Not much to add to the title really.
My iPad 4 that I bought in December was on a mic stand adapter and the whole thing fell down, the iPad itself face down. This resulted in a nasty hairline crack that spread across 2/3 of the screen.
Wild guess -- single crack, no dents or shatters. right?
Boss has had a couple of those swaps on various iPads and iPhones that our crew have broken. Seems that Apple does give them a little leeway when it is that slight. Probably only one time on any item (and it's replacements)
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I'm not sure it's a refurb, I'm just guessing. It looks brand new.
Under Apple's definitions it's not a refurb.
They have three classes of items. New, remanufactured and refurbs.
New: everything just came hot off a factory line. Assembled and iOS installed. Random units QA tested. Most go into retail boxes with the appropriate accessories but a small cut could go into service boxes.
Remanufactured: Some things like the battery, display and enclosure came hot off the line. Some of the internal parts came off the line, some came out of dead swap units after extensive testing. retest to make sure there is no damage. install the OS and send it for service parts. Also referred to as 'like new'
Refurbs: Battery, display and enclosure are new. Everything else came out of a customer returned unit (so basically they take the return, pop off the outside, pop the guts into a new outside and add a fresh battery. Wipe and reinstall the OS. then test it to make sure they didn't break anything in the transfer). Package with appropriate accessories and send to online store for discounted sale.
Now go to a place like a carrier store and if you get a refurb you are getting an honest to goodness refurb. Might not have even been restored or even had the finger prints wiped off
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Any advice on "magic words" you can tell the apple store to get them to replace for free? (No apple care on this one.)
There are none. Trying to game the system generally just pisses them off even more.
Number one worse thing you can do is start the whole "do you know who I am, do you know how much I have bought it, I'm never buying anything from Apple again" type stuff. Stores are generally out of patience with that stuff and in a case where you are in the wrong like physical damage they won't budge. I've seen customers threaten to call the cops and have managers arrested, sue the company etc. One manager told the guy that now that he had invoked a lawsuit they could do nothing until the lawyers hashed it out. And he was banned from the store until Apple's lawyers said they had to let him come in, regardless of the reason for his visit. If he tried to come back before the lawyers called, he would be dragged out as a trespasser.
Go in expecting to pay with no fuss and if they do you a large, say thank you.
