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Scratched my watch - AppleCare+?

M

Macwick

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 9, 2008
284
236
Hello all,

I was outside yesterday and managed to scrape my 42SGS against some rough concrete. The screen was largely unscathed, but there are large scratches on the watch body (see pic).

I purchased Apple Care+ for this watch and I have a couple of questions for folks who may have had a similar experience:

1) Does Apple have any threshold around what they consider 'accidental damage'? Will they replace the watch for scratches like this?

2) How painful is it to move to a new watch? Specifically, I'm wondering about setup and saved data, *especially* around fitness tracking. I assume all activity is retained in the Activity and Health apps on your iPhone. But I did read specifically that 'calibration' data is lost. I had to run outside a few times with my phone in order to calibrate my watch to measure my treadmill runs accurately. It would suck to have to go through this calibration process again.

Apologies to anyone who hasn't received their watch yet and is annoyed reading about my FWP (first watch problems).
 

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Macwick said:
Hello all,

I was outside yesterday and managed to scrape my 42SGS against some rough concrete. The screen was largely unscathed, but there are large scratches on the watch body (see pic).

I purchased Apple Care+ for this watch and I have a couple of questions for folks who may have had a similar experience:

1) Does Apple have any threshold around what they consider 'accidental damage'? Will they replace the watch for scratches like this?

2) How painful is it to move to a new watch? Specifically, I'm wondering about setup and saved data, *especially* around fitness tracking. I assume all activity is retained in the Activity and Health apps on your iPhone. But I did read specifically that 'calibration' data is lost. I had to run outside a few times with my phone in order to calibrate my watch to measure my treadmill runs accurately. It would suck to have to go through this calibration process again.

Apologies to anyone who hasn't received their watch yet and is annoyed reading about my FWP (first watch problems).
Click to expand...
As far as I know as long as you have AC+ you can have up to 2 accidental damage incidents in 2 years and they will replace it. I say get a case for it in the mean time so you don't wear thin on accidental damage free replacements, and down the road take it to apple for an exchange, unless you want to do it now.
 
Setting up the new watch is a breeze; you pair it and every setting you had on the old one transfers to the new one. I just did it yesterday.
 
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Jmona said:
As far as I know as long as you have AC+ you can have up to 2 accidental damage incidents in 2 years and they will replace it. I say get a case for it in the mean time so you don't wear thin on accidental damage free replacements, and down the road take it to apple for an exchange, unless you want to do it now.
Click to expand...

you still have to pay the service fee, so it's not completely free
 
Apple state in their T&C for AppleCare+....

Apple said:
The Plan does not apply to cosmetic damage to the Covered Equipment, including but not limited to scratches and dents that do not otherwise affect the functionality of the Covered Equipment.
Click to expand...

So no, it is not covered! It's cosmetic, it doesn't affect the watch. If you had dropped it and cracked the screen on the other hand, that would be covered. Even if you did what I did, it's covered. I dropped mine and dented the corner. It was just enough that my link band wouldn't fit (due to tighter tolerances), but my sports band still worked fine.

Apple replaced mine under accidental damage, because being limited to certain bands is deemed as an affect on functionality. Yours wont be by the looks of it.
 
H3rman said:
So no, it is not covered! It's cosmetic, it doesn't affect the watch.
Apple replaced mine under accidental damage, because being limited to certain bands is deemed as an affect on functionality. Yours wont be by the looks of it.
Click to expand...

This shouldn't be a problem for the OP...Hello Hammer!!! :D
 
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H3rman said:
Apple state in their T&C for AppleCare+....



So no, it is not covered! It's cosmetic, it doesn't affect the watch. If you had dropped it and cracked the screen on the other hand, that would be covered. Even if you did what I did, it's covered. I dropped mine and dented the corner. It was just enough that my link band wouldn't fit (due to tighter tolerances), but my sports band still worked fine.

Apple replaced mine under accidental damage, because being limited to certain bands is deemed as an affect on functionality. Yours wont be by the looks of it.
Click to expand...
I have AC+ and I'd still try to get it exchanged if I had the damage OP has.
 
OP, if it was me, I'd try to buff those out a bit. Maybe see if there wasn't some paint or touch-up marker that I couldn't use to minimize the appearance of those scratches.

You only get 2 accidental claims on AC+. You sure you want to be using one so quickly for something that's cosmetic? (and may be mostly repairable yourself?)

If you're not that handy, I'm sure you have a few friends that are - have them take a look at it.
 
Apple never seems to care when u got AppleCare+ they just give u a new one as long as u pay the service fee. they dont even really look at it from my experience
 
RodThePlod said:
Seriously, though: OP - I wouldn't waste one of my two Applecare incidents on this. Might be better to wait for some more substantial damage....
Click to expand...

There's optimism for you ;)

Sounds like good advice to me, in all seriousness. It's annoying and upsetting, I'm sure. But it's still early days.
 
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My mother scratched her Sport watch & she has Apple Care. They would not replace it for the "cosmetic damage is not covered" reason.
 
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