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Any chance Apple will replace 3GS iPhone cracked screen for free? UPDATE: YES!

A

AppleFan360

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 26, 2008
2,217
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My daughter decided to drop her phone cracking the screen pretty bad. It has Applecare on it. She is taking it to the Apple store tomorrow.

I realize that she will probably have to pay $199 to get it fixed but has anyone here had a cracked screen replaced for free? I'm kind of hoping that Apple will be nice to her tomorrow. :)

Thanks.
 
Chris Blount said:
My daughter decided to drop her phone cracking the screen pretty bad. It has Applecare on it. She is taking it to the Apple store tomorrow.

I realize that she will probably have to pay $199 to get it fixed but has anyone here had a cracked screen replaced for free? I'm kind of hoping that Apple will be nice to her tomorrow. :)

Thanks.
Click to expand...
i had a cracked screen and when i took it in they said 199 to fix it. So i went home and bought a replacement screen on amazon for 15 dollars. The replacement is really easy there are plenty of videos on youtube on how to do it. I would suggest that method as 199 is way to much to spend. You can also send it out to get fixed for about 70 dollars from some places that offer repairs online.
 
svnty6rs3 said:
i had a cracked screen and when i took it in they said 199 to fix it. So i went home and bought a replacement screen on amazon for 15 dollars. The replacement is really easy there are plenty of videos on youtube on how to do it. I would suggest that method as 199 is way to much to spend. You can also send it out to get fixed for about 70 dollars from some places that offer repairs online.
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So easy to do.... that's why you see post after post of people breaking one of their ribbon wires and end up having to pay the $199 anyway.
You get a "new" phone when you swap so just pay the money, buy a go phone and don't let your daughter have it until she learns to be more careful with her stuff.
 
I dropped my 3GS on the cart path while playing golf and it had a single crack that went from the top of the screen to the bottom. I was about to use a local service that fixes screens for $100 when I figured I'd drop by the Apple store just for the helluva it. The Genius there said that because it was only a single crack and not spidered they would cover it. They gave me a brand new replacement. I don't know why the single crack made a difference and I didn't want to ask.
 
ktex1968 said:
I dropped my 3GS on the cart path while playing golf and it had a single crack that went from the top of the screen to the bottom. I was about to use a local service that fixes screens for $100 when I figured I'd drop by the Apple store just for the helluva it. The Genius there said that because it was only a single crack and not spidered they would cover it. They gave me a brand new replacement. I don't know why the single crack made a difference and I didn't want to ask.
Click to expand...

Lucky SOB:D
 
army91c said:
So easy to do.... that's why you see post after post of people breaking one of their ribbon wires and end up having to pay the $199 anyway.
You get a "new" phone when you swap so just pay the money, buy a go phone and don't let your daughter have it until she learns to be more careful with her stuff.
Click to expand...

As long as you follow the video step for step its pretty simple you just have to be careful. It cant hurt to try especially when it means you could be saving 180 dollars
 
I went with my friend today to the apple store. He dropped his 8GB 3G and went to the genius. We were really polite to him and explained it was an accident. He then said he'd "hook us up" and went to the back and replaced his screen for free!

edit: BTW his screen was BAD. cracked and webbed throughout!
 
sure its possible. i went in the other day and was polite fully intent on paying 199 for my water damaged phone. I didn't try to fool him i told him it was my fault i dropped it in water and i just needed to pay and get on my way. He went in the back came out and gave me a replacement for free. Guess it depends on the genius haha. This guy rocked
 
As a follow up, my daughter took her broken phone to the Apple store today. She was nice and polite and told the truth about what happened. They replaced her phone at no charge.
 
One other note. My daughter told them that the phone dropped about 3 feet. The Genius said that the phone is not supposed to break at 3 feet or below. That is the reason why it was replaced for free.

Honesty does pay off.
 
ktex1968 said:
I dropped my 3GS on the cart path while playing golf and it had a single crack that went from the top of the screen to the bottom. I was about to use a local service that fixes screens for $100 when I figured I'd drop by the Apple store just for the helluva it. The Genius there said that because it was only a single crack and not spidered they would cover it. They gave me a brand new replacement. I don't know why the single crack made a difference and I didn't want to ask.
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Same thing happened to me a couple years ago with my year-old 1st gen.

I was amazed.

:)
 
I wonder if anyone in NYC has any luck with these.

All the time I know people trying to go in for **** like this and they get denied. Weird.
 
army91c said:
So easy to do.... that's why you see post after post of people breaking one of their ribbon wires and end up having to pay the $199 anyway.
You get a "new" phone when you swap so just pay the money, buy a go phone and don't let your daughter have it until she learns to be more careful with her stuff.
Click to expand...

I will vouch, the ribbon cables are incredibly easy to break (I broke one on my 3G).

But army91c, accidents do happen. You can't tell me that you haven't ever broken something before.
 
I think with a single clean crack, it might or might not be an impact, it could be a weak piece of glass with a flaw in it that breaks easier than it should, so they often play it safe and be nice.

With a spiderweb crack, its clearly impact damage, no question.
 
iMacDragon said:
I think with a single clean crack, it might or might not be an impact, it could be a weak piece of glass with a flaw in it that breaks easier than it should, so they often play it safe and be nice.

With a spiderweb crack, its clearly impact damage, no question.
Click to expand...
In this case, it was a bad spiderweb crack. The genius actually tried to replace the screen but couldn't, so he gave her a new (probably refurbished) phone.
 
Chris Blount said:
In this case, it was a bad spiderweb crack. The genius actually tried to replace the screen but couldn't, so he gave her a new (probably refurbished) phone.
Click to expand...

Well, in your case I guess they were just plain feeling friendly and glad for honesty, then and lucky. I was thinking of the golf cart case above though, where it was quoted as a single crack.
 
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