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How can I convince Apple Store Genius to replace my iPhone?

The Californian

The Californian

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 17, 2009
3,162
15
Surfers Paradise
Hey, so I've had my iPhone 3g for 18 days now and I have experienced a whole bunch of little annoying problems with it. Don't get me wrong, I love the phone and I wouldn't go back to my blackberry for anything, but I'm sure it's just this phone I got has some problems. The problems range from crashing apps ( even native apps, and even after reset, and restore ), to my screen just completely freezing at random a couple of times a day. Now for the most part, when I try to show someone what it's doing ... it doesn't do it ( isn't that always the case ), but it does happen multiple times daily. I've tried completely restoring it at least 5 times now, and it still has these problems. Now, I want to bring it into the Apple Store to get a replacement but I'm worried that i'll go all the way down there ( about an hour drive ) and they'll tell me that they can't do anything since I can't reproduce the problem. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can convince the genius to just swap it out, like what kind of magical words I need to say to get him or her to just swap it out for me without spending hours there trying to reproduce the problem? Thanks for your help. Oh yah, also ... does anyone know if the Apple Store is still replacing iPhones with refurbished ones or do they just give brand new ones now? I heard that AT&T takes care of all the refurbished iPhones now ... Just wondering if I'm gonna end up with someone elses old headache in exchange for my current one ... haha. Thanks again - Eric
 
xbuddycorex said:
Oh yah, also ... does anyone know if the Apple Store is still replacing iPhones with refurbished ones or do they just give brand new ones now? I heard that AT&T takes care of all the refurbished iPhones now ... Just wondering if I'm gonna end up with someone elses old headache in exchange for my current one ... haha. Thanks again - Eric
Click to expand...

They never replaced phones with refurbished phones. Ever.
 
pkoch1 said:
They never replaced phones with refurbished phones. Ever.
Click to expand...

Yes they do. They then take your phone and fix it up for the next person. It means you are not without a phone at all and they get quick turnaround.
You are giving them a used and broken phone, you get a used, checked, warrantied and as good as new phone in return.

OP, why not try and video the problem, load the video onto your iphone and show the genius when you get there?
 
yetanotherdave said:
Yes they do. They then take your phone and fix it up for the next person. It means you are not without a phone at all and they get quick turnaround.
You are giving them a used and broken phone, you get a used, checked, warrantied and as good as new phone in return.

OP, why not try and video the problem, load the video onto your iphone and show the genius when you get there?
Click to expand...

Not true. They come in gray boxes because replacement phones do not need all of the packaging, USB cables, headphones, etc. that regular retail phones do. The phones they take in are recycled and used as parts for repairs
 
pkoch1 said:
Not true. They come in gray boxes because replacement phones do not need all of the packaging, USB cables, headphones, etc. that regular retail phones do. The phones they take in are recycled and used as parts for repairs
Click to expand...

I imagine some are new, as they need to build up inventory, especially earlier in the products lifecycle, but they wont waste money by not fixing up and passing on fixable phones. That's just bad business and not cost effective. Some will be destroyed and binned, a lot will be refurbished and re-used.
 
yetanotherdave said:
I imagine some are new, as they need to build up inventory, especially earlier in the products lifecycle, but they wont waste money by not fixing up and passing on fixable phones. That's just bad business and not cost effective. Some will be destroyed and binned, a lot will be refurbished and re-used.
Click to expand...

The fixed-up checked, warranties iPhones are sold as such. Moral of the story is that you can feel safe that if you get a phone replaced, it will be with a new phone. :)
 
Tell you the truth, I recently got my phone replaced at the Apple Store. I've had it since September and somehow it's been racking up scratches. There was a really big one on the front and lots on the back. So I made an appointment with a Genius online cause I wanted a new one. When I got there, I told the genius that my phone has been locking up and resetting itself (even though it was perfect) and he went and gave me a brand new one:) I just got tired of the scratches and whatnot:p
 
To be honest, it is sometimes a crap shoot. Just be nice to them and that will increase your chances. I had some similar problems and when I made an appointment my iPhone wasn't acting up anymore. The Genius understood and replaced it anyway. But, one time I had a Genius that was a big d-bag and no matter what I said he wouldn't replace it.
 
bradenwh said:
How is this in any way relevant?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure he meant to reply to Vandam500.

But to the OP, just be honest with the Genius. Tell him exactly what's going on, and that you wouldn't have drove an hour to the Apple store if there wasn't anything wrong with your iPhone.
 
pkoch1 said:
The fixed-up checked, warranties iPhones are sold as such. Moral of the story is that you can feel safe that if you get a phone replaced, it will be with a new phone. :)
Click to expand...

