First off, some housekeeping details. My apologies for the amount of time that has passed since my last post. I was away on business for two weeks in Chicago and didn’t have a lot of down time to where I could sit down and bang out a quality post. However, I am back to spending my days in NYC so expect some more posts. OK so now that the boring agenda items are out of the way, on with the iPhone-related post.
In Chicago my nickname was “iJon,” very fitting if you’ve been reading this blog lately and know of my obsession with my iPhone. Everywhere I went, co-workers from all around the world referred to me by that name and would always make Apple Fanboy puns toward me (of course we all know this is simply jealousy manifesting itself 
).
Well, it is my sad news to report — and this is incredibly difficult for me to write because of the backlash I know I am bringing upon myself — that Apple’s wonderful and beautiful iPhone is, in fact, not perfect.
iPhone worked like a charm from the first moment I turned it on, and all throughout my business trip to Chicago, never a single problem. Then, my plane lands at Newark Airport as I’m returning home, I call Carina to tell her my plane has landed, and ……….. silence. I hang up and call back, this time I get ………… silence. Confused, I elected to make a call from my T-Mobile Dash, thinking that some airplane equipment was jamming the iPhone (or so I was trying to convince myself).
I exited the plane, picked up my luggage from baggage claim, and got into the car to head home. In the car on the way home I tried to make another call, and again the same deafening silence. I tried once more when we got home and the same thing happened. Praying for a miracle, I went to bed with the hope it would work once again in the AM.
Upon waking up Saturday morning I tried to make another call ……….. silence. But this time I got smart, and tapped the speaker phone area of the screen, worked like a charm. Then I plugged in the iPhone headphones and made a call, worked like a charm. Boom! Problem singled-out: ear piece.
Next I did what any Fanboy down on his luck would do. I went to my local Apple Store and sought the expertise of a genius. Upon arriving at the Apple Store the employees took my iPhone, said “wait right here,” and proceeded into the back of the store. About 10 minutes later a guy walked out and said the ear piece is broken. Well, obviously.
The “genius” then asked me if I had restored my iPhone via iTunes. I said no because the problem seemed to be hardware specific and not software-related. Nonetheless, the genius went ahead with restoring my iPhone to factory settings (luckily I synced before making the trip). As expected, this did absolutely nothing, so the genius went to consult another genius.
After a few minutes of the discussion the first genius came back and asked me when I had purchased the iPhone. I said the very first day and showed him the receipt. He said in that case the phone would have to be sent in for repair since it was older than two weeks. Additionally, if I wanted to get a loaner phone while mine was being repaired it would cost me $30.
I began to express a bit of severe annoyance so the second genius (the one whom the first consulted) came over to see what was going on. I explained to him the situation and added this time that my girlfriend (who was standing right beside me at the time) was one of the first people in the store to get one, and it didn’t seem fair to punish us for being one of the early adopters, when someone whose had it for less than two weeks could simply swap it out. The second genius seemed sympathetic, and said he’d be right back after a quick chat with the manager.
When he returned he apologized for the inconvenience and said that while the phone had to be sent in for repairs, he could wave the $30 loaner fee while my iPhone was being fixed. I agreed to that and after a bit of paperwork I got a loaner and my iPhone got sent off to wherever they fix those things.
I am supposed to receive it fixed via mail either Wednesday or Thursday, at which time I need to send back the loaner iPhone — failure to do so means a $600 charge on my credit card.
So all-in-all, it really broke my heart that my beloved iPhone broke. It was literally the first electronic device I have never dropped because I babied it so much. Although Apple didn’t show the excellent customer service I’m used to, they took care of me in the end and this is still such a new product in a new market for them that I’m willing to show some leeway.
Here’s to Apple keeping this Fanboy.
11 Comments
Being a PC guy, i can’t really bring myself to congratulate you on your Fanboy status, but i am glad to hear that you didn’t get charged the $30 for a rental — that’s outrageous. It really surprises me to hear that they have a *two week* time limit on a first-gen rather radical new product for full replacement / warranty. Obviously i’m wrong, but i would think something like that would constitute a month at *least*.
Bottom line? I’m just glad that you’re “I’m back” post has nothing to do with Harry Potter!
You know, sir, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was further propoganda for Apple. They gave you a loaner… ooo. They waived your fee… ahhh. They even had two people trying to help you.. mmmmm.
*Sigh* In the end, you’re still *stuck* with an iPhone that broke in less than a month.
I’ll definitely take it off your hands
@ Zach - worry not, I can promise you that you will never see a Harry Potter post on this blog
@ Komal - It’s not propaganda, Apple is just that good with their products/services (most of the time). You can take it off my hands, but you might have to fight Pasquale for it lol.
Jon, what can i say. Your mistake was buyiing something of Apples in the first generation. EVERYTHING apple makes sucks in the first generation. The first ipods went dead, the first Macbook Pro’s went on fire, eMacs had an expiration date of about 6 months and so on.
I’m not suprised at all that it went dead, my brother returned his yesterday because after 2 weeks he realized it was a waste of money like most people. He probably realized it 20 min after it was out of the box but he’s not going to admit it.
I don’t see it as a mistake at all. With exception of the ear piece failing (which I kind of view as a small setback since they gave me a free loaner) the phone has worked marvelously and has in most cases exceeded my expectations.
I remember talking about this in the weeks and months leading up to its release, never to buy a 1st gen. Apple product, but you know me, the perennial gadget-obsessed Fanboy.
That being said, I think Apple has done considerably well thus far in terms of minimizing iPhone issues, as when I visited the store I was only one of two people there for iPhone support (the other guy had dropped his). In contrast, there were at least a dozen people there for iPod support, mostly gen. 4 and 5 iPods.
Granted, the number of iPods to iPhones in the wild doesn’t even compare, but still I think the iPhone has held its own rather well as far as 1st gen. products go. Of course that could all change if they start blowing themselves up…
Should I be happy that I COULDN’T get one?
Yasemin how dare you speak of such blasphemy!! I thought you were one us: the iPhone faithful. We talked about it for months….and months…..and months hah.
In all seriousness, it’s a wonderful phone and if you get it for the right reasons (i.e. not just because it’s cool) then you will love it. I love not having to carry around my iPod AND cell phone anymore, and not having to pull out my laptop to go online while on the train.
Of course there will be issues, it’s an electronic device, they all have problems. But consider the % of iPhones will small issues to the total number sold — a very small percentage. One thing is for certain though, Apple does have better than average customer service.
Final verdict: get an iPhone. (you said you would!
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Jon, i am suprised you are using the total sold vs broken iPhones case so soon. The unit has been available for a month or so at this point, if history repeats itself it will be a few months from now before you will hear about major issues.
Do you have stats for the broken phones so far? I have seen too many stories of broken ones to count.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4DMUS_enUS208US217&q=broken+iphones
I don’t have any official stats, but I have spoken with a few Apple employees about it and they’ve said the majority of people coming in with iPhones are having usability issues mostly related to not knowing how to do something, as opposed to something actually being wrong with the phone. One of them was actually shocked that it broke.
Of course there is definitely an element of bias here on their part, but I consider Apple employees some of the most “fair/reasonable” in the business, so I tend to believe what they’re saying to an extent.
Based upon what I’ve heard/seen/read, I would venture a guess that the number of iPhones with actual defections (not people breaking them by dropping, etc.) is less than 1% and probably between 0.25% - 0.5%. Even though the percentage is small, it may seem like a lot of phones simply because of the sheer volume of iPhones sold so far.
Carina?
Tak
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