AppleCare is strict?

[KingKalukan]

I went to my local apple store with my iphone trying to get it returned under warranty because i have been having issues with my WiFi on it. It sometimes will just drop the WiFi on its own.
The problem arose once i stepped up to the genius bar, I hand over my phone to the macgenius and he says, whats wrong with it? I explain it to him, then he flips over my phone, where i scratched the phone and put in a .3(3/10)mm dent and says: "How did this happen?" I say well it fell into my couch and landed on a metal bar in there. He then replies: "Well this voids your warranty, its probably the reason that your WiFi isnt working". So it was a no to the warranty exchange. I bantered with him a moment saying that the dent isn't even anywhere near where the WiFi card is in the phone but he wouldnt hear it. Well i left the store and have been using it for the last few days, and then my friend told me i should send it in via mail because they would understand that it isn't the cause of the problem and that they are less strict then the apple genius bar is.

My question to you guys is: Is what my friend said true? do you think i have a better chance of getting my warranty worthy (IMO) phone repaired(Replaced) via mail?

Thank you ahead of time for your answers.

 

[JBaker122586]

Are you under the age of 26?

People in authority positions often refuse to respect younger people.
I believe this could be the case in your instance.

 

[Aries326]

Personally, I think that Mac "Genius" is probably an ***** who likes to use his position of authority to make other people miserable. You see that type in retail all the time. Next time go ask to speak with the manager of the store and explain to them nicely that the problems started before the phone was even dropped.

 

[redgaz26]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

I took my iPhone back yesterday. Having battery issues. Walked out 5 mins later with a brand new phone. Had a small dent in the back of it so was well pleased.

 

[Surely]

I went to my local apple store with my iphone trying to get it returned under warranty because i have been having issues with my WiFi on it. It sometimes will just drop the WiFi on its own.
The problem arose once i stepped up to the genius bar, I hand over my phone to the macgenius and he says, whats wrong with it? I explain it to him, then he flips over my phone, where i scratched the phone and put in a .3(3/10)mm dent and says: "How did this happen?" I say well it fell into my couch and landed on a metal bar in there. He then replies: "Well this voids your warranty, its probably the reason that your WiFi isnt working". So it was a no to the warranty exchange. I bantered with him a moment saying that the dent isn't even anywhere near where the WiFi card is in the phone but he wouldnt hear it. Well i left the store and have been using it for the last few days, and then my friend told me i should send it in via mail because they would understand that it isn't the cause of the problem and that they are less strict then the apple genius bar is.

My question to you guys is: Is what my friend said true? do you think i have a better chance of getting my warranty worthy (IMO) phone repaired(Replaced) via mail?

Thank you ahead of time for your answers.

If you're a guy, find a female Mac "Genius". And flirt with her.
If you're a girl, find a male Mac "Genius". And flirt with him. And show some cleavage.
If you're gay (or not), and you get a gay "Genius", flirt away too.

If you end up getting a same-as-your-sex hetero-"Genius", you have to be really really nice and ask all sorts of questions to make them feel really really smart. Make sure they are questions that they will be able to answer.

I don't mean to offend anyone, but it's true. You have to flirt and kiss some a$$. Works for me every time.

You get what you want, and you make the "Genius" feel good.

 

[GSMiller]

Do you have the warranty that comes with every iPhone or did you buy the extended AppleCare warranty? Because the "all or nothing" rule may apply to the iPhone like it does to Macs. But yea, JBaker is absolutely correct, it is so difficult to get respect from people if you're young. I can never get anything accomplished because of it

 

[nickspohn]

AppleCare is usually very nice and down to the point. Like others said, you got some jerk to help you. Try mailing it in, or go back to the store and talk to the manager about it. Sure he might say "What's that dent from?" But you can always say that that dent has been there for a while, and only recently the wireless stopped working. Also ask "I get a great signal for calls, but my wireless is just horrible."

Good luck.

 

[aphexii]

To be honest, I've found that nearly every time i visit a mac "genius", the guy turns out to be a certified a$$hole.

I was lucky once and had a very friendly helpful associate, but thats far from the norm for me.

