Consumer Rights Carroussel

Dutch law protects consumers by stating that one can expect a product to have certain properties, and that the seller must repair or replace a product which does not live up to its expectations (Burgerlijk Wetboek, artikel 7:17). However, the law leaves unspecified what these expectations are, so in practice, said article is just a starting point for endless discussion.

In my opinion, I can expect a €700 logic board of good quality to last longer than one and a half year, so I decided to seek legal help. In The Netherlands, the Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) 'keeps track of the latest trends and developments for consumers and businesses. ACM looks specifically at the energy, telecommunication, transport and postal services industries, and, more in general, at competition and consumer protection law. We take action against businesses that do not play by the rules. And we take a broader perspective when looking for what is needed to solve the underlying problem in a market. When using our instruments and powers, the effect of our actions is central.' Sounds promising, isn't it?

The ACM mission statement is phrased in more political wordings: "The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) creates opportunities and options for businesses and consumers – opportunities for innovation, new products, services and businesses, and options for consumers so they have a real choice, and are not afraid of making a choice. That is why we want businesses be open about what they offer. And finally, consumers should be informed of what their rights are. Therein lies the key to having well-functioning markets" It took me a while to learn the total lack of commitment embedded in this mission statement.

The ACM prefers to be approached through Consuwijzer, the Dutch government's counter for consumers: "With us, you can find independent and reliable information about your rights" Consuwijzer invites the abused Dutch consumer to register a complaint: "This is to your advantage, because ConsuWijzer registers each question and complaint. Your signal will directly reach this monitor (ACM), who is legally qualified to intervene if companies do not play by the rules" So, I explained my case with MacCity to the Consuwijzer website and indicated that I was both registering a complaint and asking for advice. I received an email confirmation, which promised a reply within six working days. The procedure had started. At least, I thought so.

The next day, Consuwijzer sent me a sloppy email summary of my case, which would be passed on to ACM. A note added that it is Important that I ask questions and register complaints with the ACM, as the ACM can start an investigation, have the authority to fine a company, and force companies to find a solution for a given probem. A popular saying warns that if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Indeed, Consuwijzer added they will not solve my problem: they just give me advice about my rights. That is a little disappointing, but I can live with a decent advice.

Six days went by, without a word of advice.So, I emailed Consuwijzer for clarification. They replied my case was complex, indeed, and could not be handled through email: I had to contact them through phone, to receive a detailed advice, tailored to my situation. Great!

It took me a week get connected to a Consuwijzer consultant through telephone, but the consult did not last too long. Without going into the 'complexity' of my case, the lady referred me to Juridisch Loket. My question of why she could not have given me this 'advice' through email remained answered.

Juridisch Loket is funded by the Dutch Government to provide free legal counselling to people that do not have the financial means to hire a lawyer. My email was routinely answered with a standard reply about consumer rights, and I found out I needed to make a phone call (25 cent per minute) if I wanted more specific support. I was not exactly the only client willing to pay 25 cent per minute for free legal advice, so Juridisch Loket kept me waiting for almost half an hour. When I finally got through, a consultant told me that my case was too complex to be solved through phone, so I needed to visit in person, making sure to bring all  documents relevant to my case.

The nearest office of the Juridisch Loket is one hour from my home town, but at least I would have the chance to talk through my Complex Case with a Real Lawyer! My consult lasted 20 minutes. Without even looking into the specifics of my Complex Case, a dark-haired bimbo refered me to a real lawyer, who was available for providing subsidised legal help. Her computer had the flu, so details were to follow later.

One week later, the Real Lawyer told me he was not really interested in my case, or, in his words, costs and benefits were out of balance. I left with a strong impression that the case was too much work for the standard fee he would get from subsidised legal help.

To sum up, The Netherlands have a nice carroussel up and running, with Consuwijzer, ACM, Juridisch Loket and subsidised legal support, which is mainly running to support itself, and not exactly functional as a tool to protect the innocent Dutch consumer from scam artists. For practical problem solving, it is probably more effective to hire the local motorcycle gang. Our noble King has dubbed this principle 'Participation Society': every man for himself.

Fortunately, there are a number of independent and critical consumer organisations, on television in print. In my next posting, I will explain how helpful these are.

