The Apple (Store) Experience

David Monagle

Tuesday 21 December 2010 07:58

In April this year my iPhone 3GS suffered a smashed screen when it fell out of my Belkin holster case while I was out for a run. The Belkin case was well under a year old but the piece of Velcro that held the strap over the phone had sufficiently worn to the point where it no longer had any grip.

I took my phone into the Apple Store and paid (I believe) two hundred and fifty dollars to get it repaired. I told them about the worn Velcro and asked if they had a case with a magnetic snap. They said that they don’t sell them, mentioned something vague about magnets potentially being bad for the phone and recommended an Incase holster case. It had a much bigger strip of Velcro and Incase have a good name for quality.

So, last Sunday I was playing cricket in the park with my family. In an attempt to effect a runout I ran down a path and my new iPhone 4 worked it’s way free of the Incase holster, hit the footpath and smashed even more spectacularly than my 3GS did (see the picture above.) When I had a good look at the Velcro on the new case I realised that my eight month old case was now useless as the Velcro had no grip whatsoever.

I was really annoyed. Back glass and front glass both broken. I figured it was about to be an expensive Christmas. I was irritated that Incase sell a holster that wore out so easily in it’s warranty period and I was annoyed that Apple are happy to sell them with such a primitive fastener.

I made a booking online and decided to see what my options were.

Chadstone. Christmas. The Apple Store doesn’t get much fuller at lunchtime than it was today. Some of the staff, so usually cheerful, looked distinctly harrowed. I was right on time for my appointment and was worried it would be cancelled. As always, I was having trouble finding somebody to inform of my arrival. So I wandered up to where three Apple Genius’ were chatting behind the bar. I was told tersely that they were running about ten minutes behind and that somebody would help me shortly. About five minutes later one of them wandered over to where I was waiting and patiently listened to my story.

Now I would have accepted it if he had have said that the fault was with the case and while they could refund or replace the case (which was still under warranty) they were under no obligation really to fix my phone for anything less than the normal repair price. I was polite and stated my case and asked what they were willing to do to help me.

With seemingly no contemplation, he told me they would replace the phone, free of charge but I should understand that it was a one off thing and that if I busted my phone again, I’d be footing the bill.

They wiped my old phone in front of me. Pulled out the SIM, activated the new handset for me and I was ready to go.

They also refunded my fifty dollars for the original case. So since I hadn’t had to pay a huge repair bill, I decided to get myself a new keyboard and a copy of iLife 11. Seems like a win/win situation to me.

Big thumbs up to Apple for this level of service. Compared to my previous horrible experience getting Nokia phones repaired, this was just a whole new world of customer service.