Apple computer stores in Hua Hin

[12sid]

I am thinking of buying an Apple laptop, ipad, and iphone primarily because of the excellent tech support offered at Apple stores here in the USA. I am wondering if similar tech support is available at an Apple store in Hua Hin, as my wife and I will be moving there in the near future. So, feedback from any expat Apple product owners living in Hua Hin would be greatly appreciated. Sid Leonard

[JamesWest]

i am a american from Los Angeles living in Hua Hin. I will answer your questions if you bring me a double double with onions from In and Out Burger.

top floor of Market Village, south side near the front. can't miss it.

looks just like a Apple store but it is not really Apple. they have the latest models.

i was able to buy a replacement 85w mag power supply for my MacBook Pro.

there is a repair place there also but i have not used it.

i was surprised the woman in the store spoke VERY GOOD english. rare.

if by tech support, you mean like a genius bar, your biggest problem will be communicating a complex issue to the Thais. this varies everywhere you go.

there are many expats on forums and in real life in hua hin who could help you with setup and software questions.

i would buy accessories in the USA and bring them over. Impossible to find good quality accessories in Thailand. All of it is just junk. you can get external hard drives.

Hua Hin really is a challenge to find many things because it is a resort town and everything cost more with limited selection. Bangkok is the place to look.

in the USA i would just order parts from the web and fix my apple computers myself. not that hard really. not easy to do in thailand.

remember there are many fake Apple computers and products flying around thailand.

[brianks]

Interestingly Apple has a repair store down here in the south in Nakhon Si Thammarat. An english speaking South African works there and handles the issues. Quite easy to work with but as with Apple, not very reasonably priced. Of course there would be an Apple repair shop in BKK somewhere too.

[12sid]

Thank you James and brianks for the information. Sid L.

[kalayaestates]

i'm an electronics engineer (military systems, computers, microwave radio, my own company etc) for over 40 years. My wife insisted on an iphone against my advice. So iphone 6s failed after 6 months use.She took to the Apple store (which is not an apple store, and I was not with her) in hua hin market village big building top floor where we bought it, the failure mode (no screen display) occurred using it to take a video in bright (normal Thailand) sunlight - the phone felt very hot then failed. The store guy took the phone out the back and then came back grinning stating the white/red tag had been displayed red, which means it had "water damage" which liquidated the warranty (no pun intended). You need to see about this red tag it is a half millimeter tag inside the sim card holder, research it on youtube and buy a magnifying glass and torch. 200 UK pounds later we had a replacement. Comment, She never took it in the bathroom the only things we can assume is one of two things, inside a car it's very cold (aircon) and then by taking a phone outside immediately it gets all the airborne moisture to condense inside and on it, take a cold bottle out of your fridge here when its 34 C and 90% rel humidity and see what I mean!. Or, the iphone guy "fixed" it out the back to get a warranty repair. Summary the phone are not environmentally protected and will not shut down in heat and moisture interally will damage them. Now we have had this phone fail, fault 9, etc, rebooted, basically its now a unfixable HDD (small solid state drive) problem. We shal take it back, check the no red tag is white, video the store and wait to see what they do under warranty. Or its to a genuine apple store (wish i did this first) in Silom BKK

[euromariner]

Beware of Icare in Hua Hin, as they DON'T CARE, we had an iphone 6S from new with this company and it failed due to condensation (cold car aircon to warm air transition, like you get on cold bottles.) This happened after 6 months. Icare staff took the phone out the back and came back announcing a white/red tiny indicator in the handset's SIM port hole had gone from white to red. They stated sorry you made it wet, cost 300 pounds to replace.

A typical, badly sealed electronic environmental problem (I own a company manufacturing marine electronics so I have 35 years experience in this.) Now the new replacement which the shop stated orally "would be under warranty" for another year from the date we got it, failed after 6 weeks. Would not reboot after random reboots. My wife who is Thai accepted all of this nonsense happily.

On examination it was the memory fault which plagues apple 6s (poor memory part selection in a memory controller). However, when we asked icare to replace it under “warranty” they actually laughed at me and asked me to telephone "apple singapore" as deal with them, as it was 1 month out of warranty on the original phone.! I have that as a video recording. This company is scurrilous, I am not sure it gets Asian grey market products from singapore and anyway the Apple products are not tested properly for the environment they are destined to work in. The shop is not a true apple reseller. Avoid this company and avoid apple products dont ever buy an iphone in asia get it from a country which has sales laws, (EU/UK) as thailand has none whatsoever. So caveat emptor. If the warranty replacement is only 1 day old and it fails 1 day after your original warranty expires, you are out of luck dudes.

[SydneyGuy]

After having worked in IT for nearly 20 years in Sydney, i can confirm ALL modern mobile devices have a water damage indicator inside, this is the first thing a supplier/vendor will check if you have ANY warranty issues. If the water damage indicator returns a positive result, no warranty

[Big Boy]

Even if it's condensation on a new device?

[SydneyGuy]

Yes unfortunately if the water damage indicator changes colour,warranty is null and void.
They simply assume the worst and suspect you split some sort of liquid on the device.

[barrys]

Even if it's condensation on a new device?

Yes unfortunately if the water damage indicator changes colour,warranty is null and void.
They simply assume the worst and suspect you split some sort of liquid on the device.

Sounds like an opportunity for a class action in Florida perhaps .......

[euromariner]

hi posters, let's get this right, you cannot see water vapour as it's in its vapour phase, that's the point and good for a class action suit I guess. So if the damn thing is not sealed the water vapour is inside - but harmless UNTIL there is a change in temperature, easily achieved in Thailand from your nice cold car or house down to the beach. The vapour then condenses on the cold surface, like your Chang/coke beer bottles, which is inside the phone (the beer is indside you, one hopes) ....so bang or fizzle - and it's goodbye warranty. Now, go to google, tell your loving fashion concious Thai wife that the "iphone" is now old-hat as a fashion statement, look up a 4k video of Samsung S7 Edge and see it dropped under 1 meter water... All the ports are sealed in a very clever way. In the military electronic circles, most equipment is sealed and has a thing called a dessicator + indicator in it. This tube holds harmless dessicant crystals, indicator is Blue which soak up water inside the equipment even if it's sealed (indicator goes red). Sometimes when you buy small electronic items these crystals are in a bag in the packing marked "do not eat". Finally and this is where apple are ass-holes, there is also a type of electronic lacquer spray which is called TROPICALISATION, invented in WW2 for exactly this reason as older WW2 radios (your iphone is a radio telephone nothing more nothing less) had to be tropicalised or the moisture would kill them. Apple dont treat their circuit boards. I have the Icare staff laughing at me lying in Thai as if I am a farang joke, after buying two iphone 6s from them, the dead phone is back in the UK now and I am going to do a youtube item on this under my hobby (audio ) site of ebaystars where I pan audio products.