iPhone 30 Pin Port Issue & Volume Blocks Issue

Hello,

I'm on the initial shipment of the iphone 4s (Black, 16 gb) so I've had it for a couple months.

I had the original iphone and never ran into these problems.

Anyway, I started having 2 problems this past week.

1) The 30 pin port seems to not be working correctly. I woke up one morning and tried to charge it and the phone could not register that a power source was connected. No charging, no charge image shown, no connection to pc etc. It didn't work with the wall power, pc, or car usb outlet.

The charge cord is ruled out. I tried using both the new cord that came with the phone 4s and my old cord from the original iphone.

The phone is in great quality. Never been dropped. Has had a case and screen protector since day 1 and no scratches or physical damage. No water damage. I literally woke up and it didn't work. I did look into the port and did notice a small green discoloration above the pin on the sceen side...sorta like what you see in an old remote where the batteries go. I have no idea if this was there before, but I'd assume it wasn't. Tried using some compressed air and it didn't make any difference.

With the rate the battery drains from seemingly nothing on the new phone I thought I'd have to take it into the closest apple store (40 mins) the next day. Well, I woke up the next morning and it now somewhat works. It can charge but sometimes takes a light firm push downward on the cord connection to register. Also a small touch while charging can cause the phone to forget it is plugged in and not register.

This makes me think it is a hardware issue.

2) The second problem, which I just noticed a couple days after the first problem is that the volume blocks no longer show on the screen when adjusting the volume. I'm referring to the blocks that tell you how loud the ringer is set. They do show briefly if you quickly adjust the volume via the side buttons after unlocking the screen or when changing the ring slider from off to on. That is a very brief moment. After that or when adjusting the volume during normal use the square ringer image appears but without any blocks.

So I think software. I check the settings and do still have the option under sound to allow the buttons to adjust the volume. No change. Then I try restoring to a point in October when I didn't have the issue. No change. I tried restoring the phone to original factory settings. Even in that intro state (pick you language, region, start up phase) no change. Now I'm thinking this must be somehow hardware related even though that doesn't make any sense to me. I restored my phone back to another point after factory restore and still no change.


Does anyone have any thoughts or have experienced anything similar. I haven't ever had to take anything to an apple store before. I guess I'm going to try that after the holidays (less crowds) and hopefully they will replace the phone with a new one on the spot.

Right now I'm not a very happy customer.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

In case anyone runs into a similar situation I wanted to provide an update on my situation.

After taking my phone to the nearest apple store (30 mins one way) and spending 1 hour speaking to 3 tiers of supervisors I was denied a replacement although I was only in about my 3rd month of my 1 year warranty.

That small green speck noted earlier was corrosion according to the store. Due to the software on the phone along with the corrosion causes the phone to think that it is constantly plugged in which causes certain sounds (ie. music, youtube) to no longer play from the speakers, the volume indicator not showing the volume blocks, and the unreliable charging.

Now this sounds like they should have the software/firmware set up differently too but my main issue is with the warranty and overall quality of the hardware.

All 3 apple store employees refused to replace my phone claiming that it was caused by water damage. And they basically said it was my fault and the only way the corrosion could have happened was from water. The green speck is less than 1/16 of an inch in diameter. I have never dropped the phone in water or spilled anything on it (i haven't even used it in the rain yet) all of which I told them.

They seemed to have been trained to speak nicely but to not offer any actual support.

I asked if corrosion could be caused by anything else. They said no (I find this hard to believe).

I asked if the phone had water damage indicators and if they could check them out. I needed to bring the indicators up. They said it did.

I asked if they could look at them. They took it into the back room, said they opened it up, and that none of the indicators confirmed water damage.

I said if none of the indicators confirm water damage then the phone should be replaced as the phone indicates there is no water damage.

They refused but offered to replace my phone for either $200 or $250...my choice.

I asked if I could see in writing where their warranty indicated water damage is not covered and where in the warranty it define water damage.

They brought my a page and showed me a section of the warranty they underlined and told me "the warranty doesn't actually mention water damage."

The underlined section 2. - b states:

"Damage due to accident, abuse, neglect, misuse (including faulty installation, repair, or maintenance by anyone other than Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider), unauthorized modification, improper environment (including lack of proper temperature or humidity)"

They still refused. I told them I did nothing but use my phone for "regular use" and it stopped working properly.

They refused and said less than 1 drop of water could have gotten onto the dock connector and if charging could have caused the problem.

I told them "if I drip a drop of water on one of those computers over there it should still work and if not you should replace it."

They refused.

Later I called their phone support as they don't seem to have any email support. Long story short, but not as long as my store experience, after offering me the initial $200 replacement my second tier support woman eventually told me that she would provide me with a "one time replacement that I could not add apple care plus too." I only had to pay $30 for the expedited shipping. She was very nice and treated me much better over all then those store employees.

I am waiting on my replacement to now arrive but am now paranoid about using my phone, especially charging the phone. Do I need to wipe out the dock connector every night before I charge it with a freaking q-tip now! My original phone had lasted 4-5 years, no corrosion, and had seen some heavy rain, minor spills, plenty of drops including in the rain, and a rogue ocean wave splashing my pocket it was in. I have also plugged in countless electronics over the years without a problem. If these dock connectors are so sensitive they should be using something else period (Mini-usb, thunderbolt, anything).

I found an explanation about water damage on apple's website.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3302

Apparently the indicators are on the outside of the phone so I am not even sure if the store was bs'ing me about opening up the phone and checking them out or not. Anyway, I checked both the dock and headphone indicator. Not surprisingly, both indicators are perfectly white indicating no water damage.

I cannot believe apple's support treated me this way. All 5 support people I had talked to fought me on replacing my phone and only one finally gave me an exception.

This is from normal use and unless I drop the phone in a bowl of water or smash the thing it should be covered under the 1 year warranty. I cannot believe their support acts like this. This sounds like the phone could be easily not covered if used in the rain or just carried in your pocket while it is raining. It is a phone and rain is a pretty regular occurrence imo.

I will be trying to communicate this in some written way to apple if I can find an email address or something.

My next phone will likely not be an iPhone because of this. And I may no longer be purchasing a mac as my next computer as I had planned to.

I'm surprised they don't loose more people due to their customer support.

Well, thanks for reading. I hope I had an isolated experience and that it will not happen to me or other people again.