Replacing Devices
Posted: Tue 27 October, 2015 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic 4 Comments »Over the weekend, I noticed that something was wrong with my iPhone. The display had started to rise away from the case, and wouldn’t go back down. It was all still working fine – but it was definitely an indicator of Something Wrong.
I didn’t get a chance to sort it yesterday, but went in to my local Apple store today. Being half-term round here, they were pretty busy, so I made an appointment to come back in 90 minutes time – although they would send me a text when they were ready, and I could walk back to the store and get it checked/sorted.
It turned out that, for whatever reason, the battery had ‘swollen’. It turns out that this is a known issue (although my phone was purchased a bit later than the timescale in that story) and the store dealt with it quickly and efficiently.
Basically, I left the store with a brand new phone of the same model/capacity. And because of the automatic backups it runs every night, I didn’t lose any data at all, either.
I can’t deny, I’m pretty impressed. The original phone was near-as-dammit two years old, so I was expecting to pay something for a replacement. That would’ve been fine with me, but no. I’ve got a brand-new phone, and it’s cost me nothing. That’s pretty good customer service.
The same first thing happened to me a couple of months ago – the screen of my iPhone started rising out of the case, most definitely a case of battery swell. Unlike yours, the display also started flickering making the phone very hard to use. But when I took it along to the Apple Store they didn’t agree to replace it, and I had to buy a new one. I’m coming to your store next time 🙁
Oof, that’s harsh. Should’ve done, as it’s an equipment fault that – as they said to me – isn’t like I’m going to have got inside the phone to damage it. (Or at least not without creating some indications that it’d been done)
I suspect that you’re a lot scarier than DG when it comes to consumer issues Lyle 😉
Sale of Goods Act would have been quoted by me in his case. A phone of that price should be expected to last longer than it had – and it was clearly a manufacturing fault. What the guarantee says is totally irrelevant. I reckon a letter to Apple HQ would, even now, have results for him… even if he didn’t sign it ‘DG, blogger with a billion readers.’ Or a blog asking his readers if anyone else has had similar issues…
I’ll have you know, I was very nice, BW. (Mainly because I expected absolutely nothing) No threats, no ominous phrases, nothing. I was pleasantly surprised, it’s fair to say.