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jmikhail490

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2015
147
40
Northern NJ
image.png
I searched everywhere and I could not figure out which band apple is sending me as a replacement according to the description above under service. The senior advisor I was speaking to was clueless and had no idea what she was talking about. My SS Link bracelet had a defect on the butterfly clasp and wouldn't close completely after only a week of wear and I was really pissy about this because of the price I paid.

So after 2 hours on the phone with apple and a senior advisor who definitely was not Advising in a senior manner, they finally decided to replace it for me and send me a new one and replace the old one. This was after I showed them pictures and talked to them for almost 2 hours.

Anyways, I boxed up my old one so that I don't wear it and my watch ends up falling off and to not add any more damage to it and they sent me my repair id and this is what the description says on it.

So if I'm not mistaken to me it seems that the word "dark" in the description above would mean the Space Black Link Band? I have never heard of a "dark" SS link band so I'm assuming they made an error and are sending me the wrong one which I don't want. I love my brushed SS link band and the way it looks and I just wanted to replace mine and so I'm trying to figure out what the deal is here.

After being on the phone with them for 2 hours I don't feel like calling this late at night again to go through 5 operators to get to someone that may be able to decipher what that means.

Anyone know what this could be?
 

ivandr

macrumors regular
Jul 1, 2010
246
61
View attachment 571973 I searched everywhere and I could not figure out which band apple is sending me as a replacement according to the description above under service. The senior advisor I was speaking to was clueless and had no idea what she was talking about. My SS Link bracelet had a defect on the butterfly clasp and wouldn't close completely after only a week of wear and I was really pissy about this because of the price I paid.

So after 2 hours on the phone with apple and a senior advisor who definitely was not Advising in a senior manner, they finally decided to replace it for me and send me a new one and replace the old one. This was after I showed them pictures and talked to them for almost 2 hours.

Anyways, I boxed up my old one so that I don't wear it and my watch ends up falling off and to not add any more damage to it and they sent me my repair id and this is what the description says on it.

So if I'm not mistaken to me it seems that the word "dark" in the description above would mean the Space Black Link Band? I have never heard of a "dark" SS link band so I'm assuming they made an error and are sending me the wrong one which I don't want. I love my brushed SS link band and the way it looks and I just wanted to replace mine and so I'm trying to figure out what the deal is here.

After being on the phone with them for 2 hours I don't feel like calling this late at night again to go through 5 operators to get to someone that may be able to decipher what that means.

Anyone know what this could be?

You got off easy. I received a space black link bracelet that had a defective clasp new out of the box. I took it to an apple store and they had no replacements and directed me to call apple care. It took 20 some days, several hour long phone calls, no less than 30 emails (including emailing took@apple.com) to finally get a member of Apple's Executive relations team to step in and get my link bracelet replaced. It all worked out eventually but damn was it a process.

(And I don't know what dark means but my notices about replacement definitely said Space Black Link Bracelet so hopefully that means you're on track to get the proper link bracelet)
 

jmikhail490

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2015
147
40
Northern NJ
You got off easy. I received a space black link bracelet that had a defective clasp new out of the box. I took it to an apple store and they had no replacements and directed me to call apple care. It took 20 some days, several hour long phone calls, no less than 30 emails (including emailing took@apple.com) to finally get a member of Apple's Executive relations team to step in and get my link bracelet replaced. It all worked out eventually but damn was it a process.

(And I don't know what dark means but my notices about replacement definitely said Space Black Link Bracelet so hopefully that means you're on track to get the proper link bracelet)

Wow I'm sorry to hear that it took that much effort to get that done but okay that makes me feel a little better. Although I'm still not convinced that "dark" really means SS brushed link band but I guess I'll have to wait and see

Thanks though!
 

omgitscro

macrumors 6502a
Jul 12, 2008
576
91
"Dark" does mean the Space Black Link Bracelet—you can verify this yourself by going to the Apple Support page and trying to order a Space Black Link Bracelet. The code for it is distinguished by "Dark" instead of "Light".

If you want to correct this you'll need to call Apple Support again.
 

Donstil-nl

macrumors 6502a
Jun 27, 2008
518
381
Netherlands
You got off easy. I received a space black link bracelet that had a defective clasp new out of the box. I took it to an apple store and they had no replacements and directed me to call apple care. It took 20 some days, several hour long phone calls, no less than 30 emails (including emailing took@apple.com) to finally get a member of Apple's Executive relations team to step in and get my link bracelet replaced. It all worked out eventually but damn was it a process.

