iPhone XS I'm on my 16th iPhone Xs

[bigjnyc]

Total insanity and OCD..... Did it ever occur to you to perhaps try a different type of phone after oh I don't know....failed attempt number 10 or so?

 

[Harthag]

Ignore the haters, OP. It's your time and money and these phones are not cheap. You do you. As long as you don't get banned and the managers don't cut you off, keep going until you're satisfied. If Apple keeps allowing it you aren't doing anything wrong. It's on the staff to judge and cut you off if they see fit, and they haven't yet it seems. Sounds like you're a reasonable person to deal with and the employees don't mind dealing with you / accommodating you.

I called it a day after 2 returns and am happy with my XS. I have not encountered any of the issues you are having. My XS has a slightly rough edge but that's it and I don't care about it. It's in a case anyway. Good luck.

 

[digitalexplr]

The way Apple expresses their products merits a high expectation, as I'm sure you're aware. I understand your doubt, because that is a lot of iPhones. However, I have an attention to detail that many others don't, but I can tell you that multiple managers that became suspicious of these exchanges came over to me, and also expressed their distain for the quality that the iPhones were in (out of the box). One of them yelled about how it wasn't up to apple standards, and another who opened a few phones wouldn't let me have one because of an issue he saw himself. I can assure you that I have never brought up a remedial issue. Almost every issue I have mentioned noticing is a potential defect with the phone, in terms of water resistance, working buttons, working camera, and working speakers. Yes, the sharp edges is more or less a trivial thing, but I have had some pretty sharp edges on a few of them.
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I never usually look for any issues, because I have always expected and have always had perfect iPhones, and pretty much perfect any apple products. I only started looking after the 3rd, when I noticed a serious issue pertaining to myself in particular, which was dust in the camera. My first one had an insane amount of dried glue or debris within the 'cracks', which were now open spaces of the bezels, and very sharp and very rough edges. I go back because I would just like one that is actually up to their standard, and actually has no problems with it. I really enjoy apple products.
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The dust is in the phone, before opening the box. In my opinion and apparently the opinion of the staff at my store, and probably apples opinion, the phone should start out clean. But also, in any iPhone ever, dust should not be between the bezels, and that is where it is. Which makes me believe it is dried and separated glue, where the watertight seal has come away from where it was positioned for a seal.

Pretty sure Apple and iPhones are not the issue. The statistical probability of one store and one customer of that store getting 16 defective phones is astronomical. Move on to a different model or maker.

 

[lordofthereef]

The last tine I went through exchanges was with the 3GS. That was four phones due to dead pixels that were very obvious. Anyway I wouldn't have made it last maybe 5-6. I can't see how you can stand 16. I'd have given up long ago.

You're asking for advice on this but if you look at these forums you aren't finding massive threads with issues like this. So obviously people aren't experiencing what you are en mass. Or they are, they don't know if, and are simply happy with what they have. I question your conclusions about the the waterproof seal being patent, but I can't know anything for sure.

I keep going back to that number 16 in my head. I'm amazed the Apple store let it go this far. I'd have cut you off at half that. This isn't a criticism of your character, but at some point a business has to realize that if their customer isn't happy with their 16th new device, they simply aren't going to be. We are talking $16k in product, not even touching on the time it takes to keep doing this.

 

[skillwill]

Sadly things like this affect all of us. This is why it’s so hard to get replacements now for actual problems, and why the price of everything is going up

 

[Harthag]

Sadly things like this affect all of us. This is why it’s so hard to get replacements now for actual problems, and why the price of everything is going up

Respectfully, no it doesn't and no it isn't.

 

[jav6454]

The OP must have A LOT of time on their hands to go through 16 iPhone's. After the third time, I would cut my losses and keep my old phone or just wait a month or two.

Apple has to have the OP flagged at this point, right?

Apple flags you after the 4th phone after which I believe a regional manager has to approve. Don't know how OP got to 16.

Well, that was my experience from a previous thread where anther user went thru 8 phones back in the 4S days.

