Another positive apple care experience.

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Fernandez21

Fernandez21

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 16, 2010
4,567
2,783
Hi, well I have an iPhone 4S that I'm getting ready to sell to buy the new iPhone coming out. To bridge the gap between the time I sell my current iPhone and get the new one I decided to take my old iPhone 3G out from my closet to use in the mean time. Well, it turns out the battery doesn't work anymore, the handset is over 4 years old now, so that was no big surprise. It also had a ton of ware and tear, some cracks along the bottom, the bottom screws were rusted, and the dock connector and headphone jack turned green for some reason. Thought I was screwed but went to the apple store to see if they could replace the battery, it still powered on when connected to the wall.

Made an appointment and saw one of the apple geniuses. Really nice guy and explained to him what I wanted and asked how much it would cost. He told me $79 and that they would actually be replacing the whole thing! Stoked I went ahead and told him to do it and he comes back with an iPhone 3GS! I asked to make sure he wasn't making a mistake, I had a 3G, but nope, no mistake. So for $79 I pretty much got a brand new iPhone 3GS to replace my old phone, and now the wait for the new iPhone won't be quite as difficult.

At the same time I had brought in my MacBook Air because the rubber gasket around the screen was coming off. It was still under warrantee for ten more days, so I wanted to get that fixed before my warrantee was up and before it could get any worse. And to my surprise, they told me they were going to replace the whole top lid on my air (it had 1 dent, 2 DEEP scratches, and some minor chips). So my air is going to look practically new again. I was amazed because my last laptop, a Dell SXPS, had the same issue and Dell told me that was cosmetic and not covered under warrantee, and of course after those gaskets came off my laptop ended up getting a ton of scratches from the keyboard scratching the screen when I would close the lid. Apple not only fixed it before it became a problem, they replaced the top lid! And all under warrantee.

Thanks Apple, and it's stuff like this that keep me coming back for more.
 
brentmore

brentmore

macrumors 6502
Jul 19, 2002
263
1
ATX
It's always nice to read about the AppleCare success stories - now back to wading through the rants.
 
S

swiftbmx

macrumors 6502
Aug 23, 2009
257
22
AFDoc said:
Sounds like you don't take very good care of your expensive items. Scratches and cracks in your 3g, dents and deep scratches in your MBA. Glad they took care of you even though it seems you're very negligent.
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...... and there it is.
 
Arnezie

Arnezie

macrumors 65816
Oct 10, 2011
1,304
103
They know by doing these things you'll be loyal to them and that is the best marketing strategy (besides cutting edge products) they have going for them.
 
Fernandez21

Fernandez21

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 16, 2010
4,567
2,783
AFDoc said:
Sounds like you don't take very good care of your expensive items. Scratches and cracks in your 3g, dents and deep scratches in your MBA. Glad they took care of you even though it seems you're very negligent.
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Um, no not very. The iPhone 3G was 4 years old. The scratches were from using without a case. The crack was along the dock connector, and if you search old threads you'll see a lot of people had this problem.

As for the MacBook Air, it was mostly being inexperience of carrying my laptop with me everywhere for the first time. In the past I always left my laptops at home on a desk, but the 11" afforded me new found portability, I take it everywhere with me.

The first deep scratch happened when I was driving my work van, I had to replace the tire and put the car jack in the back. I had my air in the front on the floor between the drivers seat and passenger. Carelessly though, I didn't tie down the car jack which was on wheels, so at the next read light I hit the brakes and the car jack comes rolling along and hit my MacBook air. It cracked the case I had it in and left a big scratch number 1 along the edge of the top corner.

The second scratch came a couple months later, I had started carrying it around in a messenger bag and putting it on top of the seat now and off the floor. Well, I was driving my car and had set it on top of the back seat. While driving, someone cut me off and I had to slam on the brakes, and when I did my air, messenger bag and all, went flying forward and landed under the seat. When I picked it up, I saw that it had hit the metal track for the seat and caused deep scratch number 2.

As for the dent, well after the first two things happened, I began securing it under the passenger seat. Unfortunately for me I had not mentioned it to me wife it was under there and when she got in the car she adjusted the seat and it bent the back right corner of the top lid down, causing the dent. Fortunately it doesn't affect the MacBook in anyway other than appearences.

Other than those instances it just has some very light scratches that can only be seen at the right angle and small chips around the edges which again can't be seen unless you look for them. It works perfectly fine and I never asked for those to be fixed. My iPhone 4s only has one small scratch on the screen which I think is pretty good for a devise a year old, and my iPad only has some scuff marks from the smart cover I use. I may not baby my devises or put them in otter box cases, but I don't abuse them either. And all my devises were working just fine, even the iPhone 3G still turned on when it was plugged in.
 
willmtaylor

willmtaylor

macrumors G4
Oct 31, 2009
10,297
7,854
Here(-ish)
Fernandez21 said:
Um, no not very. The iPhone 3G was 4 years old. The scratches were from using without a case. The crack was along the dock connector, and if you search old threads you'll see a lot of people had this problem... it was plugged in.
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Dude, you don't need to justify yourself. Just ignore the trolls.

Congrats BTW, that's awesome.
 
T

thecurryman

macrumors 6502
Jun 9, 2012
328
37
Well in this case im gonna take my 3G in cuz the battery doesnt work right either! But i feel like when it comes to Apple's customer care, its all about what kind of person you get. Some people will replace a phone no questions asked, others will tell you every possible option BUT replacing the phone!
 
lordofthereef

lordofthereef

macrumors G5
Nov 29, 2011
12,899
3,419
Boston, MA
Fernandez21 said:
Um, no not very.
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Snipped for brevity.

If your ports were green, that is a sign of corrosion. That is not normal at all, even if the device is four years old, unless it spent it's four years buried in your garden or something. My guess is, wherever you stored it, was a humid place, at least for part of the year. Either that, or the battery leaked. If it's the latter, I would have expected a free replacement. because a leaking battery is never acceptable and warrants a recall.

In any case, it's nice you got it replaced and are happy with the swap. At the end of the day, that is what really matters. :)
 
willmtaylor

willmtaylor

macrumors G4
Oct 31, 2009
10,297
7,854
Here(-ish)
AFDoc said:
Simply pointing out the facts that if it wasn't apple he would of been SOL. What other company will replace obviously abused items?
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Very true! Many times with Apple it isn't guaranteed, but one sure has a better shot than with any other tech company!
 
V

voodoopenguin

macrumors newbie
Apr 26, 2011
28
0
AFDoc said:
Not trolling simply pointing out the facts that if it wasn't apple he would of been SOL. What other company will replace obviously abused items? You are right however, he doesn't need to justify himself.
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Yeah, I agree. I don't "baby" my apple products, but I don't have any scratches/ dings or any other sign of abuse on any of them.

I am glad that you had a good experience with the customer service! It's always nice to hear "success" stories.
 
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