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Weird Apple store experience

A

AndrewR23

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Original poster
Jun 24, 2010
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So today I went to the genius bar in SF for a repair. This morning I pressed my home button like many do and it got stuck in the device. Anyways went to Apple, and they saw the button was broken and I asked for a screen repair/ not a replacement. Anyways the guy came out an hour later and said this

"All of your water damage indicators are white, but I did see small drops of water inside the phone. Not enough to deny service, and it was really dusty inside the phone."

This phone is barely a week old. How could water and dust get inside a brand new sealed iPhone 6 with a tough armor case on? this makes 0 sense..
 
If its a week old phone, I would have requested a new phone not a repair. Anyways either the genius was wrong and mistook what he saw, or it was condensation since the sensors are not tripped.
 
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I think it is the other way around and

Cold to hot will cause this condensation. A cold phone from you air conditioning brought our into a hot and humid environment, including your pocket, will cause condensate to form on the interior. You are lucky that it had not triggered the sensors.

Just like an ice cold drink will have condensation on the outside of the glass. A friend of mine used to use a "ProClip" phone holder in his SUV that kept his phone in front of the AC vent and when he took it out of the SUV it would become covered in water in our humid Florida environment.
 
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What was the end result? Just a new screen and have a good day?

Did the "genius" act like a jerk or was he just as perplexed as you?
 
If there's anything wrong with the phone within the return window you should request a new phone. Why are you buying a year old phone so close to the next launch?
 
Newtons Apple said:
I think it is the other way around and

Cold to hot will cause this condensation. A cold phone from you air conditioning brought our into a hot and humid environment, including your pocket, will cause condensate to form on the interior. You are lucky that it had not triggered the sensors.

Just like an ice cold drink will have condensation on the outside of the glass. A friend of mine used to use a "ProClip" phone holder in his SUV that kept his phone in front of the AC vent and when he took it out of the SUV it would become covered in water in our humid Florida environment.
Click to expand...

This makes sense but if anything it sounds more like issues with Apple engineering not daily use of a phone.

It sounded to me like the genius was just making a innocuous comment to the OP if anything. I would have asked for him/her's opinion if this would fall under manufacturing defects or user abuse and take it from there.
 
JPIndustrie said:
This makes sense but if anything it sounds more like issues with Apple engineering not daily use of a phone.

It sounded to me like the genius was just making a innocuous comment to the OP if anything. I would have asked for him/her's opinion if this would fall under manufacturing defects or user abuse and take it from there.
Click to expand...

Just remember that we are only getting one side of this and sometimes there is more going on between the customer and Geek than we know. Like another said I would have returned the phone and bought another new
 
Newtons Apple said:
I think it is the other way around and

Cold to hot will cause this condensation. A cold phone from you air conditioning brought our into a hot and humid environment, including your pocket, will cause condensate to form on the interior. You are lucky that it had not triggered the sensors.

Just like an ice cold drink will have condensation on the outside of the glass. A friend of mine used to use a "ProClip" phone holder in his SUV that kept his phone in front of the AC vent and when he took it out of the SUV it would become covered in water in our humid Florida environment.
Click to expand...
This could happen both ways theoretically, if the air inside the phone is warm and the phone is rapidly cooled (placing it in front of an AC vent would do it) then condensate would form on the inside of the device. All that matters is how warm the air relative to the coolness of the object. Warm air holds more moisture than cold air, and the condensation is formed when the air rapidly cools down and has to release the excess moisture.

Sorry to hear about the water droplets OP, but at least the water sensors weren't tripped, so they can't say it was tossed in a pool or something...
 
bhayes444 said:
This could happen both ways theoretically, if the air inside the phone is warm and the phone is rapidly cooled (placing it in front of an AC vent would do it) then condensate would form on the inside of the device. All that matters is how warm the air relative to the coolness of the object. Warm air holds more moisture than cold air, and the condensation is formed when the air rapidly cools down and has to release the excess moisture.

Sorry to hear about the water droplets OP, but at least the water sensors weren't tripped, so they can't say it was tossed in a pool or something...
Click to expand...


Being an AC contractor I pretty well know how it works, but thanks for all the info.
 
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JPIndustrie said:
This makes sense but if anything it sounds more like issues with Apple engineering not daily use of a phone.

It sounded to me like the genius was just making a innocuous comment to you if anything. I would have asked if him/her's opinion if this would fall under manufacturing defects or user abuse and take it from there.
Click to expand...
Newtons Apple said:
Just remember that we are only getting one side of this and sometimes there is more going on between the customer and Geek than we know. Like another said I would have returned the phone and bought another new
Click to expand...

Right, I was surprised the genius didn't just replace it on the spot since it was a *week old ...
 
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Hi all. I bought the phone on swappa bc it's the sim free one and I wanted it for lte use since I'm going to China next week.

Anyways I requested a new home button, not a replacement. My battery is awesome, it's jailbroken and I have it all set up the way I like it.

After the screen repair, the tech came out and said that everything works fine now. I asked him how it got stuck and he said he didn't know. I asked could it be water related. He said he saw signs of water drops inside the phone but none of the sensors were tripped.

It's pretty frustrating because the new home button moves around a lot. Just putting my finger on it, I can hear the button moving up and down without actually clicking it.

Idk if it could be condensation bc I don't use the phone at the gym. And its been very hot lately here but Idk. Im going back Wednesday to get it fixed again.
 
Last edited:
AndrewR23 said:
Hi all. I bought the phone on swappa bc it's the sim free one and I wanted it for lte use since I'm going to China next week.

Anyways I requested a new home button, not a replacement. My battery is awesome, it's jailbroken and I have it all set up the way I like it.

After the screen repair, the tech came out and said that everything works fine now. I asked him how it got stuck and he said he didn't know. I asked could it be water related. He said he saw signs of water drops inside the phone but none of the sensors were tripped.

It's pretty frustrating because the new home button moves around a lot. Just putting my finger on it, I can hear the button moving up and down without actually clicking it.

Idk if it could be condensation bc I don't use the phone at the gym. And its been very hot lately here but Idk. Im going back Wednesday to get it fixed again.
Click to expand...

You can "hear" the button moving up and down?

Really?;)
 
Kyotoma said:
Does TouchID work? If they just replaced your Home button I'm betting it doesn't now.
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Its on and off. Before it worked but the button was physically stuck in the phone. My appt is Wednesday (day before I leave for China) to get the screen replaced one more time. In the meantime Im using the Samsung test drive phone.
 
I'd be most worried how so much dust got in the phone that quick. What date does your one year warranty expire? I'd be worried someone on swappa used it then sealed it back up. Shrink wrapping is amazingly easy and cheap.
 
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noobinator said:
I'd be most worried how so much dust got in the phone that quick. What date does your one year warranty expire? I'd be worried someone on swappa used it then sealed it back up. Shrink wrapping is amazingly easy and cheap.
Click to expand...
No this was a brand new replacement from the Apple store. The swappa user sent me the receipt so they just exchanged it.

But yes the tech did say a ton of dust was in the phone. How? He didn't know. When I go back Tuesday Im going to have them re do the home button and show me the water drops or something.
 
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