A few customers who visited authorised Apple resellers in Malaysia have reported that they were forced to purchase their protection plan. There was also a claim that customers were forced to buy a protection plan if they chose to pay through a 0% installment plan.
In a comment section under one of our article posts on Facebook, a reader brought up that they went to authorised Apple reseller Machines in 1 Utama to purchase an iPhone 14 Pro Max. However, they claim that they would only be able to purchase it there if they were to purchase a protection plan with it.
“Isn’t it illegal to force a bundle like that? At the very least highly unethical,” wrote a commenter.
Separately, Xavier Naxa on Twitter claimed that he was forced to buy a protection plan if he chose to purchase an item through a 0% installment plan. He also called out to boycott Apple-authorised resellers that do this. Naxa didn’t specify which authorised reseller he went to.
I tried reaching out to both Machines and Switch—the authorised Apple resellers in Malaysia. Switch’s customer service explained that their customers are not forced to purchase any protection plans when purchasing an item from them. However, I was not able to hear from Machines yet, but I will keep you updated if they do get back to us.
I found that I was able to purchase the iPhone 14 Pro without needing to add on any protection plans on both Machines and Switch online stores. Machines, however, will present the protection plan to you as an add-on option for RM399. Switch also offers its own protection plan, but I wasn’t able to see it as an add-on.
Looking at the Machines site, it does confirm that they do in fact require customers to buy the protection plan if they buy the device at a retail store. But it depends on the participating bank.
Customers should not be forced to purchase a protection plan if they don’t want to, so hearing from different sources about how Apple authorised resellers could do this and get away with it is pretty unsettling. If you’ve faced the same issue, let us know in the comments—and we’ll also keep you updated if we’ve received a response from Machines or Apple.
