Apple may want to reconsider how they’re treating Chinese customers, or the customers might reconsider how they’re going to treat Apple.
On an investigative consumer television program shown on China’s government run China Central Television (CCTV), Apple was accused of creating double standard warranties.
According to the report, Apple is not giving Chinese consumers the same post-sales service that Apple supplies its consumers with in other parts of the world and has thus taken on policies that differ when it comes to “repair and return services in China”. That’s according to Chinese news agency, Xinhuanet.
The list they’ve come up with surely would at least point to unfair business practices by Apple but what they deem to be, discriminating provisions. The list includes (but is not limited to):
* Shorter warranty periods compared with that of other countries
* The use of refurbished parts for repair and averting after-sale obligations
According to Xinhuanet, “in sharp contrast with the situation in China, Apple consumers in other parts of the world including the United States, Australia, the Republic of Korea and the European Union meet no such awkwardness in their after-sale process.” They also claim that, the “violations in China also extend to other products from the company such as its iPads.”
Well, with such Apple issues in China, its no wonder the Chinese have no problem creating their own iPhone knockoff. Not only does the Goophone look like an Apple iPhone, it even takes on the same numbering scheme. Meet the GooPhone i5S.
If only Apple could sue, I’m sure they would. The Chinese seem to care less about Apple’s patent rights though. In September of last year, before the iPhone 5 came out, GooPhone made an i5 that looks just like the iPhone 5. They even patented in China. What did the Chinese government do? Nothing. So now, for $150, Chinese consumers can get the Android based, iPhone 5s copy that has a NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.4 Ghz quad core processor, 1GB RAM, 32GB bult-in ROM, Wi-Fi, dual cameras, etc.
Reuters said that, “Apple looks to China not just as its main production base, but also to re-energize slowing growth, the result of rising smartphone penetration in mature markets. CEO Tim Cook sees the world’s No. 2 economy as virgin expansion territory, and Apple singles out the region in every quarterly results report.”
We suppose this is what happens when you displease a people a billion plus strong in citizens. Apple may want to reconsider how they’re treating Chinese customers, or the customers might reconsider how they’re going to treat Apple.