AppleCare does not live up to the name
Apple's customer care programme has been dubbed an iCon by Italian legal system.
Italy's anti-trust body has fined Apple for 900,000 euros for failing to tell customers about their rights to product guarantees and assistance. Apple Sales International, Apple Italia and Apple Retail Italia forgot to tell customers that they were entitled to two years of free assistance under Italian law. Instead the outfit encouraged them to buy an "AppleCare Protection Plan" which meant that they had to pay for the same service they were entitled to under Italian law.
It is not the first court case Apple is having to deal with in Europe. Jobs' Mob faces a separate investigation by European regulators into whether it struck price-fixing deals with e-book publishers, blocking rivals and hurting consumers. EU antitrust authorities are also probing Apple over its patents dispute with Samsung Electronics due to concerns that intellectual property rights may be unfairly used by some firms against their rivals.
Surprisingly there have been very few Apple fanboys setting themselves on fire to protest about the Apple Care scam. Apple fanboys feel that it is the right of the company to charge them over the odds for a product that is no particular use.
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Nick Farell
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