Apple service center sues customer in Greece because he complained

[nickg78]

This is an extraordinary story that circulates the media in Greece, where the official Apple service center in Athens (Systemgraph) sued a customer and they demand that he pays 200 thousands euros, because he complained for his faulty iMac.

Here is how everything happened:

The customer (Mr. Dimitris Papadimitriadis) brought the iMac to the Apple service center after he found some gray spots and shadows on the screen. Four days later the service center told him that his display panel was replaced and they called him to take his iMac back home. But when he returned home, the customer realized that not only the problem was not fixed, but it had become worse than before.

He went for the second time to the Apple certified service center (Systemgraph) requesting this time a replace of his iMac, since it was not fixed the first time when they replaced only the display panel. They refused to replace the whole iMac and they told him that they could only replace the display panel for a second time, something that could take about a week. The customer was disappointed and continued asking for a replace of the iMac but they still refused.

Then he posted this exact story on a Greek forum. It is very common in Greece and every other country, some users describing in a forum post their experience with service centers. But a few days later he was told by a lawyer that the Apple certified center (Systemgraph) had sued him, demanding the amount of 200 thousands euros because, by posting his experience in the forum, he damaged the reputation of the company.

In a few words, not only they did not fix correctly his problem, but they sued him because he just posted his story on the Web, after the company refused to replace his faulty iMac when they asked them personally to do this.

You can read this story (translated by Google... maybe the translation is not so good) on the following links.

His forum post was calm, no bad words... he only describes what happened. Here is his forum post:

http://xxx.avclub.gr/forum/showthread.php?p=1382169 (in Greek)

or translated here:

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=el&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fxxx.avclub.gr%2Fforum%2Fshowthread.php%3Fp%3D1382169

and here he is informed that the company sued him:

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=el&tl=en&u=http://xxx.avclub.gr/forum/showthread.php%3Ft%3D67483%26page%3D12&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhhFmkZuEwivPFG2jeyj11W-8or3zQ

[c3ntury]

I'm sure once this hits the mainstream tech sites as news then they will back off.

[acnpt]

:blink: Hopefully they lose their Apple Certification.

I hate dealing with 'third party' service centres.

[.Neo]

I imagine "Systemgraph" will get into to trouble with Apple about this. It doesn't exactly reflect good on them either.

[Damian]

I imagine "Systemgraph" will get into to trouble with Apple about this. It doesn't exactly reflect good on them either.

They can lose their authorized reseller status. (No renewals)

[Fred Derf Veteran]

If his story is true then he should have nothing to fear from the lawsuit. If he was creative with the truth then it could be considered defamation.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Agreed. Did he post verbatim, or did he get somewhat fanciful with the tone and facts?

[nickg78]

If his story is true then he should have nothing to fear from the lawsuit. If he was creative with the truth then it could be considered defamation.

Yes, the story is absolutely true.

His forum post was calm, no bad words... he only describes what happened. Here is his forum post:

http://xxx.avclub.gr/forum/showthread.php?p=1382169 (in Greek)

or translated here:

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=el&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fxxx.avclub.gr%2Fforum%2Fshowthread.php%3Fp%3D1382169

and here he is informed that the company sued him:

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=el&tl=en&u=http://xxx.avclub.gr/forum/showthread.php%3Ft%3D67483%26page%3D12&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhhFmkZuEwivPFG2jeyj11W-8or3zQ

[Miuku]

I hate dealing with 'third party' service centres.

Actually I have to disagree here - the local Apple service centre here has gone beyond the call of duty to repair stuff and give assistance when necessary - they even send their techs on site when we back then didn't have such an agreement and replace faulty hardware after warranty has already expired from Apples side.

So it's a business by business basis whether they're excellent or like complete douche bags like in this article.

[Phillip Kardamakis]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20026918-71.html

A very interesting article on this matter