I picked up my phone yesterday (Thursday) after dropping it off on Saturday. There were problems with the phone, so they gave me a new one and went ahead and refunded the $85 I had to pay to replace the battery. Very impressed with the service. Good job, Apple.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Initiates iPhone 5 Sleep/Wake Button Replacement Program [Updated]
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
yanki01
macrumors 68040
Sorry, all they said was "there were complications with fixing it". It was in for the power button fix, and the phone was in perfect condition other than that.
yanki01
macrumors 68040
What an ordeal!
Don't do this unless you have a LOT of spare time on your hands!
The Apple tech took the SIM card out of my original iphone 5 and popped it in my loaner phone. Worked until JUST after I got home! Then, "invalid SIM." I have now spent 3 hours in the Apple store, 1.5 hours online chatting with Apple techs online and by phone, and 2.5 hours doing various updates, upgrades, and resets on my own. I'm on my second loaner phone. The SIM from my original STILL won't work! After every step of troubleshooting, it comes on for about 10-15 minutes, then pops right back to "invalid SIM."
Apple told me to contact Sprint for a new SIM. Sprint support refused and said it was Apple's fault for damaging the original equipment (an Apple tech is the only person ever to have handled the actual SIM card). Now I have to wait in line at a Sprint store for God knows how long, and beg for a manager to help me, on a Sunday!
My time is worth $40/hr, and I could have been earning this weekend. I should have swallowed the deductible on my insurance and claimed this phone as lost, since Apple and Sprint both clearly don't care enough to give me a working phone in a reasonable amount of time!
Don't do this unless you have a LOT of spare time on your hands!
The Apple tech took the SIM card out of my original iphone 5 and popped it in my loaner phone. Worked until JUST after I got home! Then, "invalid SIM." I have now spent 3 hours in the Apple store, 1.5 hours online chatting with Apple techs online and by phone, and 2.5 hours doing various updates, upgrades, and resets on my own. I'm on my second loaner phone. The SIM from my original STILL won't work! After every step of troubleshooting, it comes on for about 10-15 minutes, then pops right back to "invalid SIM."
Apple told me to contact Sprint for a new SIM. Sprint support refused and said it was Apple's fault for damaging the original equipment (an Apple tech is the only person ever to have handled the actual SIM card). Now I have to wait in line at a Sprint store for God knows how long, and beg for a manager to help me, on a Sunday!
My time is worth $40/hr, and I could have been earning this weekend. I should have swallowed the deductible on my insurance and claimed this phone as lost, since Apple and Sprint both clearly don't care enough to give me a working phone in a reasonable amount of time!
I'm going to mail mine in tomorrow. I still have my iphone 4 and I have a sim converter that should be coming in the mail soon. So I'll use that till my i5 comes back. So what is the general consensus on i5's coming back? Are they the original phone with a new power button? New batteries with the old phone? Are a lot of you getting refurbs? How long did it take? Are you happy?
I sent my iPhone 5 away on a Thursday and got a nice new / refurb on the following thursday so that was only 7 days in total. well worth it, phone came back running iOs 7.0.6 but restoring it required me to update to 7.1.2 for some reason, oh well.
T-Will
macrumors 65816
Just went to the Apple Store in Roseville, CA yesterday to figure out what to do with my wife's cracked screen/power button issue. I believe they stated it would have been 8-10 days for the power button repair.
In any case, we just went with the $270 option for a new/refurbished iPhone replacement (our homeowner's insurance has a $50 deductible that covers the replacement cost).
In any case, we just went with the $270 option for a new/refurbished iPhone replacement (our homeowner's insurance has a $50 deductible that covers the replacement cost).
My iPhone 5's sleep/wake button was having issues and luckily my phone was eligible for the repair. I took my phone into the apple store and went through the process, they gave me a loaner phone, and a few days later they called me saying they were unable to repair my device because the phone was very slightly bent. This came as a shock to me because I have taken very good care of my phone.
I'd rather just keep the loaner phone they gave me as it is in good condition and I don't want to deal with the faulty sleep/wake button in my original phone since they were unable to repair it.
Are there any costs involved in keeping the loaner phone?
I'd rather just keep the loaner phone they gave me as it is in good condition and I don't want to deal with the faulty sleep/wake button in my original phone since they were unable to repair it.
Are there any costs involved in keeping the loaner phone?
I got mine fixed in a week. My sleep / wake button was covered under the program but did not exhibit any problems when they tested it in store. They sent it for repair anyway. I got my same exact phone back but they replaced the battery and camera as well.
