plans where it covers anything that can go wrong. Plenty of things can go wrong that they will be happy to tell you is not covered - even stuff that is not a wear-and-tear fault. Try to get a reasonably expensive part replaced, such as a video card, and they'll tell you how they found some dust in your chassis, so it overheated and it's your fault for not keeping it clean (nevermind that you can't open the chassis on most modern macs without voiding the warranty anyway). At least that's what they told me for my wife's 3 month old iMac.
Likewise my brother's 1 year old Macbook Pro had a recognized fault with its video card. It would sometimes just refuse to produce any video, sometimes to the built-in LCD, sometimes to the video out port, sometimes to both. Plenty of people with the same generation MBP had the same problem. He took it in to get it repaired, and was initially told it was covered since it was a known problem. When he went to pick it up a week later, they wanted $800 in parts in labor - even though he had been told it was going to be a covered repair. Their reason? The chassis had a scratch on it - seriously. They claimed this scratch (in an aluminum chassis) had caused the damage. They went ahead and made the repair without consulting him, and now refused to return his laptop until he coughed up the cash.
Also, if it's not this year's model, they're not going to have replacement parts on hand, and it's going to be 1-2 weeks before you can get that replacement part.
But it seems like a good idea for someone who isn't tech savvy and doesn't want to bother their friends for help
That's probably true. If you don't know how to use your computer, the Geniuses can tell you how to double click. Make sure to call ahead for an appointment, they're booked until next week, but they'll be happy to let you sit in their gallery store for 45 minutes after your appointment time while you have nothing else to do but decide if maybe buying a new one is a better path than being without a computer for two weeks while your old one is getting fixed on your own dime despite having an extended warranty.
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Since we're tossing out anecdotes... I bought a used eMac from a friend who was upgrading to something else. When it was nearly three years old, the display started corrupting and freezing (but in grand Unix tradition, I could still SSH into it). I called Apple and they said it was a known problem with a batch of bad capacitors on the video card, and that they'd extended the 1-year warranty to 3 years for that specific part. With 4 days left on the extended warranty, I returned my used eMac to an Apple sto
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Even worse than the scratch... (Score:2)
My boss bought a unibody Mac Mini a year ago. About 6 months later its USB port started frying keyboards. It took out a few (some expensive) keyboards before he could figure out what was going on. So, he took it to the apple store and they told him to come back in 2 weeks when they would have the parts. About 2-3 weeks later the parts had arrived so he went to the store and they suddenly decided that his warranty was void. The reason? When they opened it, it had too much dust (no cats, no smoking house) so
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AppleCare+ for iPhone extends repair coverage and technical support to two years from the original purchase date of your iPhone and adds coverage for up to two incidents of accidental damage due to handling, each subject to a $49 service fee.
Which means that after you pay Extra for the AppleCare Plus on your iPhone, you still have to pay $49 if you break it... AND you only get that super discounted price of $49 twice. What kind of extended warranty is that?
Re:Not surprised... (Score:5, Insightful)
They have to be making a shitton of money on hardware. I bought a laptop from Sager last summer for $1100: 1920x1080 extended-gamut screen, quad-core Sandy Bridge processor, Geforce 555M, the works. Very nice machine. I wound up pricing those specs on Apple's website: you couldn't get a graphics card on par with the 555M for love nor money from Apple, and to get everything else it'd be around $2300.
The Apple machine has nicer speakers and that aluminium body, but beyond that -- Apple's got to be pocketing a large part of that $1200 difference.
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You're exactly right. I've priced them out many times over the years, and Apple computers are always 50-150% more expensive than their PC counterparts with the exact same (or better) hardware components.
I will concede that Apples have their benefits over PCs for some people, but I am certainly not in that demographic.
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Lol. try harder, fanboi.
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So someone who doesn't want those things can go buy a PC laptop with the same specs as your Macbook Pro for roughly $500-$700. About half the price.
Here, for example is one for $629 with exactly the same specs as your $1,199 Macbook Pro: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215180 [newegg.com]
It's always been that way.
Oh *now* they step in to protect their citizens (Score:5, Funny)
Where was this concerned Italian government when MTV sent over the Jersey Shore cast?
