Mikey Campbell
China's government-controlled press continued its barrage against Apple on Monday, with a report calling the company's recent response to criticism over allegedly biased warranty policies "empty and self-praising."
The People's Daily newspaper ran a front-page story deriding Apple's usual tight-lipped public relations procedures, which denied Chinese journalists' calls for interviews regarding a recent hit piece aired by the state-run China Central Television, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The television broadcast, seen by some as a smear campaign against Apple, accused the company of being "biased against Chinese consumers in its warranty and consumer service policies" by fixing faulty products instead of issuing new devices as it does in other countries.
After the piece aired, a number of Chinese notables voiced their outrage on the popular Weibo microblogging service. However, the anti-Apple messages were possibly orchestrated as a post by local celebrity Peter Ho included what appeared to be instructions on when to put up his vitriolic message.
Apple issued a response to the CCTV spot on its Chinese website, saying that it operates under China's rules and regulations.
"Apple's Chinese warranty is more or less the same as in the U.S. and all over the world," the statement said.
China is seen as a huge growth opportunity for Apple, so much so that the country was broken out as its own business segment for the first time ever in the company's latest quarterly conference call. The Greater China region saw revenues up 67 percent year over year and is expected to outperform the U.S. as Apple's biggest market in the coming months.
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Wesley Hilliard
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29 Comments
It's amazing when a totalitarian regime supposedly wears the mantle of "the People's" anything.
It's amazing when a totalitarian regime supposedly wears the mantle of "the People's" anything.
And funny that many gravitate toward it…
It's amazing when a totalitarian regime supposedly wears the mantle of "the People's" anything.
I didn't know The Rock was from China.
If a problem is corrected either way, I don't understand what the Chinese are complaining about here? Maybe time required for the fix? I've had to warranty return three items in the last two years: an iPad with the horrible light bleed issue, an iPhone with a bad cellular modem, and MacBook that suffered a mainboard fault after two months. All three times, Apple swapped my items out for new or possibly refurbish like-new replacements, which greatly reduced the turn around time. If Apple is instead choosing to repair the warrantied items instead of swapping them out, turn around time can be as long as a month. I'm sure whether an item is swapped out or repaired depends on many factors, which are weighed on a case by case basis, so I wonder what is making the Chinese feel they are being unfairly singled out for repairs versus swaps.
[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/156662/chinese-press-dig-into-apple-over-response-to-warranty-practices-criticism#post_2300260"]China's government-controlled press continued its barrage against Apple on Monday, with a report calling the company's recent response to criticism over allegedly biased warranty policies "empty and self-praising.".[/quote] Still miffed about Foxconn Brazil, I see.