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Genius bar out of warranty replacement question *Update PG 2*

Gin Gin

Gin Gin

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 22, 2009
257
65
So my 32GB 3GS took a very unfortunate toilet swim yesterday. Stupid me had it in my back pocket & it fell in. :( I grabbed it out as fast as I could but the phone turned on while it was under water. (Yes water only!) Anyhow after drying it out fully it works but the back light won't come on and the sleep/wake button doesn't work.

I have a genius bar appointment tomorrow, I understand I can get an out of warranty replacement for $199. I was wondering if anybody knows if they will take my current phone or will I keep it? I want to know if I need to wipe all my personal info & such off of the iPhone before I take it in.
Thank You.



And just FYI American Express has a buyer protection policy. Other credit cards may have this too. In my case within 90 days of purchase they will reimburse the original price charged to the AMEX card in case of accidental damage. This includes water damage! This is good to know if you damage your new iPhone (or any other spendy item).
 
They will take your phone, you are lucky in the sense that you have the ability to wipe it, although I suppose that if you have water damage then your data is probably gone.
 
Thanks, I'll wipe it then. Actually no the iPhone seems to work perfectly except with no back light it's very hard to see. That and the sleep/wake button won't work. If I hold it under a bright enough light I can see the screen & even read email & whatnot. As far as I can tell there is no water in the screen. It makes & receives calls, rings & everything. I was even listening to the ipod in the car a couple of hours ago. Just very difficult to use with no back light! Since I figured my warranty was hosed I opened it up to help it dry out faster and it was not soaking wet inside, only 1 of the 2 internal moisture sensors was tripped. If I didn't have the buyer protection from AMEX I'd be SOL, but it looks like I'm covered so I'm happy now!
 
SFStateStudent said:
Just wipe it and take out the SIM card. Also, make sure you back it up or if you've had a recent backup that contains your most updated info then use that backup.....:(:(:(
Click to expand...

Yeah I backed it up a little while ago. I took out the sim card last night, put it back in tonight to see if it would make calls. I'll take it out again before going to the apple store in the morning.

jmann said:
Lucky that you have that protection. Most people don't have it, and would be out $600. :D
Click to expand...
YES! Very lucky. We try to put everything on the AMEX if possible for this reason. They saved us big time a couple of years ago when we were having work done to our house & a crooked contractor tried to run off with our $7000 deposit! A miracle he took AMEX and I didn't write him a check. It took a couple of months for them to complete the investigation, but in the end AMEX gave us back ALL of the money! I had actually forgotten about the buyer protection regarding the iPhone though until I read something online about it last night. I think many other credit cards may have something similar. I read a lot of stories about iPhones taking swims and a lot of people may have coverage from their credit card co. and not even realize it. Of course if it had been past 90 days I would've been outta luck, so I guess if I had to drop it in the toilet I'm glad it happened now and not a couple months later!
 
jmann said:
Well doesn't opening up the phone void the warranty? Or does the water damage already do the trick?
Click to expand...

Yes, the bright pink water indicators voided my warranty quite nicely, hence the reason I am getting a $200 out of warranty replacement rather than a FREE IN warranty replacement. This part has nothing to do with AMEX. What they will do is reimburse the original cost. So yeah I didn't worry too much about opening the case when I already blew the warranty by dropping it in the water. I don't see any way for them to tell I opened it anyway. I found the instructions online and it was very easy. I didn't disassemble it completely, just removed the 2 screws at the bottom and used a suction cup to gently lift the front up. No prying with any sort of tools involved. There are some ribbon connectors holding the 2 parts together and I left those. I left it open about 24 hours in a warm place in a container with silica gel.
 
jmann said:
Let's hope that it come alive again, so that you can have two phones. :p
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Well according to the 1st reply in this thread the genius will take my old phone when I get my replacement, so no I won't have 2 phones. That's fine. If wanted to pay full price ($600?) for a brand new phone then I'd get to keep the water damaged one. No, I think I'll take the $200 refurb and hand over the soggy one, thanks.
 