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Do you feel guilty for going to the zoo, Mr. Judmental?
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Ahnuld's best movie, probably.
Apple got off lightly... (Score:5, Insightful)
That is corporate ethics at it's absolute worst. You can be sure that it's likely Apple in Italy knew of the situation and was milking it if they got a fine like that... :(
I wonder if the fine even approaches the profits they made abusing the laws like that.
GrpA
Re:Apple got off lightly... (Score:5, Informative)
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I wonder if the fine even approaches the profits they made abusing the laws like that.
They could potentially be facing nearly 30 similar fines. Given that it's unlikely they only did this in Italy.
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While I've no desire to defend Apple, they're certainly not the only ones. I had to threaten to report Dell to trading standards before they'd replace my faulty monitor ~ 15 months after purchase. Sorry Dell, you can't get round the law by saying "one year warranty only" - a monitor should last more than 15 months, full stop.
Re:Apple got off lightly... (Score:5, Insightful)
The EU protects consumer rights. American companies an the like need to get a clue. Try to avoid the gray areas instead of screwing the customer.
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Its not just the EU, Australia, New Zealand and Japan also have heavy consumer protection laws.
The US is just a free for all fuck the consumer kind of country. Its no wonder then that american companies think they can act with impunity everywhere else.
Re:Apple got off lightly... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not likely... Apple is a true multinational and would be run and staffed by Italians for the most of it. And it's not bullying - it's a clear case of failing to meet their warranty obligations.
To be fair, consumer laws in the US are pretty poor and there's very little government intervention even when US companies deliberately and systematically break the law.
But this was not in the US, it was in Italy and like much of the the rest of the world, there are laws in Italy to protect consumers from dodgy goods. This is known as Statutory Warranty and you can be sure that if a company was fined so much, it is usually because they knew the law and were breaking it on purpose as a means to making extra profits.
All Apple had to do is compete on the same level playing field as everyone else in Italy ( and in fact, most of the rest of the world ) and it looks like they chose not to, got caught and got punished.
GrpA
Re:Apple got off lightly... (Score:5, Interesting)
To be fair, consumer laws in the US are pretty poor and there's very little government intervention even when US companies deliberately and systematically break the law.
But this was not in the US, it was in Italy and like much of the the rest of the world, there are laws in Italy to protect consumers from dodgy goods.
US: society equals corporations and the laws reflect that
EU: society equals citizens and the laws reflect that.
elsewhere? Depends on how badly the government has been screwed by corporations (IMF, World Bank, etc...) already.
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It hardly matters. If they took money for something they were required by law to offer for free, they effectively either took money fopr nothing (fraud) or they took money for warranty service and failed to provide the free warranty.
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So only 2 of the 3 years are fraud. Are you THAT desperate to polish Apple's Apple?
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from TFA:
The country's Antitrust Authority said Apple had failed to inform shoppers of their legal right to two years' technical support, recognising instead only a one-year standard warranty.
It said the firm's action had led people to pay extra for Apple's own support service, which overlapped in part with the free guarantee.
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Good post, except $1.2M is chump change for Apple. The company just awarded bonuses totaling an estimated $400M to 7 top executives. 7 guys, $400M. That's how much money Apple has to burn. $1.2M isn't even a week's pay for any of these guys.
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anywhere in the EU if your device breaks down after more than six months, _you_ have to prove that it is due to some fault that was present when you bought the product
Not true. In the Portuguese law there is no such requirement - only the seller can prove the inverse. In fact, it says that if the flaw occurs in the first two years (or five, for buildings) it must be presumed as a pre-existing problem.
You should note that the directive only says that during the first 6 months, you can't be forced to prove the flaw was pre-existent - it doesn't say you have to be forced after that date. That's up to the law makers of each country.
I don't know the Italian law, but you shoul
Re:Apple got off lightly... (Score:5, Informative)
In the EU, companies still aren't people, so it's not bullying.
Re:Apple got off lightly... (Score:4, Informative)
No, the mandated two year warranty has to be given by the seller of a product, not the manufacturer.
It's the italian Apple Store that is liable, and this is an italian company. That the italian Apple Store is owned by Apple Inc., doesn't change anything.
