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Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

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Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#31

Post by sss111 »

Apple had a lot of trouble with the Indian market back the early 2010s. They had to pull AppleCare+ out of the country because people were abusing it a lot. [†]

Same goes for the country's biggest online retailers, both Amazon and Flipkart also switched to a replacement-only policy in India.

"Most analysts agree that many many buyers were abusing the company's refund policy. With many buying latest smartphones, and returning them after a week after trying them "[1]

I've seen return abuse in the US, not sure if it's higher than what I have seen in India. I tried to research this topic back in high school for a paper, it was hard to find concrete data to compare the two countries.

[1]https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech-news/amazon-ends-re...

[†] edit: I feel like I need to clarify what "abusing" really was.

AppleCare+ used to cover two incidents of Theft, Loss and accidents.

Third party resellers essentially activated an iphone and marked it as lost. Then, after getting a new replacement iPhone from Apple, they would go on and sell it to customers.

Nowadays, you can only get AppleCare (not the plus) in India which does not cover theft or accidental damage.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#32

Post by chris37879 »

eptcyka wrote: post #27
nightcracker wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you know a product is faulty, why did you choose to buy another one?

In vain hopes its a bad apple and not the whole harvest?

I see what you did there.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#33

Post by xvolter »

teachingassist wrote: post #13
yrral wrote: post #6

Why is this the case? Is there some societal expectation? I know that eg: american grocery stores are much more accepting of returns for any reason vs european ones in general.

Does Apple offer more than the legal minimum in other countries? I'm curious, I don't know, but in my experience buying Apple products in several countries, they offer the legal minimum nicely, without resistance (which is already better than many corporations), but generally not more than that. If the legal after-sales minimum is nothing, then that's what I'd expect Apple to offer.

I don't think most stores would offer returns, except it is often forced on them buy credit card companies to protect their consumers.

American Express, Visa, and Mastercard all have some kind of requirement that the merchant allows returns (usually 14 days minimum). Otherwise the consumer can file a chargeback and the resolution will go to the consumer in most situations.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#34

Post by tumblewit »

eptcyka wrote: post #27
nightcracker wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you know a product is faulty, why did you choose to buy another one?

In vain hopes its a bad apple and not the whole harvest?

This was literally the case. But it seems like its not Apple season yet.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#36

Post by tonywastaken »

1cvmask wrote: post #12

A friend who was on holiday in Turkey was refused a new iphone battery (she was willing to pay for it) at the official Apple store as it was not locally bought (she bought it in SF). So no global warranty, but also no global repair or replacement of parts with official parts even when you are willing to pay for it.

I was able to repair a US-bought MacBook at an Apple store in Japan with no issues

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#37

Post by Y_Y »

sss111 wrote: post #31

Apple had a lot of trouble with the Indian market back the early 2010s. They had to pull AppleCare+ out of the country because people were abusing it a lot. [†] Same goes for the country's biggest online retailers, both Amazon and Flipkart also switched to a replacement-only policy in India. "Most analysts agree that many many buyers were abusing the company's refund policy. With many buying latest smartphones, and r…

hey

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#38

Post by [deleted] »

dangus wrote: post #14
tumblewit wrote: post #4

So I bought a Macbook Air with M1 that I used for 3 months and noticed the right speaker cracking issue (apparently this is widespread on forums) and instead of going through the headache of repair service I ended up just tossing it online and buy a new one for <7500Rs in losses which I thought was a good deal. The new one has the same problem (yes I tried everything from restore to different audio but its not subtle…

Edit: apologies, I misread the comment and the “3 months” bit. Apparently (TIL) India has very weak consumer protection laws. I still think you should take up Apple’s offer to have it repaired/replaced. I guess that’s your only recourse.

[deleted]

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#39

Post by chrisseaton »

nightcracker wrote: post #16
tumblewit wrote: post #4

So I bought a Macbook Air with M1 that I used for 3 months and noticed the right speaker cracking issue (apparently this is widespread on forums) and instead of going through the headache of repair service I ended up just tossing it online and buy a new one for <7500Rs in losses which I thought was a good deal. The new one has the same problem (yes I tried everything from restore to different audio but its not subtle…

If you know a product is faulty, why did you choose to buy another one?

They thought the specific unit was faulty, not the model and its design.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#40

Post by darkwizard42 »

sans-serif wrote: post #19

In my experience Americans sort of take for granted the breadth and depth of consumer protection you enjoy. I'd wager that in an insignificant portion of countries Apple expanded to, they have had to significantly cut back on refunds/warrantees they offer to combat fraud and abuse.

Agreed, but I don't think Americans take it for granted; I think they just don't abuse it. By not abusing a good faith return policy you allow the company to provide one that is consumer friendly.
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