(And I don't know what dark means but my notices about replacement definitely said Space Black Link Bracelet so hopefully that means you're on track to get the proper link bracelet)

But why? If it was new out of the box why did you not return it? Get money back and ordered a new one?
 

JayLenochiniMac

macrumors G5
Nov 7, 2007
12,819
2,390
New Sanfrakota
But why? If it was new out of the box why did you not return it? Get money back and ordered a new one?

Easier said than done depending on where you are in the launch cycle. If it was purchased at or soon after launch, this might mean another 2-3 month wait for the new one vs. less than a week for a white box replacement.
 

powerbook911

macrumors 601
Mar 15, 2005
4,003
383
You got off easy. I received a space black link bracelet that had a defective clasp new out of the box. I took it to an apple store and they had no replacements and directed me to call apple care. It took 20 some days, several hour long phone calls, no less than 30 emails (including emailing took@apple.com) to finally get a member of Apple's Executive relations team to step in and get my link bracelet replaced. It all worked out eventually but damn was it a process.

(And I don't know what dark means but my notices about replacement definitely said Space Black Link Bracelet so hopefully that means you're on track to get the proper link bracelet)

Sorry to hear you went through all that. I also tried to replace just the bracelet on one and ended up giving up and buying a new set.

Did the Apple Executive team ever tell you why Apple support cannot replace bracelets? If we're paying $1100, we want the bracelet protected from functioning defects just as much as the watch case.
 

jmikhail490

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2015
147
40
Northern NJ
Sorry to hear you went through all that. I also tried to replace just the bracelet on one and ended up giving up and buying a new set.

Did the Apple Executive team ever tell you why Apple support cannot replace bracelets? If we're paying $1100, we want the bracelet protected from functioning defects just as much as the watch case.

That doesn't make much sense since they ended up sending me the wrong band- the black dlc coated link bracelet. So they must be able to send them out just as they sent it to me?
 

JayLenochiniMac

macrumors G5
Nov 7, 2007
12,819
2,390
New Sanfrakota
Sorry to hear you went through all that. I also tried to replace just the bracelet on one and ended up giving up and buying a new set.

Did the Apple Executive team ever tell you why Apple support cannot replace bracelets? If we're paying $1100, we want the bracelet protected from functioning defects just as much as the watch case.

Malfunctioning bands are covered for as long as the Watch is under warranty (one or two years depending on whether you have AC+). Why was wrong with it and did they disagree with you as to the defect? If not, why did you simply give up and bought a new one?
 
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powerbook911

macrumors 601
Mar 15, 2005
4,003
383
Malfunctioning bands are covered for as long as the Watch is under warranty (one or two years depending on whether you have AC+). Why was wrong with it and did they disagree with you as to the defect? If not, why did you simply give up and bought a new one?

Because they did not know how to do a replacement. The clasp would not lock just like OP. They didn't say it wasn't covered, but their system had no way to replace it unless it was a sport band, then they could "Just send it out."

I sent in pictures for analysis but the senior rep never got a reply from engineering.

They wanted to help, but they didn't have a way to do it as of that time.
 

JayLenochiniMac

macrumors G5
Nov 7, 2007
12,819
2,390
New Sanfrakota
Because they did not know how to do a replacement. The clasp would not lock just like OP. They didn't say it wasn't covered, but their system had no way to replace it unless it was a sport band, then they could "Just send it out."

I sent in pictures for analysis but the senior rep never got a reply from engineering.

They wanted to help, but they didn't have a way to do it as of that time.

A few members have managed to receive a replacement link bracelet and even posted photos of the white box that the replacement bracelet came in so obviously it can be done. I'm not sure why you gave up so easily.
 
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ivandr

macrumors regular
Jul 1, 2010
246
61
A few members have managed to receive a replacement link bracelet and even posted photos of the white box that the replacement bracelet came in so obviously it can be done. I'm not sure why you gave up so easily.

I went through the same thing OP is describing... when I hit the AppleCare support process (early June) they had no way to replace just the link bracelet. I was told I needed to swap the full watch in order to get a replacement of the band. (This was a problem as I wasn't in possession of the SS Space Black watch... I purchased the link bracelet itself new from another person who had the watch)

My band was defective out of the box (the butterfly clasp wouldn't close properly on one side), it was verified in person by genius bar staff as being defective but they had no replacement inventory available at the store. After being directed to call AppleCare I was told that they had no mechanism for replacing just the link bracelet, and so it took over a month for it to eventually get resolved with the bracelet being swapped.

