An iPhone Adventure...

2008-06-20T14:48:00.004-05:00

If the title didn’t give it away; I have an Apple iPhone. Recently my iPhone ceased to function. The device stopped charging, and the home button didn’t work. Regrettably I live in a town without an Apple Store, and the nearest one is several hours away... So I did the next best thing.

I called Apple’s tech support line. They were very helpful, they overnighted a box with a loaner 8GB iPhone (there is a $29USD charge for the loaner phone) and everything you need to switch the SIM card. Note: SIM card switching only requires a paper clip, which Apple kindly supplies in a small plastic bag, with an instructional picture. The box already has the overnight return label on it, and even includes little strips of tape for re-sealing the box.

The adventure starts when I get the box back. It comes with a little piece of paper stating that the iPhone hasn’t been repaired for one of the following reasons:

- Damage to the iPhone was caused by accident, abuse, misuse, or misapplication, which is not covered under Apple’s warranty or the AppleCare Protection Plan.

- Due to unauthorized modifications to your iPhone’s software, your iPhone was inoperable or became inoperable during service. The inability to use your iPhone due to unauthorized software modifications is not covered under warranty.

- Coverage under Apple’s warranty or the AppleCare Protection Plan has expired.

Not one of those is even circled. I was unimpressed with the lack of communication, and I was a bit flabbergasted, as I was paranoid about damaging my iPhone. I bought a case and a screen protector, even though they may not be strictly necessary as the iPhone is fairly resistant. I never even thought about attempting a Jailbreak, so that was out, and according to Apple’s website my warranty wasn’t up for 6 months. So I called the support number again in an attempt to figure out what was going on. The gentleman on the phone asked me to read the paper to him, and as I went through each item he tried to tell me that was what I had done. Each time I had to explain that he was mistaken and why. He also tried to look my phone up, but someone forgot to take notes and put it in the system, so they had no reason on record.

After that, I was transferred to a “Product Specialist” (henceforth referred to as PS). The PS was very helpful. He made arrangements for my iPhone to be sent back in, as well as making sure I received another loaner iPhone free of charge. I was also given his extension with instructions to call him if it was returned without repair again.
My iPhone was sent back to Apple, and a few days later I received it un-repaired once more. This time, I was sent an email telling me that it had water damage. I was a bit befuddled by this as well, since I was perpetually paranoid about getting it wet. I never let it within 10 feet of water if I could help it. I didn’t even leave it in the bathroom when I’d take a shower. Still, I decided I should call the PS and talk to him. I explained that I had a hard time believing that it could be water damage due to my paranoia. He shared that there was a little white sticker in the headphone jack that turns red in the event of water damage. I couldn’t see anything, and lacked a flashlight. The PS said that normally he would just recommend paying the $249 replacement fee but, since he believed me, he would help me make arrangements to go to an Apple Store to get this figured out.

Luckily, I was already planning a weekend trip to a large city with an Apple Store, so this wasn’t the massive inconvenience it would normally have been. Had I not been planning this trip, I would have been very displeased, and possibly downright hostile. I happen to host a regional radio talk show, and am not afraid to use it to my advantage when I feel like I’m getting jerked around.

Getting the situation taken care of at the Apple Store was actually easier than I expected. I thought I would have to fight tooth and claw to get my warranty repair done. Instead, I left with a brand new replacement iPhone. I walked in and explained the situation, the gentleman behind the counter took a look at my iPhone, went to their back room, came back up and told me it didn’t look too bad, and that he’d just replace it for me. Simple as that. It was all taken care of in about 10 minutes. I didn’t even have to mention the radio show. Fantastic! I hate using it as a negotiation tool.

Needless to say, I was very pleased with the outcome, though I am still a little upset with all the hoops I had to jump through. The moral of the story is that you should probably go to the Apple Store first, then try the standard avenues of repair.

Sifting Through the Refuse...

2008-06-20T11:50:00.004-05:00

I was reading about the new version of OS X from Apple, called Snow Leopard or 10.6 on one of the Mac exclusive sites. Usually I avoid the comments posted by readers at the end of such articles for a myriad of health reasons, but I found myself reading them just the same. One post in particular stands out. The gentleperson was making a comparison of Snow Leopard to Vista regarding backwards compatibility.

For those of you unaware, the current builds of Snow Leopard do not run on PPC Macs. This fact led the poster to suggest that maintaining backwards compatibility is one of Windows Vista’s biggest problems because it makes it bulky. While I assure you Vista does have problems (as does OS X and Linux); maintaining backwards compatibility is not one of those problems. To quote Paul Thurrott from his WinSuperSite blog:

The Windows Vista platform, as an extension of that XP SP2 platform, is far more secure and, more important from an architectural standpoint, far more modular and componentized (read: less monolithic) than its predecessors. In fact, you can see how its becoming even more modular and componentized (and thus less monolithic) over time via technologies like image-based setup and deployment (Vista, 2006), Server Core (Windows Server 2008, 2008), and MinWin (expected Windows 7, 2010). So Windows is actually evolving over time from an architectural standpoint. And it is doing so by sacrificing backwards compatibility as little as possible.

He goes on to say:

[Problems are] ...true of other desktop operating systems as well. Yes, Apple is more aggressive about killing off older technologies (read: Classic) but then that has also come back to bite them (read: Adobe can't make a 64-bit version of Photoshop on OS X for this very reason). One might argue--I will--that Microsoft's approach makes more sense for users and is more appropriate for a company that, incidentally, does have a user base that's over 1 billion users strong. It's easy to be aggressive when your audience is just a tiny fraction of that size.

I feel that some comparisons between Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s OS are apples to oranges (if you’ll forgive the cliché), and this happens to be one of those comparisons. I think both companies are doing a fantastic job, but they have different sets of problems they need to address. Backwards compatibility is Microsoft’s bread and butter, but they do weigh down the OS in other ways (though this is clearly improving). Apple has sometimes sacrificed compatibility for potential performance (though Snow Leopard may change some of that).
On the whole I agree with Mr. Thurrott’s statements regarding Vista. It may have some bloat, but it is much more modular than any version of Windows before it; and Microsoft is only going to improve on that over time.

TarrTrash

An iPhone Adventure...

Sifting Through the Refuse...