One year and 5 months ago I bought a new (at that time) iPhone 15. Two days ago it went dead with no apparent reason: it just closed and could not be resuscitated. The warranty was not in effect anymore, and the only choice that was offered to me by Apple was to either buy a new one, or to have it repaired for a sum that was over half of the price of a new phone. They also refused any reasonable accommodation. I never had such a bad experience with Apple products nor with Apple support. By the way, contacting Apple support did not advance my cause in any way, as their only advice was to spend more on their products. They consider themselves not concerned with my satisfaction as a customer, and not responsible for their products. A new era of conducting business..., let us see if there are other products on the market.
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iPhone 15/Plus bad quality iphone 15
- Thread starter flopicku
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This is why they offer AppleCare. They’re not going to give you free AppleCare service if you didn’t pay for it. You can’t reasonably expect that.
Have you considered a third-party phone repair place? It might be cheaper.
I did not ask and was not expecting free repair. I am just marveled by the low quality of such an expensive product (iPhone) and lack of responsibility from the Apple company. If iPhones become such untrustworthy products (the 1 year and 5 months functionality is unreasonable according to me), then at least the public should be aware when buying them.
What lack of quality? Anything can break at any time. This is why there is a warranty. If it breaks within the warranty the company will fix it.
Lack of responsibility? Apple isn’t responsible if your device breaks outside of warranty. That’s your responsibility. They offer AppleCare and I’m guessing you didn’t think you needed it or didn’t want it, which is a choice you made but you have to live with your choices. I’ve made these choices before, and I didn’t blame Apple because I didn’t get AppleCare.
I read, though the public should be aware of what kind of service to expect. The one year warranty unfortunately only last a year.
I got it you’re irritated that your iPhone broke and I would be too because I’ve never had one just randomly stop working.
What did you expect Apple to do? I’m just curious.
Thank you so much for educating me. As to your curiosity: I was expecting Apple to find the behavior of its product exceptional, and thus take exceptional measures. Instead I found out (and your comments seem to confirm it) that the bad quality of recent products is quite "normal" and their lifetime shorter. Whence my initial comment, to make other customers aware that the quality is dropping both in products and service.
A sample size of one is not enough to determine if the quality of Apple products or even specifically iPhones is dropping. Apple sells about 200 million iPhones each year so to make that determination you would have to have a larger sample size. The quality may be dropping, but you can’t just say I bought an iPhone and it died so Apple products are getting worse. That’s just simply not enough data to make that determination.
You said the quality of the service is dropping? What are you basing this on? Have you had them repair an iPhone six months out of warranty like this? I’m legitimately curious cause because maybe they changed their policy recently? I’ve never had any luck getting the people at the Apple Store to fix anything out of warranty, but maybe I had bad luck.
As I asked in my last post, what measures did you think Apple should have taken in this case with the device being six months out of warranty? You said you didn’t expect a free repair, so what did you expect?
While I agree that OP’s experience is rare and doesn’t define the overall quality of iPhones, I take issue with the mildly condescending tone in your previous posts.
OP was simply looking for a better solution than paying nearly the cost of a used device out of pocket. If this is truly an exceptional case, Apple can easily afford to make an exception—especially for a device that’s not even 1.5 years old. They’ve gone beyond their policies before, so it’s not unheard of. There’s a big difference between expected wear, like battery degradation, and a complete device failure without physical damage in such a short time.
For a $3.3T company, occasionally bending the rules to build customer loyalty is a small price to pay.
I agree with OP. The bigger companies grow the more they stand their ground by pointing to some fine print. In EU Apple has to give 2 years warranty which i think is more reasonable especially for expensive products.
Small companies are more likely to help as they want to build trust.
Small companies are more likely to help as they want to build trust.
Same in Australia.
OP, have you tried connecting to your phone using Apple's iTunes software (available on windows and mac os)?
If yes, what happened?
Try and get a backup of your data first and foremost; then focus on repairing your phone. Fingers crossed you can get your phone back up and running quickly and cheaply!
I'm a bit surprised, but things happen. My 2022 iPhone SE needed a replacement battery but worked as well as new otherwise. I've never expected more than two years out of any iPhone I've had with the 4S being the first.
My only real problem with Apple was when my iPhone 7's display was damaged and I didn't have any other way to contact them. I had the display replaced in order to use the phone and when they saw that, they refused to help me.
My only real problem with Apple was when my iPhone 7's display was damaged and I didn't have any other way to contact them. I had the display replaced in order to use the phone and when they saw that, they refused to help me.
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Three years actually, at least in Spain
2 in Germany for example, and it's not the same as a manufacturers warranty (there's also a separate word for it but it doesn't have an equivalent in English). After the first 6 months you (the customer) need to proof that the issue the device is having is indeed a manufacturing defect, which can be tricky. It's also something the retailer has to honor, not the manufacturer.
Anyway, unlucky that the iPhone died after that short while, this definitely isn't the norm. Not a single iPhone ever failed on me, including an iPhone 8 that has seen daily use since shortly after it was released. But yeah, it can happen.
