China Consumer Association Places Apple On "Company Integrity" Blacklist

There are a number of consumer watchdog organizations all around the world. Often these organizations are places where consumers can go to complain about a product if they aren't getting the help wanted from the company who produced the product. China has a consumer watchdog organization called China Consumer Association (CCA), and the organization has recently placed Apple on its blacklist.

The CCA has placed Apple on its "company integrity" blacklist because of Apple's after-sales service policies, which have come under fire from Chinese consumers. According to CCA, Apple's after-sales service policies have received numerous complaints indicating strong consumer dissatisfaction with the policies. The watchdog group cites one specific case of a customer referred to as Wang, who received warranty service on his iPhone 4 when needed.

However, Apple allegedly refused to renew the warranty on Wang's iPhone 4 after the repairs were made. That would mean if any other part of the phone failed, the customer would be unable to get repairs under warranty a second time. CCA says that Apple's policies are unfair and notes that policy changes made by Apple recently to help remedy some of the customer dissatisfaction aren't enough.

The report issued by the CCA claims that Apple's repair policy is also unfair. The report apparently claims that Apple uses old, spare parts to repair damaged customer devices and any defective parts must be returned to Apple. The indication from the report is that Apple takes these defective parts, repairs them, and then uses them to fix other customer devices that come in for service.

[via ZDNet]