If you're referencing consumer law here, don't get confused and think that this is the same as a warranty.

As a consumer you have the right to go back to the shop you bought the goods from if they break because of a fault that was likely there from the start, or the goods didn't last the time that someone would have reasonably expected them to.

A 3 year apple care warranty (or any warranty for any product) clearly states what they will and wont do in a legal and binding contract that will give you repairs or replacements even 2 years and 11 months into the contract.

As an example:

1. You buy a laptop, after 2 years and 10 months the screen inverter burns out, but it's found that this was a wide spread problem among the laptops, and a known fault. You could argue that the fault was present at the time of sale and get a replacement or repair.

With a warranty, they'd be obligated by contract to repair it anyway, but consumer law would have had your back.

2. You buy a laptop (without a warranty), and after 2 years the hard drive fails, but there are no known issues with the batch, you're just unlucky, or maybe you're a heavier user. You could try to argue that you would reasonably expect the hard drive to last longer than that, they may agree, but instead of repairing the laptop, they may give you a monetary amount equivalent to what you could buy a functioning second hand hard drive of same size and age at that point. They may also refuse (if they're stubborn) and try to argue that it's a laptop, as such it gets moved around, and that could have resulted in the failure. They'd not be breaking the law doing this, and you'd likely have to fight them, possibly by getting an engineers report stating the reason for the drive failure (very difficult to do) and still might just end up with money for a second hand hard drive (plus the engineers report).

With a warranty, you have a guarantee of action, in writing, that says they will replace it or repair it. Consumer law would have helped, but the company could still make it difficult, and make it hard to prove your case.

3. The laptop is 5 years old, and the motherboard just stops working, through years of heat drying out solder joints, flexing and eventual breaking of joints. It would be very hard to argue at this point that the laptop was reasonably expected to last longer than that, but you might get a token sum of £100-£120 to buy an equivalent 5 year old laptop.

With a warranty (presuming there was one available that long), you'd get a replacement or repair under the contract.

So please don't think that just because consumer law states you have 6 years to complain, that it is the same thing as having a warranty.

A more personal example for me a few years ago, I bought a 40 inch TV from Tesco. It came with a 12 month warranty, with a free extra 6 months if you registered. After about 20 months very light use (I actually don't even watch TV at all now), the TV started turning itself on and off.

I called Tesco, and didn't even need to argue about the consumer law, the rep said "OK, even though the warranty is up, you still have a claim against us, I'll need to pass it to claims, they'll work out whether we can do a replacement, repair or compensation."

A few days later I got a letter through the door offering me £90 to get a repair, for my £300, 2 months outside of warranty, malfunctioning TV. I'd already looked up the manufacturer and they seemed to have a little system set up for themselves. They charged a flat fee of £100 to repair any TV that developed a fault.

I could have argued for the full £100, they probably could have argued that it was fair for the age of the TV and that someone would repair it for that price. I could have argued I reasonably expected it to last longer, but that's what the £90 was for, to get it fixed.

So I took the £90, opened it up and disconnected the PCB that controls the buttons on the side of the TV. My hunch was right and it stopped turning on and off, the remote still worked fine, £90 in my pocket.

The point is, this was not the same as a warranty. If the TV had been older (say 25 months), they may have offered me even less, and consumer rights would have found in their favour.

Warranties are contracts, with stipulations and obligations. Consumer rights law is more flexible, and will not always result in you getting a working product or even full compensation.

(Boy this was a long post for something that probably wont get read).

Edit: voted hot btw, /edit

Not available to some but much better option to go through apple with an education discount and get the 3 years for a small fee. £1000 macbook with 3 years from john lewis would be just short of £900 from apple with applecare 3 years with the discount.

Don't know a student to get the discount.

Is it not only free for actual institutions. The likes of these courses gets it a bit cheaper but not with the cheaper Applecare.

You need an ac.uk email address for the above.

Otherwise I think Applecare is about 30% cheaper.

If you're referencing consumer law here, don't get confused and think that this is the same as a warranty.

As a consumer you have the right to go back to the shop you bought the goods from if they break because of a fault that was likely there from the start, or the goods didn't last the time that someone would have reasonably expected them to.

A 3 year apple care warranty (or any warranty for any product) clearly states what they will and wont do in a legal and binding contract that will give you repairs or replacements even 2 years and 11 months into the contract.

As an example:

1. You buy a laptop, after 2 years and 10 months the screen inverter burns out, but it's found that this was a wide spread problem among the laptops, and a known fault. You could argue that the fault was present at the time of sale and get a replacement or repair.

With a warranty, they'd be obligated by contract to repair it anyway, but consumer law would have had your back.

2. You buy a laptop (without a warranty), and after 2 years the hard drive fails, but there are no known issues with the batch, you're just unlucky, or maybe you're a heavier user. You could try to argue that you would reasonably expect the hard drive to last longer than that, they may agree, but instead of repairing the laptop, they may give you a monetary amount equivalent to what you could buy a functioning second hand hard drive of same size and age at that point. They may also refuse (if they're stubborn) and try to argue that it's a laptop, as such it gets moved around, and that could have resulted in the failure. They'd not be breaking the law doing this, and you'd likely have to fight them, possibly by getting an engineers report stating the reason for the drive failure (very difficult to do) and still might just end up with money for a second hand hard drive (plus the engineers report).

With a warranty, you have a guarantee of action, in writing, that says they will replace it or repair it. Consumer law would have helped, but the company could still make it difficult, and make it hard to prove your case.

3. The laptop is 5 years old, and the motherboard just stops working, through years of heat drying out solder joints, flexing and eventual breaking of joints. It would be very hard to argue at this point that the laptop was reasonably expected to last longer than that, but you might get a token sum of £100-£120 to buy an equivalent 5 year old laptop.

