CONFIRMED! Apple’s screen protector installer DOES scratch the iPhone.
Here was my heartbreaking second trip back to the Apple Store. Another $60 wasted for a cab ride.
I met with the supervisor at the Apple Store and they inspected my unit. They tried to insert the iPhone back in the installer tray, trying to figure out what part of the tool could’ve scratched it; they didn’t understand where the scratch was coming from.
When they let me look at the tool, it was pretty clean and smooth. It was a black plastic tray with lever clamp. It didn’t really have grooves or notches that would dig into the metal band.
So the supervisor and specialist were very nice, and managed to scrounge up the last iPhone 12 Pro silver (which btw, their app says none were available; they mentioned that they do keep some extras just in case).
Anyway, the supervisor let me inspect the new iPhone 12 Pro he brought out, it was flawless. I passed it to him and he passed it to the specialist that installed it. I kept a perfect watch on the process, the specialist was smooth and careful.
But when he took the iPhone out of the tray, I knew something was wrong when he inspected the metal frame and started rubbing his thumb on the side. He passed it to the supervisor and he tried wiping it off with a cloth, I saw a glimpse of it and it was scratched to oblivion. It looked like a baby claw scratched a portion of the metal frame. WAY WORSE THAN what I got the first time at Apple.
And I’m just facepalming at myself for sarcastically joking to the supervisor by saying “imagine if this iPhone gets scratched too” and it did 🤦🏻 I’m so unlucky, I wish I didn’t say that now. In hindsight I should’ve asked if we could’ve tested this on a demo iPhone.
Well I got the last graphite iPhone 12 Pro, this time I didn’t get a screen protector installed. I didn’t wanna also risk another iPhone (especially the last one) getting scratched and going home empty handed.
They said I can still switch to silver when they restock and the supervisor will speak to the higher ups about this issue. But I’m just imagining how many people got their new iPhones scratched at the Apple Store without even knowing it. Even worse, you can’t see the scratches when the metal is smudged up by fingerprints.
Plastic damages the polished stainless steel!!! Seems as delicate as the chamfered edges of the iPhone 5s.