Watch + Genius Bar

[Gibson88]

Hey everyone, I'm just wondering what the process is like for hardware problems with an Apple Watch.

I've had a few issues with iPhones in the past and every time they've just swapped my phone out there and then for a returb instead of a repair.

Has anyone had the same experiences with Watch problems? Or do they repair them like they do Macs. I'm just going away soon and was wondering if I'll be without my watch or not.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Newtons Apple]

From what I understand if you are past your 14 days you can look forward to not having your watch while they repair it unless you have AC+. With AC+ they overnight you another watch and you send yours in for repair or replacement.

That is how it works in the USA, not so sure about your side of the pond.

 

[Atreyu25]

They send it out if you bring it to a store. If you call in, they send a brown box replacement, depending on your issue.

 

[Radeon85]

I'm in the UK and have the SS 42 mm (don't have Apple Care). I have had the watch since launch day and it's been perfect until around the 28th Dec. If I wore the watch and held it with the screen away from me, the taptic motor made a very audible rattle and it wasn't as strong.

Any other positions and the motor was silent and strength was fine, I could repeat this issue any time I wanted. The watch was never dropped, banged or submerged in water, seems it just failed on it's own.

I took it into the Apple store and they replicated the issue immediately, unfortunately they had to send it off for repair. They took 16 days to give me a new replacement. Was not happy at all how long it took considering the closest store is about 45mins away each way as well, the new once works perfectly though.

Why the hell Apple can't keep the odd spare in stock I don't know, especially when they keep a few iPhone/iPad's available for instant swaps.

When they sent mine off, they packaged just the watch in small brown box, the new replacement came in a small white solid box, nice little box to.

 

[lordofthereef]

From what I understand if you are past your 14 days you can look forward to not having your watch while they repair it unless you have AC+. With AC+ they overnight you another watch and you send yours in for repair or replacement.

That is how it works in the USA, not so sure about your side of the pond.

I can confirm this to be the case. My wife started getting the "accessory not supported" screen on her watch depsite the fact that she only charges with the cables supplied by Apple when we bought the watch. We just got back from the genius bar appointment and they said we should try a new cable (it was free) first before bringing the watch back. If we need to bring the watch back it would be gone for up to a week as it gets shipped out and repaired.

My own fault for assuming it would be handled like other idevices we have had in the past. Hopefully it's just a charging cable issue. She is under warranty until June, I believe.