Yes the Apple Genius got a list of all things that they fixed. I can definitely confirm the camera was fixed because before I sent it in, there were light gray spots when I turned the camera on (which also showed up in photos) but now it is crystal clear.
Cool I hope they do that with mine too! I hope I get that good of customer service too!
It started off kind of bizzare... When I first called the support guy seemed completely unaware of the power button replacement program. He told me I'm out of warranty and I'd have to pay full repair price. Then I told him about the website and putting my serial number and he put me on hold. Ten minutes later he came back and said I didn't qualify. I told him I'm at your website putting my number in right now an it says I'm eligible! He put me back on hold! About 10 more minutes later he came back on and started saying they had a technical glitch and I am actually eligible for it and they sent me out a box right away. My phone is there now in the "diagnosing" phase. It seemed fishy though how he was acting. Either he was trained to try to steer uneducated people away from their free services or he truly had a "glitch" in his system. Either way I'm not impressed he wasn't aware of their program that started a few months ago! Hopefully I get a phone back that has some newer guts too!
Got mine back today! New battery and camera also! Very happy. Sent it in Monday and got it back today Thursday. Pretty impressive apple!
Fixed my volume down button too...
Edit: hmmm literally as I was writing that my phone started doing some weird intermittent freezing then the screen froze all weird and it rebooted itself!!! But it seems ok at the moment. Hopefully it doesn't do that again!!
My phone had the funky splotches on the camera and Apple wanted $269 to fix it before they would handle the recall . . . eventough the camera is replaced as part of the sleep/wake repair process.
Last edited:
So weird. I had the same splotches (see my previous post) and they fixed it with no problems.
Just got mine back
Took mine in two weeks ago for the button issue. It actually started showing the symptoms around the time they made the announcement. Just didnt have time to go to the store till recently.
Went in, demonstrated the issue to the apple store person, got put with a genius, and they had me walking out with a loaner in less than 25 minutes. Was told repair would take 5 days. After day 7, i went by and they told me my phone had just come back, but was "unrepairable". I was a little miffed because my 5 was in perfect condition, even the genius remarked at how well i had taken care if it when i turned it in. But, i took my "new" phone (they gave me a refurb but called it new) home and called it a day. All in all it was a very painless procedure, and honestly, probably the easiest factory authorized repair/recall of any device i have ever dealt with.
Took mine in two weeks ago for the button issue. It actually started showing the symptoms around the time they made the announcement. Just didnt have time to go to the store till recently.
Went in, demonstrated the issue to the apple store person, got put with a genius, and they had me walking out with a loaner in less than 25 minutes. Was told repair would take 5 days. After day 7, i went by and they told me my phone had just come back, but was "unrepairable". I was a little miffed because my 5 was in perfect condition, even the genius remarked at how well i had taken care if it when i turned it in. But, i took my "new" phone (they gave me a refurb but called it new) home and called it a day. All in all it was a very painless procedure, and honestly, probably the easiest factory authorized repair/recall of any device i have ever dealt with.
I have my iPhone 5 since day one here in Germany. The sleep/wake button started acting up just a week ago and I remembered reading something about the issue. Only two or three weeks ago I planned on having the battery replaced but then I came across this thread and read about all the nice things Apple would do to my almost two year old phone. 😀
I called it in on a freaking sunday(!) 4 pm, right after I got home after a heavy party weekend. What else would you do!? 😛 So UPS picked up my iPhone the next day / monday at 12:30 pm and I got it back half an hour ago 10:20 am (CET) thursday. 😎 It's the same / my beloved phone. They changed the flex cable, battery and camera.
This is not the first time that I'm really really happy and impressed with their service.
I called it in on a freaking sunday(!) 4 pm, right after I got home after a heavy party weekend. What else would you do!? 😛 So UPS picked up my iPhone the next day / monday at 12:30 pm and I got it back half an hour ago 10:20 am (CET) thursday. 😎 It's the same / my beloved phone. They changed the flex cable, battery and camera.
This is not the first time that I'm really really happy and impressed with their service.
Took mine in a couple of weeks back to the Tampa, FL Apple store. Within a week it was done although not repaired because supposedly the form came back that there was damage to the screen which made it unrepairable (this was not the case and the Apple store person didn't understand the comment either) but they simply replaced it.
So in short- handled OK but I am still disappointed this was a 'soft' recall- Apple knows which handsets are affected, right? That's why they can ask for a serial # to identify whether the handset is eligible... and they have everyone's contact info so they could have proactively emailed owners of the affected models to let them know this program existed. But they didn't, presumably in the hopes of keeping the numbers down and hoping people either put up with the problem or pay for it to be fixed themselves.
