I am not sure why these issues seemed to happen to me, but they do, and they do often.
This particular experience with Apple Support and the Apple Store isn’t nearly as bad as one I made a post about in 2015 when the Apple Store refused multiple times to replace my failing Fusion Drive due to it passing their HW diagnostic test, which would lead to a wipe of the drive, a reinstall of the OS, only for the failures to happen a few days later. Thankfully, twelve days before the warranty ended, the drive fully failed, so much so that it wouldn’t even boot in internet recovery mode nor their HW diagnostic tool.
But, this new experience was still pretty annoying….
I had issues with my iPhone SE with the Apple Care+ warranty coverage, and this was my experience dealing with Apple Support and the Apple Store.
I understand that this is a very long post, but I wanted to illustrate how ridiculous dealing with Apple Support and the Apple Store can be sometimes.
I noticed the issues around the time iOS 12 came out, and just assumed it may have been early iOS 12 bugs. I had quick battery draining while the phone was not in use, shutdowns/restarts, and a message that popped up saying that there was a power related shutdown and my phone wouldn’t operate at peak performance. Sometimes the phone would just turn off, as if the battery died, I would start it back up and it would be far from 1%.
At the time that the problems started, I still had 99-100% battery capacity, which may sound strange being so high after a years use, but I think I use my iPhone much less than most people, and much prefer using a Mac over the iPhone for almost any task.
While updates didn’t seem to correct anything, the quick battery drain and shutdowns would happen only about once a week or so, and was very manageable, so I didn’t both calling Apple Support as my past experience with them hasn’t always been good, I was just hoping that the issues didn’t get worse.
In the spring of 2019, I had a quick battery drain event while I was sleeping. I went to bed with the iPhone above 70%, and it was completely dead when I woke up. I usually use my iPhone as an alarm, so I was a little annoyed that this happened.
I finally called Apple Support, explained the issues, and requested the express replacement, something I have done in the past with a different iPhone. The support rep informed me that the issue that my iPhone was experiencing was not eligible for the express replacement, and I had to either go to an Apple Authorized Repair place, or an Apple Store for the repair.
I didn’t know of any Authorized Repair places in my area, and didn’t want to go back to an Apple Store due to past bad experiences, so told them that I will just deal with the issue for now, and if it gets worse, I would call them back to schedule something.
The issues did get a little worse, but in Aug 2019, my Lock Button stopped working all of a sudden. The phone worked, but not the lock button. I did a force restart by holding the lock button and home button, and it shut down, but the iPhone would not boot back up. I would get the Apple Logo, but then the SE would shut off. This went on for 20 minutes before I was able to get it to boot again. BTW, the battery was nearly fully charged when this happened, so it was a dead battery situation. The Lock Button worked again, but I was worried about if it would happen again, so I decided to call the Apple Support line again.
This call started off promising with the support rep stating that I would be able to do express replacement, and then informed me that it should have been eligible for express replacement before and that they were unsure why the last support rep said that it wasn’t.
But they wanted to do a remote diagnostic, and I wasn’t home at the time, so they set me up with an appointment for a call back to do the diagnostic.
When I got off the phone with support rep, I dropped my iPhone on a concrete slab under a pavilion that I was standing under due to rain. I got a tiny hairline crack on the phone. Not a big deal I though, I will just send the phone in to fix the screen when and they can do the repair, instead of doing the express replacement. I figured it would be $30 to fix the glass versus $100 for the express replacement, which I would now have to pay due to the broken glass.
During my scheduled call back, I explained the cracked screen, and they did the remote diagnostic of the SE, and it showed the power related problems, and said that the iPhone needed a repair.
Everything was going well until the support rep was explaining water damaged devices to me. She asked if I had water damage on the SE, and I replied that as far as I know, there has not been any water damage. She then stated that if during the repair any water damage is found on my SE, they would not do the repair, and I would have to pay $499 (I think) for a new SE.
I told her that water damage is covered under the Apple Care+, and she replied stating that water damage is not covered. I went on Apple’s AC+ coverage website and read it out for her to hear, which she then started to backpedal stating that if I lied about there not being water damage, and water damage is found, then I would have to buy a new iPhone. While I never had any water damage Apple products, this sounded like something that she made up, and I let her know that.
She quick got flustered and asked if I would like to talk to her supervisor to clarify Apple’s water damage position. Worried that I would be put on hold for an hour, I told her that I wanted to finish setting up the repair first, then I would like to talk to a supervisor about it. She basically told me that she didn’t feel comfortable finishing up the repair, asked me to hold, and then put me on hold without me able to respond.
I waited about 30 minutes for a supervisor to pick up, which he apologized and basically said that the support rep was an idiot (not his exact words) and that water damage is covered with the AC+. He finish up setting up the repair.
A box was mailed to me to put my iPhone in, and I mailed it back out, hoping that my iPhone would repaired soon.
