My wife had the misfortune of dropping her iPhone 4 from about 2.5 feet onto pavement. Front glass spiderwebbed, nice and cracked. Still worked, just cracked/shattered.
We made a pilgrimage to our nearest Apple Store, down in Charleston. On the way, I used the Apple Store app from my phone to make a Genius Bar appointment. Followed the recommended process and all.
Got there early, checked in, milled about for a while, oogling the Air models. When our name was called, we met the Genius, who was a very polite young lady, and explained what had happened, showed her the shatter-screened phone.
She calmly explained that this type of damage wasn't covered under warranty, to which I immediately agreed, and said we expected to have to pay the Out-Of_Warrenty fee. I then politely asked if there was any way we could possibly, just this one, avoid having to pay that fee and get a refurb phone.
She looked me in the eye and asked, "would you say you are the argumentative type?" I replied, no, ma'am, I don't intend to argue for this at all, I'm asking it as a favor, not demanding anything at all. She was smiling when she asked it, and I was smiling when I answered.
She surprised me by saying, "well, it's not covered, but we will go ahead and swap it out with a refurb and cover it under warranty, just this once." I was very pleasantly surprised! We thanked her profusely, chatted with some other folks at the Genius Bar while she swapped SIMs, all very relaxed. When she was done, we were on our way.
No moral to the story, other than what I've learned time and time again. If you break something and it's your fault, own up to it, don't try to lie about it. Be pleasant, ask nicely, and don't present yourself as the south end of a northbound equine. Usually, it works wonders. It did today.
By rights, we should have had to pay $199 plus tax. Apple's rep decided that this time, we didn't have to pay that. We're grateful.
With all the vitriolic stories we hear about "I broke/drowned my phone/laptop and I demand a new one or else", I just wanted to share a happy story.
EDIT: While we were waiting, another Genius was helping a lady with what appeared to be a 2007-or-so MBP. I could overhear part of her complaint, that it would work for a while, get hot, then the screen would go blank. Eavesdropping, I gathered the Genius in her case decided there was a problem with the logic board in her model MBP, and while he couldn't give her a brand-new one, he would authorize a complete repair of her at no cost.
Loves me some Apple Support.
We made a pilgrimage to our nearest Apple Store, down in Charleston. On the way, I used the Apple Store app from my phone to make a Genius Bar appointment. Followed the recommended process and all.
Got there early, checked in, milled about for a while, oogling the Air models. When our name was called, we met the Genius, who was a very polite young lady, and explained what had happened, showed her the shatter-screened phone.
She calmly explained that this type of damage wasn't covered under warranty, to which I immediately agreed, and said we expected to have to pay the Out-Of_Warrenty fee. I then politely asked if there was any way we could possibly, just this one, avoid having to pay that fee and get a refurb phone.
She looked me in the eye and asked, "would you say you are the argumentative type?" I replied, no, ma'am, I don't intend to argue for this at all, I'm asking it as a favor, not demanding anything at all. She was smiling when she asked it, and I was smiling when I answered.
She surprised me by saying, "well, it's not covered, but we will go ahead and swap it out with a refurb and cover it under warranty, just this once." I was very pleasantly surprised! We thanked her profusely, chatted with some other folks at the Genius Bar while she swapped SIMs, all very relaxed. When she was done, we were on our way.
No moral to the story, other than what I've learned time and time again. If you break something and it's your fault, own up to it, don't try to lie about it. Be pleasant, ask nicely, and don't present yourself as the south end of a northbound equine. Usually, it works wonders. It did today.
By rights, we should have had to pay $199 plus tax. Apple's rep decided that this time, we didn't have to pay that. We're grateful.
With all the vitriolic stories we hear about "I broke/drowned my phone/laptop and I demand a new one or else", I just wanted to share a happy story.
EDIT: While we were waiting, another Genius was helping a lady with what appeared to be a 2007-or-so MBP. I could overhear part of her complaint, that it would work for a while, get hot, then the screen would go blank. Eavesdropping, I gathered the Genius in her case decided there was a problem with the logic board in her model MBP, and while he couldn't give her a brand-new one, he would authorize a complete repair of her at no cost.
Loves me some Apple Support.
