Apple take the absolute piss

[Buxtonstill]

I bought a pro iPad 2 years 4months ago; it cost almost £1000. It is in pristine condition, not used by children or gamers and really well looked after.
A couple of weeks ago, the home button would not work, so I made an appointment at the Apple store. The assistant took the iPad into a back room, and blew some pressured air etc into the machine in case there was debris making it stick. Apparently the home button is broken. He said there was nothing they could do as Apple ‘don’t repair’ iPads.
The only solution he could offer me was to replace it with a refurbished iPad. Oh, and I have to pay £349 and give in my old iPad....and the rehashed machine would only have a 90 day guarantee.

AIBU to expect something costing £1k to last a lot longer than 2 years?
And how come Apple can’t ‘repair’ machines yet they can cobble together all the return machines and charge customers? And if they don’t have the confidence to offer more than a 90 day guarantee, then I am not going to waste £350 on something that could break in 91 days and I would be seriously out of pocket.

Obviously, I’m now looking to gradually look at other brands to replace our phones and tablets. Any recommendations?

And to add to the story, the assistant also suggested I claim on my household insurance and tell them it had been accidentally broken.....nice....

Is the button actually sticking or broken or is it just not working but clearing it of debris hasn’t worked?

I agree that Apple are absolutely shit if anything goes wrong with their kit (and I say that as a dedicated Apple user).

Couple of things worth trying:

1. if you Google your problem there will be lots of suggested fixes on Youtube or elsewhere.

1. Failing this try a couple of independent people who repair Apple stuff. Sometimes they have cannibalised stocks of spares.

It’s actually broken. It is stuck down in the recess, with no give at all, which leads me to think that the spring or whatever made it bounce back when retracted, is shot. I have you tubed the solutions on putting rubbing alcohol on it, but it is stuck fast down. Luckily, I have a floating home button on the screen, but it can be a pain when trying to do certain operations.

That's rubbish service .

I recently bought a new iPad for my husband, from John Lewis, and that comes with a 3 year gtee. Grrrrrrrr.

There’s a reason their extended warranty is 2 years. I’m still bitter when I took my almost one year old iPod to the Genius Bar back in 2003 and the guy suggested I need to be very gentle as it’s much more delicate and easily breakable than a laptop. I pointed out he might want to offer feedback to his employer as that would mean it’s not then fit for purpose (given they were advertising it as a portable music device and showing joggers bouncing to their iTunes in their ads.). That said, I still buy apple’s products . I have just come to expect them to break down at 2 years, and anything that lasts longer is a bonus.

The home button on my DHs phone stopped working. You can download a fake home button that just sits in the screen. I presume it works on iPads too

That said, I still buy apple’s products blush. I have just come to expect them to break down at 2 years, and anything that lasts longer is a bonus.

^More fool you. No wonder Apple do so well.

I’ve heard that you can download a button too.

She has a button on the screen, no need to download another.

You should probably get gadget insurance. 2 years is a standard warranty.

Oh yes, Apple are useless. Had a similar issue with my ipad. In the end, DH fudged fixing it with non-Apple parts and many YouTube tutorials. It did work after that for a bit. After that, I lost all interest in Apple - don't use the ipad anymore and replaced my iPhone with a Samsung phone.

I recommend ‘otterbox’ To cover and protect iPads. My eldest child has had his for nearly 6 years in an Otterbox with no issues (and he’s a clumsy, dyspraxia nightmare so it’s been dropped and thrown downstairs a lot). I have had mine without problem for 4 years in an Otterbox. I don’t know if it would help with your particular problem but it is worth a look for future purchases.

Google Apple repairs in your local area. There'll be someone who can fix it for less than £349.

The floating button is a pain. Mine randomly started working again the next time I updated the operating system but that doesn’t sound like an option if you can see that it’s broken.

They did this to me with my laptop. 6 years old - said it was beyond repair and offered me a finance package for a new one!! I declined and got it fixed locally for £160.

“More fool you. No wonder Apple do so well.”

I tried the competition’s products and came back to Apple. So have many others. It’s not like similar products don’t also break down . Nothing foolish about the fact that despite consumers knowing their products have a limited lifespan, they continue to buy them because they still prefer them over others’ products.

The Sale of Goods Act provides that goods sold should last for a reasonable length of time, generally considered to be about five years, depending on price and type.

I long for the day that someone takes Apple to court and wins for something like this. It's really poor.

Thanks all those who suggested, I have a ‘floating’ home button. I watched a YouTube video on replacing a home button, and you can buy them for £5 on eBay, but I don’t have the patience/dexterity! I think it is maybe a common problem as iPhones no longer have a moving home button; my 8 doesn’t. My advice for people buying Apple products is to buy them from John Lewis with a 3 year guarantee.

Yeah, that is really crap. We have all apple products but pay for insurance via currys (other than my laptop which clearly I should get cover for), my kids have iPads and the amount of accidents the iPads have had mean the insurance has been worthwhile for us.

I agree, very annoying though.

Similar to what knittingdad said... there’s some rule for electronics about this (I thought it was 6 years?) anyhoo my mate got her old iPhone replaced under it and my brother got a hot water tap replaced under it too. Re the iPhone she just had to write to them with some specific words. Worth a google?

Well, I guess there's a reason they are the first trillion $ company in the world. I have used this in the past to fix a laptop that is still going years later: www.ifixit.com

Have you considered contacting a local independent repair shop to ask their opinion? It would void the apple warranty but since yours has run out and apple won't fix it anyway it might be worth a shot? The one I used when my iPhone screen wasn't working didn't charge unless they were able to repair.

I'd like to know why their ipad chargers are so ridiculously dear too. Another gripe with apple is that i often can't get wifi if i'm far from the dongle, but my dh who just has a cheap run of the mill tablet, can.