I mailed it out the week before Labor Day weekend, so when my repair status wasn’t being updated, I figured the holiday had something to do with it. A little over a week after mailing it out, my iPhone status changed saying that they received my repair. A few hours later, I got a message saying that my repair was completed. I thought that this was quick for a repair, but again, I have no idea how long these things take.
I get the iPhone back a few days later, the whole process took over two weeks. It was my original SE, not a replacement, which I expected. The glass looked good, and I was hoping all was well.
After a few days of using the phone, the battery drain happened again. Along with the old problems, two new problems happened, a slight crunching sound from one of the corners, as if the glass was not properly aligned, and worse sometimes my touches on the screen was not being registered.
So, I call Apple Support again to find out what was going on. They looked up the repair, and said that only the screen was repair, no other issue was looked at.
They apologized and suggested I take it to an Apple Store and explain to them the situation and have them do the diagnostic and repair. I reluctantly agreed to set up an appointment at the Apple Store, but stated that I hate driving all the way to one due to the distance. They then recommended my local Best Buy, which was only 5 minutes away, but was also an Apple Authorized Repair place, something I didn’t know. They said that the Best Buy can do all the same repairs that the Apple Store can do, and has access to everything that the Apple Store has access to, such as support call notes, diagnostic reports, and repair notes. It made me happy that I didn’t have to go to the Apple Store, so I set up the Appointment.
A few days later, I was at my local Best Buy, hoping to get my iPhone fixed, only to find out that what the Apple Support rep told me about Best Buy ended up not being true. The Geek Squad guy only had access to repair logs and diagnostics, but not the support call notes. He said that the glass repair should have had a before and post diagnostic, which it did not. He said that the diagnostic would have showed that the iPhone was in need of repair, and it should have been done when the glass was repaired.
He also informed me that while he could do the repair, he would have to charge me a deductible since the repair was already initiated by another party, and suggested taking the phone to the Apple Store, as that is proper procedure anyways in cases like this.
So, another call to Apple Support. Of course the person I talked to this time said that the proper procedure would be to take the iPhone to the Apple Store, apologized for the situation, and set me up with an appointment at the Christiana Mall Apple Store in Delaware.
It was originally scheduled for the Monday after the iPhone 11 launch, so I ended up scheduling it for the following Sunday so I wouldn’t run into any launch weekend crowds.
I drive the long drive to the Apple Store, paying tolls along the way, just hoping that the repair appointment goes smooth. I go in the mall, and as I get closer to the store, I see huge crowds of people, two crowds, on both sides of the store. I walk up, there is no organization to what these crowds are for and who should wait in what crowd.
I walk into the center of the two crowds, there are a few Apple Store employees standing, or more like guarding the store entrance. I attempt to talk to one of them, but he just starts chasing down two girls that walked into the store, kicking them out.
Basically, they are bouncers, as if the Apple Store is an exclusive club and they are currently at capacity.
I finally get someone’s attention, telling them that I have an appointment. I am then directed to another employee who directs me to another employee that directs me and another person with an appointment where to sit.
It was hectic, confusing, unorganized, and very, very loud.
I asked the employee that sat me about what the two crowds of people were for and was it normally crazy like it was, and she one crowd was for people buying new iPhones and the other was for people buying other products. She also said that the Christiana Mall stays pretty busy with it being in a sales tax-free state, it attracts many people from surrounding states.
I sat for almost thirty minutes and finally I am helped by someone. According to the Apple Store employee, there is absolutely no notes on my account. He has no idea why I am there and what I need help with.
He blames the fact that I have so many different Apple devices tied to my @mac.com address as to why the notes on my account are screwed up.
I give him the story that I explained above, although it would be in all caps because of how loud I was talking in the Apple Store due to all the noise. Everyone just trying to talk louder than the many people around them.
He says he has to go to the back and decipher the notes attached to my account, and comes back 20 minutes later and asks where I had my iPhone screen repair. I said that they repaired it, I mailed it in using a box that Apple Support shipped to me. He says that there isn’t a record of my screen being repaired.
It is just a fuster Cluck.
Based off my experience up until that point, I thought that I would be in the store for another few hours.
Finally some good luck, as the Apple Employee helping me realized that I was given the runaround too much already, he just replaced the SE with a refurbished one. I left about an hour after being seated, with a working iPhone in hand, and many months since the initial call to Apple Support.
This particular experience with Apple Support and the Apple Store isn’t nearly as bad as one I made a post about in 2015 when the Apple Store refused multiple times to replace my failing Fusion Drive due to it passing their HW diagnostic test, which would lead to a wipe of the drive, a reinstall of the OS, only for the failures to happen a few days later. Thankfully, twelve days before the warranty ended, the drive fully failed, so much so that it wouldn’t even boot in internet recovery mode nor their HW diagnostic tool.
But, this new experience was still pretty annoying….
I had issues with my iPhone SE with the Apple Care+ warranty coverage, and this was my experience dealing with Apple Support and the Apple Store.
I understand that this is a very long post, but I wanted to illustrate how ridiculous dealing with Apple Support and the Apple Store can be sometimes.
