Apple Service in China

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Level 1

5 points

Apple Service in China

Hi to all of you here,

I have a very general, but hard to find online answers to, question...

Does anyone here have experience with buying a Mac in China ? And especially, what about the service in case of problems ?

Even if I'm living in one of the major cities in the country (Shenzhen to be precise...) there is no decent Apple Reseller around to my knowledge (would love to read though "Yes there is, at this address ... !")

So that lets me with an online ordering directly from Apple China (or buying in Hong Kong, more on that later...)

I would like to buy an i5 or i7 27" iMac, but as you might all know there are issues (with the screens mostly), and I would hate to be deeply disappointed when unboxing to discover that... well I got one of them ! But let's say, I buy online from Apple China and... bam ! I get a bad iMac...

My question is : anyone had experience dealing with the Apple Store China ? How was it ? Did they acknowledge your problem and agreed on a replacement or repairs in the right way ? Can you, like in most countries, simply send back the machine and get a refund in the first days after your purchase without having to justify that your reason is indeed legit ? If yes, do you have to send it back at your own expense and via which channels ?

Now secondly, as a possible (and much cheaper !) alternative just in case someone has legal or practical insight , since I'm a bus jump from Hong Kong, and that there I can try the machines before buying to check there's no problems, would I officially be allowed to bring one back with me through the customs with no tax (I'm not chinese, foreign passport, just living here for now) ? I know it's perfectly ok for a laptop, but there's no way I'll try to sneak a 27" iMac through the customs !

My worries on "Online" (phone only...) Official Apple Store in China are about hardware problems if any, I've been working on Macs for more than 15 years and I'm really not concerned about assistance concerning any system or installation, or software issues, and by this I mean that if my iMac works fine and doesn't have any "physical" problems for example with the screen (always worried about the dead pixels lottery when buying online...) I would be fine with no service and assistance at all in this domain.

I do realize that's a lot of questions and that they are not really related to the purpose of this forum, but I'm sure you get what I mean by all this... and would love to have some feedback from people with the experience, feedback that I was not able to find anywhere else.

Thanks for reading this long post, hoping to hear from experienced people around here...

MacBook 2.2 Core 2 Duo - 2G Ram, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Feb 13, 2010 8:14 PM

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Answer 1

LeDav007 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 20, 2010 1:15 AM in response to LeDav007

Well... did not get any feedback, but I can easily understand that no one on this forum ever had to buy a Mac in China !

Just in case someone could be interested in knowing about this :

Called Apple China, was painful, I got my call "hanged-up" 3 times before finally on the 4th attempt someone answered... Did not seem to have interest in helping me buy or answering my doubts... But he did tell me they're not selling the i7 at all, only i5.

He also said they never heard of any screen issues at all with any iMac (denial at first call scares me if ever I get a defective unit from the start... because ok... they are all made here, and Apple China doesn't know about any problems... mmmhhh... let me question this a little...)... I asked about a possible refund in 7 days... They said probably not, only maybe if they can not fix the machine and only if really a "big quality problem" (sic) was identified... and for this I would need to bring the mac to a service center.

Problem : could you give me the address of the nearest service center so that I know if it's far from my home ?

- "No I don't know, check the website. You want to buy ?"
- "Well I'm not sure I'm worried about the warranty..."
- "Ok thank you, bye bye"

I'm a mac lover, I need a new computer, but I'm living in China for now, and don't feel any confidence in doing so in here...

Mr Apple, I know you don't officially read these forums, but let me tell you, a lot of people here (yeah China has quite a few...) are very aware of how a Mac can be a wonderful machine (thanks to the success of iPods and iPhones), and interested in buying one, they're made here, shipping or replacement costs are next to nothing and your local prices are higher than on the other side of the world so even after any taxes your margins would for sure be consequent. Why totally forsake the biggest market in the world ? What about a truly efficient sale force ? And what about reassuring potential buyers that if they ever get a problem it will be taken care of as best as you can ? I heard many complaints about customers of some Shanghai Official Resellers, some people even opened blogs just about this..!

Well, on the bright side for me I'm lucky, I'm next to Hong Kong, I've contacted an Apple Store I know there, they do have i7 in stock (yes, there they sell them in the official resellers shops, not only online, don't know about the rest of the world but I thought they were only custom made orders not available in shops) and I can try the machine before buying so I hope I'll get to see if there is any problem with the screen (at least check there are no dead pixels and no "yellow tinge", might not be able to detect the potential flickering problem). I don't care paying an import tax if I have to, what I want is peace of mind on my warranty and not having to fight if any problem arises.

Ok, sorry if I bothered anyone reading this looong post... Just wanted to let people know since even I got no answers from anyone on this forums, many read the post so I guess they might like to know.

And no one can tell me I'm not faithful to Apple or complaining about non existing problems... I really want this machine and doing everything I can to get it, don't I ?! Just worried about QC and warranty policy...

Have a nice day, and enjoy the luck of being in a place where Apple cares about you...

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Answer 2

LeDav007 Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 22, 2010 10:56 PM in response to LeDav007

So I'll end this topic myself and "alone" to post here...

Finally decided to make the jump, bought an i7 in Hong Kong.

It's a week 7, it was in stock, and after two days of use it seems to be in perfect condition.

Hope I won't have to reopen here cause that would mean I encountered a problem and have to deal with warranty !

To those who read this, from what I heard from different resellers in HK, the new batch of machines they are now receiving seem to be exempt of the previous defects. I guess the dark times of this machine might be over... Hope it for you all who will get their machine from now on.

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Answer 3

Apr 30, 2010 7:57 AM in response to LeDav007

I feel your pain. I've been living in China for 2 years and in regards to customer service, the companies here are very good at weaseling out of any responsibility they might have for the products they sell. Apparently Apple is not immune to this cultural phenomenon. Here are some first-hand reports: http://www.badappleservice.cn/

I'm in a similar situation to yours: I want to buy a Macbook Pro but am really worried that if something goes wrong, neither the store I buy from nor Apple itself will accept responsibility for the problem. The last Apple laptop I bought had a bunch of problems over time (one dead pixel under the return limit, the plastic casing hooks kept snapping, the display began to only work intermittently, the keyboard left key marks on the display, etc). If I buy directly from the Chinese Apple store I'll pay an extra 300 USD over what I can get in Shanghai computer markets. If I buy on Taobao.com and there's a problem, I don't know what I'll be able to do. A credit card would be a bit safer thanks to charge backs, but it's impossible for a foreigner to get a Chinese credit card to my knowledge. I think my best bet is to get to the Shanghai computer market and try one out to make sure it doesn't have any dead pixels before I buy it.

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Answer 4

Apr 30, 2010 2:25 PM in response to LeDav007

One of the local geniuses here in Hawaii was assigned, I think, to the store in Beijing (is there a store in Beijing?). His name is Peter and is very knowledgeable. I still laugh because although he's a blue eyed surfer dude type of guy as far as his looks are concerned, he speaks fluent Mandarin. If you are able to contact the Beijing store, maybe you can ask for him.

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