Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Wow, are IPhones really this bad?

F

flyingphil

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 17, 2009
4
0
Well, I could get a new phone every week at this rate. Waited and waited and waited for the heap of junk (good when it works) 32Gb IPhone 3GS to come out and bought mine on the 19th June in the UK. Great little device but as mentioned on an earlier posting, it kept shutting down on a random basis.

The nice manager at the O2 shop replaced it for me today with a brand spanking new one. Only trouble is that this one is faulty as well. It had absolutely no charge in the shop and so I left it charging for several hours before doing anything with it. Behaved very strangely when it came off charge and then died during a restore in ITunes. The funny thing is the screen is all white and I can't turn it off now so it will be interesting to see what the shop make of it when I return it. Bought on PAYG at a stonking £540 and to be honest I would actually expect a better product for that price.

I don't buy many gadgets like this so is this the norm? Have Apple rushed a product out to the streets that is fundamentally flawed or have they just got poor quality control?

Anyway, I'll get my 3rd IPhone in 5 weeks soon - at least I get to peel the protective films off for a 3rd time and get that consumer satisfaction.
 
flyingphil said:
Well, I could get a new phone every week at this rate. Waited and waited and waited for the heap of junk (good when it works) 32Gb IPhone 3GS to come out and bought mine on the 19th June in the UK. Great little device but as mentioned on an earlier posting, it kept shutting down on a random basis.

The nice manager at the O2 shop replaced it for me today with a brand spanking new one. Only trouble is that this one is faulty as well. It had absolutely no charge in the shop and so I left it charging for several hours before doing anything with it. Behaved very strangely when it came off charge and then died during a restore in ITunes. The funny thing is the screen is all white and I can't turn it off now so it will be interesting to see what the shop make of it when I return it. Bought on PAYG at a stonking £540 and to be honest I would actually expect a better product for that price.

I don't buy many gadgets like this so is this the norm? Have Apple rushed a product out to the streets that is fundamentally flawed or have they just got poor quality control?

Anyway, I'll get my 3rd IPhone in 5 weeks soon - at least I get to peel the protective films off for a 3rd time and get that consumer satisfaction.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you've just been particularly unlucky.
The silent/ringer switch came of mine (got it replaced), but I had a habit of playing with that in my pocket so it probably had an average years use each day.
 
flyingphil said:
I don't buy many gadgets like this so is this the norm? Have Apple rushed a product out to the streets that is fundamentally flawed or have they just got poor quality control?
Click to expand...

One person's experience is not all that indicative of everyone's experience. There are some who, like you, have had more than one bad unit, but we never hear from the hundreds and hundreds of thousands - perhaps millions - of users who don't have any issues at all. Because those people don't provide the counterbalance to the bad experiences, it doesn't mean the bad experiences are all there are.

Judging from your second experience, I can't help but wonder if the shop didn't recycle out a returned unit without checking it - or without noticing the problem.

Take it back, cross your fingers. If Apple's quality control was as bad as could be inferred from your 2-for-2 failure rate, or the product was rushed to market before flaws were resolved in the design, every iPhone forum would be seething with complaints!
 
The only "problem" I've had is finding devices to charge this thing with. Thing is that's not a problem, just a deal. Apparently, a lot of the old accessories (clock radios) that worked on the first-gen iPhones didn't work with the 3G, and now the 3GS.

But that's been the only issue I've had. Everything else is A-OK. Battery could go longer, but the speed increase over EDGE sure is nice.
 
My household owns a combined four iPhones.

2 3G 8 GIG Black Ones and 2 3GS 16 GIG Black Ones

Haven't had to return one yet. Though, I admit that one of my 3G's has the light leak but I don't care.

And my 3GS seems to be put together crooked as the glass is lopsided by about 2mm when compared to the bezel. Again, more slight cosmetic stuff that is only noticeable by me and not worth risking getting a worse unit.
 
I went through several replacements with my 3G but I think Apple were quite smart keeping the same design. The quality control on the 3GS seems to be a lot higher.

That or I just got lucky. Had my 3GS since launch day and it's pretty much perfect (quarter inch slight light leak on upper left).
 
I had the silent/ringer button fall off of my 9 month old 3G . It was replaced without arguement. Thats been the only problem with my iPhones (2G and 3G).
You have just been unlucky.
 
I had the SAME problem with my 32Gb 3GS (Ninja Black).

It would turn itself off a couple of times a day regardless of how full the battery was.

I got it exchanged with O2 for another one and this one has been sweet. Over 2 weeks using the replacement and not one problem...yet!

I've also had a 2G and a 3G iPhone and those units were fine, first time round.
 
Ninja Dom said:
(Ninja Black)
Click to expand...

Hahaha I enjoyed this. But I got a faulty iPhone 3GS too, but I had it replaced. Mine just kept freezing/locking up. Just think about it out of millions of phones produced there are a few bad ones. Other phones have the same problems just not as populated because not as many users, or as many users to share the information on a forum like this.
 
Never had a problem with either of my iphones, but, both were 1st generations, so IDK.. what killed my first one was.. well.. me.
 
flyingphil said:
Well, I could get a new phone every week at this rate. Waited and waited and waited for the heap of junk (good when it works) 32Gb IPhone 3GS to come out and bought mine on the 19th June in the UK. Great little device but as mentioned on an earlier posting, it kept shutting down on a random basis.

The nice manager at the O2 shop replaced it for me today with a brand spanking new one. Only trouble is that this one is faulty as well. It had absolutely no charge in the shop and so I left it charging for several hours before doing anything with it. Behaved very strangely when it came off charge and then died during a restore in ITunes. The funny thing is the screen is all white and I can't turn it off now so it will be interesting to see what the shop make of it when I return it. Bought on PAYG at a stonking £540 and to be honest I would actually expect a better product for that price.

I don't buy many gadgets like this so is this the norm? Have Apple rushed a product out to the streets that is fundamentally flawed or have they just got poor quality control?

Anyway, I'll get my 3rd IPhone in 5 weeks soon - at least I get to peel the protective films off for a 3rd time and get that consumer satisfaction.
Click to expand...

DFU mode restore or hard reset?
iono.gif

Because honestly, unless your iPhone has some hardware issues then you should just keep it...... and yes, I know that the phone shouldn't do things like that, but if it's just software then you wont be getting a replacement... if fresh a restore set up as a new iphone doesnt solve things, then I dont know what to say except 3.0 software sucks, or you've been on an unlucky streak with Apple.
 
I'm on my second 3Gs. First unit had call issues, screeching and "call failed" messages on more than half of all calls. Second phone has worked flawlessly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back