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Is your black iPhone 5 scuffed, chipped or scratched?

  • Flawless

    Votes: 1,158 46.1%
  • Flawless because I put a case on it.

    Votes: 198 7.9%
  • Scuffed out of the box

    Votes: 820 32.7%
  • Scuffed/scratched shortly after

    Votes: 334 13.3%

  • Total voters
    2,510
Yeah, but why do they use Aluminum then, if it is normal that it scratches? And why does Apple declare that the iPhone 5 is produced with a "remarkable precision" and with a high quality?

"Look at iPhone 5 and you can't help but notice the exquisite chamfer surrounding the display*. A crystalling diamond cuts this beveled edge. It's what gives iPhone 5 its distinctive lines"

*oh... well... as long as you don't pick it up and use it.
 
You don't have to be an arrogant person all the time to make an isolated arrogant comment.

By offering no help whatsoever to a concerned customer, you could've just added, "deal with it" to the end of that glib comment and it would have meant much the same to the recipient.

I know it's very early in the morning on the West Coast of America, so perhaps this caught him a little unawares, but when you are senior management at a global company, you need to be very careful what you say & how you handle problems which appear to be reasonably widespread.
 
Yes he doesn't give me the impression of being an arrogant person either.

But on the other hand, he is not stupid and he most know people are discussing the fragility of the coating on websites and forums like Macrumors (and it was also published on some mainstream media).

So I doubt he didn't get the question. I think it is more damage control and denial. A bit the same as the "other phones also have a death grip" answer provided by Apple to the antenna-gate (which maybe they did, but clearly not as obviously as the iPhone 4).

He's pretty insulated at times so it is possible... but yes the likelihood of being unaware is low. I think its more of being careful not to apologize for aluminum being softer than glass, which they can't change. I really believe they are already assessing if not addressing the premature failures and QA prior to boxing.

And to the other gentleman, yes in one weekend. Time has no bearing on hardness of aluminum. It doesn't start harder than glass and slowly get softer.

I think what you are speaking to is premature failure though... and I do believe they will address that.

If they blow it off, I'll rescind.
 
How will these "scuffed out of the box" be considered by Gazelle when it is time to sell them to get the iPhone 6? Will people get less money for their devices? Mine came in perfect condition and went straight to a case. So far, so good!!!!
 
You don't have to be an arrogant person all the time to make an isolated arrogant comment.

By offering no help whatsoever to a concerned customer, you could've just added, "deal with it" to the end of that glib comment and it would have meant much the same to the recipient.

I know it's very early in the morning on the West Coast of America, so perhaps this caught him a little unawares, but when you are senior management at a global company, you need to be very careful what you say & how you handle problems which appear to be reasonably widespread.

Keep in mind it may be an intern that answered. Even if he originated the comment, whisper down the lane may have gotten to it between ear and keyboard.
 
Hey guys: I have a MAJOR problem and I realize its the wrong thread and forum but maybe you can help anyway...

I bought a new car last week. I drive it no more than 60 miles a day. It has a SCRATCH!!!! I know right!?!?

I took it too the dealership (horrified) and explained that nothing used should ever show wear, ever, even if they used materials to make my car lighter instead of indestructible...

They looked at me like I was CRAZY!!!

The nerve right!?!? Am I right!?!?

Please help me... I can't sleep, I've called off work, and I stay in the garage with a magnifying glass 24/7 looking for more "defects".

Then... To make things WORSE... I dropped the magnifier on the car and it happened AGAIN!!!

Should I call the president? The national guard?

PLEASE HELP ME!!!

LOL omfg this made my day - can't stop laughing. I warned a lot of people about this before launch - just glade I got white.
 
He's pretty insulated at times so it is possible... but yes the likelihood of being unaware is low. I think its more of being careful not to apologize for aluminum being softer than glass, which they can't change. I really believe they are already assessing if not addressing the premature failures and QA prior to boxing.

And to the other gentleman, yes in one weekend. Time has no bearing on hardness of aluminum. It doesn't start harder than glass and slowly get softer.

I think what you are speaking to is premature failure though... and I do believe they will address that.

If they blow it off, I'll rescind.

Totally agree with you Bit. I believe it's a problem that will get filtered out between now and the next few months. Naturally they're going to want to get this issue sorted before Christmas - sales are undoubtedly going to be high and I'm sure they dont want upset customers (especially kids) with damaged devices at such an important time of the year.
 
Picked up my black 64GB VZN iP5 at the store today. The first one out of the box had a relatively noticeable, shiny scuff mark on the bezel near the volume button.

The Apple specialist was cool about it, and got me a new one (the last one in stock). Got the second one, and although the bezel is fine, just above the vibrate toggle where there is the break in the casing, you can see a sliver of shiny aluminum.

