Apple's 90 day replacement warranty

As regular readers know, my experience with my Apple iPod has been less than satisfactory. First purchased in July 2004, my 40Gb 4th Gen iPod has given me endless trouble. I love it when it works - unfortunately that isn't as often as I like. It first started giving me serious problems in July 2005 - slightly less than 12 months after I purchased it. The hard drive basically failed. I took it back to the Apple "My Mac" Store in Flinders Street in Melbourne and they replaced it under warranty with a new unit.

That unit lasted about a month. They replaced it again.

That unit last another month. They replaced it - again.

So I'm on my third ipod in 12 months. The hard drive on this unit has been failing over and over for the last couple of months. The sad ipod icon will appear and stay there for a week until it decides mysteriously to work again. I'm a busy man and haven't had a chance to take it back into the My Mac store for support until today. They told me that REPLACEMENT UNITS ONLY HAVE A 90 DAY WARRANTY. You're shitting me, right? Nope. The guy at My Mac also told me that "this model had problems". I said "you could have told me that BEFORE I spent $650 on it".

So I rang Apple "customer service" (and I use that term with a sense of irony) to discuss the matter. Pablo on the other end of the phone advised me that my unit was out of warranty and they would not be able to assist me. I asked if Pablo understood that this was the third iPod I had had fail on me in under 12 months. He said he did. I asked if he thought that was acceptable. He refused to offer an opinion and said we would only discuss facts. I assured Pablo it was a FACT that this was my third ipod to fail in under 12 months and AGAIN asked him what Apple's policy was on how long a high-end piece of consumer electronics like an ipod SHOULD last. He again refused to answer and said that I out of my 90 day warranty and he couldn't help me. I told him I was writing down his response and then - I love this part the most - he said if I was writing down his answers then he would HANG UP ON ME! Now, when I rang the Apple support line, a recorded message advised me that my call would be recorded - apparently it's okay for Apple to record the call but offensive to Pablo that I should write down his answers.

Anyway, I told him I was also writing down his threat to hang up on me and asked him if he'd like to make any more statements on Apple's policy about how often a piece of high-end consumer electronics equipment should have to be replaced in under 12 months. He again refused and we ended the call.

Okay so... here's my question. I have Steve Jobs' email address. He emailed me once, about a year ago, to answer a question I had about iTunes podcast directory. That means his email filters should let my reply through. Should I email Steve to discuss the matter?

Here's another question. I'm now a relatively influential guy. I run a new media company with hundreds of thousands of listeners and readers. Should I use my reach to complain about Apple's 90 day replacement warranty? Would it be in the public good if I use our banner ad system and put audio ads in our shows to suggest they consider changing that policy?

I'd love to know your thoughts....

Comments

[Roger]

I used to work in retail and know from experience that if you bypass the hierarchy and contact the person who runs the organisation, then you can pretty much ask for anything and get it.
Again looking at what I've seen in retail a 90 day replacement warranty is pretty good, usually after that if its less than a year they should offer to repair it - will they repair it?

[Phillip Molly Malone]

I believe I read thats iRivers warranty but I thought that was on parts.
On using the Network, I say go for it. Here are a couple of things to consider:
1) Ring support again, this time from Skype (with Skylook). Let the person know you are recording it (I am sure you can add a good reason for recording it (i.e. like they say for training purposes, you could say training purposes, i.e. training people that apples products sucks)). Have another conversation and this time publish it as a podcast.

2) Use the ads and the like. My wife is the best person I know on getting what she wants when peoples products aren't right or she is returning things or support people aren't treating her right. One of her tactics is threating them with calling the local talk station.

3) To be fair to poor Pablo, he probably hasn't got any wiggle room. Perhaps you could ask to speak to his manager who might have room to move on the repair/replacement.

4) Didn't you say you wanted to do a flashmob (not that I know exactly what that is but I guess it involves a mob). Why not Flash mob there support center!

Just some thoughts.
Molly

[Rob Irwin]

In the correct podcasts, sure, I don't see a problem with what you propose, Cameron. It would smack of being a childish vendetta if you popped up in the middle of Dead Serious or The Gay Parenting Show and started going mental, but in the context of your tech programs, yes it would make perfect sense. It would almost be a public service to those listeners.

[And I know that you can make the argument that ALL programs could, effectively, be heard on an iPod so why not post the message across all the different shows, but I'd still err on the side of caution here. I reckon a lot of your non-tech audience is listening to the podcasts on their PCs and might not even own a digital music player -- even I tend to listen on my PC more than iPod and I'm a total geek -- another good reason not to include it on non-tech segments of the network.]

