Chinese press dig into Apple over response to warranty practices criticism

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
China's government-controlled press continued its barrage against Apple on Monday, with a report calling the company's recent response to criticism over allegedly biased warranty policies "empty and self-praising."

China Apple Care
Apple's Chinese Apple Care webpage. | Source: Apple


The People's Daily newspaper ran a front-page story deriding Apple's usual tight-lipped public relations procedures, which denied Chinese journalists' calls for interviews regarding a recent hit piece aired by the state-run China Central Television, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The television broadcast, seen by some as a smear campaign against Apple, accused the company of being "biased against Chinese consumers in its warranty and consumer service policies" by fixing faulty products instead of issuing new devices as it does in other countries.

After the piece aired, a number of Chinese notables voiced their outrage on the popular Weibo microblogging service. However, the anti-Apple messages were possibly orchestrated as a post by local celebrity Peter Ho included what appeared to be instructions on when to put up his vitriolic message.

Apple issued a response to the CCTV spot on its Chinese website, saying that it operates under China's rules and regulations.

"Apple's Chinese warranty is more or less the same as in the U.S. and all over the world," the statement said.

China is seen as a huge growth opportunity for Apple, so much so that the country was broken out as its own business segment for the first time ever in the company's latest quarterly conference call. The Greater China region saw revenues up 67 percent year over year and is expected to outperform the U.S. as Apple's biggest market in the coming months.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 29
    It's amazing when a totalitarian regime supposedly wears the mantle of "the People's" anything.
  • Reply 2 of 29
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post

    It's amazing when a totalitarian regime supposedly wears the mantle of "the People's" anything.


     


    And funny that many gravitate toward it… 

  • Reply 3 of 29

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    It's amazing when a totalitarian regime supposedly wears the mantle of "the People's" anything.


     


    I didn't know The Rock was from China.

  • Reply 4 of 29
    cash907cash907 Posts: 893member
    If a problem is corrected either way, I don't understand what the Chinese are complaining about here? Maybe time required for the fix? I've had to warranty return three items in the last two years: an iPad with the horrible light bleed issue, an iPhone with a bad cellular modem, and MacBook that suffered a mainboard fault after two months. All three times, Apple swapped my items out for new or possibly refurbish like-new replacements, which greatly reduced the turn around time. If Apple is instead choosing to repair the warrantied items instead of swapping them out, turn around time can be as long as a month. I'm sure whether an item is swapped out or repaired depends on many factors, which are weighed on a case by case basis, so I wonder what is making the Chinese feel they are being unfairly singled out for repairs versus swaps.
  • Reply 5 of 29
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    China's government-controlled press continued its barrage against Apple on Monday, with a report calling the company's recent response to criticism over allegedly biased warranty policies "empty and self-praising.".

    Still miffed about Foxconn Brazil, I see.
  • Reply 6 of 29
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    It's amazing when a totalitarian regime supposedly wears the mantle of "the People's" anything.


    It seems like a fairly typical and commonly used tactic. In many instances where people have evil intentions, they name their group or their cause to include words and phrases that mean the exact opposite of what they really are. 

  • Reply 7 of 29
    It's a shakedown.
  • Reply 9 of 29
    Propaganda is everywhere but the Chinese are definitely perfecting it to a T.
  • Reply 10 of 29
    apple ][ wrote: »
    It's amazing when a totalitarian regime supposedly wears the mantle of "the People's" anything.
    It seems like a fairly typical and commonly used tactic. In many instances where people have evil intentions, they name their group or their cause to include words and phrases that mean the exact opposite of what they really are. 

    Yep, like the 'Patriot Act'..... and to be an equal opportunity offender..... The 'Affordable Care Act'! ;-)
  • Reply 11 of 29
    tylerk36tylerk36 Posts: 1,037member


    Just another way to get bribes out of Apple to shut them up.

  • Reply 12 of 29
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Please stop talking geo-political issues. You all sound like a bunch of libertarian asshats.
  • Reply 13 of 29
    pendergastpendergast Posts: 1,358member
    The evil American company is treating the poor Chinese badly.
  • Reply 14 of 29
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    This seems fairly similar to the campaign against Google in China that started up a couple years back. The Chinese government wants something from Apple and IMO it's more cooperation with the Chinese just as they pressured Google to do. If the negative articles suddenly disappear it may be a signal that Apple got the message about what it needs to do to be in their good graces.

    This isn't like the Western press where there's broad freedom to report whatever the media wishes, true or not. In China there is no press freedom so whatever the ultimate goal is it's clear to me that it's being orchestrated by Chinese officials with an end game in mind.
  • Reply 15 of 29

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post


     


    I didn't know The Rock was from China.



    If any more actors are going to post fake messages online, they'd better know their roles or shut their mouths. If you can smellllllll... what Tim Cook is rocking!

  • Reply 16 of 29
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    I don't know about anyone else but I'm my offices 'tech guy' so part of my job is taking non working iPhones and iPads into Apple for repair/replacement. I've taken 7 phones in over the past month and none of them were replaced. Just the defective parts.

    And even if they are replaced its not like you are getting a shiny white box with new headphones etc. in fact many of those swapped phones are remanufactured which means they took the working parts out of previous swapped phones and frankensteined them into a new unit. Yum
  • Reply 17 of 29
    esoomesoom Posts: 155member


    Seems that the Apple stores are just slapping the old back on a replacement phone, saying it was repaired, and circumventing the law that requires them to reset the  warranty on a replacement phone for another year.


     


    I'm an Apple apologist as much as anyone, and can see the potential for serious abuse using the law.

  • Reply 18 of 29
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Yep, like the 'Patriot Act'..... and to be an equal opportunity offender..... The 'Affordable Care Act'! ;-)

    Exactly! Two of the worst piece of legislation to come out of Washinton in decades. Sadly the Patriot Act is one of hose bipartisan boondoggles that has been used as a hammer against the people in the US with little good to come out of it fitting the enemy.

    Sadly it seems to be lost on the government that you win wars by destroying the enemy, whipping them out, not by attacking your own people.
  • Reply 19 of 29
    esoom wrote: »
    Seems that the Apple stores are just slapping the old back on a replacement phone, saying it was repaired, and circumventing the law that requires them to reset the  warranty on a replacement phone for another year.

    I'm an Apple apologist as much as anyone, and can see the potential for serious abuse using the law.

    Where do you live?

    In Apple's home country, no warranty from Apple or any other company gets a warranty reset on the replacement.

    It's silly logic to expect a warranty reset, bc some people would purposely break their items to get a replacement and warranty reset.

    I think this whole scandal is the Chinese government's attempt support domestic companies such as Lenovo, ZTE, etc....


    The majority of mobile phones are made in China, but by foreign companies. The Chinese government wants the majority of mobile phones made in China AND by Chinese owned companies.

    Also, the majority of countries with "Peoples'" or "Democratic" in their name are not places that I would want to live.
  • Reply 20 of 29
    Remember Tiananmen Square? China is far from a democracy. This kind of state-run propaganda is par for the course.
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