The second one was barely noticeable, and I have AppleCare+ anyway, so came home with it.

Overall, had a great experience. Pre-ordered the phone I wanted, picked it up and switched it out in-store with no hassle.
 
Apple did not clear coat over the anodizing which would have helped significantly. Problem with that is it will create more of a gloss finish which Apple may have not wanted.

----------

Picked up my black 64GB VZN iP5 at the store today. The first one out of the box had a relatively noticeable, shiny scuff mark on the bezel near the volume button.

The Apple specialist was cool about it, and got me a new one (the last one in stock). Got the second one, and although the bezel is fine, just above the vibrate toggle where there is the break in the casing, you can see a sliver of shiny aluminum.

The second one was barely noticeable, and I have AppleCare+ anyway, so came home with it.

Overall, had a great experience. Pre-ordered the phone I wanted, picked it up and switched it out in-store with no hassle.

And by " I have AppleCare+ anyway" you mean you are willing to spend $50 on fixing Apples poor quality control issues.
 
. . . And to the other gentleman, yes in one weekend . . .

Personally, I am not prepared to pay hundreds of pounds for a device advertised as premium that is going to look crap either out of the box or over the course of the first weekend I own it.

I'm not OCD, as the forum says, about these things, but I was taught the value of money & I was taught to take care of my possessions.

As such, there are two lucky owners of my previous iPhones the iPhone 3G & 3GS who received phones that were used every day but still looked nearly as good as new.

My 4S with a glass of front and back has unfortunately taken the tiniest amount of damage on one corner but even then, I'll guarantee it's one of the best out there when I come to sell it.

Apple market themselves as a premium product, he's the SVP of Marketing & they need to live up to that billing or change their message (and pricing).
 
And by " I have AppleCare+ anyway" you mean you are willing to spend $50 on fixing Apples poor quality control issues.

Sure. I'm perfectly fine with the phone as it stands. If in a year's time (or less), I get some relatively significant scratches or worse, I'd be happy to drop $50 on a brand new one.
 
Totally agree with you Bit. I believe it's a problem that will get filtered out between now and the next few months. Naturally they're going to want to get this issue sorted before Christmas - sales are undoubtedly going to be high and I'm sure they dont want upset customers (especially kids) with damaged devices at such an important time of the year.

I agree it would make sense. But if you look at antenna of the the iPhone 4, they kept denying the issue and only addressed it one year later with the 4S (and if my memory is correct, they partly corrected it on the Verizon iPhone 4 which was released 6 months after the GSM iPhone 4, but that is for a restricted number of customers).

Improving the quality of the coating is probably easier than redesigning the antenna, but still it probably requires a lot of adjustments in the assembly line which they might not want to bother with. I guess it depends on how be of a PR issue this becomes (for now I don't think it is a big threat for Apple).

PS: I am sure they will fix the issues with phones being damaged out of the box, this cannot be tolerated and is probably due to issues with some machines or worker's training so can be fixed fairly easily. What I think the question is is to know whether they will improve the resistance of the coating (and I would tend to say no).
 
I agree it would make sense. But if you look at antenna of the the iPhone 4, they kept denying the issue and only addressed it one year later with the 4S (and if my memory is correct, they partly corrected it on the Verizon iPhone 4 which was released 6 months after the GSM iPhone 4, but that is for a restricted number of customers).

Improving the quality of the coating is probably easier than redesigning the antenna, but still it probably requires a lot of adjustments in the assembly line which they might not want to bother with. I guess it depends on how be of a PR issue this becomes (for now I don't think it is a big threat for Apple).

Good point made, but my attention is still drawn to the fact that there are iPhone 5's currently in the public realm, that are scuff-free and seem to be holding up well. I consider these to be at the quality that Apple intended all of their iPhone 5's to be at, and the ones arriving with damages/poor coatings, are below that standard, however this affects the minority of produced iPhone 5's.

I'm only speculating but I'm pretty confident that they'll fix this silently, bring new iPhone 5's up to the original standard, and replace any that customers wish to return.

I believe they 'set a bar' in terms of standards, and only ____ amount of iPhone 5's met that standard. The rest, are the ones we see with damage.
 
Good point made, but my attention is still drawn to the fact that there are iPhone 5's currently in the public realm, that are scuff-free and seem to be holding up well. I consider these to be at the quality that Apple intended all of their iPhone 5's to be at, and the ones arriving with damages/poor coatings, are below that standard, however this affects the minority of produced iPhone 5's.

I'm only speculating but I'm pretty confident that they'll fix this silently, bring new iPhone 5's up to the original standard, and replace any that customers wish to return.

I believe they 'set a bar' in terms of standards, and only ____ amount of iPhone 5's met that standard. The rest, are the ones we see with damage.


