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Utterly Outraged By iPhone Repair Experience

N

NOLF1

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 5, 2009
39
10
I purchased an iPhone 8 with AppleCare+. As luck would have it, I drop the thing the first week. The screen shatters.

I make a repair appointment at the Apple Store. I arrive and am asked to wait for 30 minutes. An Apple Store employee looks at my phone and informs me that they do not have the screen parts in stock and do not know when they will have them. He suggests I send the phone to the repair center.

I go home and setup the mail in repair. I mail the phone in.

I receive an email from Apple informing me that they can find nothing wrong with the phone and it is returned to me in the condition it was sent.

REALLY? You can find nothing wrong with the phone when the screen is shattered?

Welcome to AppleCare+. Talk about a waste of money.
 
NOLF1 said:
I purchased an iPhone 8 with AppleCare+. As luck would have it, I drop the thing the first week. The screen shatters.

I make a repair appointment at the Apple Store. I arrive and am asked to wait for 30 minutes. An Apple Store employee looks at my phone and informs me that they do not have the screen parts in stock and do not know when they will have them. He suggests I send the phone to the repair center.

I go home and setup the mail in repair. I mail the phone in.

I receive an email from Apple informing me that they can find nothing wrong with the phone and it is returned to me in the condition it was sent.

REALLY? You can find nothing wrong with the phone when the screen is shattered?

Welcome to AppleCare+. Talk about a waste of money.
Click to expand...

Clearly there is a mistake or misunderstanding somewhere. Why don't you contact Apple directly and Ask if there is any notations on the account on why they're sending the phone back. They will make it right One way or the other if you're being truthful about what you're saying.
 
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Relentless Power said:
Clearly there is a mistake or misunderstanding somewhere. Why don't you contact Apple directly and Ask if there is any notations on the account on why they're sending the phone back. They will make it right One way or the other if you're being truthful about what you're saying.
Click to expand...

If I'm being truthful. Nice insinuation.

Contact Apple directly? What do you think a visit to the Apple store and having to setup a mail in repair is, exactly?

I think I'll Youtube this. Should be a nice mess for Apple PR to clean up.
 
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NOLF1 said:
If I'm being truthful. Nice insinuation.

I think I'll Youtube this. Should be a nice mess for Apple PR to clean up.
Click to expand...

I didn't insinuate anything, nor did I state you were being dishonest. I said IF you're being truthful about the phone damage, then you have nothing to be concerned with and there's a mistake made on Apple's behalf. YouTube isn't going to fix your problem for you. Why don't you contact Apple directly via phone, as they will have notations made on your account about the phone and the repair status. You Could also have a senior advisor look into your situation and gather more information on the iPhone.

Mistakes happen. Apple isn't perfect, but again, if your situation is what you say it is, they will make it right.
 
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NOLF1 said:
Apple has already informed me that their techs could find nothing wrong in writing. I'm sorry, a massive shattered screen is not easy to miss
Click to expand...

If you have AppleCare Plus, there should be no concerns with the repair status. Clearly that was already acknowledged when you went to the Apple store and the staff were going to replace it in store, but they didn't have the parts necessary. So obviously there is a mistake on Apple's behalf when you sent the phone in somehow. It's likely a misunderstanding.
 
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NOLF1 said:
I purchased an iPhone 8 with AppleCare+. As luck would have it, I drop the thing the first week. The screen shatters.

I make a repair appointment at the Apple Store. I arrive and am asked to wait for 30 minutes. An Apple Store employee looks at my phone and informs me that they do not have the screen parts in stock and do not know when they will have them. He suggests I send the phone to the repair center.

I go home and setup the mail in repair. I mail the phone in.

I receive an email from Apple informing me that they can find nothing wrong with the phone and it is returned to me in the condition it was sent.

REALLY? You can find nothing wrong with the phone when the screen is shattered?

Welcome to AppleCare+. Talk about a waste of money.
Click to expand...
Pics or it didn't happen.
 
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I've worked in repair centers before (person who does the repairs) for companies such as NEC, Dell and Packard Bell and I can tell you from experience, if the information on the repair sheet did not match that of the item, us repair people would be the first to go to our boss and say something is not right here, we would not just dismiss it out of hand and return it. The boss would have got in contact with the customer to find out what the situation is.

Now I do not know how Apple repair conduct their business but i would consider it highly unlikely that a phone with a cracked screen would be returned to a customer still with a cracked screen. Internal questions would have been asked and I am sure someone would have tried to contact the owner to find out the situation.
 