And apart from anything, the number of people here with handsets which must be less than 2 years old which Apple itself say the batteries need replacing is also a concern when it comes to the quality/longevity of the iPhone.
So in short- handled OK but I am still disappointed this was a 'soft' recall- Apple knows which handsets are affected, right? That's why they can ask for a serial # to identify whether the handset is eligible... and they have everyone's contact info so they could have proactively emailed owners of the affected models to let them know this program existed. But they didn't, presumably in the hopes of keeping the numbers down and hoping people either put up with the problem or pay for it to be fixed themselves.
And apart from anything, the number of people here with handsets which must be less than 2 years old which Apple itself say the batteries need replacing is also a concern when it comes to the quality/longevity of the iPhone.
5 days and iPhone hasn't left the store?
I took my phone into the Regents Street store in London on Monday to replace the sleep/wake button and they took the phone away to be sent off and gave me a loaner.
It is now Friday and the status on the Apple repair tracking still says "Shipment to repair center pending".
Surely that doesn't mean in 5 days it hasn't even left the store? This is my first experience of Apple repairing something, so I'm wondering if this is normal? Does the tracking update regularly?
Any help would be appreciated as to whether I should be worried by that?
I took my phone into the Regents Street store in London on Monday to replace the sleep/wake button and they took the phone away to be sent off and gave me a loaner.
It is now Friday and the status on the Apple repair tracking still says "Shipment to repair center pending".
Surely that doesn't mean in 5 days it hasn't even left the store? This is my first experience of Apple repairing something, so I'm wondering if this is normal? Does the tracking update regularly?
Any help would be appreciated as to whether I should be worried by that?
Get my phone back in 5 days. Funky splotches on the camera issue is gone, i think they replaced the camera. Didn't know what else they have replaced since the confirmation email didn't have a breakdown of service.
Definitely worth the effort of bringing it for recall.
BTW, my phone had no problem with the power/sleep button.
Definitely worth the effort of bringing it for recall.
BTW, my phone had no problem with the power/sleep button.
Pretty sure they changed the cable and also put in a new battery. Best thing will be your "like new" standby time. 😉
You could check the load cycles with icopybot.
Heh, Just thought I'd post as I got mine back last night from a mail in repair from the UK.
Just spent a week using my wife's old iPhone 3GS that has been through the wash a few times 😱
Anyway, I'm also very pleased with the service - new flex cable, camera module and battery. Battery arrived at 60% charge and I topped it up whilst resyncing the phone overnight. I checked the battery earlier with iBackupBot and it's still on 0 cycles. I'll definitely keep this one going for a while longer!
Before service mine would occasionally take a screen shot if I woke it up with the home button - I guess the power button was stuck in at those times.
Just spent a week using my wife's old iPhone 3GS that has been through the wash a few times 😱
Anyway, I'm also very pleased with the service - new flex cable, camera module and battery. Battery arrived at 60% charge and I topped it up whilst resyncing the phone overnight. I checked the battery earlier with iBackupBot and it's still on 0 cycles. I'll definitely keep this one going for a while longer!
Before service mine would occasionally take a screen shot if I woke it up with the home button - I guess the power button was stuck in at those times.
Aaaand I smashed it on the 9th of September. 😡 Has been a short pleasure. Great timing though. 😀
No name on return address?
I chatted with Apple support earlier today to request a box and get a repair set up for this issue (along with the battery replacement program). I went to review the information in my support profile and noticed my name isn't shown in the return shipping address section on the repair status screen. It just shows the street, city, state, zip, and country.
Is it normal behavior that my name isn't shown? The reason I ask is because I didn't include my name when the rep asked me to confirm my address (he already knew my name). This is my first time having service done with Apple, so I'm not quite sure what to expect. Should my name be there or do they only show the address portion without the name? I guess I could just wait and see how the box arrives...
I chatted with Apple support earlier today to request a box and get a repair set up for this issue (along with the battery replacement program). I went to review the information in my support profile and noticed my name isn't shown in the return shipping address section on the repair status screen. It just shows the street, city, state, zip, and country.
Is it normal behavior that my name isn't shown? The reason I ask is because I didn't include my name when the rep asked me to confirm my address (he already knew my name). This is my first time having service done with Apple, so I'm not quite sure what to expect. Should my name be there or do they only show the address portion without the name? I guess I could just wait and see how the box arrives...