The state of Apple

I might have been willing to chalk off my bad experience with Apple as a sad isolated incident, if there had not been an obvious pattern visible in the media. Problems with high-end Mac Book Pros are structural.

Over the past decade, Apple has been washed away in the craze of making laptops smaller and lighter, to an extent where quality is jeopardized. Modern MBPs are so compact, they cannot dissipate their heat properly, and as a result, their components and their connections are slowly dying an untimely death, which is dubbed 'MeltBook Pro syndrome'. In addition, modern MBPs are basically a big blob of glue and solder, as all components are permanently glued or mounted to the logic board, making it impossible to upgrade, repair or replace them. That is, if one component dies, the whole laptop dies, and repair is not economically feasible. I do not think it is coincidence that the expected life of a MBP is three years, which is exactly the period covered by the AppleCare guarantee, which Apple buyers are advised to pay a premium for. If you want Apple service, pay for it,  buy a new machine after AppleCare expires, or shut up.

The MeltBook Pro syndrome is aggravated by design flaws, that expose the pattern as crystal clear. Owners of the 2011 generation of MacBook Pro have been enraged for at least one year, as their build of laptop suffers from failures closely tied to the Graphic Processor Unit failing, due to excessive heat. It is often suggested that this failure is caused by the use of lead-free solder, but a constant factor in this slate of problems is Apple looking away.

A petition titled 'Replace or Fix all 2011 MacBook Pro with Graphics Failures'  has been signed by more than 33,000 supporters, but Apple does not care. Apples discussion features a whopping 742-page long thread by Apple customers trying to get attention for their high end MBP dying, and the responses, or lack thereof, by Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers. While some customers are offered a free logic board replacement, many former Apple fans are paying as much as EU 700 for a repair, which in many cases lasts no longer than a few weeks. Sounds familiar? Customers are desperately trying to avoid the syndrome by switching off the dreaded GPU, by drilling holes in the bottom of their beatiful aluminium unibody, or by baking their machine like a pizza. The common pattern here is that Apple does not care. A Facebook page has been created to ask attention to the '2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card Issue' and, yet, Apple does not care. In the US state of California, a class action suit has been filed, and Apple does not care. In Canada, a national class action has been filed. Apple does not care.

Over the past decade, Apple has developed into a company, big enough to ignore its customers. While Steve Jobs' Apple created innovative products to suit the creative professional, Tim Cook has turned Apple into a money machine that pleases its shareholders, performing parlor tricks like taking the Icebucket Challenge or Coming out of this Closet, to entertain the masses. Walter Isaacson, author of The Innovators, stated in an interview with Think Big that Steve Jobs' favourite product was not so much the Mac, the iPad, the iPhone or the iPod. Steve's favourite was the Apple Team.

I am afraid that Steve Jobs would be seriously disappointed by his favourite product in its 2015 edition. While Apple Inc. will continue to profit from selling out the Jobs legacy, there is no way a misled team will continue to create great products. We will see why 2015 will be like 1984...

Rotten Apples

Shit happens, so when my MacBook Pro died in February 2013, I thought it was just bad luck, and though I was disappointed in Apple, I decided to shell out the €700 to have its logic board replaced. With a brand new core, my machine would last for years. At least, I hoped so.

Last summer, history repeated itself, and my MacBook Pro died again, with symptoms resembling February 2013. Fortunately, Dutch consumer law protects the innocent with the notion of 'conformity': in this case, I can expect a logic board I paid €700 for to last longer than one and a half year. Unfortunately, MacCity in Emmeloord, that had taken in my MBP for repair, initially did not respond at all, and then simply stated that they gave me only 1 year of guarantee. I sent them a formal letter, issuing a consumer claim, but the registered mail was refused. This company had dealt with complaints before. A second letter was answered with a response that my claim was rejected because my MacBook Pro had been repaired, and was not a new product, Apple had declared it 'vintage', so it would not be serviced anyways, Apple Canada was responsible, and the defect needed to be verified by an Authorized Apple Service Provider. In a subsequent email I explained that consumer law does apply to new computer parts, Apple notion of 'vintage' is not recognized by Dutch law,  the company that sold me the new logic board, i.e. MacCity, is responsible, and it suffices to have my MBP diagnosed by an independent lab. MacCity choose to ignore my reply. Indeed, they had experience with complaining customers!