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NOLF1 said:
REALLY? You can find nothing wrong with the phone when the screen is shattered?
Click to expand...
Sounds like it was just a clerical error on Apple's part. I think you're jumping to conclusions without all the information. Given the rejection, I think you should contact apple, ask for clarification. Of course a shattered screen isn't considered normal, and so using Occam's razor, the simplest explanation is probably the correct one, a simple mistake on Apple's part.

I'm not defending Apple, just pointing out, that its run by humans that are imperfect and at times they make mistakes. Just take a deep breath, relax and make a phone call.
 
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When I first got my Apple Watch, there was a defect with the rear sensor. I had AC+, and had the Apple Store people look at it. They agreed it was defective and sent it in for repair.

I received the watch back a few days later to discover that repair was denied. I had two options here: stomp my feet and rage about it while threatening to create a PR nightmare, or contact Apple again firmly and explain my situation. I chose the latter.

The rep I spoke to informed me that there were no notes on their end about why repair was refused, which is a big error on their part. She apologized and set up an expedited replacement for a brand new watch-
No questions asked- for my troubles.

Acting like an adult in these situations typically will end in your favor.
 
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huh! i'm surprised! usually when they don't have a replacement screen they SHOULD give you a replacement device refurb or brand new in this case.
 
go drop your phone in the toilet so they replace it instead of the screen repair. It will cost $99 instead of the $29 screen repair though.
 
maflynn said:
Sounds like it was just a clerical error on Apple's part. I think you're jumping to conclusions without all the information. Given the rejection, I think you should contact apple, ask for clarification. Of course a shattered screen isn't considered normal, and so using Occam's razor, the simplest explanation is probably the correct one, a simple mistake on Apple's part.

I'm not defending Apple, just pointing out, that its run by humans that are imperfect and at times they make mistakes. Just take a deep breath, relax and make a phone call.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. Definitely a mistake by Apple, but humans sometimes can make mistakes.
 
I've had this happen twice with my Apple Watches. Both times said nothing wrong was found but both times I received the watches back they were fixed. I just assumed that's what they always put when returning the item. I'd wait until you receive your phone back before you start flipping your lid. You'll look more sane that way.
 
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If you paid for AppleCare+, why not make use of Express Replacement?

https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/service/express-replacement

I did it with my Watch last year. They overnight a replacement and then you use the included packaging to send back the faulty/damaged unit.

With respect to the store / genius appointment - I've been there many times and it can get frustrating. Earlier this year I had a cracked screen on an iPhone 7 Plus, made the appointment, and they didn't have the replacement parts on hand (I thought really, an 8 month old phone and you don't have something like additional screens on hand?). Wasn't urgent anyway, but a bit annoying to having to wait for them to receive the part and then get back to the store again for the repair.
 
JohnApples said:
When I first got my Apple Watch, there was a defect with the rear sensor. I had AC+, and had the Apple Store people look at it. They agreed it was defective and sent it in for repair.

I received the watch back a few days later to discover that repair was denied. I had two options here: stomp my feet and rage about it while threatening to create a PR nightmare, or contact Apple again firmly and explain my situation. I chose the latter.

The rep I spoke to informed me that there were no notes on their end about why repair was refused, which is a big error on their part. She apologized and set up an expedited replacement for a brand new watch-
No questions asked- for my troubles.

Acting like an adult in these situations typically will end in your favor.
Click to expand...

This is what the OP should do.
 
That's weird. My wife dropped and cracked her iphone 7 plus screen the day after she bought it which was a week after it launched. They of course didn't have the parts, but swapped out her phone for a "new" one and only charged her the screen replacement fee.
 
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ACG12 said:
That's weird. My wife dropped and cracked her iphone 7 plus screen the day after she bought it which was a week after it launched. They of course didn't have the parts, but swapped out her phone for a "new" one and only charged her the screen replacement fee.
Click to expand...

OP’s experience is really weird isn’t it?! I’ve been to Apple Stores all over the northeast. Not once did they ever give me an estimated time that it would take to see a genius and not once did they ever ask me to mail an Apple Care+ product in for repair. My families broken a lot of iPhones and Apple has always replaced my devices on the spot.
Vibes OP, it’s really odd that all of these things that no one else has ever experienced went so wrong for you! If I hadn’t read your post on MacRumers I would never in a million years believe that one Apple Store would do things so differently than all of the other Apple Stores.
 
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