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Gareth Wilson was told he had to pay £180 to have his hard disk repaired but if consumers can prove a fault is inherent they are entitled to a free repair
I bought an Apple iMac 19 months ago. When upgrading the computer to the latest operating system I got a hard disk error message. I was unsure if it was a software glitch or a hardware issue, so I took it into my local Apple store for them to check it out. I was told that it was a hardware issue and that it would cost me just under £180 for them to fix it.
I argued that the hard disk should have lasted longer than 19 months and was essentially told that if I didn’t like it, then I should get my “legal representative” to call Apple’s legal department.
Gareth Wilson
Mr Wilson wanted to know if he had any chance of legal redress from Apple. We agree with him that the hard disk should not have failed this early under normal circumstances. If he had contacted us at the time we would have been more than happy to contact Apple.
We would have pointed out to Apple that if Mr Wilson could prove the hardware fault was inherent, then the company would have had to repair the iMac free of charge under the Sale of Goods Act.
Sadly he didn’t do this before he paid out to have the hard disk repaired. The problem for him now is one of proof because he no longer has the original hard disk.
We contacted Apple because we want to know if it is standard practice to tell customers to get a “legal representative” to call their legal team rather than give a quick explanation of the buyer’s rights.
The company said it would look into the background of this case for us; and we will update you in a later issue when Apple responds.
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Not really an article...
...as much as a situation.
Posted by David Burckhard, 03 Sep 2012
Clearly you aren't a computer expert
If you were you would know that yes hard drives can fail that soon, depending on usage. Given you got that bit wrong I question your legal expertise regarding the Sale of Goods Act also
Posted by Charlie Scott, 17 Oct 2012
Similar issue
I had to replace my MacBookPro hard drive after about 19 months, too. Fortunately I had Apple Care and it paid for the replacement. They wanted to keep the drive, but I told them it had business data on it that I needed to try and recover. I was allowed to keep it and was able to recover my data. It's just odd that their hard drives don't last longer, with all the attention to detail they put into the rest of the system.
Posted by David, 22 Oct 2012
well
apple just recently announced that they are still replacing iMac hard drives for free from certain models that had faulty drives.
Posted by sean, 23 Oct 2012
Segate
There were some really bad seagate drives that went out. I'm a Storage Admin where we measure data in the 100's of TB's. The Seagate 1TB drives have been dropping like Flies. I wonder if it were one of those. Regardless a representative from Apple should never say that. Also we are now beginning to see the consumerization of drives. The acceptable MTBF(Mean time between failure) of drives that are being made has been dropping. This has been done to decrease costs and increase space. I ALWAYS verify the drive and if I feel it's below spec I go for the higher end drives. Currently Hitachi and WD Black series drives are the best.
Posted by John F, 24 Oct 2012
Apple Protection
Get a computer from Dell or any other supplier and see what would happen if you take it back with a problem so long after you bought it. Try getting Apple protection next time!
Posted by Joe, 31 Oct 2012
Apple didn't live up to the hype for me.
I purchased a top of the line macbook pro 4 years ago and had to replace 2 magnet adapters, the disc drive, and a faulty video card. I could have purchased 4 quality PC computers with the money I wasted on Apple.
Posted by J, 02 Nov 2012
Must agree ...
This is at the very most an incomplete, and possibly misleading, article.
Posted by Chris, 06 Nov 2012
I had the same thing
had the iMac for 14 months used it 5 times, upgraded the software, bang, dead hard drive. Apple said it was out of warranty and only offered vouchers after I'd paid for a new HD and complained...never again will I buy apple
Posted by Neil, 08 Nov 2012
User Confusion
I had a client who, it turned out, was turning her computer off every day by using the force shutdown procedure; should only be used for emergencies. Anyway this ended up killing the hard drive. This was not Apple's problem..was a user problem. We would need to know more about why and how this user crashed his drive....maybe he did similar crazy things. Also NEVER buy a serious computer without getting extended warranty, ever. Also in Italy, where I am now, we have 2 years standard warranty. Buying an expensive computer without investing in extended warranty, if it is available, is just crazy.
Posted by William Posey, 16 Nov 2012
Not a good point, Joe
"Try getting Apple protection next time!" Well if I did buy a computer from Dell or HP, I could easily replace my hard drive for a lot less than $180 and probably less than the cost of Apple Care. The fact that their most basic warranty is a separate purchase shows how little faith they have in their own products. Macs go against the grain of computer tech anyway - buying cheap and trading up more often is a good way to stay current and that doesn't happen with Apple's PCs. (Though arguably that's a similar model they use for their phones, sans the "cheap" part.)
Posted by Steve, 17 Nov 2012
same case, happened sooner
I bought my 13" macbook pro in midyear 2011, about 5months later it started to freeze and need to restart it every time it happens. Happened so often that i have to take it to apple service centre so many times. They reformat it and replace a new hard deive for me. But even now the same thing still happen only less often. And the tech guy from service centre cant tell me whats wrong.
Posted by Ida Rahmawaty, 30 Nov 2012
Old advice, still good advice
Consumer Reports has always advised never to buy an extended warranty except in the case of Apple and Lenovo products.
Posted by Chris, 02 Dec 2012
Hard Drives CAN fail after a short time.
I had a Hard Drive fail in a PC after just three months. (General Read/Write error on C:) replaced under warranty no argument.
Posted by David J Dunmore, 03 Dec 2012
Appel's common practices
180$ for a hard drive ?? Not even an SSD one ?! Shoot me ! But this, is Apple common practices to get money from their customers even if they are entitled and under warranty. I had that call from a customer who had a fried video card. He was told to give his credit card number before to get any warranty check or an answer. Of course the Mac user was no longer one after this episode. And I can't blame him. He was right. Fortunately there are more appealing company than the S.Jobs vacuum factory.
Posted by marc, 10 Dec 2012