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The fact that they gave you a loaner XR at all and your ungratefulness makes me think nothing they could have done would have been acceptable to you.

How would Best Buy have handled things if you strolled in with a dead Samsung S23? They would have told you to call Samsung and take a hike. No loaner, no recommendation to file a claim with Belkin, etc.
The OP has paid a premium price for what Apple claims to be a premium product. And he even paid for the premium Apple Care+. If that does not justify that he gets premium service then I don’t know what should
 
The OP has paid a premium price for what Apple claims to be a premium product. And he even paid for the premium Apple Care+. If that does not justify that he gets premium service then I don’t know what should
What justifies him getting premium service is NOT paying for it.

It is actually something less clear.

What justifies him getting premium service is BOTH paying for it AND demanding the terms be adhered to, under penalty of suit if necessary, such that the contracted party understands that they are not dealing with a rube.

It’s just capitalism.

To think it should be any other way sounds utopian to me.

Insurance companies will pay for what you make them pay for, not what they should pay for.

It seems almost everything in America works this way.
 
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Wauv… that’s a tough situation.

If I ever decide to pay extra for AC+ (the EU consumer protection is nearly covering you just as much) I would expect to be able to walk in with my burning hot phone and get a replacement right away. Apple can then do with the old phone what they want: trash it, refurbish it, recycle the parts etc. I as consumer should not have to worry at all.

But I know that US law doesn’t really protect the little guy.
US law protects the literate little guy, and no further.
 
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Lol I also noticed that the battery of this XR is absolutely horrific. With no backup and set up as new the phone is dropping a percentage point about every 2 minutes. Battery health sitting at a stellar 82%... This should be a fun week of using this phone.
 
US law protects the literate little guy, and no further.

Dude, take it easy. I'm certainly not illiterate. Because I didn't know about Express Replacement is a mistake on my part for sure but I just assumed that Apple would take care of my issue in the best and easiest way possible. I was wrong apparently.

And I don't know that express replacement would have even been a better option. I'm going out of town until Thursday of this week and I needed a phone for work and I doubt I could have gotten delivery from anyone on a Sunday.
 
That's exactly how I think. I was disappointed in the loaner phone but more disappointed in the employees attitudes. I'm not an angry person and wasn't in the store demanding anything in any way. Their complete lack of any type of empathy for the situation was absolutely stunning to me and also angering. They acted like I was out of line for being at all upset over the fact that my $1600 phone that I depend on for work was no longer functioning and that being given a 64GB phone that I couldn't even load my backup on was some grand gesture.

And not only that, my time driving back and forth to the Apple store yesterday as well as waiting in the store for them to activate the pos loaner totaled to over 6 hours. And that doesn't even add in the trip I'll have to make back to the Apple store, get my 14 Pro activated, and drive back home. It will be close to 10 hours of my time dealing with this. So glad I purchased AppleCare+ :rolleyes:

I could deal with ALL of that, and honestly would be fine and just move on. But the fact that I lost all of my health data is what really upsets me and highlights even more how bad the experience was.

are you sure?

tbh it would never occur to me that they would give a loaner phone and if they did id be happy that they did this. i wouldnt expect them to have multiple 1tb phones sitting there just in case a couple of people needed to borrow one for 5 days during a repair.

you have a 5 month old phone, its broken, they've tried to fix it onsite (would you rather they hadnt tried?), then lent you another phone thats useable and if they cant fix it in 5 days they will give you another one. that sounds good service to me. Where i live, that would be me handing the phone into an authorised repair centre, them trying to fix it, then them saying they would ship it to apple and would get back to me within 30 days (as Portuguese Law) and i doubt there would be a loaner phone.

and your health data will reappear. mine has never disappeared from switching watches from a AW3 to a new SE, then a fortnight later from iphone XS to a 14pro.
 
Dude, take it easy. I'm certainly not illiterate. Because I didn't know about Express Replacement is a mistake on my part for sure but I just assumed that Apple would take care of my issue in the best and easiest way possible. I was wrong apparently.

And I don't know that express replacement would have even been a better option. I'm going out of town until Thursday of this week and I needed a phone for work and I doubt I could have gotten delivery from anyone on a Sunday.
I didn’t mean to direct that word at you, I just meant in general most consumers will not read the fine print, and corporations count on and prey on that. It really sucks and it’s not right, but I’m sure it’s profitable…
 
I’m sorry you had such a negative experience. I don’t think it’s fair to say that the staff was trained to behave in the manner you described — it sounds like the person you interacted with didn’t put themselves in your place and try to be more accommodating.