In terms of writing to Steve... yeah, it's a possibility. I'd be cautious about thinking the address you've got goes direct to Steve. I think there would be a layer or two of people between that address and anything actually being seen by him because I don't think, for example, an e-mail adress he uses to talk to some bloke in Melbourne is the same address he's currently hitting 'refresh' on to get an e-mail from a family member, for example. I reckon someone other than Steve would intercept the e-mail and forward it through official complaint channels

Still... weirder things have happened. Back in the early 90s I has a long haired mate go to a Harvey Norman store to buy new PCs for his dad's (small) accounting firm. The salesman dissed my friend, clearly thinking he had no money to spend and generally acted like a spastic. My friend left the store, told his dad... who called Gerry Harvey... and I can't remember whether the story ended with profuse apologies or the sales guy being sacked altogether. It was one or the other.

Also, just as an aside, do you reckon this call centre guy was local or sitting somewhere in a third world call centre? He might have felt threatened by your line of enquiry and didn't handle the situation as well as someone locally might have done, if he was indeed overseas. It doesn't make it right, but it certainly might explain the spazzy answers you got.

[Rachel Cook]

Great stuff. You may like to check out http://buzzophone.com where people can ring in a rant about companies they want to rant about. There's a really funny one about Dell! I am sure you could do a segment on that and slip in your gripes about Apple. Caution: I would express your gripes in an effort to make things better at Apple not just to bag'em! As an employer (ineedhits.com) we make it our mission to listen to the customer, even though we know we can't be perfect all the time and we also have major reseller partners like Yahoo! Search Marketing that we also have to keep in mind in keep everyone happy and trying to be better (bloody hard work developing in .NET mind you!!!) That is why Minti is on open source!!! Faster to deliver and change things for your customers... I am sure Apple will listen, especially if everyone else feels the same!!!!!!

[william dutton]

when i had to get my ipod repaired they just replaced it as it was cheaper and it only took a week at nextbyte.

[Bob M]

In one of my former lives, I was a retail manager in a Myer-Grace Bros store. The legal guff adds up to the fact that the item must be of merchantable quality. Doesn't matter about 90-days or 120-days or 1000 days.

It has to work for as long as is expected from the advertising, and written and verbal guarantees say it will, or the period that is implicit in those.

So. So..... to set this out for the iPod consumers in Victoria you could take it to whatever is the current incarnation of Consumer Affairs department in Victoria, and let them look at the reasonableness of your case, and let them take up the cudgel on your behalf.

I understand that the equivalent consumer affairs departments across Australia are used to dealing with "the iPod problem". I'm sure they have a form letter for the iPod, and are on first name terms with Apple Australia's legal department.

Could be a new chapter in this blog post series.

Another alternative is to write a letter to the Apple complaints manager (I'm sure he or she is not called the "complaints" manager) and put cc. to Consumer affairs. Add that to your covering letter to consumer affairs.

I know people in new media find it galling, but a piece of paper, in this case the letter, carries more weight. That's why they call it a paper trail.

[Rob Irwin]

Or you could always contact John Marx, Apple's Public Relations guy... jmarx@asia.apple.com

Maybe he could come on a show and speak about the policy? He'll probably say no, but worth asking.

[Garth Kidd]

I've found, when dealing with people in call centres, that they're usually pretty enthusiastic about letting you speak to their manager. The lowest level personnel won't have discretion for replacing your unit with a new one, or for refunding, but higher level personnel will often be able to resolve the problem to your satisfaction.

Then there's the time Amazon spotted me free shipment-splitting and also upgrade the shipping type because my call was taking too long and they wanted their employee back...

[Cameron Reilly]

Garth, I asked Pablo to let me speak to his manager but he refused. He also tried pulling the "standard industry practice" line on me re the 90 day warranty, but I told him I'm a grown up and lines like that don't work on me like some magic incantation.

[Cameron Reilly]

Bob, I think my blog and network with hundreds of thousands of readers can prove more effective than a piece of paper which gets hidden inside the corporate structure.

[Cameron Reilly]

Okay I've invited John Marx and Rob Small from Apple's PR to come on G'Day World next week to discuss their 90 day policy. Let's see what happens.

[Rob Irwin]

Now THAT'S progress.

[Phillip Molly Malone]

I still would love to hear you podcast a call to there support!
Molly

[Phillip Molly Malone]

Hey dude,
Update?
Molly

[Cameron Reilly]

I'm having an email discussion with their PR folks which doesn't seem to be helping. They have agreed to a conditional podcast interview, which seems pointless.

[Phillip Molly Malone]

Do the podcast of the Support call! Much more interesting!
Molly

[Rob Irwin]

What are the conditions? That you can only ask the questions they want to answer? :)

[Phillip Molly Malone]

No, the answers are only valid for 90 minutes after the finish of the interview!
;-)
Molly