Rather than ditch the damaged iphones-which were damaged at the factory and were inspected and passed-Apple decided to pass them off to customers hoping they would not notice. Costs too much to disassemble the phone and part it out because of a damaged exterior shell. It's all about profits.
 
Rather than ditch the damaged iphones-which were damaged at the factory and were inspected and passed-Apple decided to pass them off to customers hoping they would not notice. Costs too much to disassemble the phone and part it out because of a damaged exterior shell. It's all about profits.

No doubt about that, Apple will care about their money making. That being said, if customers are upset, it means less future purchases, less money for Apple.

I know they're a huge multibillion company so no they're not going to sit down and have a heartfelt one-to-one apology with every customer who's received a damaged phone, but it's clear that they're happy to replace defected devices and send out new ones (Which yes, some are damaged, but they're obviously not opening boxes, they're just grabbing them off of the pile and replacing)

I'm still waiting for my 32GB Black 5 to arrive, it's due on Monday of next week. I'm hoping it's damage-free. If there are marks then I will replace it in November. :)
 
No doubt about that, Apple will care about their money making. That being said, if customers are upset, it means less future purchases, less money for Apple.

I know they're a huge multibillion company so no they're not going to sit down and have a heartfelt one-to-one apology with every customer who's received a damaged phone, but it's clear that they're happy to replace defected devices and send out new ones (Which yes, some are damaged, but they're obviously not opening boxes, they're just grabbing them off of the pile and replacing)

I'm still waiting for my 32GB Black 5 to arrive, it's due on Monday of next week. I'm hoping it's damage-free. If there are marks then I will replace it in November. :)


The phones are inspected prior to packaging. Many of the defects are clearly visible from 3' + away. The financial impact is much less having the discerning customer come in for a replacement than ditch the damaged phones at the factory, as the number of phones returned vs. damaged phones sent out will be much less.
 
Based on Schiller's comment and common sense it is pretty obvious that the scuffing will eventually befall every device. Apple can't change the laws of physics here. With that in mind do you guys believe Apple can honestly prevent this from happening during the manufacturing process and still meet their profit quota?

I'm sure they could prevent this from happening if they had someone manually check every device as the aluminum is being edged and possibly clean the machine after a small batch as well, but think of how much time that would add to the entire process! Therefore it would seem unrealistic for them to instantly fix this problem and still meet the demand.

And so if this is something that will end up happening then how does that change your opinion of the phone? Do you still prefer the aluminum and glass device over a plastic one despite the flaws? Is this flaw enough to sway you to bypass this phone despite the other amazing qualities?
 
Based on Schiller's comment and common sense it is pretty obvious that the scuffing will eventually befall every device. Apple can't change the laws of physics here. With that in mind do you guys believe Apple can honestly prevent this from happening during the manufacturing process and still meet their profit quota?

I'm sure they could prevent this from happening if they had someone manually check every device as the aluminum is being edged and possibly clean the machine after a small batch as well, but think of how much time that would add to the entire process! Therefore it would seem unrealistic for them to instantly fix this problem and still meet the demand.

Who cares about the intricacies of the production? It's their responsibility to provide a good undamaged product, not mine. When they don't, they will feel the backlash. It's simple. BTW, the damage was done after anodizing-which was piss poor.
 
Who cares about the intricacies of the production? It's their responsibility to provide a good undamaged product, not mine. When they don't, they will feel the backlash. It's simple. BTW, the damage was done after anodizing-which was piss poor.

Thats my point. What if they can't? What would you do?
 
Based on Schiller's comment and common sense it is pretty obvious that the scuffing will eventually befall every device. Apple can't change the laws of physics here. With that in mind do you guys believe Apple can honestly prevent this from happening during the manufacturing process and still meet their profit quota?

I'm sure they could prevent this from happening if they had someone manually check every device as the aluminum is being edged and possibly clean the machine after a small batch as well, but think of how much time that would add to the entire process! Therefore it would seem unrealistic for them to instantly fix this problem and still meet the demand.

And so if this is something that will end up happening then how does that change your opinion of the phone? Do you still prefer the aluminum and glass device over a plastic one despite the flaws? Is this flaw enough to sway you to bypass this phone despite the other amazing qualities?

Who cares about the intricacies of the production? It's their responsibility to provide a good undamaged product, not mine. When they don't, they will feel the backlash. It's simple. BTW, the damage was done after anodizing-which was piss poor.


I'm sure Apple could afford to put some effort into their quality control department.

If they had a large team of QC'ers, separate to the actual assemblers, then it could easily be achieved (May not be perfect QC, but better than letting so many damaged units slip the net). One person could check up to 50 devices in a day, at a guess. If they had a team of 50-200 QC'ers per factory... Things could get better
 
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