HOLD the phone!
THE YEAR’S BIGGEST LETDOWN AND SOME FUEL FOR THOUGHT
Last week, I gave a bouquet to the group I’d had the best service from this year – the real estate industry. So who did I feel most let down by from a consumer point of view?
I was driven nuts by what seemed a reticence by Apple to simply replace the battery in my iPhone 6 at a reasonable cost. Several trips to the local store produced nothing but a free chargeup and advice on how to extend battery life. Finally, when I asked them directly to replace the battery they said it would cost about $400.
The high cost was because my phone was out of warranty and there was a crack in the glass. It was apparently better to upgrade the phone to a newer model. I couldn’t believe it. Then a helpful Apple assistant told me if I took my phone to a little techy store nearby, they’d probably be able to replace the battery for a cheaper price. So I did. I left it with them while I had a coffee, and they returned it with a new battery for $90, and running brilliantly. It still is. The question is, why couldn’t Apple have done the same thing?
What happens if you have to use a prepay petrol pump at an attended station at night and pay for more petrol than your tank can hold? Is the attendant obliged to refund the difference?
Yes. You should be able to hang up the pump, return to the cashier’s window, and their screen should show that a refund is due. They will give you this in cash.
The same rule applies if the amount of petrol poured into your tank is short of what you’ve purchased – even if that’s by just a dollar or two. Of course for this to happen, the cashier, who may be a part-timer, needs to know how to perform a prepay refund. They also need to have the cash at hand to provide a refund. You might be in trouble if you overestimate how much petrol is needed by a sizeable amount. There may also be a time limit on the prepay refund, possibly a matter of minutes, so don’t muck around before heading back to the cashier’s window.