Warranty Non-adherence

I have received absolutely appalling service. I have a new Macbook Air which is still under warranty. I have had endless problems with the device from the keyboard and track pad not working/working intermittently, the device crashing software or spontaneously restarting, freezing, delayed graphics, and being unbearable slow at times.

I bought the device the day before SA entered into level 5 lockdown, I already started experiencing problems during that time, but as the computer is used by me in order to do my job, I persevered until such a time as the device became so faulty that it was actually impacted my work performance - I booked it in to istore, nothing all of the problems listed. The store assistant who actually turned out to be the senior technician on duty, noted my complaint untruthfully as "software upgrade". Which is not only grossly dishonest, when I had reported multiple faults with the device - suggestive of hardware faults (keyboard not working, track pad working intermittently) but also was not inline with the obligations of apple and istore SA as stipulated by the devices warranty. The warranty specifies that defective devices such as mine should be REPLACED if presenting within 3 months of purchase (as was I)

I received the device, ALL of the issues persisted!

I persevered again, not wanting to risk losing more working hours during a pandemic. Then finally the keyboard stopped working completely. I booked the device in again, I brought supplementary video and photographic evidence with to my appointment to show the technician all the other problems with the device, the keyboard not working was obvious enough. I was told that that would not be necessary - the problems were s evident. I was advised that the device would be sent to core for assessment and I should expect a 5 -7 working day turnaround time. The device was with apple for 13 days and the communication from core and istore was completely insufficient. I was told that the upper case would be replaced ( a hardware fault ) which should have warranted a full replacement in the first 3 months. During this time, as I had not yet heard anything from istore or core, i contacted the support email and was told that I couldn't expect the technicians at core to understand the faults reported without video/photographic evidence!

The problems persisted still. The keyboard worked, for the week I had it before it had to be returned yet again to istore. The device crashes upwards of 6 times an hour, the processor is so slow that it can take more than a minute to copy and paste a graph from one document to another ( I have it on video), the graphics were still delayed, the mouse and track pad still worked intermittently.

SO I took it back again and was again told that it had to be booked in for an assessment despite all my photos and videos which this time I insisted were attached to the service request. Again I was told to estimate 3-4 day turn around time and it took 10 days for no solution to be provided. I was told that my software was out of date and that it needed to be formatted to accommodate the file size. Yet, when I first brought all these problems to apple and was ignored, the person who assisted me at that time allegedly upgraded my software then! So tell me apple, how is that a solution if it clearly has not worked before? I was once again told to take the device home, 'see how it goes ' - but then when I just encounter fault after fault - all apple want to do is waste more time on my warranty, pretending to look for a solution while they wait for the warranty to lapse. Again I contacted the support line when by day 8 of the 3-4 day turn around time, and I was again told, very rudely that I couldnt expect the technicians to understand the faults without a video, despite having demanded that they be attached to the service request and despite having been reassured that they had been! So 2 software upgrades and a hardware replacement later, I still have a dud computer which is under warranty - only apple clearly doesn't understand what their side of the deal is here?

I have also now been locked out of my device because in those 10 days, the technicians couldn't remember to remove the test profile which was created after my computer was formatted - So now I can't even "see how it goes" for the millionth time because I can't even unlock it. So I get to go back to the store for a third time in 5 weeks!

The device also signs out of my icloud regularly so my back up is unreliable - something apple themselves developed for the convenience of their users. Not I, nor any of the technicians at the istore in sandton could manage to get the device to log into my icloud when it doesn't feel like it. Not even they know what the persistent "unknown error" is.

My job requires me to be permanently available, I work long hours, I work through the night regularly and I am counted upon by many people. This device makes me unreliable, and unavailable. In the time I have owned the device, it has spent more than 10% of its life - AT APPLE.

The macbook air is meant to be a premium product, known for its longevity and reliability. I have absolutely experienced the opposite. I am R20 000 out of pocket, with a device that is completely ineffective, but still under warranty ?