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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

#181
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone getting such returns/refunds approved is getting accolades by their family members or friends. Usually such people don't tell anyone about it and if they are smart better they keep quite. So it's not about culture, just that it's worth it here in India because most people aren't making $30 an hour here so lot of pitty scam schemes are profitable for them.

Oh, I don't mean like "you get accolades", but more of a, everyone is doing it, so why not me?

I appreciate the honest response though. I always am curious about what the situation is on the ground for decisions like this.

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

#182
post #119
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what's the story behind the return abuse in India?

I'm just an observer of forums and whatnot, and not Indian, but have a couple guesses. 1 - People buying a handful of phones and comparing them, then returning all but the one they decide to keep. 2 - Semi related, one of the ten thousand phone comparison Youtuber channels.

I think #1 is a signal of a failure in the online retail space. As a customer other than reading the (often gamed) reviews on amazon and watching youtube reviewers how do you know what to buy? Buying a bunch of options and returning them starts to look like a legitimate strategy. For some products (for me it tends to be laptops) you really do not know if you like it until you have your hands on the physical product.

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

#183
post #45

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…

Aluminium metallurgy strikes back. That's why I am very hesitant to use it for mass manufactured goods. ME misses 1 defect showing few months later, and you get n hundred thousand units recall, or worse, the client asking the money back. For a CM it's a complete devastation. Machining is also very uneconomical unless you can contract high volume machining specialist, but that's impossible for most Only the biggest PC…

Could you elaborate on this? I thought Aluminium is relatively easy to manipulate (and that's why it's used a lot)? Why wouldn't one use injection molding?

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

#184
post #44
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…

Why would people want to have an iPhone for only a week? That sounds like more of a hassle than it is worth. Just to see what they are like?

>Why would people want to have an iPhone for only a week?

Indian culture is about display of wealth. Wealthy individuals are respected and get access to inner clubs while the people who don't have much don't get invited anywhere.

College students might want to leave a good impression at a party and might get an iPhone so people start taking them seriously.

Similarly, a guy might get an iPhone so his date considers him important.

iPhone is status symbol in India because not everyone can afford it.

I can certainly and easily afford it but I am still using android because I don't feel the need of uncessarry attention

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

#185
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Eh, look what happened to LL Bean, they had one of the last real good faith return policies, and it was abused to hard they had to reverse lifetime warranty on existing products to two(?) years. And create a list to track individuals making the returns I hear they'll still honor it in some obvious cases...

REI did the same thing. People would return ten year old jackets for a full refund because a feather was sticking out.

Even Costco has drastically scaled back the return policy on electronics for that reason. In large enough groups, people suck.

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

#186
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…

> With many buying latest smartphones, and returning them after a week after trying them "[1]

That alone is not only OK but was recommended recently in the USA.

Specifically, during COVID the Apple retail shops were shut so you couldn't compare devices when shopping. I bought my GF a regular and max sized iPhone and she took a week to decide which one she wanted. We sent the other one back and had a refund before the credit card bill was even due, so as far as my bank account was concerned I really did only pay for one. In normal times we would have been unlikely to have bothered with this (although with something as personal as a phone...)

I can imagine that this only scales to a certain percentage of transactions though.

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

#187
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…

> people were abusing it a lot Why frame it so negatively? You could as well say "people saw that Apple was ripe for disruption".

[deleted]

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

#188
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes Hong Kong has had that since iPhone 4 or 5 if I remember correctly. A few years later Apple said the problem were people abusing the system, basically buying iPhone, taking out some component, or even the Screen, replace them with other parts and sell those official parts for profits. Then returning the iPhone to Apple. They also raised the price of latest iPhone by $100 since iPhone 5 because of China reselling.…

Still it is an iPhone with two physical SIM slots, which to me makes it an interesting deal.

Yes. That may soon be gone though. China passed the regulation on eSIM and may be two more years before they make the switch.

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

#189
post #182
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just an observer of forums and whatnot, and not Indian, but have a couple guesses. 1 - People buying a handful of phones and comparing them, then returning all but the one they decide to keep. 2 - Semi related, one of the ten thousand phone comparison Youtuber channels.

I think #1 is a signal of a failure in the online retail space. As a customer other than reading the (often gamed) reviews on amazon and watching youtube reviewers how do you know what to buy? Buying a bunch of options and returning them starts to look like a legitimate strategy. For some products (for me it tends to be laptops) you really do not know if you like it until you have your hands on the physical product.

I agree. I myself have noticed how bad all reviews have gotten. For example, I bought an S20 FE last year, and it had a horrible touch screen. Almost EVERYONE who bought one said the same thing and complained. I can think of zero 'reviewers' who even mentioned it. I would be supremely angry if it were a $1200 device with no return policy.

I don't really know what the solution is. I think a phone rental business could spring up. Charge $10/day or something to rent a high end phone to folks to see how they like it.

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

#190
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacBooks have global warranty, iPhones don't. I think this is partly to avoid price arbitrage such as going to buy an iPhone in a cheaper country. I'm not sure why this is not a concern for laptops. Maybe those are more targeted towards businesses, which are not so price sensitive.

> I think this is partly to avoid price arbitrage such as going to buy an iPhone in a cheaper country. There isn't much arbitrage for new Apple products: if anything, iPhones are more expensive in other countries, especially LEDC countries due to import tariffs (e.g. Brazil and India) and VAT. That said, I can understand phone companies, in general, not having worldwide warranties because localized phones will have d…

The price arbitrage is USA -> basically everywhere else on earth.
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