Apple leaves a sour taste.

[l5foye]

My wife's Apple Ipad mini stopped taking a charge. It was left with an Apple approved outfit who later advised that Apple won't supply them with batteries and that the Ipad would have to go back to Apple. After some weeks Apple have come back to say they want £199 to 'investigate ! They will not replace the battery which would normally cost £99 without investigation ! It looks like buying a new Ipad is the way to go.

 

[markjay]

Sorry to hear this.

We regularly have devices repaired by Apple (both with and without AppleCare), including battery swaps, and have never been asked to pay for investigation... which Apple shop told you that?

 

[kianok]

Could you not just take it to a local shop that repairs such things?

 

[T5R+]

Not just Apple..........

One of my machines is a HP Omen and developed a fault. Tech savvy enough to deduce the fault is the main battery. Additionally, rang HP who were remotely able to deduce same conclusion. However device must be returned in order to allow fault find and confirm. Subsequently, they would replace the battery. Note I cannot buy the battery from HP? Total proposed cost to me £348..............essentially, for a battery!

 

[markjay]

Most laptops these days have the battery soldered to the mainboard, which means that the batteries are no classified as user-serviceable items, and therefore the manufacturer will not supply the battery as spare parts. Of course savvi owners who are good with the soldering iron can get a compatible replacement battery online and replace it themselves.

 

[clk320x]

My wife's Apple Ipad mini stopped taking a charge. It was left with an Apple approved outfit who later advised that Apple won't supply them with batteries and that the Ipad would have to go back to Apple. After some weeks Apple have come back to say they want £199 to 'investigate ! They will not replace the battery which would normally cost £99 without investigation ! It looks like buying a new Ipad is the way to go.

Never heard of this - Apple support has always been excellent for us. Ring them again & explain - or go into store. Good luck.

 

[l5foye]

The Apple store was the one in Belfast. I will try and contact them.

 

[Darrell]

How old is it?

 

[markjay]

The Apple store was the one in Belfast. I will try and contact them.

So you have not yet contacted the Apple shop directly? I.e., was the previous reply given to you by a local shop (Authorised Apple Repair Centre), and they told you that this is what the Apple shop told them? If so, then a grain of salt comes to mind....

 

[l5foye]

I managed to speak to Apple after some difficulty and really only got mumbo-jumbo. I got the Ipad back and took it to another repair place. They tested it while I waited and were able to tell me within a few minutes that there was a break in the circuit board. They said it was beyond economic repair. There was no charge for their test.

 

[190]

It's not just Apple, when I worked in IT I stripped down and repaired dozens of laptops. Keyboards, screens and batteries etc were easy to replace but if it was a motherboard fault they were always uneconomic to repair as the cost of spare motherboard was too high and that's if you could even source one. The best we could do is make one good laptop out of two bad ones. The biggest sin and again it's not just Apple, is that the manufacturers have made devices increasing difficult if not near impossible to take apart without causing damage. Thankfully there are local repair shops that know the tricks. Mobile phones are the same in that battery replacement was once a very easy diy proposition, now it can require considerable skill and knowledge.

 

[markjay]

I managed to speak to Apple after some difficulty and really only got mumbo-jumbo. I got the Ipad back and took it to another repair place. They tested it while I waited and were able to tell me within a few minutes that there was a break in the circuit board. They said it was beyond economic repair. There was no charge for their test.

Not great news, obviously, but at least you don't need to chase this any more. So closure in this way is also good, I suppose.

 

[John]

The ability to repair is getting worse too.

Batteries these days could once be swapped out now have to be unsoldered.

RAM is sometimes soldered to the motherboard as well albeit it's rare for that to have a fault these days admittedly.

I remember once trying to create a working iMac from 2 iMacs of a similar vintage a few years ago.

Totally different in the areas we needed to swap out and like they were made respectively by two different manufacturers.

Huge surprise Apple make billions of dollars a year really... at the cost of the environment and consumer of course.

I'm sure they are proud.

 

[Combo]

Late to the party here, I work in IT and it is really annoying that RAM and other components are becoming soldered now but as has been said above, fortunately, I see far fewer RAM issues nowadays.

Back on topic, Apple are a nightmare to deal with now. I bought my iPhone X on launch day directly from Apple, had issues with it to do with call quality and had to get it replaced twice over a 2 year period (each time was a 1.5-2 hour round trip in the car or a train to London), the third handset worked fine. One day that handset stopped charging, the port was clean, hadn't been exposed to liquid etc. so I got onto Apple support who told me it was outside of the 2 year EU warranty so I would have to pay for the repair, I asked if that was my only option and they assured me it was, I then mentioned consumer law and all of a sudden they were experts in what that covers, they accepted the return and they sent me a new handset out after they had received it and checked for any damage I could have caused.

I think consumer law only applies when buying direct from the manufacturer which is why I tend to buy my handsets direct from Apple, more info on it here but in short your hardware could be covered by a 6 year limited warranty.

 

[markjay]

One thing to note, is that the Consumer Protection Act of 2015 applies only to consumers, i.e. B2C sales, but not B2B. So if you buy the device and get an invoice addressed to a business, rather than to a private individual, then consumers laws do not apply to the transaction.

 

[Combo]

One thing to note, is that the Consumer Protection Act of 2015 applies only to consumers, i.e. B2C sales, but not B2B. So if you buy the device and get an invoice addressed to a business, rather than to a private individual, then consumers laws do not apply to the transaction.

Good tip, I will be careful when buying my next one.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

How old is it ? It can be anything up to nine years old. You can tell the age from the model number on the back.

Depending on age, specification and condition, your faulty Mini Ipad is worth between £10 - £100 if you can be bothered to offer it for sale.

It may be "uneconomic condition" for a customer to pay a fee to a guaranteed repair, but there are thousands of geeks out there repairing or disassembling such things for parts on their own risk.

Personally when a fault like that comes along, my preference is to sell and replace with a lightly used younger version. It's a very rare cove who really benefits from "this year's model."

 

[Dryce]

I think consumer law only applies when buying direct from the manufacturer which is why I tend to buy my handsets direct from Apple, more info on it here but in short your hardware could be covered by a 6 year limited warranty.

This is a misconception.

If you buy from a retailer then they are responsible in law. They are the first point of contact. And if the retailer involves the manufacturer and that doesn't resolve the problem then the retailler is still left carrying responsibility.

My general advice to friends and family with Apple is to buy from a retailer such as John Lewis.