Circling back to this. I thought I'd post an update for anyone else, as I got really useful info to help me from this thread and other Geekzone posts. I've included some useful links as well to help others.
Short story is, I got age of my ipad wrong by 6 months or so (mixed up serial number with another one we have), so places the ipad at 4 years. No matter, I took it to DT and they ordered Apple to cover the repairs of the iPad. YAY!!!!
It was only the evening before the hearing that they actually sent an official extremely short blunt response to it (stating they won't cover repairs, in literally 2 lines).
My first time in DT, and it's a pretty painless experience. The Referee listens to both sides and allowed each side to offer a solution, and helped break down some sticky points - including Apple saying 3 years is their opinion of lifespan of an ipad but provided no evidence to support that claim, however I had submitted evidence to show why I think it should be longer. The 'ref' then gives his thoughts and resolution option.
Some pointers for anyone trying this with DT
- Gather evidence to support claim. I had a huge stack of printouts of CGA, Apple's warranty, Apple's advertising "Designed to be long lasting", ConsumerNZ, etc I submitted a massive mound of stuff.
- Call logs. Apple keeps recordings of conversations. Some are via transcript, some are audio only. I initially asked for transcripts via their website https://www.apple.com/privacy/contact/ and they supplied within a few days, but seemed to be missing key phone calls. After a few back and forth emails they said they don't have transcripts. So I asked for the audio recordings, which they supplied (MS Word kindly transcribed them for easy searching). So be explicit in asking for things. Very handy since the Apple Advisor mentioned that warranties can be extended to 5 years, and that Consumer Law had expired.
- Prepare your statement to read at DT. I just used the one I submitted in the claim, but slightly chopped back in content. Don't wing it.
- I pointed out that to replace the ipad is $950ish, so that's a huge yearly cost to operate an ipad that lasts 4 years. I supplied evidence of Apple store pricing to back this up.
- Stick to facts as much as possible. Calm and polite is best approach.
- I approached supplier/manufacturer, instead of retailer. That limited options for resolve (eg refund). Hindsight tells me is start with retailer if I do it again.
A few snippets in justifying why I was claiming under CGA, which may be of use to others (and I probably got from other threads on Geekzone).
- Apple is a 2 Trillion dollar company (NASDAQ: AAPL) who have positioned themselves as a luxury brand and as such it’s reasonable to associate that with quality.
- Source: Harvard Business Review 2014, https://hbr.org/2014/10/apple-luxury-brand-or-mass-marketer).
- Apple state on their website “Apple products are designed to be long-lasting. They are made of durable materials that are heavily tested in our Reliability Testing Lab”.
- ConsumerNZ state “It’s reasonable to expect a new tablet to remain fault-free for five years.”.
- ConsumerNZ also state 5 years for computers and laptops (which is same type of item as a tablet)
- Apple was warned by Commerce Commission in 2018 on making misleading statements on consumer rights under the CGA.
- “Commissioner Anna Rawlings said Apple told some customers that their products were only covered by consumer law for 2 years and the Commission considered that this was misleading as the guarantees in the CGA do not expire after a legally prescribed period of time”
- https://comcom.govt.nz/news-and-media/media-releases/2018/apple-warned-for-misleading-consumers-about-their-rights
Thank you everyone that offered advice! Hopefully someone else can use this experience if they are unfortunately in a similar position.
(oh and the EU comment they made - they have said they have sorted the issue with the person that said it)
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