I decided to take up the gauntlet and follow the money. A phone call with some Apple Authorized Service Providers revealed that my MacBook Pro had been repaired by MicroFix in Amsterdam. To my surprise, my contact suggested the logic board had been repaired, while I had paid for a new logic board. This was getting a little smelly. MicroFix refused to provide me any documentation on my repair, as they only wanted to deal with MacCity directly. So, there was no way for me to put the finger on the rotten apple: had MacCity asked MicroFix to patch up my logic board, and make me pay for a new board, had MicroFix played a trick on MacCity, or had mother Apple been involved? The mere fact that neither MacCity nor MicroFix showed even the slightest interest in proving me that I had gotten the new logic board I had paid for, suggested Apple was speaking the truth, so I decided to continue my inquiry with Apple.

Contacting Apple is easier said than done. I spent days writing, emailing, chatting and phoning Apple support engineers, Apple managers and Apple idiots, from Amsterdam, to Cork, to Cupertino, and the majority of them refused to answer my letters, emails, and calls, told me to write, email or call somebody else, or bluntly refused to answer my questions. For some reason, Apple was not interested in proving that Apple and associated companies were doing a good job. Apple did not care.

My concerns boiled down to one question. Apple is known to keep a registry of all Apple parts that are replaced by its service provider. So, if my logic board had been replaced, where did it go? It took me a couple of weeks to finally reach a support engineer who confirmed that (i) there was no information available to Apple about my 'replaced' logic board, which indicated that (ii) my logic board had not been replaced, but repaired instead. And, no, he could not provide me with the official documents of the repair history of my MBP. It was not the proof I had hoped for, but it was a strong indication there was something rotten in the state of The Netherlands.

I decided to climb the Apple tree, and it did not take long before I was contacted by Margaret Lordan, Executive Relations EMEIA of Apple Distribution International in Cork, Ireland. I had to look it up: EMEIA stands for Europe, Middle East India and Africa. And, yes, that is the branch of Apple that refuses to pay tax in Europe. Margaret Lordan refused to answer my letters and emails, and when I finally managed to get to her by phone, I understood why: she coldly told me that Apple does not consider itself bound by Dutch law, if I do not agree I better hire a lawyer, and if I do not like Apple, I better move to Microsoft Windows.

So, that is what I did. I configured a PC to run Ubuntu Linux, will install Windows for the software that does not run on Linux, and started my quest for legal help. The latter, however, was more complicated than I had hoped. Dutch consumer law is just a piece of paper, as we will see.

Dead on arrival

The year made an intense start, with me packing, mailing, giving away or trashing my stuff, trying to make it back to The Netherlands in one piece. I did not work.

For reasons unknown to me, my trusted MacBook Pro died during the trip, according to the Apple Authorized Service Provider it was sent to. As a result, I still have not got a chance to find a new home, and to start up my freelancing business.

For the first time in history, Apple hardware seriously disappoints me. My first Mac Plus ED came from a lot bought by me and several colleagues, under Apple's educational program in 1990. Two machines from the lot were dead on arrival, and were replaced after some discussion. My second Mac was a 7600 from 1996 and served me well for over 6 years, during which I granted it new hard disks, a new processor and lots of memory. The 17" AppleVision monitor that came with it, died after a couple of years, and was replaced under extended warranty. Its Quicksilver G4 successor gave me headaches from day 1, with total freezes every couple of hours. It was replaced after a couple of days and lasted until I sold it in 2008.

In November 2008 I bought this MacBook Pro which had worked like a charm until its sudden death. Two years ago the battery started to swell, and it was replaced under Apple Care. I had hoped that Apple would guarantee me a more or less problem-free ride, but at the moment I am seriously thinking about moving to Windows. I thoroughly hate the design of Windows, and the hardware it usually runs on, but at the moment, I do not feel the quality of Apple hardware warrants the premium price. At the moment, I am waiting to see what Apple says about it. If Apple thinks it is normal that their MacBook Pro lasts no longer than four years, then it is time to move on.

The year 2013 opened with a couple of nasty surprises, like Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands and the Pope resigning. If it is also the year that another Mac enthusiast resigns, then it might as well be the year the world ends. We will see...