Does anyone know where a person could email this experience to someone at Apple that oversees retail operations? Having worked in retail, I know that individual employees can leave a customer with a strong impression — either positive or negative — and I always appreciate feedback in this area.
 
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are you sure?

tbh it would never occur to me that they would give a loaner phone and if they did id be happy that they did this. i wouldnt expect them to have multiple 1tb phones sitting there just in case a couple of people needed to borrow one for 5 days during a repair.

you have a 5 month old phone, its broken, they've tried to fix it onsite (would you rather they hadnt tried?), then lent you another phone thats useable and if they cant fix it in 5 days they will give you another one. that sounds good service to me. Where i live, that would be me handing the phone into an authorised repair centre, them trying to fix it, then them saying they would ship it to apple and would get back to me within 30 days (as Portuguese Law) and i doubt there would be a loaner phone.

and your health data will reappear. mine has never disappeared from switching watches from a AW3 to a new SE, then a fortnight later from iphone XS to a 14pro.

I very much disagree. I'm not ungrateful they gave me a loaner phone. I'm angry over the fact they made me make multiple trips to their store, gave me wrong information each time I was there, and had a complete disregard for my time on top of giving me a complete piece of garbage to use as a replacement phone.

And yes, I abosolutely expect them to have multiple 1TB iPhones sitting around. They DID have them sitting around, they just didn't want to give me one. They'd rather ship my phone off, crack it open, see if they can fix it, and then ship either a refurbished iPhone back to me or the repaired one. That's what is troubling to me. They won't dare hurt their profit margin by giving a consumer a new phone to replace a broken one. They only want to give people refurb phones now for broken ones. Its a garbage policy and I should have been given one of the many new ones they had in stock at the store. But "policy" said they couldn't do that.

Also, the loaner phones they are giving people ARE complete garbage. Its so cheap and petty of Apple to give people iPhone XR's as loaner phones. At bare minimum an iPhone 12 should be the lowest they give someone to use as a loaner. This hunk of junk they gave me has a battery health of 82% and frankly is barely useable. So please stop with the "You should be so grateful to Apple that they bestowed upon you a device to use for the 5 month old $1600 brick you handed over to them."
 
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I’m sorry you had such a negative experience. I don’t think it’s fair to say that the staff was trained to behave in the manner you described — it sounds like the person you interacted with didn’t put themselves in your place and try to be more accommodating.

Does anyone know where a person could email this experience to someone at Apple that oversees retail operations? Having worked in retail, I know that individual employees can leave a customer with a strong impression — either positive or negative — and I always appreciate feedback in this area.

Usually they send out the "How was your experience with "employee name" the same day you leave the store. Interesting that I never got that email from Apple so I can't tell them how this experience was.
 
"incompetent Jerks". nuff said. Seriously, you complain because the repair exceeded the equipment and parts they had in store and they had to send it out to a better equipped facility? Sorry dude, you are way off base here. They did the right thing. You complain that they provided you a loaner? oh shame on them, shame.

Sorry, sounds like this was not a horrific experience at all. 1) they are repairing (or attempting to, if it is unrepairable, then they replace it)
 
I very much disagree. I'm not ungrateful they gave me a loaner phone. I'm angry over the fact they made me make multiple trips to their store, gave me wrong information each time I was there, and had a complete disregard for my time on top of giving me a complete piece of garbage to use as a replacement phone.

And yes, I abosolutely expect them to have multiple 1TB iPhones sitting around. They DID have them sitting around, they just didn't want to give me one. They'd rather ship my phone off, crack it open, see if they can fix it, and then ship either a refurbished iPhone back to me or the repaired one. That's what is troubling to me. They won't dare hurt their profit margin by giving a consumer a new phone to replace a broken one. They only want to give people refurb phones now for broken ones. Its a garbage policy and I should have been given one of the many new ones they had in stock at the store. But "policy" said they couldn't do that.