Well... (Score:3, Funny)
F*uck Apple.
Sent from my Macbook Pro
Apple: 1, Italy: 0 (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple's profits from selling the additional warranties in the entire country of Italy is almost certainly more than the fine, so it was a good business decision for them to flout local law if this is all they're going to face.
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It's not a simple transaction like that; the fine does not include indirect costs like Apple's loss of standing with the EU. It is rarely a "good business decision" to piss-off officials of a state in which you wish to do business.
These kinds of decisions can add up, and long term can be detrimental a corporatation's strategic options.
Same with Best Buy, Home Depot etc all.... (Score:2)
Re:Same with Best Buy, Home Depot etc all.... (Score:4, Informative)
That is not so simple. Misleading bit is that Apple advertises "included 1 year AppleCare, + extra 2 years for extra money," while saying nowhere that customers actually by law have 2 years of warranty.
Now, the simplest distinction of AppleCare and standard support is that former is international, latter is local.
IOW, there are some extras AppleCare covers, but they avoid mentioning how precisely it differs from the standard support, what's covered for 1 year, what's covered for 2 years, what's covered with the optional AppleCare.
Well it depends (Score:2)
Often what is being sold is an extended warranty, meaning that the underwriter starts their warranty when the factory warranty runs out. That is how Squaretrade warranties work, which are pretty commonly sold (you can buy them yourself too). AmTrust (their parent insurance company) agrees that should your item fail after the manufacturer's warranty period runs out for a term of whatever you pay them for, they'll do what it takes to get you a working one. So buy a TV with a 2 year warranty and get a 3 year S
Easy to fix (Score:5, Insightful)
When a company does this to a product, force them to provide a lifetime warranty on that product. They will be much more careful.
Apple shill moderators? (Score:2)
A "Troll" is when you say something you don't believe. I believe this. Go suck eggs. I believe that too.
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It would be a damn good remedy.
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Lifetime is too excessive; electronics do break over time. But I WOULD like a company to at least stand behind their product for a minimum of three years. The fact that extended warranties exist is like taxing someone on assets lost in a burglary. You just got robbed twice.
In fact, I think it's the fact that extended warranties exist that dissuade companies from offering bigger warranties. Much like rebates, few people really take someone up on warranties unless someone comes to your house. So it's not
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Italy can have a law that says "everything made by anyone must have a lifetime warranty" or they can have nice toys like Apple ipods. Italy can't have both -- Apple (and everyone else) would simply not sell there.
Anonymous cowards can misrepresent what I said in my comment or they can make comments which make sense. You can't have both.
Re:Easy to fix (Score:5, Interesting)
Italy can have a law that says "everything made by anyone must have a lifetime warranty" or they can have nice toys like Apple ipods. Italy can't have both -- Apple (and everyone else) would simply not sell there.
Some Western European countries do have reclamation laws similar to "lifetime warranty", where if a product fails within a period shorter than what should be expected for the type of product, without it being the fault of the user, the seller is at fault and has to provide repairs or replacements.
Even if the warranty is two years, if a fence or roof fails after ten years, the buyer can get it fixed or replaced, because a fence or roof is reasonably supposed to last longer than ten years. Similar for other products - it may be reasonable to expect a TV to last for at least five years, so when it breaks after four, the buyer may have reclamation rights, even if the warranty has expired.
While the warranty covers production defects, the reclamation rights cover items that may not have any defects, but still fail due to a bad design that the customer could have no reasonable way of knowing existed.
That doesn't stop companies from selling products in these countries, but it does mean that they charge more, to cover extra parts inventories and/or replacements.
I had a five year old washing machine repaired at no cost to me, because it had rusted. As a washer could be expected to last for more than five years and quite often be wet on the inside, this was not in any way the buyer's (my) fault.
I thought it was already worthless (Score:5, Insightful)
"Technical Support" from Apple is like going to church. You get told things like "because that's the way it is" and when you press, you never get the "why" part of it. I learned long ago about the compatibility between Apple and business -- there is none by the standards I have come to expect in the PC world. There is no "next business day, on site, accidental damage" support from Apple. When I learned that, I could never again take them seriously where business was concerned.