Happy little poems II

België (Het Goede Doel)

Waar kan ik heen.
Ik kan niet naar Duitsland
Kan niet naar Duitsland daar zijn ze zo streng

Waar kan ik heen
Ik kan niet naar Chili
Kan niet naar Chili daar doen ze zo eng

'k Wil niet wonen in Koeweit
Want Koeweit dat is me te heet
En wat Amerika betreft
Dat land bestaat niet echt

Waar kan ik heen
Ik wil niet naar Noord-Ierland
Niet Noord-Ierland daar gaat alles stuk

Waar kan ik heen
Ik kan niet naar China
'k Wil niet naar China dat is met te druk

'k Wil niet wonen in Schotland
Want Schotland dat is me te nat
En de USSR dat gaat me net te ver

Waar kan ik heen
Ik kan niet naar Cuba
'k Wil niet naar Cuba dat is me te zoet

Waar kan ik heen
Ik kan niet naar Polen
'k Wil niet naar Polen daar gaat het te goed

Ik wil niet wonen in Lapland
Want Lapland dat is me te koud
En ik wil weg uit Nederland
Want hier krijg ik het benauwd

Is er leven op Pluto
Kun je dansen op de maan
Is er een plaats tussen de sterren waar ik heen kan gaan

'k Heb getwijfeld over België
Omdat iedereen daar lacht
'k Heb getwijfeld over België
Want dat taaltje is zo zacht
'k Stond zelfs in dubio
Maar ik nam geen enkel risico
'k Heb getwijfeld over België

Is er leven op Pluto
Kun je dansen op de maan
Is er een plaats tussen de sterren waar ik heen kan gaan


Naschrift: België is niet echt een optie, sinds ze ook meedoen aan de euro. Blijven alleen Pluto en de maan over...

Happy little poems I

Boutade (P.A. de Genestet)

O land van mest en mist, van vuilen, kouden regen,
Doorsijperd stukske grond, vol killen dauw en damp,
Vol vuns, onpeilbaar slijk en ondoorwaadbre wegen,
Vol jicht en parapluies, vol kiespijn en vol kramp!

O saaie brij-moeras, o erf van overschoenen,
Van kikkers, baggerlui, schoenlappers, moddergoôn,
Van eenden groot en klein, in allerlei fatsoenen,
Ontvang het najaarswee van uw verkouden zoon!

Uw kliemerig klimaat maakt mij het bloed in de aderen
Tot modder; ’k heb geen lied, geen honger, vreugd noch vreê.
Trek overschoenen aan, gewijde grond der Vaderen,
Gij niet op mijn verzoek, ontwoekerd aan de zee.

Erikos

Disappointing as it may be, after half a year of job hunting, I am still unemployed, so it is time to move back to The Netherlands. Right after graduation, I was quite optimistic, as a fistful of studios had shown interest in my work, but during summer, I realised once more that a Canadian 'Wow' means just as little as a Dutch 'leuk'. That is, most of the studios that had asked me to contact them, did not even respond to my email or phone calls. One the major studios had already told me they were not going to eat through the red tape of supporting me getting a work permit. I appreciate their honesty in this, but in general, the bigger studios have no problem in hiring people, while the smaller studios shy away from the necessary formalities. On top of that, I learnt that it is not always an advantage to be a Max the Mutt graduate, as the reputation of the school seems to be less than stellar.

During the school's Industry Night, I learnt that two of the four 2011 graduates were still unemployed, while one of them seems to be freelancing in his home country; I do not now about number four. So, I was already a little prepared that it would not be so easy to find a job but, of course, I had hoped to do better. Of the seven 2012 graduates, I know that one is working, one is fighting the evil Turks in his homeland Greece and I can only hope he will survive, as he still owes me $2. I spent some time practicing google-fu, but I have not been able to secure a definite status for the others. I wish them good luck.

For now, I will need to find a home in The Netherlands, and hope to start freelancing there, although the emphasis will be more on illustrating than on animating, as the Dutch do not really have an animation tradition. In the meantime, I will keep looking for jobs abroad, preferably out of the euro zone. I am a firm disbeliever in Europe, and am afraid the single Greek who still owes me $2 will be the least of my problems.