back to article Burgundian iPhone wrecker hit with damages, suspended sentence

A bellicose Burgundian has been served a six-month suspended sentence and a pile of damages after being driven to distraction by a glitchy iPhone and taking revenge on his local Apple store with a shiny metal ball. According to French tech site Slice42, Yann Serre had bought an iPhone 6 in the Dijon Apple store in January 2015 …

  1. Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese Silver badge

    threatened to do something unspeakable to the mother of Apple France's commercial director as well as defecate in his mouth

    Whilst I don't necessarily condone his behaviour, I do feel he ought to be admired for his creativity

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Whilst I don't necessarily condone his behaviour, I do feel he ought to be admired for his creativity

      Isn't creativity the basis of French insults? That said, they're supposed to remain words, not subsequently converted into deeds.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Personally I feel that while the insult was very creative it lacked Hamsters and Elderberries.

  2. Vimes

    EU law demands a minimum of two years for guarantees? If bought in January 2015 he should have been able to demand a replacement for a faulty unit until January 2017?

    Under EU rules you always have the right to a minimum 2-year guarantee at no cost.

    This 2-year guarantee is your minimum right. National rules in your country may give you extra protection: however, any deviation from EU rules must always be in the consumer's best interest.

    If goods you bought anywhere in the EU turn out to be faulty or do not look or work as advertised, the seller must repair or replace them free of charge or give you a price reduction or a full refund.

    http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/index_en.htm

    Apple seem to have form with this one though...

    https://gigaom.com/2012/11/13/apple-decides-to-comply-with-italys-free-two-year-warranty-policy/

    1. foo_bar_baz
      Thumb Up

      EU warranty rule does work

      The missus' macbook screen was having trouble after about a 18 months' use. It got fixed for free no muss no fuss at a local Apple repair shop, even though the warranty was ostensibly 12 months.

    2. DaLo

      It's 6 years in England and Wales, 5 years in Scotland.

      http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        6 years???

        So if your wife bought you an iPhone 4 for Christmas 2010 and it stops working, you can get Apple to fix it? That's quite a reasonable warranty period for a car, but it is well outside the norm for consumer electronics at least on my side of the pond. Almost nothing sold in the US has a warranty longer than a year - even if you pay $5000 for an OLED TV.

      2. gnasher729 Silver badge

        You are wrong - 6 or 5 years is when your rights run out. It's not the time how long a product is supposed to last. So you have five years, 11 months and 30 days time to bring your product back to the store _if you have evidence that it broken within two years, and you have evidence that this was due to a fault that was present when you received the product_.

        1. DaLo

          No, You are wrong, I'm afraid. You have 30 days where you can get an automatic refund after that you have numerous options but the main one is that they get one chance to repair it. You have a six month period where it is generally accepted that any fault was there when the product was bought unless there is obvious damage. Basically for the first 6 months the onus is on the retailer to prove that there was no defect. After that you have 6 years to make a claim - however this is the same for the 6 month part in that the fault has to have been present at the time of purchase. This is the same for all claims, i.e. you can't have introduced that fault through wear and tear/outright damage etc.

          The difference after 6 months is that the liability shifts to you to prove it. However if many others are having the same problem, or there is an actual bug in the system which was present at the time then it will not be too difficult to prove.

          On top of that you have the 2 year EU warranty and a manufacturers standard warranty - you can use and and all of those to get recourse.

          If using the 6 year UK consumer rights act then you will not be entitled to a full refund if it can't be repaired, you will be refunded based upon the use made of the item in that period (for cars you can lose money for use after 30 days).

  3. cd / && rm -rf *
    Trollface

    "threatened to do something unspeakable to the mother of Apple France's commercial director as well as defecate in his mouth"

    How would anyone be able to tell? All marketdroids spout shit.

  4. NorthernCoder
    Headmaster

    "outsized metal ball"?

    Looks within pétanque regulations (70.5 - 80 mm) to me.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Try that

    In a Samsung shop and they'd blow his bloody hands off.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Try that

      In a Samsung shop and they'd blow his bloody hands off.

      I think their phones just catch fire, I haven't heard about exploding ones ..

      :)

      1. Wensleydale Cheese

        Re: Try that

        "I think their phones just catch fire, I haven't heard about exploding ones .."

        Try popping "exploding samsung" into a search engine...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hipsters are doing it for themselves!

    Standing on their own two feet

    and tweeting on their own..... oh yeah, it's busted.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is the funniest article I have read for a long time. Long may it continue ( or start ).

  8. Contrex

    Why?

    ... did you kill the "Hardware" section?

  9. W Donelson

    My entire 27" iMac 2012 screen was replaced free of charge by Apple after 3 years. I only paid for delivery, they returned it a week later.

    I can understand attacking 1,000 other giant conglomerates, but Apple does understand how important Good Customer Relations is to a brand.

    1. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      "Apple does understand how important Good Customer Relations is to a brand."

      So Apple's steadfast ignore-it-maybe-it'll-go-away and stony silence regarding the iPhone 6 Touch Disease, leading one typically temperamental French bloke to go all Steel Balls on them, so this is "good customer relations"?

      So the best that they can do is offer a replacement for typically $400, thus making a likely tidy profit on the order of about $250 from each victimized owner. Converting poor build quality and consumer abuse into a new profit center? Seriously?

      Have they even acknowledged the issue yet? Anything? Memo? Press Release? ANYTHING?

      Sorry, they're precisely as sleazy and slimy as any other corporation. Not an iota less.

      If they come for dinner, count your spoons before they leave.

  10. Jamesit

    "Yann Serre had bought an iPhone 6 in the Dijon Apple store in January 2015"

    I guess it didn't cut the mustard.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    31% <- LOL

    "Apple demanded damages of €57,000 (£50,975/$62,226)... ...Court....damages of €17,758 (£15,880/$19,379)..."

    31%. That's quite funny.

    Somebody needs to initiate a Kick Starter so he's not out of pocket.

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