My 10 day old Macbook with M1 Pro died suddenly last week. In India we don't have Genius bars like in the States, what we have is a franchise model where in small repair shops are given the right to repair (only part to part replacement) and they probably get some commission. The guys in these shops are very afraid of Apple and its policies. Even things which normally would get fixed in Genius bars without any second thought, these shops will outright refuse to repair with the fear that Apple would revoke their license. Now this has directly affected the customers like me. Moreover, the staff in these shops are highly incompetent and do not have good knowledge about Apple in general.
In my case, the shop lady put a big scratch on the top of my Macbook while she was rotating it after putting it upside down on the table to take pictures from all angle. Apparently it is required. Not sure if they have this procedure in the US when you go to submit the laptop. Now, the staff at the shop told me they do not want to involve the management and they would do something about it. Had this been completely managed by Apple, this wouldn't have made a single dent in Apple's profit if they just decided to give me a new laptop but since its a franchise model, they behave differently, and do not want to lose a single rupee and hence refuse to replace or even change the top case having the scratch caused by them.
Moreover, they will take around 2-3 weeks to replace your logic board / battery / screen / keyboard. Just about anything. I don't know if Apple will survive if they did this in the US.
Apple support informed me that they are waiting for a reply from the shop, about the scratch and status in general before they could take any action - its been 5 days (including the weekend) already.
My iPhone's screen stopped working suddenly right before I was due to travel.
Apple authorized service center in India said it will take 2-3 weeks to send and get it back from repair center.
I decided to take it with me on my travel and just strolled into an apple store in Dubai mall the next day. It was fixed in literally 40 minutes there.
It's surprising how Dubai with such a low population and low apple users as compared to India gets this preferential treatment.
> It's surprising how Dubai with such a low population and low apple users as compared to India gets this preferential treatment.
In addition to the demographic differences, I wonder how much of this is also a difference of where there are official Apple Stores and where there are not.
Dubai has 3 official stores I think (I’ve only been to the flagship at the Dubai Mall and it’s one of the most spectacular retail stores I’ve ever seen — very close to the Apple Store in Singapore), whereas the Apple Store in Mumbai has been pushed back to 2023 or 2024.
Apple is one of those companies that in my experience, the customer support is much, much better when it can be direct from the official retail or repair channels than if you are in a region that only has authorized repair centers.
As an anecdote, I was once doing business in Europe and had my laptop break in a country that didn’t have an official Apple Store. The authorized repair center I found seemed to be of good quality, but they wouldn’t be able to do the repair I needed in the timeframe I needed it. I ended up just flying from Finland to Sweden to get my laptop repaired/replaced.
It was about five hours total out of my way and like $150, but it was just easier than the alternatives.
I hope that once Apple has an official retail presence in India that service will improve, at least in major cities.
Lots of countries (including India) make it difficult for Apple to open their own stores.
Dubai allows Apple to open stores freely without needing local partners, and has the added benefit of being a travel hub, so the size of the market is far bigger than the local population. It makes perfect sense.
Spot on. Apple direct customer support really suck in India. In my city, the authorised store and service centre always act entitled like they are doing me a big favour (probably because we don't buy it from them directly). Last I went there to find out if a discoloured iPad screen could be repaired, and they said they can't examine my device unless I pay Rs. 500 (around US $5-$6) first. So I shell out the money, and they look at the screen and ask me if I have factory reset the iPad. I said yes, I had done that. The service "engineer" then returns the iPad to me and says, "Apple does not repair any iPad hardware in India. If it is under warranty, they will replace the device with another iPad." I asked him why he didn't tell me all this before charging me Rs. 500. He looked at me like he was staring at a jackass (which I guess he was :).
HP also does that. I used it once to replace a screen that had a vertical band because a problem in a hinge. I called the assistance, sent a video, they sent me the technician
It was about 90 Euro for 3 years. Then about the same amount for the 4th year, then nothing, but I can buy parts and replace them. It's an easy laptop to service.
Apple does next day business support. The problem is, they don’t do it internationally in every market (though it is in a lot of them). But if you buy enough product from them or pay for the Apple Care Enterprise, they’ll do on-site or next-day repairs.
The trick here is to buy Thinkpads which come with international warranty and accidental damage protection. In fact, the warranty/ADP is mostly useful in international scenarios because within the US, you can buy parts pretty easily on ebay.
If it's only been 10 days, can you return it? That seems extreme, yet maybe expected if something didn't quite pass QA, it might show up that early.
I can confirm that at a real Apple Store I've had genius bar folks take photos of everything also. Seems to be Apple policy these days, if they feel like it, to more easily blame the customer.
Doesn't always happen though, and sometimes it helps - e.g. I received a "repaired" watch that had new dents in it and used the photos to show that. Of course, they then said my watch was missing a tiny microphone mesh I'd never seen before and still demanded an AppleCare repair fee from me. I paid, because it wasn't much in the long run, but I'm a bit annoyed at how much Apple has changed lately.
A battery replacement took 8 days to ship back to the store (almost 14 days total) when they could have done it in-store while I waited, but the system said "no, it must be shipped in to be replaced" with no reason given.
In Canada I took a MBP in to the Apple store for a keyboard replacement under warranty, and during the repair they put a significant dent in the inner surface next to the trackpad. I had to point it out and they offered to take it back for another week but I had a flight out that day and had to decline.
Having access to an official Apple store does not guarantee perfect service either. More reasons we need legislated right to repair.
Moreover, they will take around 2-3 weeks to replace your logic board / battery / screen / keyboard. Just about anything. I don't know if Apple will survive if they did this in the US.
Apple support informed me that they are waiting for a reply from the shop, about the scratch and status in general before they could take any action - its been 5 days (including the weekend) already.