Bad iPhone exchange experience - Southampton

[MrGimper]

OK, something to be careful of in the future....

So, was in Southampton (UK) on Sunday as had stayed over Saturday night for a few drinks and Blade Runner 2049 (was my Birthday).

Decided to pop into the new Southampton Apple store for a look around. Made the mistake of comparing my 8 Plus screen to those on display and mine was noticeably patchy in brightness so spoke to someone about swapping it out. Explained I'd got it on the 22/09 on the upgrade program, and got passed around about 3 store staff, each time explaining that I wanted to swap it out due to the obvious screen quality.

A staff member started going through the process, and took the details of the phone. She (not for one minute insinuating it's because the staff member was female, before people get on their soap-box) then told me she had cancelled the iUP loan and what phone did I want to replace it with, or did I want a refund?

I was a bit puzzled and said the same model phone. I asked why the phone wasn't simply swapped under warranty, and is this normal practice? Couldn't get an answer. Told I had to now apply for the loan again under the new serial. Applied and failed.... so at this point I had no phone.

Called the manager, who wasn't much help. I quizzed as to whether this was the correct procedure. I even asked what would happen if in 6 months time I dropped my phone and needed a replacement under AC+, would they have to cancel the loan and restart it, effectively starting the 20 months again. Didn't have an answer.... eventually called someone else over who was more knowledgable... apparently this should have all been handled via a different process at the genius bar.

To get around my "no phone" issue, there is an override that she needed to do. She called Barclays who ensured no issues with too many credit checks. Was in the store for over an hour, and after all this mess I just got a "Sorry". For a comparison, when I had a genius appointment at my local store, I was given a £10 iTunes card simply for the inconvenience of my genius appointment being 10 minutes late.

So, just a heads up.

 

[akash.nu]

Probably an under trained staff. Such cases are very rare.

 

[Ad13]

Probably an under trained staff. Such cases are very rare.

True, once upon a time, but not so much in recent times.

 

[Droidbricker]

The only thing to do in that situation.

 

[Atomic Walrus]

*edit to reduce text density

Basically you asked for an "exchange" for a complaint that is generally not covered by warranty. So they processed a return, because that's how that works.

If you'd taken it to the genius bar they would have examined the screen, possibly run a diagnostic, and almost certainly reported that it was in-spec and thus would not be replaced under warranty. If they had decided to do something, it would probably have been a screen replacement, not a device exchange.

Obviously there are always examples of Geniuses doing straight swaps for complaints, but that's far less common than it used to be and definitely not Apple's official protocol.

There were 2 failures here:
-You not taking it to the genius bar, which is how warranty service is handled. Once you took it to a sales rep and said "exchange" they assumed you meant return.
-Them not making it clear that you were doing a return/exchange before they started processing it.

 

[MrGimper]

*edit to reduce text density

Basically you asked for an "exchange" for a complaint that is generally not covered by warranty. So they processed a return, because that's how that works.

If you'd taken it to the genius bar they would have examined the screen, possibly run a diagnostic, and almost certainly reported that it was in-spec and thus would not be replaced under warranty. If they had decided to do something, it would probably have been a screen replacement, not a device exchange.

Obviously there are always examples of Geniuses doing straight swaps for complaints, but that's far less common than it used to be and definitely not Apple's official protocol.

There were 2 failures here:
-You not taking it to the genius bar, which is how warranty service is handled. Once you took it to a sales rep and said "exchange" they assumed you meant return.
-Them not making it clear that you were doing a return/exchange before they started processing it.

I’d disagree with your definition of the first failure. I was clear what the issue was. They should have advised me to go to the Genius Bar if that’s what was the correct procedure. Considering I was outside the 14 day return period, my replacement options should have been limited to warranty replacement.