 

[Garemlin]

There is no way in hell I would exchange 16 of anything. I would have got to the point at maybe five at the very most where I would have convinced myself they are all going to be bad and move on to something else. I'm OCD but I'm also impatient.

I have owned many smartphones over the years. I used to admin and mod on some of the bigger android forums. We always wanted to have the newest phones. I have only returned a phone once for an issue. Actually went through two before the third ended up being a good one. I can't say if the third one was bad if I would have tried a fourth.

But 16?? Yeah I'm thinking you are super picky and extremely OCD.

 

[ThatiPhoneKid]

Hey all,

I haven't found many threads relating to iPhone Xs issues, but I thought I'd share my experience and wanted to see if anyone else is having any issues like these, because I want to decide what I should do from here (i.e. keep current iPhone or return, and place an online order).

So basically, as the title says, I am currently in possession of my 16 exchanged iPhone Xs (and apparently my last exchange because they're losing money opening all those phones). Something seems to be wrong with apples manufacturing facility or something. In almost every phone Ive opened up, there has been some sort of strange debris / possibly glue (holding the bezels and watertight seals together) between the bezels, and obviously if you can see that, the metal or seals are separated.

Besides that being present in almost every phone, I have had 2 with dust within the camera lens, 1 with a rattling speaker, quite a few with button issues (mushy and uneven), and many with uneven and almost sharp edges along where the steel meets the glass, and a lot of the iPhones have multiple of these issues combined.

All of the display models I checked at the store had the debris as well, and one phone I opened had an almost pre-peeled and crumpled plastic cover (you know, the plastic that comes on the phone, you use to pull it out of the box then peel it off the phone).

At one point, I opened up about 5 in store at once and all of them had issues, and all the staff involved, including managers, saw it as well. I have never had this experience with an iPhone. They always come perfect and develop some sort of defects or issues later in their life, if any.

My local store is Robina, in QLD, Australia. I was hoping to get some feedback about other users phones, and if they notice anything like the issues I noticed mentioned above, to find out if its just a few stores here in Australia receiving these horribly produced phones (compared to apples own boasted standards obviously), or if this is happening across multiple countries. The current phone I have now is probably the best Ive had, with minor mushy volume down button on the lower half of it, and only a slightly uneven 'edgy' bezel. It's alright, but it's not what apple should be sending out, and nothing like what Ive ever received before from the company. I am just debating though on returning it, and then attempting to order one online, and possibly get it from another location or 'batch' to see if it could be just a bad batch.

(Also, just to note, this has occurred over 2 months of exchanges, besides the 5 or 6 at once in store, starting with the pre-ordered one I received on September 21st)

Anyway, thanks for reading if you took the time, and I appreciate any and all replies.

Kind regards,
PK

EDIT: I appreciate everyones replies thus far, and thank you. I just wanted to post a reminder that, while I do appreciate your wisdom and opinions, I am mainly looking for anyone who might have noticed the same issues I have. I came here for others experiences with their iPhones, and not for plain suggestions and assumptions. I can say, I know what I know, I see what I see, and I would not be here listing a seemingly ridiculous topic if it was made up. It goes without saying that no one except myself and the ones around me have seen this first hand, so its understandable if you can't fathom this a reality. But family, friends, and apple store employees have all agreed upon this. If they didn't, how would I be this many phones in without their approval? Believe it or not, I just want one that works properly out of the box, as it should come according to Apple. If I didn't want that, I'd go to another less reputable company and buy a phone from them, toss it when it completely breaks, and just buy another new one.

And I thought I was fussy

 

[AppleHaterLover]

Like hell Apple is going to allow 16 returns.

At one point, I opened up about 5 in store at once and all of them had issues, and all the staff involved, including managers, saw it as well.

My local store is Robina, in QLD, Australia [...]

You should try doing this in the US. If you get more than a "do I need to call security?", please let us know.

I'm trying to imagine a situation in which - inside an Apple store as crowded as that one should be - all Specialists are dropping their iPads and whatnot to watch, in disbelief, a customer opening 5 iPhones in a row and rejecting all of them. With managers allowing that circus to go on.