If im not mistaking, isnt the 199 only for the 3G. I've never heard anything about it being available for the 3GS...
 
Mlrollin91 said:
If im not mistaking, isnt the 199 only for the 3G. I've never heard anything about it being available for the 3GS...
Click to expand...

Down near the bottom of the page here: http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/service/faq/#warranty7

Out-of-Warranty Service

If you own an iPhone that is ineligible for warranty service but is eligible for Out-of-Warranty (OOW) Service, Apple will replace your iPhone with a new or refurbished iPhone for the Out-of-Warranty Service fee listed below.
iPhone 3GS Out-of-Warranty Service 16GB & 32GB $199
iPhone 3G Out-of-Warranty Service 8GB, 16GB $199
Original iPhone Out-of-Warranty Service 4GB, 8GB & 16GB $199
 
So I'm leaving for the Apple Store in a few minutes and just now I turned the phone back on and the sleep/wake button is working again! Now it works perfectly except for the back light, which is pretty important. :D I still think that's pretty good considering it took a swim. Alright I'm off to my appt. with the genius.
 
They were out of stock of the 32GB. I wish they had checked that when I made the appointment. Oh well, they're going to call me when it comes in and he gave me the paperwork so I don't need to make another appointment to pick it up. At least I'm only about 15 min. away from the Apple store. Confirmed that they will indeed keep the old one when I get my replacement, which makes sense. So I guess I'm rocking my ancient Moto Razr (complete with cingular logo!) for a few more days. :p
 
Just to update, I got my replacement today and it's perfect. After looking at my poor iPhone with no black light for almost a week it was great to get the new one in my hand and see it light up. I have to say the Apple store people were very friendly and efficient. Of course it might help that I went in there with my $200 and didn't try to lie about my water damaged phone. :p

AMEX is processing my claim and that will probably take a couple of weeks.

I expect my replacement is a refurb, I know the white box phones usually are. I read some other thread here where some people speculated it may still be too soon for refurbs of the 3G S to be in the pipeline. Anybody know a way to tell?

Virginia
 
So, you can make a claim on AmEx after you have exchanged the phone at the apple store? I paid 499 for my 32GB 3GS at the apple store on my Amex. If I dunk it in water, get it replaced for 199, and have Amex reimburse me 499 I just made 300 bucks. That can't be right.
 
calvy said:
So, you can make a claim on AmEx after you have exchanged the phone at the apple store? I paid 499 for my 32GB 3GS at the apple store on my Amex. If I dunk it in water, get it replaced for 199, and have Amex reimburse me 499 I just made 300 bucks. That can't be right.
Click to expand...

This is the way I understand it, I will report back either way in a couple of weeks when I get word from AMEX. If the dunking happened within 90 days of purchase, yes. And you have a limited amount of time to claim it. I didn't pay $499 for my 3GS. My original purchase was subsidized so $299 and was a new phone. The replacement is a refurb. Supposedly AMEX will reimburse me the original price on the first phone, so I may come out $100 ahead. There's nothing that says I have to replace the damaged device as far as AMEX is concerned. If it was some other damaged widget and I decided I didn't want to replace it I'd still get reimbursed by AMEX. It's just one benefit of using our platinum AMEX card. There are a lot of other great protections they offer card holders as well, but I'm starting to sound like an AMEX advert. :D
 
I have Amex and dropped my iphone 2g and cracked the screen they gave me the money for the phone but I had to send the phone to them. I don't know what they do with them but thats what happened with my case. This was a couple years ago so they might have changed this policy.
 
I'm guessing they want the damaged item to help prevent fraudulent claims, so you can't just say your item was damaged when it wasn't & get your money back for an item you're still using. I'm also guessing this is why the coverage doesn't include lost items, only damaged or stolen. I called the AMEX claims dept and explained that I would have to give the phone to Apple in order to get the less expensive replacement, she made a note in my file and told me any paperwork from Apple saying it was water damaged should be enough. I do have that paper from Apple. We shall see!
 
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