The worst was when my 2 month old nano started splitting at the seam. He kept telling me it was simply cosmetic and nothing he could do, I've never heard of a cosmetic problem in which the guts of the device were exposed. Anyway, I asked for a manager, he disappeared for 5 minutes then comes back with a speech, and I kid you not, about "What would steve jobs do?"

He ended up replacing it, but what an ass.

 

[KingKalukan]

Thank you guys very much, I just convinced my friend to buy an iPhone and he said I can use his razr till my iPhone comes back from AppleCare mail. Thank you again for providing the answers and letting me know the macgenius was just in a pissy mood. Oh ya I am 21 so your probably right about that

Well I am killing two birds with one stone supporting apple by convincing my friend and getting my phone fixed. Thanks again

 

[devilot]

You could also try going at a very different time and hope to speak with a different genius.

Did the first one input your serial # into the computer? If not, then he didn't make a record of that entire exchange.

If you have more than one Apple store in your area, you could also try another store. I've personally found that out of the 3 local ones, 2 of them are complete garbage but one is golden. If it weren't for this store, I'd be driving about 30 minutes away instead.

Best of luck, OP.

 

[Mac In School]

In all fairness to Apple, there's a chance that the drop did play a role in the wifi breakage. Just because the point of impact didn't hit the sweet spot, doesn't mean the drop impact didn't jar something loose.

BTW, always start of these genius conversations with "I have AppleCare on this thing, and..." That goes a long way, if you do indeed have AppleCare (the extended warranty) on it.

 

[jeffmc]

I'd have to see the dent itself, but to be fair with a dent like that, it's very possible that could have killed your wi-fi. the airport card itself doesn't need to be hit directly to hurt it

i'd make another appointment at a different store or hope you get someone else. you might get someone nice like me that will swap it out

 

[Surely]

In all fairness to Apple, there's a chance that the drop did play a role in the wifi breakage. Just because the point of impact didn't hit the sweet spot, doesn't mean the drop impact didn't jar something loose.

BTW, always start of these genius conversations with "I have AppleCare on this thing, and..." That goes a long way, if you do indeed have AppleCare (the extended warranty) on it.

That's true. The dent may be the problem, and if it is, AppleCare wouldn't cover it. I'd say give it another try, maybe you'll come across a "Genius" that will be willing to stretch the rules for you.

 

[KingKalukan]

I would agree with it being an issue caused by the drop but seeing as it started many months after the drop we can go ahead and deduce that it wasn't the issue but apparently mac genius' haven't gone through basic troubleshooting courses

 

[Drumjim85]

That's true. The dent may be the problem, and if it is, AppleCare wouldn't cover it. I'd say give it another try, maybe you'll come across a "Genius" that will be willing to stretch the rules for you.

its hardly stretching the rules... its all based on opinion...

 

[aricher]

I just got back from a trip the Apple Store 10 minutes ago. My iPhone was acting up after the 1.1.3 update - dropped calls, calls that would go directly to voicemail without ringing, bluetooth static, crashing apps, weak wifi, etc. After explaining all the problems to the Genius he said "let's just get you a new phone." While entering in the serial # from my previous phone he noticed a nice dime sized dent on the back, a result of a faulty case I had been using. He didn't even ask about it and gave me a new phone.

 

[Mac In School]

Yeah, I'd definitely try to talk to a different Genius, either at the same store or a new one. Especially if you have AppleCare.

Sounds like you might have caught one having a bad day. If you think about it, it's pretty amazing that these guys stay as calm and cool as they do. Every single person they deal with is there with a problem. Every one of them is unhappy to some degree. I sure as hell couldn't do that job. I'd go postal halfway through my first shift.

 

[Surely]

its hardly stretching the rules... its all based on opinion...

AppleCare is all based on opinion? How's that? If an issue doesn't qualify for AppleCare, it doesn't qualify. If you find a "Genius" who is willing to look the other way and replace/repair it anyway, that is called stretching the rules.

I would agree with it being an issue caused by the drop but seeing as it started many months after the drop we can go ahead and deduce that it wasn't the issue but apparently mac genius' haven't gone through basic troubleshooting courses

I agree with you. I think you should keep trying until you get it repaired/replaced. However, I don't think it matters how much time passed between the drop and the issue. If that's the cause, that's the cause.

