An Apple authorised service center allegedly declined to fix a Chikkamagaluru youth’s under-warranty iPhone, a report in the Times of India said. Now, the Apple service center has been ordered by a Bengaluru court to give the customer a free iPhone or equivalent money. Further, the service center has also been asked to give the user a compensation of Rs 10,000 for inconvenient service. The user, Atheeq Anjum, had received the iPhone as a gift from his brother in 2018. In May 2019, the user purchased extended warranty for the iPhone from Apple that was valid till August 2020 for the smartphone after paying Rs 4,500.
The iPhone, somehow, started getting touch and speaker-related issues by July, and the user came all the way from Chikkamagaluru to an authorised Apple center, Ample Technologies Private Limited in Koramangala, which is 250kms away. The issue was fixed and Anjum returned home. However, the next day green lights began flashing on his smartphone’s display. He called Apple customer care and was again advised to make the 250kms trip to hand over the phone at Ample Technologies.
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The second time, while the screen was fixed, the speaker issues persisted. The technicians, according to the report, told Anjum that the speaker mesh inside the iPhone was damaged. After consulting with Apple, the user was told that this is not covered under warranty and that the speaker damage is caused by external factors and isn’t a manufacturing defect.
This did not sit well with Anjum, who was given a Rs 59,000 bill to fix the issue or replace the phone. He then went on to send legal notices to Apple and Ample Technologies, saying that the parties were trying to bend the warranty conditions to make unlawful gains from the customer. In November 2019, he approached the Bengaluru Rural and Urban Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum with a complaint against Apple and Ample Technologies.
After months of hearings, the verdict was pronounced on January 12, 2022, and the judges of the consumer court said that Apple service centre should not have given the service in the first place if there was damage. However, the demand of Apple and Ample Technologies that they will get the problem fixed if the complainant agreed to not seek free service for hardware issues in the future, and that he has to pay for the same “clearly" violates the terms and conditions of the warranty, for which the complainant had paid an added amount in 2019.
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The judges noted that both Apple and Ample technologies showed a deficiency in service as the parties failed to repair the device of a genuine customer. The court finally ruled that Apple India and Ample Technologies must replace the user’s damaged iPhone. If they can’t they should refund Rs 92,000 towards the handset cost with interest. The court also ordered a Rs 10,000 payout in damages to the customer for his court and other expenses.
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