iPhone + OCD Sufferer

[HayleyP]

Hi Everyone,

I have been on the phone to Apple Care on behalf of a friend who has OCD.

She had an unlucky day the other week. She left the house in a rush without putting her iPhone cover on (for the first time). At the end of the day she had put her work papers on top of the car and placed her phone on top of the papers whilst rummaging for car keys and of course, the wind lifted the paper which flipped the phone straight off the top of her car. The one day she doesn't have a case on her phone.. jinx or jinx.

The damages were minor, but to someone with OCD (who also acknowledges how minor the damages are), she still will obsess, sometimes unknowingly (conversations) and suffer anxiety and sleep deprivation from this.

The Apple Care operator was extremely compassionate and she mentioned she also has had to deal with OCD and she made a call to a store manager and explained the situation. She took me off hold and said we would be able to get my friend's phone changed.

The operator seemed to be under the impression that it would not cost us much or anything at all. She said it may depend on the condition of the phone, but the better condition the phone is, the less it should be to replace. Luckily the phone is in great condition (to me), brand new except for the marks.

I asked the advisor to email me a note so my friend could confirm with the genius bar that we had this conversation:

"Thank you for calling AppleCare today.

I am delighted that we have resolved your issue today.

I can confirm that I spoke to my colleague in the apple store and he advised that since these marks on the iPhone are causing you stress we can look into it and help you out with getting it replaced. However just be aware its under inspection and may not be cover under warranty.

Please take note of your above case number.

If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate in calling us."


At the Genius bar reservation we were told by our lady assistant that it will cost £229.00 to replace the phone. We still don't think she understood the situation. We were under the impression that there was going to be an exception for my friend's condition. Maybe we are mislead and there really is no way to cover this as an exception or get this message across. Some of you may not agree with this case being an exception and if you can put it kindly, I would love to know your opinion and reasoning.

We have looked everywhere for a replacement part but everything is third party. We have a friend who used to repair phones for a living and he is willing to take the phone apart and refit everything if we could get hold of the rose gold casing. Apple told us that they don't order in separate parts so they are unable to supply us with anything and that the only option is a refurbishment.. which she was quoted hundreds for.

My other good friend (amazing friend!) was going to factory reset her own iPhone just to exchange it with my friend who suffers from OCD. They have the same 6s but unfortunately different memory. Hers is 64GB and my friend with OCD has 128GB.

We were considering getting a note from her doctor to try to evoke some act of equality out of Apple but we're not sure it'll make any difference. She feels quite embarrassed/ashamed a lot of the time when small things like this happen. I try to be as supportive as I can. She doesn't want to get a note from her doctor over an object, let alone facing someone at the genius bar who 9 times out of 10 probably doesn't understand what OCD is. She shouldn't feel guilty because it's not over an object, she is battling a condition.

Just to note she takes great care of her things. Everything is pristine. In unlucky cases she usually does a lot of DIY work to fix things or buys a replacement. But this time it is a very unaffordable to replace.

Given it was a new phone we thought it wouldn't be such a difficulty to replace as Apple are usually awesome with replacement matters. Maybe that has changed over the years.

I'm not sure what can be done. She now has the refurbishment reserved, but the price just doesn't seem ethical.

Please, for anyone reading this, keep in mind that this isn't a cosmetic issue it's a mental disorder that she has to battle with everyday. This turns her world upside down. Not because of the phone - because of the things that follow and it's so unfortunate her expensive apple phone is the culprit this time.

 

[anubis1980]

At the end of the day Apple are a business, i suffer from OCD too and it sucks, but realistically they cant start swapping out or charging nothing to fix OCD sufferers Iphones. £229 doesn't actually seem that much to me. Maybe she needs to put her new phone in some full body protection case, or perhaps do this now if it covers the marks, may help her stop seeing them

 

[dbagg]

Given it was a new phone we thought it wouldn't be such a difficulty to replace as Apple are usually awesome with replacement matters. Maybe that has changed over the years.

No it's not changed, Apple would never just swap out your damaged phone for a brand new replacement. OCD or not it's accidental damage, she should pay for the repairs and not expect this to be Apples problem.

 

[chscag]

I might add that if she does have OCD, why then didn't she purchase Apple Care + which covers accidental damage less a deductible (which would be less than the £229 cost for a refurbished replacement)?

 

[bhayes444]

Whether you feel the price is ethical or not, that is what Apple charges and cannot always make exceptions for people with this disorder or that (as others here have stated). I'm very sorry that your friend is experiencing sleep loss and high levels of anxiety over this, but that just kind of comes with the territory of her disorder. If exceptions like this were corporate policy, eventually there'd be so many fraudulent claims involved that background checks and claims processes would take weeks to complete. Try to help your friend use this as a learning experience for the future. It will probably be the only positive thing to come out of this.

 

[tjwilliams25]

I can tell you that Apple has some of the best customer service in the world, you just have to understand the support structure. Regular AppleCare techs aren't given much leeway in what they can do, i.e. refunds/discounts, that sort of thing. I had a Gen 3 Apple TV that had bricked firmware, so the networking functions weren't working. I live in the middle of an Apple Store desert and couldn't get it fixed locally. I tried calling, and they weren't going to be able to help me over the phone; I had to go into a physical store. I had heard of people emailing Tim Cook and getting results, so I stated my case in an email and sent it off. One of his executive assistants called me right away and I was able to get everything taken care of for no charge. Of course, I'm not saying everyone should email Tim to get free stuff, but since you have a compelling case, and Apple loves to take care of its customers, you should be able to work something out. Good luck and I hope your friend is able to get some sleep.