That’s what the BBC is accusing Apple of doing. In short, Apple is allegedly telling people in the UK that they need all sorts of repairs done to their iPhones before they can replace the battery as part of the #BatteryGate fiasco:
Josh Landsburgh sent his phone off to have the battery replaced in February.
Two days later, he received an email from Apple pointing out a small dent to the edge of the phone, and quoting a cost of over £200 before it would make good on its battery promise.
A furious Josh had the phone returned from Apple. He had the battery replaced without an issue at a local repair shop – which meant he voided his Apple warranty.
“They’re trying to regain trust and they come back to you with, ‘Give us more money than you were planning to initially.’ I think it’s just shocking, they’ve got enough money, they’re Apple,” he told the BBC.
And:
David Bowler also contacted Watchdog.
His phone was in perfect condition, but needed the battery replacing. This time, with no apparent damage outside, Apple told David there was damage inside the phone.
The firm said the front microphone and speaker were faulty, quoting over £250 to resolve the issue.
But David is adamant these components were working perfectly. He asked for his phone back, and Watchdog took his device to a mobile repair specialist.
It told the programme: “Obviously these things are working; they shouldn’t say that they are faulty.”
The specialist also replaced the battery with no issues, something Apple had refused to do without fixing the microphone and speaker first.
The implication is that Apple is making money off the #BatteryGate fiasco by forcing repairs that are not required upon iPhone owners. That’s shady. Apple denies that it’s doing this. But I for one question that given my wife’s experience when she got the battery in her iPhone 6 replaced earlier this year. You’ll recall that they actively tried to dissuade her from doing so. And then we watched another person get dissuaded from doing a battery replacement using exactly the same arguments that were used on my wife. I also wonder if this is being done else where because I would find it difficult to believe that this is strictly a UK thing. If that’s true, then the apology that Apple gave when #BatteryGate came to light is incredibly meaningless.
If you’ve had the sort of experiences that’s described above, please leave a comment and make sure you say where you’re located.
Microsoft Working On Fix For Windows 10 Issue That Freezes Some Apps
Posted in Commentary with tags Microsoft on May 4, 2018 by itnerdEarlier this week I reported that Chrome was freezing after you installed the Windows 10 April 2018 update. Both Google and Microsoft were investigating the issue, and it seems that Microsoft has responded, saying that it is aware of the issue and is working on a fix. What’s interesting is that Cortana which is the virtual assistant for Windows 10 is affected by this too. Assuming that nothing else goes sideways, the fix should be delivered in the May 8th Patch Tuesday dump.
So, now you know.
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