Not necessarily true.....I just had my new 3G replaced yesterday in the Apple store (Made me wonder if switching to the 3G was such a good idea) and the paperwork specifically states that replacement phones may be new OR refurbished. It also states that replacement phones have a 90 day warranty or the remainder of the 1 year warranty the original phone had, which ever is longer.
 
:apple:You could try doing a restore and unpluging the phone half way to cause a brick and since its not jailbroken they should take it back. I have never tried this it might reset itself but its worth a try!:apple:
 
Thanks.

Yah, I don't want to be shady or try to trick them or anything ... I just had a problem getting an iPod that would only hold it's charge for an hour replaced cause they said the power seemed to be holding fine after they only looked at it for a couple minutes. I've been there a few times for my MacBook Pro, and they've always been great about it ... I just don't wanna waste my time you know? Thanks again.
 
Tallest Skil said:
If you've been having problems since you got it and you can't reproduce it in an Apple Store, then you're not really having problems. Just take it in.
Click to expand...

And you're absolutely correct, it would be absurd to think that someone CAN'T cause their phone to freeze up during the 10 minute appointment with the genius' while it does it randomly multiple times during the day. How silly of me to think I was "REALLY HAVING PROBLEMS".
 
Airforcekid said:
:apple:You could try doing a restore and unpluging the phone half way to cause a brick and since its not jailbroken they should take it back. I have never tried this it might reset itself but its worth a try!:apple:
Click to expand...

They'll just put it in DFU mode and restore it most likely. I did something similar with an old ipod before though. I plugged it into a linux computer, which recognized it as a usb hard disk, which I could put a new partition table on. This caused the ipod to not boot. The genius took it back and gave me a replacement without doing anything. But that was a while back, and it was an ipod.
 
xbuddycorex said:
And you're absolutely correct, it would be absurd to think that someone CAN'T cause their phone to freeze up during the 10 minute appointment with the genius' while it does it randomly multiple times during the day. How silly of me to think I was "REALLY HAVING PROBLEMS".
Click to expand...

No, no, no... I'm saying that if you're really experiencing severe usability difficulties, then you shouldn't worry about it working correctly in front of an Apple representative! :eek: It will be buggy, just like it is for you, and he'll fix it.

Apple doesn't have a Reality Distortion Field set up in Apple Stores that prevent things from breaking. :p
 
Tallest Skil said:
No, no, no... I'm saying that if you're really experiencing severe usability difficulties, then you shouldn't worry about it working correctly in front of an Apple representative! :eek: It will be buggy, just like it is for you, and he'll fix it.

Apple doesn't have a Reality Distortion Field set up in Apple Stores that prevent things from breaking. :p
Click to expand...

funny you should say that. i made an appt with the genious bar because my iphone home button was double clicking when i pressed it. was very annoying as it felt as if i was pressing through 2 layers each time

of course when i brought it in, it didnt exhibit that behavior.....damn murphy's law...

anyways, i didnt raise a fuss just told him what was going on and he didnt give me any issue and swapped it out. wasnt really expectiing anything but figured might as well see what would happen

just be polite and dont demand anything and most people will help you out if you are having issues....lesson ive learned in life

not to mention, everytime i go in an apple store, i always act completely computer stupid. no salesman wants to argue ever
 
Have him plug it in to his computer for a diagnostic. Complain about dropped calls. He will replace it.

calvy said:
I plugged it into a linux computer, which recognized it as a usb hard disk, which I could put a new partition table on.
Click to expand...

Umm... Yeah, pretty sure that never happened. You don't gotta lie to kick it.
 
complain about the apps and all and also tell them about "all the dropped call you've been getting" and the "white noise" you hear from time to time on your phone while in call that the other person can't hear..
 
I also had a big problem for about two days, even after restoring and restarting multiple times. The day I had the appointment, and during the appointment, the phone stopped being buggy. Fortunately, I knew a friend at the apple store so he could attest for me. Bad luck I guess, but they still gave me a replacement.
 
The General said:
Umm... Yeah, pretty sure that never happened. You don't gotta lie to kick it.
Click to expand...

Actually, he may not be lying. iPods (pre-iPod touch) will indeed appear as a mass storage device. Furthermore, they'll actually present two partitions, one (not obviously visible to OS X and Windows users) containing the device firmware, and the other containing user data. It's possible to mess with the block device for the first partition in order to modify the iPod's firmware. (This is, in fact, how one installs iPod Linux.)

Doing something along the lines of

Code: 
dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/disk1s2

Will indeed render the iPod unbootable, forcing a target disk mode restore.
 
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