When you live in SW Florida and you need service on an Apple device your only option is currently the Apple store at Coconut Point in Estero.
Even having set an appointment at the Genius Bar you have to take in account additional waiting time, you have to deal with the over 75 dB noise level inside the store, and sometimes even with the personal hygiene of some Apple store workers, who smell like not having showered in weeks.
But this is not about that,
The Apple store in Estero broke my 512 GB iPhone XS, the second time they damaged it even more, and they got me in trouble with the Sheriff. On top of that they don't want to take any responsibility.
Here is what happened:
Beginning of 2019 we bought the iPhone Xs 512 GB for our son to upgrade his iPhone X.
We had nothing but trouble with this expensive phone.
First the entire phone was acting up, apps froze until they were not usable, and the phone would not respond at all...
So we went on March 20 2019 to the Apple store in Estero for the first repair.
It turned out that there was an internal issue with the compass that effected everything else.
Just 3 month later the screen would freeze up, would not respond to touch...
On June 11 we had an appointment at the Apple store in Estero again.
They found that this time the screen needed to be replaced. I had to wait for an another hour until I received the phone with the new screen. They told me that they sealed it, so the phone would be like new.
Just 2 weeks later the phone started to act up again, you could not lower the volume anymore, the screen was unresponsive.... It became worse from day to day.
July 12 2019 - off to the Apple store in Estero again.
The lady who was checking the phone told me that water was inside.
First of all: the only water this phone could have been possibly exposed to was the Florida humidity and maybe some raindrops on the way from a store to the car, but that was it.
And this shouldn't be a problem for a water resistant $1400 phone.
I know for fact the we never used this phone in the rain, we never used it in any kind of water.
The Apple technician told me they could replace the phone – if I pay 100% for a new one. What?
What a dumb suggestion was this?
So I told the Apple technician that obviously they have done a bad job sealing phone when they replaced the screen just 4 weeks ago. So they should take responsibility.
How else could get water in a water resistant phone?
This is when the lady started arguing with me, claiming that I had the phone under water for a long time – which is absolutely untrue.
Our family is using iPhones since 10 years, we had every single iPhone since the 3Gs in 2009,
our son got his first iPhone when he was 10 years old.
In fact I still have the iPhone 3GS in like brand new condition - this photo was taken today:
Here is a picture of my wife's iPhone 7S when we sold it on ebay:
This is a photo of my son's iPhone X when we sold it on ebay:
Why am I posting this? To show how we take care of our phones and all other things.
We all certainly know, how to treat these phones and we never had a problem in all those years.
I found the Apple-girl's accusations very insulting. So I asked for the her supervisor.
The supervisor was on the technician's side and told us, that we lost all warranty because water was inside the phone and we would have to pay for the repair.
I told her, that it was their fault, if water was inside. But they did not care.
So I left the Apple store with my defective phone in the box.
Outside I heard some strange sounds coming from the phone and I felt the box was vibrating.
I opened the box and I was shocked about my findings:
This “Genius” knew that water was inside the phone, and despite this fact she closed it up again and powered it back on!?
Powering on an electronic device with water inside and willingly exposing it to electricity, is what I call sabotage!
As a result of that the phone was acting out and constantly calling 911.
The screen of the phone would not respond, I was not able to stop that. I received calls from numbers I did not know, and I was not able to answer. And the phone called 911 again. This was going on and on.
I was not able to power down the phone. But I was finally able to answer one of the incoming calls:
it was the Sheriff Department in Fort Myers with some serious questions and I was in need to explain myself.
Right after that I called AT&T and requested to temporarily disable this line in order to stop the outgoing calls to 911.
So I called Apple customer support from my other phone, and after explaining everything what happened the man had to connect me to his supervisor and I had to repeat the entire story.
The lady told me that she needed to confirm with the store and placed me on hold.
I was under the impression that customer support is to support customers. But when she was back on the phone all she did was defending the store, telling me my warranty was waived because of the water inside the phone.
It did not matter that it was because the phone was obviously not water resistant since the screen replacement, it did not matter that the store has powered the wet phone back on and potentially damaged it even more, it did not matter that I had to deal with the Sheriff because of Apple's fault!
No apology, no sign of remorse, no steps towards me, the customer.
Apple's service has changed, it used to be super good, now it is as ugly as the new iPhone 11.
After a few hours the phone finally responded and I was able to turn it off.
Doing so I noticed some sharp edges on the bottom of the phone.
Next to the 2 screws, where the technicians have to drive a tool underneath the display to open the phone, I now have some heavy scratches.
So on top of everything else, the Apple technician from the store in Estero has physically damaged my phone and carved heavy scratches in it.
Should I spend my time driving back to Estero, going to the store and confront them? I am sure they will come up with some good excuses and blame it on me again.
This is what they do best. Being an Apple - customer for the first time I feel helpless.
Hi there @brokernaples
I haven't seen you in a while so I decided to reach out to you. Hopefully you're okey there and you didn't give up on Steemit completely.
If you would ever decide to come back and would post anything, then please send me link via memo and I will gladly check it out.
Take care of yourself,
Piotr
knock knock @brokernaples