Apple's disregard for local laws is not specific to Italy. A warranty repair from Apple in Russia would have taken "a few months", way more than the allowed maximum of 21 days. I had to send my laptop to US with a friend for repairs.
<i>Italian law states that consumer electronics devices must be sold with a two-year free warranty</i><p>For the record, this isn't just Italian law, but it EU law. All half a billion (or so) people in the EU can benefit from this sort of protection.
As an Italian Apple behaviour really makes me rage. They believe to be above everyone, even governments. And this is the proof that Apple only cares about the money and not really about the customer.
Ironically, one of my friends just yesterday contacted Apple about his iPad not recognizing the SIM card anymore. His iPad is 18 months old, and we live in Italy.<p>From customer care they said "er... wait ten minutes please... I have to contact my boss over this, I'm not sure if the product is covered". Two minutes later my friend was recalled and the Apple guy confirmed that they will handle the problem as if it was still in the first year of the guarantee.
As far as I know, Apple DOES acknowledge the two year guarantee under European law, it just ADDITIONALLY has its own 1 year guarantee with different conditions.<p>Here, for example, is the Apple page for the Dutch market detailing the different guarantees (in Dutch): <a href="http://www.apple.com/nl/legal/statutory-warranty/" rel="nofollow">http://www.apple.com/nl/legal/statutory-warranty/</a><p>It seems then that the issue is about communication, not about actually offering a lesser guarantee and ignoring EU law.
The same happens in Spain. They don't (initially) respect the 2 years warranty. I believe Spanish authorities should do the same: fine them as much as they can until they start obeying local laws like everyone else.<p>However if you protest you get the 2 year warranty, but not everyone knows how to protest and what do say to convince Apple employees ;)
Italy isn't the only place suffering from poor Apple service.<p>I experienced the worst service of my life from Apple South Africa. My iPad USB cable frayed, and I was first told that it was not under warranty. Then I found it was, from the call centre who asked me to take it in to the nearest iStore. When I took it in, the salesperson refused to help until I made an appoinment. I phoned their local call centre which instructed him to help me, and the he still refused to help. I had to get the manager involved. Three weeks later -after they lost my serial number twice- I finally got a replacement cable.<p>You can't use the local App Store to buy games (since they haven't bothered to arrange for self-rating like other app stores). This is never mentioned by Apple South Africa in their marketing material.<p>My theory is that their overseas branches/distributors were set up for an older era, and they can't keep up with Apple's sudden rise.
I wrote an explanation of this, the last time this was discussed on HN: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3783687" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3783687</a>.<p>For those who are confused by the European concept of guaranteed two-year warranty.
I won't be surprised if there are only a few official Apple stores in Italy. Here in the Netherlands there is only one, and Italy is only a couple of times larger than the Netherlands. Any Italians that can confirm this?