With a warranty (presuming there was one available that long), you'd get a replacement or repair under the contract.

So please don't think that just because consumer law states you have 6 years to complain, that it is the same thing as having a warranty.

A more personal example for me a few years ago, I bought a 40 inch TV from Tesco. It came with a 12 month warranty, with a free extra 6 months if you registered. After about 20 months very light use (I actually don't even watch TV at all now), the TV started turning itself on and off.

I called Tesco, and didn't even need to argue about the consumer law, the rep said "OK, even though the warranty is up, you still have a claim against us, I'll need to pass it to claims, they'll work out whether we can do a replacement, repair or compensation."

A few days later I got a letter through the door offering me £90 to get a repair, for my £300, 2 months outside of warranty, malfunctioning TV. I'd already looked up the manufacturer and they seemed to have a little system set up for themselves. They charged a flat fee of £100 to repair any TV that developed a fault.

I could have argued for the full £100, they probably could have argued that it was fair for the age of the TV and that someone would repair it for that price. I could have argued I reasonably expected it to last longer, but that's what the £90 was for, to get it fixed.

So I took the £90, opened it up and disconnected the PCB that controls the buttons on the side of the TV. My hunch was right and it stopped turning on and off, the remote still worked fine, £90 in my pocket.

The point is, this was not the same as a warranty. If the TV had been older (say 25 months), they may have offered me even less, and consumer rights would have found in their favour.

Warranties are contracts, with stipulations and obligations. Consumer rights law is more flexible, and will not always result in you getting a working product or even full compensation.

(Boy this was a long post for something that probably wont get read).

Edit: voted hot btw, /edit

Thank you :smiley: I made that comment simply because somebody always brings it up as a reason to vote guarantees cold :wink:

changed for the better since I got my last one then :stuck_out_tongue:

Longest
hukd
comment
ever.

If you want a cheaper alternative: (£835)

Ultrabook
OS: Windows 10
CPU: i7 Dual Core 2.5 GHz, 3.1GHz Turbo
Screen: IPS Full HD
RAM: 8Gb 1600MHz
Storage: Samsung Evo 850 SSD 500Gb
Warranty: 3 years (2 years collect & return, 2 year part, 3 year labour)
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/lafiteII/

I assume they'll price-match Curry's too who are currently offering £50 off Apple products with Code: 50MAC http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/search-keywords/xx_xx_xx_267_xx/-computing_offers-/xx-criteria.html?intcmp=SP-50MACcode-computing-291015

An excellent post, AppleCare also covers software support so if your machine develops a problem they will support it over the phone. This is not covered under the traditional warranty only he first thirty days, this can be worth more than a warranty. I have called Apple a number of times over the years and find the AppleCare an absolute godsend.

What? Apple products don't develop "faults". They just work and are powered by magic. Clearly if your Apple product goes wrong it's either one of 2 issues :

1) You're using it wrong
2) You're lying

Haha I see what you did there, try getting telephone support the same day for Microsoft or Samsung and see how far you get, that's why I use Apple products

well explained

I'm actually visiting Apple tomorrow to buy an IMac for work. I can get it for £160 cheaper through NUS but am told I can't claim back the VAT or get the business support for the next three years in the shop, even if buy the Apple Care, although I will get phone support.

Is this correct or sales crap?

Free HES Apple Care also excludes the Genius Bar. You will have to send the machine away for repairs instead of taking it to an Apple Store and getting it fixed or replaced.

Is that in writing somewhere?...first I've heard of that

I really, really like PC specialist. The "problem" with their laptops is that the battery life is way shorter than a macbook... and also the weight and touchpads are not as good.

Having said the above, if you need a mean laptop with crazy amounts of RAM and storage, pc specialist is the place to go... and would definitely use them instead of getting a crap quality Dell or HP laptop.

Re the upto 6 year warranty ....

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 from 1 Oct replaces the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and a few other consumer rights laws.

After 6 months the duty is on the buyer to prove a fault. Products must still be fit for purpose but you have 6 years under the Limitation Act to take court action, not a 6 year warranty.

A contractual warranty is therefore better in some ways.

whats HES?

Well I went in to Apple today and purchased my new company iMac. Met three guys from the business team and got a direct phone number in case of any issues. Pleased both hardware and software is covered, not usually the case with normal windows laptops.

I was quite impressed and the guys, did say any issues to call or bring it in. So I can contact them anytime from receipt for three years.

A lot of people have sort of assumed that this guarantee is Apple Care. I'm not so sure.
I've just been on the JL site and although it states in bold red that 3 years guarantee is included, it still offers an additional 3 years "Added Care" for a price. Nowhere does it state the guarantee is Apple Care.

Added care for 3 yrs at extra cost includes accidental damage ;
Add to your peace of mind with breakdown and accidental damage insurance for your technology
Includes
Accidental damage

If your product is damaged accidentally, Added Care means you won’t have to pay for repairs.
Breakdown

If your product breaks down during the John Lewis guarantee period we’ll get you up and running, at no extra cost. Added Care allows you to enjoy that same level of protection for a total of 3 years.
New for old replacement

If we can’t repair your product, we’ll arrange for it to be replaced with one of the same make and model. Or, when not available, one of a similar specification.
No excess

If your product is accidentally damaged and you need to make a claim, there are no excess charges to pay and it won’t affect your home or travel insurance policies.
Worldwide cover

Your product is covered for accidental damage outside the UK for a period of up to 30 days in any 12 month period.
Collection or at-home repairs

Depending on the product, we’ll either collect it by courier for repair or arrange a call-out by one of our authorised and accredited technicians.