Also, the loaner phones they are giving people ARE complete garbage. Its so cheap and petty of Apple to give people iPhone XR's as loaner phones. At bare minimum an iPhone 12 should be the lowest they give someone to use as a loaner. This hunk of junk they gave me has a battery health of 82% and frankly is barely useable. So please stop with the "You should be so grateful to Apple that they bestowed upon you a device to use for the 5 month old $1600 brick you handed over to them."
oh no, they couldn't tell you what was wrong with your phone just by looking at it, but only after they did some initial investigation determined it was beyond what they could do? Scottie bring my my tricorder!.
 
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Dude, take it easy. I'm certainly not illiterate. Because I didn't know about Express Replacement is a mistake on my part for sure but I just assumed that Apple would take care of my issue in the best and easiest way possible. I was wrong apparently.

And I don't know that express replacement would have even been a better option. I'm going out of town until Thursday of this week and I needed a phone for work and I doubt I could have gotten delivery from anyone on a Sunday.
I don’t think he meant you literally. But apparently you have to know your rights to the last paragraph to be given the service you are entitled to. It would be better if Apple had the politeness to follow their own term’s instead of testing their customers like this.
 
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oh no, they couldn't tell you what was wrong with your phone just by looking at it, but only after they did some initial investigation determined it was beyond what they could do? Scottie bring my my tricorder!.

Lol yeah; that’s what happened 🙄
 
There's a real issue with the one and only phone that's set up with an eSIM as well dying randomly. This stuff works up to the point where it doesn't, and then you're hosed.

The simple truth is that no matter how many thousand bucks you spent on that iPhone, Apple won't just give you a brand new one on the spot. It is fair to give the manufacturer at least a single attempt to fix it, and it's fair to expect it to take a couple days. Unless they return the phone to you still broken next week, I don't see much you can complain about.

The express replacement online would have been the best way, and the store employees really could have informed you about it. At least they gave you a loaner phone. You aren't required to restore the backup, you can set it up as a new phone, and when you get the 14 back you can restore it, and then resume syncing with your watch. You won't lose any data.

If you absolutely cannot be without a phone for more than a few hours and then you lose your health data by setting up the watch before restoring the backup - well, then that's not on Apple really, they never promised you to replace your phone in an instant to begin with. I have an older phone in a drawer that I can use for such emergencies.

A family friend had their Android phone break, the manufacturer never replied to the support request, the place they bought it from initiated the warranty repair and told them it will take a couple weeks. After a few months and repeated complaints the store finally admitted they lost the phone, refunded 50% of the initial purchase cost and refused anything beyond that. Never got a loaner phone to begin with, I gave them my old phone.

From my personal experience both with Macbooks and iPhones, Apple has pretty much the best and quickest support even beating some "business next day" warranties. For iPad, Watch and iPhone you have to be aware that you need to request the express replacement online, when you have AC+.
 
There's a real issue with the one and only phone that's set up with an eSIM as well dying randomly. This stuff works up to the point where it doesn't, and then you're hosed.

The simple truth is that no matter how many thousand bucks you spent on that iPhone, Apple won't just give you a brand new one on the spot. It is fair to give the manufacturer at least a single attempt to fix it, and it's fair to expect it to take a couple days. Unless they return the phone to you still broken next week, I don't see much you can complain about.

The express replacement online would have been the best way, and the store employees really could have informed you about it. At least they gave you a loaner phone. You aren't required to restore the backup, you can set it up as a new phone, and when you get the 14 back you can restore it, and then resume syncing with your watch. You won't lose any data.

If you absolutely cannot be without a phone for more than a few hours and then you lose your health data by setting up the watch before restoring the backup - well, then that's not on Apple really, they never promised you to replace your phone in an instant to begin with. I have an older phone in a drawer that I can use for such emergencies.

A family friend had their Android phone break, the manufacturer never replied to the support request, the place they bought it from initiated the warranty repair and told them it will take a couple weeks. After a few months and repeated complaints the store finally admitted they lost the phone, refunded 50% of the initial purchase cost and refused anything beyond that. Never got a loaner phone to begin with, I gave them my old phone.

From my personal experience both with Macbooks and iPhones, Apple has pretty much the best and quickest support even beating some "business next day" warranties. For iPad, Watch and iPhone you have to be aware that you need to request the express replacement online, when you have AC+.


Uh, no you don’t have a replacement phone in your drawer for emergencies. You have a phone with a SIM card that you will have to go to the AT&T store to get activated with a new SIM card. Its not simple like it used to be.