I imagine that some of the new processes allowing swapping of just the space black link bracelet are a result of the early service roadblocks that myself and a few others experienced while trying to get a defective band replaced.
 

jmikhail490

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2015
147
40
Northern NJ
I went through the same thing OP is describing... when I hit the AppleCare support process (early June) they had no way to replace just the link bracelet. I was told I needed to swap the full watch in order to get a replacement of the band. (This was a problem as I wasn't in possession of the SS Space Black watch... I purchased the link bracelet itself new from another person who had the watch)

My band was defective out of the box (the butterfly clasp wouldn't close properly on one side), it was verified in person by genius bar staff as being defective but they had no replacement inventory available at the store. After being directed to call AppleCare I was told that they had no mechanism for replacing just the link bracelet, and so it took over a month for it to eventually get resolved with the bracelet being swapped.

I imagine that some of the new processes allowing swapping of just the space black link bracelet are a result of the early service roadblocks that myself and a few others experienced while trying to get a defective band replaced.


Wow that is absolutely absurd that in the early stages of the watch they couldn't replace the band for those that spent 1100$ on the SBSS version. I guess you are correct that they eventually made it possible to send out separately because of this because that is very annoying and a huge hassle for such a high price
 

JayLenochiniMac

macrumors G5
Nov 7, 2007
12,819
2,390
New Sanfrakota
So you
I went through the same thing OP is describing... when I hit the AppleCare support process (early June) they had no way to replace just the link bracelet. I was told I needed to swap the full watch in order to get a replacement of the band. (This was a problem as I wasn't in possession of the SS Space Black watch... I purchased the link bracelet itself new from another person who had the watch)

My band was defective out of the box (the butterfly clasp wouldn't close properly on one side), it was verified in person by genius bar staff as being defective but they had no replacement inventory available at the store. After being directed to call AppleCare I was told that they had no mechanism for replacing just the link bracelet, and so it took over a month for it to eventually get resolved with the bracelet being swapped.

I imagine that some of the new processes allowing swapping of just the space black link bracelet are a result of the early service roadblocks that myself and a few others experienced while trying to get a defective band replaced.

So you actually purchased just the Space Black link bracelet itself from another person to wear with your non-Space Black watch? If it was defective upon arrival, why didn't you return it to the person who sold it to you for a refund? Or was it a dishonest seller who knowingly sold you a defective bracelet in a Craigslist type transaction and you couldn't get a hold of him?
 

powerbook911

macrumors 601
Mar 15, 2005
4,003
383
A few members have managed to receive a replacement link bracelet and even posted photos of the white box that the replacement bracelet came in so obviously it can be done. I'm not sure why you gave up so easily.

I really don't understand this position? Why shouldn't I give up? I had a new order in 48 hours. The Apple Care was going to drag on. I think most of those who received a replacement have went to the physical stores that are too hard for me to get to, and they had to give up the bracelet for quite a few days. One member here got one through mail, but had to go to executive relations.

I kept it simple for everyone and returned mine and got a new order, happy.

Nevertheless, I appreciate your enthusiasm for Apple Support! I think they are very good too! I like this aspect of the company. Something just isn't setup right for the phone and chat teams to be able to help with the high end bracelets right now.

I should also add - The regular applecare team and senior rep were supportive of the idea to just return it too. They said, if within the window, it made a lot of sense.
 

JayLenochiniMac

macrumors G5
Nov 7, 2007
12,819
2,390
New Sanfrakota
I really don't understand this position? Why shouldn't I give up? I had a new order in 48 hours. The Apple Care was going to drag on. I think most of those who received a replacement have went to the physical stores that are too hard for me to get to, and they had to give up the bracelet for quite a few days. One member here got one through mail, but had to go to executive relations.

I kept it simple for everyone and returned mine and got a new order, happy.

Nevertheless, I appreciate your enthusiasm for Apple Support! I think they are very good too! I like this aspect of the company. Something just isn't setup right for the phone and chat teams to be able to help with the high end bracelets right now.

I should also add - The regular applecare team and senior rep were supportive of the idea to just return it too. They said, if within the window, it made a lot of sense.

Then that's different. You never specifically said you returned the defective one and made it sound like you simply purchased another set. Nothing wrong with returning within the 14-day period and re-purchasing.
 
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