Apple confirms customers unable to pick up Apple Store repairs until outlets reopen
Apple on Friday confirmed customers who left an iPhone, iPad, Mac or other product at an Apple Store for repair will not be able to claim their device until the locations reopen.
A message appearing on Apple's webpage notes retail stores will be closed "until further notice."
When the Cupertino-based tech giant shuttered all branded retail stores outside of China on March 14 in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, it granted customers a two-day window for repair pickups. As AppleInsider reported this week, that period expired on Tuesday.
Owners who were unable or unwilling to make the trip will now be left without their device until Apple Stores reopen, Apple said in a statement to Business Insider.
"We made every possible attempt to get people's products back to them," a company spokesperson said. "There certainly are people that, for whatever reason, did not pick up their products before we closed and their products are at our stores."
Apple is taking a different tack with devices that were sent out to a repair center. Typically, those units are mailed back to a nearby Apple Store for pickup, but during ongoing store closures Apple is attempting to contact owners for direct return.
Apple Stores were initially scheduled to reopen on March 27. That timeline was brought into question early this week when the company published a banner on its website saying retail locations in the U.S. and abroad will remain closed "until further notice."
A message appearing on Apple's webpage notes retail stores will be closed "until further notice."
When the Cupertino-based tech giant shuttered all branded retail stores outside of China on March 14 in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, it granted customers a two-day window for repair pickups. As AppleInsider reported this week, that period expired on Tuesday.
Owners who were unable or unwilling to make the trip will now be left without their device until Apple Stores reopen, Apple said in a statement to Business Insider.
"We made every possible attempt to get people's products back to them," a company spokesperson said. "There certainly are people that, for whatever reason, did not pick up their products before we closed and their products are at our stores."
Apple is taking a different tack with devices that were sent out to a repair center. Typically, those units are mailed back to a nearby Apple Store for pickup, but during ongoing store closures Apple is attempting to contact owners for direct return.
Apple Stores were initially scheduled to reopen on March 27. That timeline was brought into question early this week when the company published a banner on its website saying retail locations in the U.S. and abroad will remain closed "until further notice."
Comments
Pretty much most of the world is currently shut down, acceptable or not, everybody will just have to deal with it.
(Then there are definitely some people doing everything right, but are just victims of the pandemic.)
Apple recognise that Covid is more important than themselves. It's time you recognised that Covid-19 is more important than your opinions or *gasp* deadlines.
The only thing more important than Covid-19, is your health. Internet stranger: your health is more important than anything else you can think about right now.
Seeing as everything is digitally tracked an option would be for stores to ship their customers' machines to an Apple repair centre for repair or forwarding to the end clients. Another option would be for Apple to issue substitute machines (refurbished for example) to clients for them to continue working until stores re-open. From a Spanish perspective it is very likely that the state of emergency (and its consequences) will extend far beyond the initial 15 days that have been declared.
I would like to think that Apple is in fact working behind the scenes to work out an effective solution for those clients who have been caught up in this situation.