How much tolerance do you have

[dukebound85]

regarding build quality of products?

i ask as every thread i see has people returning iphones for "light leak" "a speck of dust under glass" "minor cracking" , "glass isnt perfectly level", etc

i mean my white iphone has lightleak when i turn the screen up full blast and am in a pitch black room and even then it doesnt affect the phone for me. i also have two cracks (one on corner and one by headphone jack) which i susequently attempted to superglue, and my iphone has a spec of dust on the second quadrant of the screen which is only noticable when the screen is off and not in use (when its on i cant even find it)

yet i will not return my phone unless for example the cracks got way out of hand

what is your breakpoint?

part of me cant but help but think that those that return a phone for one of these issues is what makes all these things so pricey......much less return like 4-5 of them

i dont think people understand that the manufacturing process isnt perfect and to expect perfection is almost ludacris.

just my thoughts, what are yours?

 

[pscoble]

Well.. it depends if it is my computer it really doesn't take that much (dead pixels, something that was wrong when I got it, etc). I can put up with scratches although I always kinda get bummed when I see them. Oh yeah I actually have a reasonably sized dent in my MBP that my friend put in it last year , that didn't go over well.

On my iPhone or iPods I am more lax scratches come naturally since I don't use cases. As long as I can see the screen I'm good. I used to be a lot worse in that I would freak out about every last little mark but now I've just gotten used to it. It's sorta makes the iPod or whatever you own yours.

 

[neesh0]

I wont take it back unless it is something that affects the function of the iphone, microscopic cracks/ light leaks don't bother me

 

[mkrishnan]

If your iPhone cracks because you drop it or bang it on something, I can see that, but it seems an unreasonable standard to me for anyone to accept that the external casing of their phone would come broken and that would be expected to be okay. (FWIW I've never had a phone whose external casing broke even during the whole time I've owned it, including my EDGE iPhone ). For most of the other things, I can agree, but spending $200-300 for a phone and signing a two year contract, I don't think it's a reasonable expectation that the user get out their superglue and glue their phone back together when they pull it out of the box.

I guess I might not be sure what you mean by "microscopic" cracks -- I'm guessing you don't mean that literally and you haven't actually looked at your iPhone under a microscope, but can actually detect these with your eye -- but even small cracks are likely to continue to be distressed and grow while the product is in use, leading to a bigger failure of the casing.

 

[luckygyrl83]

Ive gotten better with my tolerance The plastic starting cracking, and I freaked out a lil. I dropped the phone, and the chrome is now scratched. Im not gonna run to Apple to buy another one. This one works perfectly. Theres no failed battery, constant closure of apps, or any other problems like this.

Im happy.

 

[Anuba]

Yeah I know, it seems like it's gone overboard with all these returns... some people will return an iPhone or iPod if one page in the manual had a folder corner, or if there were fingerprints on the outside of the box.

There have always been people like that, though... I worked in a music store in the 90's and we once ordered this rack synth for a guy. When it arrived, a colleague of mine accidentally started opening the box because he thought the synth was supposed to go on display. I stopped him before he had unpacked the thing, he had only cut open the tape. So we taped the box shut again. Later, the customer came and picked up the box and everything seemed OK. But then he must have noticed on his way home that it wasn't the original tape because after 5-10 minutes he came back, furious and *crying* (I kid you not), put the box on the counter and ran out. The store manager had to spend 20 minutes on the phone to convince him that we hadn't actually touched the synth or even the plastic it was wrapped in...

But back then there was no such thing as the internet. I think these nitpickers who are on their 7th iPhone and bragging about it on forums are collectively lowering the threshold, abusing return policies and egging other people on to do the same...

Still -- if there are cracks in the plastic I think it's a valid reason for a replacement, that's a defective product, period. But, returning an iPhone over a slightly yellow tinted screen is just creepy.

 

[slate1]

i also have two cracks (one on corner and one by headphone jack) which i susequently attempted to superglue

superglue??? really?!?!?

yeah.... i think that would be that "breaking point" you're asking about!

I'm sorry - I don't think it's unreasonable to return a $300 item that's a month old if you're having to resort to supergluing it back together.

 

[James17]

I don't apologise for the level of tolerance I have for the quality of new products. It does bother me if there were cracks or scratches on things as I know they are not all like that which is why I would return it. The MacBook Pro I am using at the moment is waiting to be collected for return because there is a very small chip in the plastic casing around the case, something that isn't noticable unless you get a magnifying glass out but it bothers me. I emailed the picture to someone at Executive Relations whom I've dealt with before and she said she wouldn't return one for something that small but it was up to me and how I felt about it. This is not my first MBP, probably the 6th or 7th but I can assure you they were due to hardware faults- mostly vertical stripes and graphics card corruption which was serious. As this has been a struggle from my purchase in June I am getting a replacement MBP but this time it will be the next one up from my base model as a token of apology, I have had an option of refund at all times even though I purchased the MBP in June but I aim to get one that's perfect instead of looking for another computer. Btw, there are no cracks or marks on my iPhone 3G, just as well or that would be going back too, JOKE

 

[Lunchbox700]

superglue??? really?!?!?

yeah.... i think that would be that "breaking point" you're asking about!

I'm sorry - I don't think it's unreasonable to return a $300 item that's a month old if you're having to resort to supergluing it back together.

Not neccessarily if you are the reason for the crack If I damage it I don't ever return stuff even if I could. But if it was cracked on opening I might open it. Now dead pixels, stuff under the glass not gonna return those.

 

[whooleytoo]

I'm either very tolerant, or have been very lucky with build quality! There's one tiny crack by the headphone jack, but no other issues; and I don't have any case for it, just keep it in a pocket.

The only area where my tolerance fails is when Apple puts style over substance; in particular when it comes to plugs/jacks. They, in their wisdom, have decided there's no need to put grips on any Apple made jacks, so you have to use extra force to drive them in and fingernails to pull them out.

The component TV-out cable for the iPhone is insanely difficult to plug in and out. I don't even bother using mine any more as I'm afraid I'll break the sockets on my TV plugging it in & out!