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EU Says Apple's Warranty Advertisements Are Unacceptable
An anonymous reader writes "The European Union believes that Apple should be investigated for the way that it advertises warranties on their products. EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding wrote to the member countries which is 27 to ask them to check whether Apple retailers failed to let buyers know about the right to a minimum 2-year warranty for products such as the iPhone and iPad under EU law."
You're right. Sometimes it's more then twice the price.
Yes, it does, and we have this discussion every fucking week on /g/ and a new price comparison chart comes out which proves it time and time again using the latest prices from various manufacturers.
EVERY. TIME. Apple is AT MINIMUM 1.5X the price of a similarly-specced Windows Boxen.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Does the 2011 calendar still correctly show the days of the week and the dates for 2011? If so, not defective.
They're trying to make people think that they will have to pay for something when in fact Apple is required by law to provide it for free.
Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
The law includes a requirement to point out what remedies the customer is entitled to under the law. Probably, that is exactly to prevent sellers from deceiving the buyer into thinking they must pay for an extended warranty. Apple ignored that bit exactly so they could sell the extended warranty.
Not everywhere; here in Portugal the burden of proof never shifts.
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This is the comparison I did over the summer when shopping for a new computer.
Envy 15
Display: 15.6" 1920x1080
Processor: 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3720QM Processor (2.6 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
Graphics: 1GB Radeon(TM) HD 7750M GDDR5 Graphics
Storage: 750GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
Memory: 8GB 1600MHz
Height: 1.11 inches
Weight: 5.79 lbs
Warranty: 2 years
Price: $1,579.99
Macbook Pro 15
Display: 15.4" 1680x1050
Processor: 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
Storage: 750GB 7200-rpm hard drive
Memory: 8GB 1600MHz
Height: 0.95 inch (2.41 cm)
Weight: 5.6 pounds
Warranty: 1 year
Price: $2,349.00
Comes down to the Macbook Pro costing $770 more, with the Envy 15 having better specs in almost every category where I couldn't make them 1:1. The most notable deficiency of the Macbook Pro is the puzzlingly low resolution display for their "premium" label. And yes, before anyone says it the Envy 15 has amenities like aluminum housing, backlit keyboard, and slotload optical drive.
The European Union is strict about consumer law so that consumers will be comfortable buying across national boundaries within the Union. It's part of the "single market" concept which defines the EU.
"A practice is misleading if it contains false or untrue information or is likely to deceive the consumer, even though the information given may be correct. In particular, this information relates to: ... the consumersâ(TM) rights on aspects of the sale of consumer goods."
Here's how Apple misleads customers: Start at the Apple UK site. Try to find warranty information. The "support" page does not mention a warranty. There's "AppleCare Products - extend support coverage for your Apple products." Going to that page, we see "All Apple hardware comes with a one-year limited warranty (1) and up to 90 days of complimentary telephone technical support.". Down at note 1, in grey 77% white type, there's a link to "Apple Products and EU Statutory Warranty" Only there does Apple admit there's a 2-year warranty.
Amongst other things he forgot to mention is battery life. First review I could find:
Since heat has a negative effect on battery life, the included 6-cell, 51Wh battery was simply not enough to accommodate a portable power-house like the Envy 15. It scored 1 hour 55 minutes in MobileMark 2007 tests. Meanwhile, similar systems like the MacBook Pro 15-inch and Dell XPS 16 delivered scores of 5 hours 30 minutes and 4 hours 20 minutes, respectively.
And the heat management does not seem to be on par with my experience with MacBookPro, also seem to explain the poor battery life:
The palm rests registered 89-92 degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 110 degrees in the base—while idling.
We're not ignoring the Retina, we're just making comparisons that are as apples to apples as possible.
So PCs can't match the Retina display, and Macs can't match the myriad of other hardware options like a bluray drives, top of the line GPUs, swivel displays, touch screens, ruggedized hardware, dock connectors, wireless displays, or track pads that double as a secondary information display. Seriously, if you want to get into a battle of "we have hardware you don't have" you're going to lose. I mean, can you even configure a Macbook with integrated WWAN?
Plus, whenever CNET does a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air-like Top 5 video podcast, at least one of them ends up costing more than the Apple product they're comparing to, and usually has a detrimental issue too (cheap case, etc..) Also, on other PC laptop reviews, whenever they talk about the trackpads, they almost always make comparisons to the trackpads in Mac laptops, once in a while getting to "almost as good as"..
(BTW, I don't have a MacBook Air.)
it's only there now because they got their ass handed to them in court already.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.