 

[Drumjim85]

AppleCare is all based on opinion? How's that? If an issue doesn't qualify for AppleCare, it doesn't qualify. If you find a "Genius" who is willing to look the other way and replace/repair it anyway, that is called stretching the rules.

Sorry, I partially mis-read your post...
But the genius saying that the dent caused the dropping wifi is an opinion, he has no proof, and they don't take apart the phones there ....

 

[Aries326]

To be honest, I've found that nearly every time i visit a mac "genius", the guy turns out to be a certified a$$hole.

I was lucky once and had a very friendly helpful associate, but thats far from the norm for me.

The worst was when my 2 month old nano started splitting at the seam. He kept telling me it was simply cosmetic and nothing he could do, I've never heard of a cosmetic problem in which the guts of the device were exposed. Anyway, I asked for a manager, he disappeared for 5 minutes then comes back with a speech, and I kid you not, about "What would steve jobs do?"

He ended up replacing it, but what an ass.

I've had bad encounters with Apple "Geniuses". I went in once asking about trouble with my shuffle and the difficult time it had syncing with itunes on my PC. He took the thing, plugged it into a Mac and said, "there it works." I then reiterated, "It doesn't work on my PC, I'm not a noob and I've tried all the suggestions on the Apple site and a ilounge." He smugly said, "Get a Mac. That's your problem." Nice... The thing is supposed to work with a PC and a Mac and that's the answer I got. What I wanted to do was return the damn thing 'cause it didn't work right with PCs.

Anyway, the shuffle works fine now with my new laptop and Vista. Another thing, because that guy was rude to me, I didn't use my Apple card to get a mac laptop. I called the company sometime after that, had the card canceled, shelved my shuffle (and wife's nano) and bought a cheap pc laptop ($570 dual core, 160gb HD 1 GB of RAM).

The wife got me this iPhone for Christmas and luckily syncing works fine under Vista or you can bet I would've sold it. I'm not about to cross back to Apple just to get some of their devices working when they're already advertised to be compatible with PCs.

Like the one fellow said, keep trying. Brush up on your flirting skills. Smile. Ask for help. Don't demand a solution. Be smooth and butter up the "genius" That usually works in retail...

 

[jeffmc]

its hardly stretching the rules... its all based on opinion...

it's not an opinion.. believe it or not there's an official tool to measure the depth of a dent to determine whether or not it's covered under AppleCare

 

[KingKalukan]

If they are to tell me my applecare is void then would they not have to show me that the particular dent somehow is the reason that the wifi isn't working, they can't just tell me that out of pure speculation. If say I had dropped it in water and the water indicator was red, that is fair to say it voids my warranty, but a dent in the case that probably doesnt effect the wifi voids it? They should have to prove to me that the warranty is invalid on that particular thing (WiFi).

 

[gkarris]

If you're a guy, find a female Mac "Genius". And flirt with her.
If you're a girl, find a male Mac "Genius". And flirt with him. And show some cleavage.
If you're gay (or not), and you get a gay "Genius", flirt away too.

If you end up getting a same-as-your-sex hetero-"Genius", you have to be really really nice and ask all sorts of questions to make them feel really really smart. Make sure they are questions that they will be able to answer.

I don't mean to offend anyone, but it's true. You have to flirt and kiss some a$$. Works for me every time.

You get what you want, and you make the "Genius" feel good.

And remember, what PC users have to go through...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOSvdCQ5IHw&feature=user

 

[constant L]

i took my iphone in with a a cracked screen and a couple of dents and was replaced within minutes...

like other posters said i talked him up a bit...asked how the training in cupertino was...things like that...

 

[jeffmc]

If they are to tell me my applecare is void then would they not have to show me that the particular dent somehow is the reason that the wifi isn't working, they can't just tell me that out of pure speculation. If say I had dropped it in water and the water indicator was red, that is fair to say it voids my warranty, but a dent in the case that probably doesnt effect the wifi voids it? They should have to prove to me that the warranty is invalid on that particular thing (WiFi).

not they don't have to 'prove' anything to you.
a dent on a device that small and compact could effect the behavior of the entire machine. have you ever seen the inside of that thing? the fact of the matter is: you dropped it, it dented (apparently enough to void the warranty). the only thing you can do is hope you get another genius who is kind enough to overlook that for you.