When you buy an Apple gadget from Apple itself (and, indeed, from many of its resellers), AppleCare is pushed pretty heavily to extend your warranty beyond a year, even though strictly speaking most of Apple’s products should be warrantied for longer than that. It appears that Apple may be changing its policy, with reports that it’s extending that coverage out to two years, gratis.
MacTalk reported on the change over the weekend, noting that Apple has apparently advised its store staff that
“Any iPhone, iPad or Mac brought to a Genius bar that is between 13 and 24 months old and has not been subject to abuse or accidental damage, will automatically be flagged as eligible for repair or replacement via the iRepair or MobileGenius software.”
That’s closer in line to the ACCC guidelines, which are broad and essentially state that there’s no set time period, but instead that good should last a “reasonable” time based on cost and quality. Apple sells itself as a premium brand, so the fact that it only offers (on paper) 12 month warranties is a little ludicrous. Then again, as Gus at Lifehacker notes, the extra AppleCare warranty also offers other services, such as phone support and overseas warranty coverage if that’s important to you. Apple hasn’t made the “new” warranties a formal thing, and under ACCC guidelines they’re not obliged to, but I’ve reached out to to them for comment on the issue.
Apple Australia Quietly Extends Warranties to 24 Months [MacTalk]
Our mac air was 6 week out of it's 12 month warranty with only very minimal use and they didn't want to know about it and wanted $400+ for a new logic board.. It had/has some intermittent fault where the power management chip needs a hard reset (battery out) to charge/power up once suspended..
Not cool
Take it to the Dept of Fair Trading. By law a warranty should last as long as the device can reasonably be expected to last irrespective of what the manufacturer might decide.
Second that... Try again
Every business, not just retail, is covered by this very consumer friendly aspect
BY LAW they cannot say no and have an obligation to investigate
Much like telco's it considers fairness and expectation
This is good news indeed!
Well, three weeks ago I had the motherboard in my nearly two year old MacBook Pro 17" replaced for free. It was almost like the "genius" was quoting me the ACCC stance on these things. Sure made me a happy customer.
The fundamental problem here is that the lawmaker has left the actual warranty period open to interpretation. This btw doesn't just apply to Apple. It also applies to other manufacturers. Try and get your Samsung phone repaired that you bought from the Telstra store 18 months ago. If you are lucky enough that they will actually help you it will definitely cost you money.
Samsung phones have 24 month warranties (the full span of a normal contract). The Telstra store would repair it for free providing you hadn't dropped it or gotten it wet.
Ouch. 6 months ago purchased apple care, solely for the extra 12 month warranty. FML.
apple care is 24 months extra warranty
And with legislation could be fairly expected to be three yrs
An iPad that dies of natural causes in 20 months is covered and I'm guessing though extended fair would make it through to 30+ months