A family friend has a lovely G5 iMac, which is just short of its first birthday. The headphone socket’s in pretty much constant use, and a few weeks back it broke. Due to a mix-up over warranties (said Mac is under warranty but the shop thinks it isn’t), my friend has been invoiced.
For £700.
You might think that £700 for a new headphone socket sounds rather steep. I do too. Worse still, the authorised reseller didn’t provide an estimate before carrying out the work, and until the warranty situation is sorted out is refusing to return the machine until the £700 is paid.
Just out of interest, if the warranty situation isn’t solved, would the iMac owner have a legitimate claim under the Sale of Goods Act? A headphone socket that breaks in less than a year because of, er, plugging headphones into it, and which costs nearly as much to repair as the entire computer costs to buy, doesn’t strike me as “fit for purpose”…
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0 responses to “Got an iMac? Be careful with the headphone plug”
Don’t see how the reseller could possibly go ahead and do work for that value without specific authorisation; nobody could be taken to have authorised work costing a substantial portion of the value of the machine. I would get a solicitor to write a letter to the reseller suggesting they return the machine after reversing the unauthorised repair in seven days failing which an action for the value of the machine will be ensuing. Might make the reseller a bit more keen to resolve the issue with Apple!
Headphone sockets are notorious for this. It’s more forgivable on a twenty-quid walkman, though. You might think that Apple, when charging a grand for a machine and selling it as a music-listening device, might invest a spot of cash into making the headphone socket more resilient than the standard cheap crap.
Thanks Stephen. I’ll pass it on.
> Headphone sockets are notorious for this.
Oh, definitely. I’ve lost track of the number I’ve broken over the years.