I think you interpreted my comment as condescending, but that was not my intention. I think it’s hard to interpret tone from text especially when describing something so simple as this. It can seem condescending when you’re trying to tell someone about something simple. A good example is “Have you tried to restart the device?” “Of course I’ve tried to restart the device. I’m not an idiot” could be someone’s thought to that thus making that comment seem very condescending
I’m guessing you missed where I said this. That’s literally the only cheaper solution.
Sure, Apple could afford to do it, but where do they draw the line? Six months out of warranty? A year out of warranty?
Someone mentioned below that big companies generally don’t do this and there’s a reason why. Once you become a large company, you try to stick to policies and procedures instead of oh that’s Billy he bought his iPhone last year and now it’s broken. We’ll just give him a new one. Big companies don’t do this because that’s how big companies bleed money. Also, they have to be careful who they are bending rules for. If they bend the rules for Billy and I come in with the exact same issue and they don’t bend the rules for me there could be legal problems for them. Why didn’t they do it for me if they did it for Billy? Are they giving preferential treatment to Billy for some reason?
In the end, this is why they sell AppleCare. If they just bend the rules and everyone knows it, no one would buy AppleCare.
I think these are learning experiences for all of us. I definitely had my share of learning experiences like this.
Had a similar problem with a hair-fracture of an SE Touch-ID button they wouldn't acknowledge. Defects can happen, but their customer service has gone to the dogs in recent years and been replaced with arrogance.
This is something that OP might look at. If he’s in a country that has laws requiring a longer warranty than one year. I would hope the Apple Store in his region would default to that, but you never know they might not say anything unless you mention it.
I haven't seen it mentioned, but if you purchased your iPhone with a credit card, check to see if it offers an extra 1 year warranty coverage for it. Some do, in which case you'll want to contact your credit card company to find out what the procedure is for them to cover it and get it fixed.
Curious. What "reasonable accommodation" and "exceptional measures" were you expecting Apple to take?
Sorry for your loss. Of course you are unhappy that you chanced buying high tech without extending the warranty with AppleCare. Then unfortunately you lost your wager and your pricey device failed, and you want to use MR bandwidth to vent.
That does not make it "the low quality of such an expensive product (iPhone) and lack of responsibility from the Apple company. If iPhones become such untrustworthy products..." Those words are just sour grapes from a buyer who failed to buy readily available AppleCare.
It happens. My (much pricier) MBP is similarly without AppleCare due to my own mistake. I had planned to buy AppleCare at 11 months or so and then I missed the AC purchase deadline by a few weeks. Pshaw. Fortunately the M2 MBP still has no issues.
You rolls the dice and you take your chances. I'm looking at buying a refurb iPhone with a 1 year warranty from Apple vs a refurb of the same model from my cell phone provider with a 90 day warranty from the vendor.
Guess what? The phone with the 90 day warranty is cheaper. If I end up buying that cheaper phone, it's on me if it breaks between the 90 days and the 365 days....
Guess what? The phone with the 90 day warranty is cheaper. If I end up buying that cheaper phone, it's on me if it breaks between the 90 days and the 365 days....
They are running a racket, plain and simple. Their encasing the device in glass is a GRIFT to make it easily breakable and hard to repair. It's the same strategy with their macbooks.
Imagine if every time your car broke down or you got a flat tire, you had to pay almost the price of a new one to get it repaired. That's probably what the Apple Car would have been like--wheels/tires sealed and non-user-replaceable etc.
Imagine if every time your car broke down or you got a flat tire, you had to pay almost the price of a new one to get it repaired. That's probably what the Apple Car would have been like--wheels/tires sealed and non-user-replaceable etc.
I also had an iPhone 7 that spontaneously died and never turned on again. They did some test on it in the Apple store and said that it wasn't a battery fault. The quote for a like-for-like replacement was way too expensive, so it simply turned into a paperweight.
Maybe try a Force Restart if you haven’t already.
(A Star Wars fan might advise you to use The Force. 🤭)
Statutory warranty. There are many German words that do not have equivalents in English. This isn't one of them!
I think this is less about Apple and more about consumer protection laws. In Australia, consumer law provides a statutory warranty of two years for iPhones and three years for MacBooks.
These statutory warranty periods are based on the "expected life" of the products which is related to the price of the products.
Australian consumer law shifts the burden of responsibility to Apple to provide support for its premium products rather than on the consumer to pay extra in advance for such support - AppleCare.
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No way Apple get away with that in my country. Consumers may expect that a phone last longer than 1.5 years so they will have to repair it.
I think anyone here would reasonably expect such an expensive peice of hardware to last more than 18 months with typical usage. We have consumer laws in the UK which specifically govern this, although it's often hard to execute them as companies will do everything in their power do avoid paying out.
If the phone was in overall good condition without the water marker activated, apple should be exercising reasonable judgement here and replace the phone, for the sake of their own brand name and customer service.
The very fact apple don't provide a 2-3 year warranty by default does suggest they are not built to last and apple have no confidence in the reliability of their products.
This is really a thread about consumer rights, which unfortunately are especially poor in the US.
It's usually at this point that someone will make a comment about market economics that makes no sense.
It's usually at this point that someone will make a comment about market economics that makes no sense.