In all honesty - maybe try going with an XR, or an XS Max, or maybe try another store, or wait a while - you're right near China, there will be a new batch of these things by next week.

 

[coney718]

The more I read this the more BS it sounds. Not sure how it is in Australia but there is no Apple store that is going to let you exchange a device 16 times, especially for something as minor as dust. And there is definitely not a store that will let you open 5 iPhones if you are not planning on purchasing them.

 

[dazz87]

16 times? fake.

 

[Apple_Robert]

If the OP really did return 16 iPhones, Apple should flag his account, in my opinion.

 

[Jordan921]

If I were Apple I would have cut you off a long time ago.

 

[rockitdog]

The OP has OCD and believes that he is entitled a perfect device that doesn't actually exist by his standards. I too suffer from it and recognize his personality type by his justification of why something is wrong with each device. He needs to learn to by happy with a device because what he is looking for does not exist.

 

[ghanwani]

Just because getting 16 bad phones in a row has a very low probability, the probability is still non-zero and the event can happen. However, given how rare it is, the OP is very unlikely to find someone that was able to repeat this feat, or even get close. Kind of like the probability of winning the lottery. OP is more likely to find more people that have had one or maybe two defects.

I returned two SEs before I got one I was happy with. The first had some gaps between the body and screen, and the second had a loose button.

 

[44267547]

I don’t mean to reiterate what everyone else has said many times over in this thread, but sometimes when ‘You look for defects, defects find you’. I think when you have those who literally read too much into the Internet ‘Defects’, and then they over analyze their iPhones, they truly can never be happy with it. And I think it’s a very unfortunate pattern to have 16 phones that every one of them have been somewhat defective in some form or another, realistically, I don’t think there will ever be a Phone that would suit your expectations.

On a separate tangent, and Nor am I insinuating anything, but I’m surprised you’re not banned from Apple with this many returns? Or in the least, flagged in their system.

 

[aukyew]

AAPL went down may be because of this LOL.

 

[penajmz]

Sounds like it’s you and not the phone honestly. 16? That’s insane.

 

[doboy]

Pics or didn’t happen

 

[5105973]

I hadn't thought about another state, but mainly because the next closest store is like a 9 hour drive...
I want the phone because I'm a fan of apple, and I really like the design, but I just would like to have a proper (as expected) iPhone.

Welcome to the forum. Sorry it’s a bit of a rough one. I’m not going to judge you on 16 returns because I was not there to see over your shoulder at what you witnessed. I’ll take your story at face value and will instead just address the issues you noticed.

Starting last year there was a pretty extensive forum thread about dust in the camera lenses or over the lenses under the cover glass for the X. Even people who started out with pristine cameras ended up with dust inside, possibly due to infiltration of dust through the hole for the flash. So I was a bit surprised to see they left that camera bump with the same design. I guess there weren’t enough complaints from the public at large to warrant a redesign. But it definitely was “a thing” on this forum. However it didn’t seem to hurt picture quality.

I have noticed since they went for a more robust IP water resistance rating, that the consistency of fit and finish isn’t what it used to be. I’ve seen this on iPhones in the stores and out in the wild.

I myself owned and returned a wonky 8 Plus. The whole phone was put together a bit out of whack, with the front glass set into the frame noticeably crooked and a bit of something black that might have been sealant visible. I’m not fussy at all and I noticed it right off. It also felt sharp along one edge. That was an 8 Plus. I looked on the forum and again, it was a cosmetic defect a few other forum members also ran across. Nobody thought it affected any functionality, so I was inclined to overlook it until I discovered my lightning earbuds wouldn’t work in the lightning port. Enough was just a tad off spec, so that the unit as a whole lost an aspect of normal function.

On my ex-XS Max the oleophobic coating was very sticky. I solved the issue by sticking a tempered glass display protector on it. I did read somewhere on this forum that others had encountered that problem and that it was due to the coating not being properly cured.

My Max was also plagued by connectivity problems and I still don’t know why. I ultimately returned it because my optical migraine condition is incompatible with Apple’s implementation of pulse width modulation dimming on their OLED displays.

