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new phone damage - too picky??

P

pittster

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 11, 2007
129
0
UK
Hi all,

I too am a customer who received a damaged white iPhone 5.

here are the pics. replacing is a pain in the a**e having to wait at home for a replacement and for the courier to pick up the damaged one. I purchased through the Apple Store.

am I being too picky? the marks are so slight, and no doubt I'll put loads more on it before long.... it's just the fact that they were already there straight out of the box that bothers me..

the ugly sticker on the back is a Zagg front shield for the 4S that I never used. thought I'd put it on there till I get a proper fitting shield.

any opinion warmly welcomed.

:)
 

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Either you can live with it, safe in the knowledge that you'll probably do worse to it shortly, or you can go to the hassle of returning it and then despair when you inevitably damage it anyway.

Not sure I see the point in the latter TBH.
 
You've got to do what's right for you, but I wouldn't worry for a second about that level of damage. I hadn't even looked at mine that carefully until just now but I have a couple of similar marks. I don't know whether I did them yesterday or whether they were there when I got it. As tomleeds says, they're almost certainly the first of many.

Only thing I'll add is that mine is black so things like that are much more difficult to see. Still, I doubt I would feel differently with a white one.

EDIT: One more thing!:) It occurs to me that if you start returning for that sort of thing you may find you'll never stop because each new phone will have something similar. You may replace the fun of a new phone with a fruitless hunt for unattainable perfection.
 
I've got one tiny chip on the edge of the back near the volume. I was thinking of sending it back but who's to say the next one wont be worse?
 
$650 to $1000 phone should not be in this condition I have never owned a phone that had any kind of damage on it so Apple needs to fire the 8 year olds that made these phones and higher a better quality control agent
 
I know.

Thats the problem with these forums. I'd probably never have noticed these marks if it wasn't for my OCD and Macrumors.

I'm still not sure what to do. The phone is lovely but the pre-existing marks bother me. Prob 99% of new owners would never see them (unless they read Macrumors!!).

Guess ill stick with it. Who knows what the replacement might look like & ill be back to square one :(
 
Exchange. It won't cost you anything. Push Apple, let them replace as long as you get the flawless one. It's a pricey phone and deserves to be in absolute mint condition.
 
  1. Man up and live with it, its only a phone
  2. Your crazy if you accept anything other than absolute perfection. Return it, and keep returning it until Apple gets it right
  3. Its a question you need to answer for your self. Do what will make you happy.

I'd recomend the third option.
 
You hit the nail on the head. The problem with macrumors and these launches is that one person wil mention some "problem" and suddenly everyone goes looking to find it.

Frankly I can't see damage in your photos, maybe I don't know what I'm looking for. Can you circle the damage?

pittster said:
I know.

Thats the problem with these forums. I'd probably never have noticed these marks if it wasn't for my OCD and Macrumors.

I'm still not sure what to do. The phone is lovely but the pre-existing marks bother me. Prob 99% of new owners would never see them (unless they read Macrumors!!).

Guess ill stick with it. Who knows what the replacement might look like & ill be back to square one :(
Click to expand...
 
pittster said:
Hi all,

I too am a customer who received a damaged white iPhone 5.

here are the pics. replacing is a pain in the a**e having to wait at home for a replacement and for the courier to pick up the damaged one. I purchased through the Apple Store.

am I being too picky? the marks are so slight, and no doubt I'll put loads more on it before long.... it's just the fact that they were already there straight out of the box that bothers me..

the ugly sticker on the back is a Zagg front shield for the 4S that I never used. thought I'd put it on there till I get a proper fitting shield.


any opinion warmly welcomed.

:)
Click to expand...

Take it back. If you bought a new car you would take it scratched up? I'd tell the guy get me another. Have done it before.
 
My white phone has the same damage as yours. (You are talking about the scratches on the chrome, right!?) I've decided just to live with it. It's not worth it to me to return it, and who is to say that my next one wouldn't be worse? If it had dents or anything worse, I would return it, but a few scratches that I have to look closely for, I can deal with. Good luck with your decision!
 
back when I purchased a white 4S it came straight from apple with the aluminum side all scratched to hell...I marched right into apple and raised hell as this was not even close to acceptable.

Then, to top it off, they tried to give me a refurb...you can imagine how pissed off I got at that.
 
ROLLTIDE1 said:
$650 to $1000 phone should not be in this condition I have never owned a phone that had any kind of damage on it so Apple needs to fire the 8 year olds that made these phones and higher a better quality control agent
Click to expand...

They need to STOP selling to eight year olds!

GO DAWGS !
 
HowardSmith said:
They need to STOP selling to eight year olds!

GO DAWGS !
Click to expand...

I don't regard myself as being childish. The phone was delivered damaged, albeit minimally.

I'm just trying to decide if its worth going through the replacement fiasco.
 
skywalkerr69 said:
Take it back. If you bought a new car you would take it scratched up? I'd tell the guy get me another. Have done it before.
Click to expand...

This isn't a car. And it's not 'scratched up'. This is more like a new car with a tiny nick in the tail light, Not a car that's been sitting over night in the hood that's been keyed up by thugs. Come on now.
 
GoodBoy said:
Exchange. It won't cost you anything. Push Apple, let them replace as long as you get the flawless one. It's a pricey phone and deserves to be in absolute mint condition.
Click to expand...

Which'll last about 10 seconds after you take it out of the box. Then all that hassle will be for nothing. :rolleyes:
 
GoreVidal said:
Which'll last about 10 seconds after you take it out of the box. Then all that hassle will be for nothing. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yup. You're right.

I'm umming and ahhhing whether to just keep my pristine 4S and get a refund.

Just not sure :confused:
 
After thinking about my phone with a pretty deep gouge, I plan on heading to the apple store today. Every phone they see come back with damage, that hurts their bottom line. If that bottom line gets dinged enough, they'll be more apt to remedy their poor QC for future launches. It's how companies improve, or they don't and like pissing money away.
 
BoxerGT2.5 said:
After thinking about my phone with a pretty deep gouge, I plan on heading to the apple store today. Every phone they see come back with damage, that hurts their bottom line. If that bottom line gets dinged enough, they'll be more apt to remedy their poor QC for future launches. It's how companies improve, or they don't and like pissing money away.
Click to expand...

I imagine the sort of damage that the vast majority of people on here complain about gets through QC because 99% of people wouldn't have a problem with it. Take the OPs phone as an example. Most people wouldn't even notice those marks, and most of those who did wouldn't care. Why should they scrap perfectly good parts because of the demands of 1% of consumers? They would be crazy to do so. The OP should obviously take it back if he's unhappy, but it doesn't follow that the phone shouldn't have been sold in the first place.

As for their bottom line being hurt by cosmetic damage returns? The proportion of handsets returned for that reason will be tiny.
 
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