Apple has been known in the US for its stellar customer service, but one customer in particular (from the UK) can attest to the contrary.
Gareth Cross says that he bought his Apple Watch last year and noticed that its screen was cracked (see the photo above) just 10 days after his purchase. He decided to contact Apple about a replacement, but Apple refused to cover the damage, stating that the damage wasn’t covered under warranty. Apparently, Cross had an Apple Care plan, but it didn’t cover cracked screens. That led Gareth Cross to take his case to court, where, after six months, Cross was awarded £429, the cost of the Apple Watch (£339) plus court fees (£90) that he incurred as a result of the six-month litigation in a small claims court.
Cross was relieved at the outcome. “I couldn’t understand why they would want to go to court over the issue, but ultimately I wanted [to] stand by my consumer rights. The case did start to become a little stressful, especially toward the end with the prospect of having to attend court to defend my claim against what was the most valuable company in the world [Apple],” he said.
Apple lost the case, but the company also lost something else in the process: the right to maintain its language. Due to the claim that the Apple Watch was “impact-resistant,” and the court case in which the plaintiff proved that his Apple Watch Sport edition was anything but impact-resistant, Apple is likely removing its “impact-resistant” language from its website description of the Apple Watch so as to prevent lawsuits of this sort in the future.
Even after all the pain he endured behind the case, Cross is still a diehard Apple fan and plans to buy another Apple Watch. He may fear Apple’s response, but Apple may fear him should the same thing happen again.