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"Technical Support" from Apple is like going to church. You get told things like "because that's the way it is" and when you press, you never get the "why" part of it. I learned long ago about the compatibility between Apple and business -- there is none by the standards I have come to expect in the PC world. There is no "next business day, on site, accidental damage" support from Apple. When I learned that, I could never again take them seriously where business was concerned.
Their business model does not target companies because they know that fashion statements have no impact on company buyers, and that's all they have in stock.
They have good support for home users (Score:2)
If anything goes wrong during the warranty period you bring it in to the store. They'll do whatever it takes to make it work, including replace it.
Now outside of the warranty period you are kinda screwed.
They don't do well for business but then nobody but Apple fans thinks they are serious at the business market anyhow. Apple wants to make consumer electronics toys (because that's where they've made massive money) not business systems.
AppleCare (Score:3, Insightful)
An AppleCare plan offers much more protection than just one more year warranty.
Re:AppleCare (Score:5, Informative)
Sure but thats not the point. If they had informed their customers of the 2 year warranty that they were entitled to by law, that would have informed their decision as to whether to go for the extra AppleCare or not. The thing is, they thought the choice was between AppleCare and a 1 year warranty.... but it wasn't. They were misinformed, by the same party who was profiting from decision, and thus had motive to mislead them.
Re:AppleCare (Score:5, Insightful)
Every european customer is supposed to know
that. Without seeing the actual court ruling I only can assume that some customer rights organizations filed a suit because they found the apple advertizings missleading.
That is what the newspapers claim, and the court (seems to have) ruled. However I find this unbelieveable. ...
Every product in the EU since ages has a law gurranteed 2 years "guarranty". If you see how few people buy the AppleCare extra guarranty I find this whole case bollocks
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Ah, so you know exactly the exact wording Apple was using? You are sure that Apple made "false claims"? Do you have any links to that? ... perhaps they indeed did that ;D
I doubt heavyly, that Apple made any claims at all. They only offered their AppleCare package.
However, as the Italian Apple Stores are run by Italians and we all know how Italians are
I for my part rather believe the "consumer rights organizations" and the "judge" had an easy victory on some misswordings than on a "great rip of schema" by Ap
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And you are talking out your ass as well, so what is the problem?
I checked the german Apple site. And how I see it they have the same site everywhere and only localize it, so ... go ahead and show me a "claim" they made.
Looking at the german site they more or less only translated the american one ... with the same "flaw" they had on the italian one. So sooner or later they get sued here as well, and there is no "particular claim" on the german site. They simple put up the same "warranty" they did in the USA
You lie (Score:2)
Every european customer is supposed to know that.
*snip*
Every product in the EU since ages has a law gurranteed 2 years "guarranty".
That's funny because the consumer agency of at least one EU country begs to differ [kuluttajavirasto.fi]
I can't be bothered to go through
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Lol,
I'm not certain to what extend finland is in the EU.
Calling this untrue makes no real sense. Even if I make a mistake here or there, for Italy my general statement stands ;D
Also note please: warranty / guarantee - this is what companies grant voluntarily. The law demands "defects liability". Perhaps I should be more clear there ... want to google and search again?
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At least in Greece, not only Apple advertises a 1-year warranty, but if your device fails within the 2-year time-frame and you go to the authorized dealer and cite the EU regulation they will simply respond "apple provides a 1 year warranty, nothing we can do". They won't easily budge so from then on good luck with the consumer protection groups which have no real power or the legal system which is costly and takes time and effort.
So it is not just advertising, at least in some EU countries, apple is actual
Some clarification is needed. (Score:3)
The abstract is at least as misleading as Apple's warranty terms, it seems. The mandated two year warranty has nothing to do with a manufacturer's warranty. The two year mandated warranty
a) covers only faults that where present at the time of the sale.
b) has to be given by the seller of the product, independent from any manufacturer (how the seller gets back to the manufacturer for cover is up to them).
Only if Apple is the seller of the items (e.g. through the Apple Stores), it has to adhere to the rules. And then the terms of business or the advertising for the extended warranty must not be misleading about the coverage the buyer is entitled to anyway.
Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament (Score:3, Informative)
DIRECTIVE 1999/44/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 25 May 1999
on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 95 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee(2),
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the
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The abstract doesn't even mention a manufacturer's warranty. It isn't misleading in the least. I also think it's safe to assume that Apple is the seller of the item, and that the "terms of business or the advertising for the extended warranty" was misleading, since they were fined $1.2 million USD.
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What? You say that Apple in this case isn't determined to be the seller of the product, and then you say the complete opposite immediately following that.
Yes, the fine was levied against Apple as a seller of Apple products in Apple stores. Thank you for confirming that it is indeed safe to assume that Apple is considered the seller in this case.
Apple is being fined for confusion (Score:3)
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If you clicked on that very apparent link that said "Additional rights for consumers in Italy", it opens up an Italian PDF document. If you translated the very first paragraph it says
The benefits of Apple's Limited Warranty are in addition to rights under the law to consumer protection applicable in your country. Under Articles 128-135 of the Legislative Decree No. 206 of September 6, 2005 ("Consumer Code"), consumers Italians have up to 26 months . .
.
On the Italian site, the link that says "Additional rights for consumers in Italy" (but in Italian) opens the same document. Is that any clearer?
What actually happened, under all the fluff (Score:2, Informative)
What really happened:
1. EU mandates 6 month + 18 months of warranty for manufacturing defects. Six months the burden of proof is on the seller, 18 on the consumer. There are some exceptions and the rules are defined quite well, but this is the general way it works. This warranty doesn't cover wear and tear (unless wear and tear is caused by manufacturing defect).
2. Apple complied with the warranty, but tried to market apprecare plan by obfuscating the fact that customer had the right to warranty during two
Gentlemen, I have a plan. (Score:3)
Antitrust Authority: We will fine them... ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
Apple Customer: Don't you think we should ask for *more* than a million dollars? A million dollars isn't exactly a lot of money these days. Apple alone made over 25 billion dollars last year!
Antitrust Authority: Really? That's a lot of money.
[pause]
Antitrust Authority: Okay then, we will fine them... One... Point Two... MILLION DOLLARS!
2 year warranty is not AppleCare (Score:2)
The way the mandatory two year warranty as mandated by the EU is implemented is very different from AppleCare and AppleCare goes beyond it. If a fault becomes apparent after more than six months after you buy the device you as the customer have to prove that the fault is due to some technical problem that was caused during the manufacturing of the device. This is pretty much impossible to do without the help of a lawyer. So technically a company can refuse to pay for any repair after six months and there is
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On a side note... I haven't been seeing as many snotty messages from European Slashdotters, Saying how great things are in Europe and the US should do things the same way here.
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Okay, the only possible explanation is you are a troll.
Not usually, but I needed to see if it's even possible to dent my excellent karma. I'd like a fresh start in 2012.
With the exception of the United Kingdom and possibly Germany, Europe is in deep trouble. And that is by using many different metrics.
I happen to see it with different eyes. I see the UK as being in trouble next (after Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy) since they are the only country in the EU that plays on both sides.
Consider borrowing costs. The rate the United States pays to borrow just recently (yesterday) inched above 2% for the first time in a month. Romania (one of the better-off EU members) borrows money at 6% interest.
Romania either had visionaries for it's executive (and honestly, I can't see the sailor and his crew as visionaries), or it just made the right bet in 2009 by accident. That being said, it used it's loa
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"We know the law, but Apple only offers one year warranty. Good luck trying, you will need a legally-valid exame by some specialist that states that the defect was in fact not caused by the user."
This is exactly correct. You would have to prove that the problem was there when the macbook was sold to you, ie that the macbook components could not withstand two years of "normal" use.
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Didn't buy an AppleCare, so after the first year, when things started to go wrong (and keep in mind that, during the first year, I already had to replace battery...
Well, what Apple told you is just the truth: After more than six months _you_ have to prove that it is their fault. Now the obvious thing would have been since you can buy Apple Care at any time within the first twelve months, you wait 11 months to see if you have any problems, and if you do, _then_ you definitely by Apple Care.
Apart from that, the question will be whether you convince the person making the decision whether they want to keep you as a customer or not, and whether you convince them that th