I got an M1 macbook pro when they first came out, in about April of this year the screen suddenly stopped working without warning. External display worked fine, internal one just showed random colours. Took it to apple for repair, they tried various things and said the mainboard need to be replaced at a cost of something like £700. I refused and just put the laptop away until someone at work mentioned that in the UK we have the consumer rights law that gives us 6 years for which we can expect our purchases to continue to function properly. I messaged apple support and mentioned my consumer law rights under the law and the immediately dispatched a box for me to send the laptop to them and had it collected the next day. In under a week it was back, repaird (new display, top case) at no cost to me. It's amazing what a difference knowing your rights makes!
Apple was already punished for this behavior in Italy[1], but of course they still don't care about it elsewhere. I had to deal with it again in the UK and they had to "research" the subject before getting back to me on the phone. I had to send them a link to their own apple.com site.
I’ve had no problem getting fixes or replacements for Apple hardware even a few years old. I’ve even had a hard drive replaced for free that was a few months out of warranty.
It is more nuanced. It differs a bit per country [1] as it is a directive. For example, in The Netherlands after one year if you did not buy additional warranty in the second year you need to prove you used the product normally.
Also, something like a washing machine has more than 2 years warranty because you can expect such device to work longer than 2 years.
Also, you have the right for updates to keep the device working (if you bought it after April 27th 2022) [2].
The government has very good official documentation available on your rights but it is complex [3].
Yeah about 2 years, I think it was just outside their warranty by a few months. The original experience was very frustrating and really put me off apple. That trust hasn't been recovered but I'm glad I know my rights now.