And as far as your other comments, those are your opinions. I personally believe that paying $1600 for a phone and 5 months in it decides to stop working that Apple should be able to replace the phone on the spot in the store, no questions asked, if you have AppleCare. They shouldn’t go the route of “Well let’s see, we took it apart and can’t fix it here, but maybe we can ship it off and they can fix it. If not, we’ll send you a replacement device.“ They should have replacement devices in the store and if they can’t fix it there, they should supply you with it right then and there. They are the largest and most profitable tech company in the world and some of you act like they are some Mom and Pop store ”Well they can’t be expected to carry replacement phones.” Yes, they can and they should.

And again I wasn’t ungrateful for the loaner phone. I am ungrateful that its an iPhone XR with 64GB of storage and 82% battery health. If they are going to loan phones out they should at least be usable for more than a few short hours. I don’t think that’s asking too much.
 
Actually the thing in your story that I find most surprising is that they didn’t take screen protector off your phone right away. Symptoms like yours are often caused by a screen protector. Basically for whatever reason the phone can intermittently register a protector as ‘contact’ and freeze up trying to do to many actions at once.
 
they just smiled at me like this was all not their problem was really infuriating.
Yup, that's the apple service experience nowadays, whether on the phone or in stores. It's all, "oh, I feel your pain (at least that's that's what my instructions tell me to say) but unfortunately, **** you, computer says no."

 
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I have been saying for years that Apple service quality has declined drastically, both in terms of their competence, knowledge, and politeness. It's like they just hire random people off the street now and then provide them with barely an hour or two of YouTube training. People on here keep defending Apple and shaming the victims, yet examples like these keep coming.
 
So you are pissed that government mandated $15 an hour entry level employees (because now all make at least that much here) don't know squat, since they just came here from Taco Bell, same wages. Hiring good employees is extremely difficult with the current "everyone deserves to be able to provide for a family if they can flip the burger".

Good employees are like good customers. It is just really hard to find either now.
 
not surprised, most apple retail except a very few genius have an idea what they are talking about, the lot of them probably learned half of what you know through a training video when they got hired.
 
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I very much disagree. I'm not ungrateful they gave me a loaner phone. I'm angry over the fact they made me make multiple trips to their store, gave me wrong information each time I was there, and had a complete disregard for my time on top of giving me a complete piece of garbage to use as a replacement phone.

And yes, I abosolutely expect them to have multiple 1TB iPhones sitting around. They DID have them sitting around, they just didn't want to give me one. They'd rather ship my phone off, crack it open, see if they can fix it, and then ship either a refurbished iPhone back to me or the repaired one. That's what is troubling to me. They won't dare hurt their profit margin by giving a consumer a new phone to replace a broken one. They only want to give people refurb phones now for broken ones. Its a garbage policy and I should have been given one of the many new ones they had in stock at the store. But "policy" said they couldn't do that.

Also, the loaner phones they are giving people ARE complete garbage. Its so cheap and petty of Apple to give people iPhone XR's as loaner phones. At bare minimum an iPhone 12 should be the lowest they give someone to use as a loaner. This hunk of junk they gave me has a battery health of 82% and frankly is barely useable. So please stop with the "You should be so grateful to Apple that they bestowed upon you a device to use for the 5 month old $1600 brick you handed over to them."


i think you expect far too much, and get too angry when that doesnt happen. however i hope they repair your phone within the 5 days and you can stop getting so angry about it. Be happy its sorted in 5 days, a lot faster than it would be for a lot of people whether with Apple or not.
 
Sorry about your experience. Had similar experience with an XR last September at an IL Apple store, except this one was a daily driver. Was my daughters and we purchased this refurb. for $400 with a 90 day warranty because her original one had a shattered screen & they said it could not be fixed because the camera was broke as well.

Sure enough on the 95th day, phone stopped getting LTE. I told them to send it in for repairs and they said that would be $400. I also could buy another refurb. for $400. Guilted the manager by telling her how she has kids (small talk before) & how would she feel if she had to shell out another $400. Long story short, all of sudden they could fix by putting in a new TM SIM card.

Of course they upgraded it to iOS 16 first, which did nothing. Ended up bringing it right back down to 15.7 as soon as we left.
 
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