My Xr seems to have perfect fit and finish and is up to the usual Apple standards.

Several years ago my husband had a very difficult time getting an iPad with a decent display. He encountered several of them with various horrible display defects. They’d start out bright pink in one corner and end up blue at the other, for example. One was so dim it looked like it has a brown plexiglass filter over it. He went through about three returns, I think. I lost track. So I know these things do happen and you got on a bad streak there.

I wish you luck on finding a properly assembled iPhone. I’m sorry you seemed to encounter all of the commonly discussed qc failures in a hopefully anomalous cluster. My husband has a lovely XS Max so they do indeed exist and I hope you find one. Best wishes!

 

[PumpkingKing]

Thanks for your replies. Most thanks to those with both constructive comments and actually related comments about your Xs quality.

You're asking for advice on this but if you look at these forums you aren't finding massive threads with issues like this. So obviously people aren't experiencing what you are en mass. Or they are, they don't know if, and are simply happy with what they have. I question your conclusions about the the waterproof seal being patent, but I can't know anything for sure.

I am not really asking for advice, per se, I am asking about the quality of other peoples iPhone Xs's and if they've noticed what I have with the batch of phones I received or viewed to compare other locations iPhone quality. As I said previously, I was in contact with the managers of the store, and he explained the waterproof seal follows around the iPhone between the stainless steel and glass / screen bezels, and is made of some sort of rubber compound.

I'm trying to imagine a situation in which - inside an Apple store as crowded as that one should be - all Specialists are dropping their iPads and whatnot to watch, in disbelief, a customer opening 5 iPhones in a row and rejecting all of them. With managers allowing that circus to go on..

Many employees did come over, and one of the specialists went to get a different manager because he was in disbelief the state the iPhone was in straight out of the box, at which point the manager started yelling about how that is not apple standards and to get rid of that phone. So to say, the employees were rejecting them along with me. I am not looking for absolute perfection, I am looking for a properly working phone (including clean out of the box (as all phones should and have always come, and that goes for any phone I have ever purchased) with no debris within the seal or the bezels), with low potential of needed repair down the track.

The more I read this the more BS it sounds. Not sure how it is in Australia but there is no Apple store that is going to let you exchange a device 16 times, especially for something as minor as dust. And there is definitely not a store that will let you open 5 iPhones if you are not planning on purchasing them.

Some of the devices were not completely exchanged. Many were opened by a manager, and he would check them himself. In one case not even giving me the device to check over, noticing a gap in the seal himself. Most phones had large amounts of debris, some had dust in the camera, and some had mushy buttons, etc.

 

[shansoft]

I have personally went through about 6 or 7 iPhone 6 in a row.

Each box I opened, have some extreme problem that is a immediate return for me.

Multiple dead pixels, wouldn't boot up, large debris under the display, broken home button, scratch display on open...etc

Opened right in front of Apple employee as well.... That is apple quality right there...

 

[PumpkingKing]

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you

Starting last year there was a pretty extensive forum thread about dust in the camera lenses or over the lenses under the cover glass for the X. Even people who started out with pristine cameras ended up with dust inside, possibly due to infiltration of dust through the hole for the flash. So I was a bit surprised to see they left that camera bump with the same design. I guess there weren’t enough complaints from the public at large to warrant a redesign. But it definitely was “a thing” on this forum. However it didn’t seem to hurt picture quality.

I wish you luck on finding a properly assembled iPhone. I’m sorry you seemed to encounter all of the commonly discussed qc failures in a hopefully anomalous cluster. My husband has a lovely XS Max so they do indeed exist and I hope you find one. Best wishes!

Thank you kindly for your reply. I did notice that thread about the dust in the camera. Must obviously be a problem that carried over to the production of this phone, and assuming they wouldn't have changed much, production wise, when it comes to the identically same bodied phone, just different color.
Thank you also for your replies about the issues you and your husband had with your other devices, and your good wishes!

 

[Glideslope]

Pics of each phone or it didn’t happen.