Apple iPad Air (4th Gen) Wi-Fi (2020)

Lasted until just out of warranty and Apple confirmed a 'Hardware Fault' and told us to buy a new one – My wife and I purchased an Apple iPad Air and Gen 2 pencil in late December 2020 - with the first usage in 2021. We spent the extra money to buy the Air model (with top 256gb memory) so that we could, as artists, try the Procreate software for producing art. The unit has received very little use and was looked after immaculately. Since the day we… Read more

bought it, there were intermittent issues with the touch functionality and intermittent minor freezes. We thought this was strange but others told us that, like all computers, sometimes iPads can have 'freezes' etc and can be fixed with forced shutdowns etc - which always worked. Last week, whilst using it to read the newspaper, the screen froze and the iPad would not even allow itself to be shut down. I made an appointment with our local Apple store. After relating the story to the service agent, she had it examined by a technician who told us it was a 'Full hardware breakdown' and was unrepairable. The customer service agent commented that the unit was clearly well-looked after and looked new - which is true. And even the battery life was still at 100%, She then told us that unfortunately the unit was just outside the usual replacement period and told us to simply throw it out and buy a new one! In the inspection process they destroyed an expensive glass screen protector and wiped the drive of our softwares and files. We were shocked and asked her if it was normal for an iPad to last only 3 years(?) - especially one costing well over $1000 at the time! She told us this was not abnormal and that an iPad, regardless of its cost bracket, could be expected to last between 3 - 10 yrs. We have been extremely disappointed and shocked by Apple's response that, despite even our previous intermittent 'hardware issues' since purchase, it was considered perfectly 'normal and expected' for a $1000-plus-machine to last only 3 years! After our family's recently purchasing the latest iPhones (and many other Apple products over the last 10yrs - which would easily run into the 10s of thousands of dollars), we expected a better and more reasonable response from Apple! The service attendant tried to persuade us to buy another iPad at the time of our appointment, however, after this dismal and unfair response from Apple I wonder why we would consider continuing to be Apple customers? Unfortunately, this tends to appear like a large company, with complete power over us as customers, refusing to adequately address a clear manufacturing fault, and leaving us with little or no recourse to a just and fair outcome. We feel so unnecessarily betrayed and disappointed by Apple's treatment of us as loyal customers.