I’m British. I used to share my time between the UK and Spain and became resident in Spain last year (after I bought the Macbook in question). I also run a business in the UK, employee people in the UK, pay not just business tax, but personal tax in the UK (I am employed by the UK company), and also personal tax on my worldwide income in Spain (anything over and above what I’ve already paid in the UK — and in fact today I filed my Spanish tax return and now have another tax bill to pay).

Speaking of tax… Apple is an international company. The EU is the EU. We have common rights.

The use of different cards was only because their system wasn’t working (or, as it turned out, they had messed up the postcode so each card failed and their system thought I had paid when I hadn’t).

I would have used one card if they hadn’t made a mistake. But again, there is NO problem using other cards in EU countries (or any, basically, you have Visa and Mastercard in your country I guess?)

And the complaint about the different companies is based on the fact they will repair computers bought in any EU country in any other EU country — as they have to by law — but they impose ridiculous conditions on returns.

And then to take almost a month to refund me money is beyond a joke.

And why wouldn’t they send the replacement to Spain, even thought they’ve shipped an iMac I bought from Apple UK to Spain a few years ago?

My company is tiny compared with Apple, yet we shipped from the UK to Spain and other EU countries.

And anyway, do you think I want a laptop with a Spanish keyboard?

Glad you’ve had good experiences with Apple. I don’t wish you to have a bad one, but if/when you do you’ll have a different opinion. Read some of the comments on this article and my original piece, or google for it, and you’ll see MANY people have had terrible experiences too.