Apple and the law

[Aractus]

Just watched The Checkout - I've been critical of Apple for many years, the company in my opinion is rotten to the core, and The Checkout highlighted a recent court ruling forcing Apple to acknowledge consumer rights; however even so they've still got it wrong:

1. Consumer rights summed up here (ACCC).
2. Court ruling against Apple, here (ACCC).
3. Apple given a very small fine in 2012 for lying about the iPad being 4G compatible, here (ACCC). This ruling also forced them accept refunds from customers.
4. Here's a media report on that issue - Telstra and Telstra customers were both furious that Apple was marketing a device as 4G compatible, when it was unable to connect to the only 4G network in Australia at the time (Telstra's network that is). But even if it wasn't the only 4G network, it'd still be a lie - 4G compatible means compatible with all 4G services, it doesn't mean "incompatible with some 4G services"!
5. They avoid paying Australian company tax (and US tax).
6. Finally, here is Apple's website that shows they still do not understand Australian consumer law. Despite the court ruling they're still getting it wrong.

What's the issue? They claim consumers must contact the retailer to make a claim. This is wrong! Look at the first link I gave you, it clearly gives consumers the option to go straight to the manufacturer if the problem is not with the retailer. That Apple is claiming otherwise is an outright lie, and I cannot believe they still think that lying is acceptable. Perhaps while they're at it they could let consumers know about their rights re: Jailbraking, because jailbreaking will void the Apple Warranties but certainly not the consumer rights (/statutory warranty). And if they had any decency at all they'd change their policy to be: "Jailbreaking does not void warranty unless the problem with the device is directly related to Jailbreaking".

FYI, why on earth Apple thinks it's in their interests to deny consumers their rights in the first place is beyond me, they now have permanent publicity like this all over the Whirlppol forums that will never be erased, and consumers will be reading and judging them on for many many years to come. I simply do not understand the logic.

I also found another difference. The Australian Consumer Law as it stands is fairly recent and hasn't yet been fully tested, however nowhere does it specifically exclude rights after a product is re-sold, thus you would expect to have some of your rights under the Australian consumer guarantees to automatically transfer. AppleCare, according to it's T's&C's can be transferred only once, and it isn't automatic!

I remember back to the days of Laptops, I was a member of an internet forum with selling and trading. Every so often you'd have someone come on and claim they had laptops for sale, but no warranty. It would be pointed out to them that every Laptop in Australia came with fully transferable warranties, and every warranty was for at least 2 years, so why did they not have warranties? The obvious answer of course - stolen goods. Dell, IBM, etc, all offered these as standard product warranties (I'd expect they probably still do). The fact that more than 10 years on that Apple doesn't even provide a fully transferable premium warranty is completely bizarre.

Consumers expect better and deserve better.

[Cato]

Too bad you don't apply the same reasoning to people that are fucked over by nature and the God that created the situation.

[Aractus]

And FYI, here are some more horror stories on Whirlpool...

• - Both BigW and Apple are fully at fault.
  
• - Consumer wrongly told he has to pay for a repair due to a manufacturing defect (he does not, Apple must fix it).
  
• - Consumer requests that apple returns the failed HDD after repairing the unit for secure destruction of sensitive information, and Apple refuses.
  
• - Apple tells consumer he isn't entitled to warranty because the product has been modified (even if this is true for the Apple warranty it is not true for the consumer guarantee and Apple is still obligated to fix a manufacturing defect).
  
• 

FYI I'm not the only one who'll "Whirlpool It" before I buy it, so I think Apple should start paying attention.