Apple, iStore Cresta and Core Services owe me 1 month lost salary

Where to begin...

During the months of October/November 2018, my brand new 10 month old Apple Macbook Pro Retina display started crashing. At first I thought my battery died without warning and I would connect it to the outlet and it would start up again as normal. Weird, I thought, but not weird enough for me to go through the gruelling process of sending it in to an Apple iStore, etc.

This happened about 3 times over a few weeks. The 3rd time was in December 2018, when it also did not start back up again after connecting it to the outlet.

I took it in to Cresta iStore mid December. What a mistake.

1. Staff did not assist me when I arrive. 2. When I was finally assisted, staff spoke in isiZulu in front of me, the one male staff member, made a joke in isiZulu and then walked off without assisting me. Another female staff member ended up assisting me and I finally got my unit booked in. They informed me that I will receive correspondence from Core Service centre in 5 - 7 working days.

Fast forward to December, 28th 2018. I received correspondence from Core with a diagnosis and a quote. Now, the unit in question's retail value is R39,000. I managed to get my unit via FNB for R35,000. I am still in the process of paying the device off to FNB. The quote came out to be R13.000 for a Logic Board that failed.

Now, let's look at the facts:

1. 48 cases of the same logic board failing are listed on the web. 2. The unit was not even a year old when the logic board failed.

By the time I booked the device in, I was only about 3 weeks out of warranty... keep in mind that the issue started to occur before the warranty ended.

I rejected the quote. I received a call from Core when they urged me to make a decision quickly so that they can either fix the unit or send it back. By this time, I arrived at Cresta to speak to some one who knows what they are doing, but when I spoke to the lady from Core, I asked her if I can speak to a technician as I want to understand how a Logic board can fail within 12 months. She informed me that I am not allowed to talk to anyone and that I should go and speak to iStore in Cresta.

Which I then did.

Again, I was met with unprofessional service. The one technician in the back member did not even attempt to assist me, so I had to call some one from the front desk to assist. She referred me to the same guy who continued to ignore me... Then the worst thing happened... another technician asked the staff member who was ignoring me what I want... in isiZulu. Luckily I could pick it up and responded directly to her, saying that I can understand what she is saying... this got their attention, finally.

Long story short... I finally got to speak to the manager, Phindile, who then check up on my case. She was concerned and surprised I was not given exception on my warranty seeing that it was so close to the end date.

She assured me that she will escalate my case to Apple. After two more weeks, I contacted her via email to ask if she has heard anything to which she rep**** no, and that I can call this number to take it further. It was an 0800 number which I then called.

I ended up speaking to a person called Jonathan in Ireland. Jonathan was very helpful in the beginning but when he phoned me back the following day, his attitude changed. He wanted me to agree that IF Apple grants me the exception, I am not allowed to ever go back to Apple if the unit breaks again even if it is 1 day after i received it back... I do not know if I am going crazy here, but how does that make sense? A R39,000 device breaks within 12 months, 3 weeks out of warranty they receive the device, they charge R13,000 for it and then expect me to agree to never go back if it breaks again and ask them to fix it again???

Eventually I realised that if I do not agree to this indoctrination and dictatorship I will probably never see my unit ever again.

I have now been without my unit for 8 weeks. I have lost income for January due to the lack of respect for me as a client, a brand loyal customer and a human being that needs to work for a living. I teach online, Apple sells these units as "the best on the market", My previous Macbook is 6 years old and still running fine.

My story has not ended yet...

Today was supposed to be the pick up day for my unit that was apparently shipped back to Cresta this morning.... I just received an email stating that it was not part of the shipment and that my unit is not back at Cresta.

I give up. What more must I do? Who can I talk to?