I noticed the issues around the time iOS 12 came out, and just assumed it may have been early iOS 12 bugs. I had quick battery draining while the phone was not in use, shutdowns/restarts, and a message that popped up saying that there was a power related shutdown and my phone wouldn’t operate at peak performance. Sometimes the phone would just turn off, as if the battery died, I would start it back up and it would be far from 1%.
At the time that the problems started, I still had 99-100% battery capacity, which may sound strange being so high after a years use, but I think I use my iPhone much less than most people, and much prefer using a Mac over the iPhone for almost any task.
While updates didn’t seem to correct anything, the quick battery drain and shutdowns would happen only about once a week or so, and was very manageable, so I didn’t both calling Apple Support as my past experience with them hasn’t always been good, I was just hoping that the issues didn’t get worse.
In the spring of 2019, I had a quick battery drain event while I was sleeping. I went to bed with the iPhone above 70%, and it was completely dead when I woke up. I usually use my iPhone as an alarm, so I was a little annoyed that this happened.
I finally called Apple Support, explained the issues, and requested the express replacement, something I have done in the past with a different iPhone. The support rep informed me that the issue that my iPhone was experiencing was not eligible for the express replacement, and I had to either go to an Apple Authorized Repair place, or an Apple Store for the repair.
I didn’t know of any Authorized Repair places in my area, and didn’t want to go back to an Apple Store due to past bad experiences, so told them that I will just deal with the issue for now, and if it gets worse, I would call them back to schedule something.
The issues did get a little worse, but in Aug 2019, my Lock Button stopped working all of a sudden. The phone worked, but not the lock button. I did a force restart by holding the lock button and home button, and it shut down, but the iPhone would not boot back up. I would get the Apple Logo, but then the SE would shut off. This went on for 20 minutes before I was able to get it to boot again. BTW, the battery was nearly fully charged when this happened, so it was a dead battery situation. The Lock Button worked again, but I was worried about if it would happen again, so I decided to call the Apple Support line again.
This call started off promising with the support rep stating that I would be able to do express replacement, and then informed me that it should have been eligible for express replacement before and that they were unsure why the last support rep said that it wasn’t.
But they wanted to do a remote diagnostic, and I wasn’t home at the time, so they set me up with an appointment for a call back to do the diagnostic.
When I got off the phone with support rep, I dropped my iPhone on a concrete slab under a pavilion that I was standing under due to rain. I got a tiny hairline crack on the phone. Not a big deal I though, I will just send the phone in to fix the screen when and they can do the repair, instead of doing the express replacement. I figured it would be $30 to fix the glass versus $100 for the express replacement, which I would now have to pay due to the broken glass.
During my scheduled call back, I explained the cracked screen, and they did the remote diagnostic of the SE, and it showed the power related problems, and said that the iPhone needed a repair.
Everything was going well until the support rep was explaining water damaged devices to me. She asked if I had water damage on the SE, and I replied that as far as I know, there has not been any water damage. She then stated that if during the repair any water damage is found on my SE, they would not do the repair, and I would have to pay $499 (I think) for a new SE.
I told her that water damage is covered under the Apple Care+, and she replied stating that water damage is not covered. I went on Apple’s AC+ coverage website and read it out for her to hear, which she then started to backpedal stating that if I lied about there not being water damage, and water damage is found, then I would have to buy a new iPhone. While I never had any water damage Apple products, this sounded like something that she made up, and I let her know that.
She quick got flustered and asked if I would like to talk to her supervisor to clarify Apple’s water damage position. Worried that I would be put on hold for an hour, I told her that I wanted to finish setting up the repair first, then I would like to talk to a supervisor about it. She basically told me that she didn’t feel comfortable finishing up the repair, asked me to hold, and then put me on hold without me able to respond.
I waited about 30 minutes for a supervisor to pick up, which he apologized and basically said that the support rep was an idiot (not his exact words) and that water damage is covered with the AC+. He finish up setting up the repair.
A box was mailed to me to put my iPhone in, and I mailed it back out, hoping that my iPhone would repaired soon.
I mailed it out the week before Labor Day weekend, so when my repair status wasn’t being updated, I figured the holiday had something to do with it. A little over a week after mailing it out, my iPhone status changed saying that they received my repair. A few hours later, I got a message saying that my repair was completed. I thought that this was quick for a repair, but again, I have no idea how long these things take.
I get the iPhone back a few days later, the whole process took over two weeks. It was my original SE, not a replacement, which I expected. The glass looked good, and I was hoping all was well.
After a few days of using the phone, the battery drain happened again. Along with the old problems, two new problems happened, a slight crunching sound from one of the corners, as if the glass was not properly aligned, and worse sometimes my touches on the screen was not being registered.
So, I call Apple Support again to find out what was going on. They looked up the repair, and said that only the screen was repair, no other issue was looked at.
They apologized and suggested I take it to an Apple Store and explain to them the situation and have them do the diagnostic and repair. I reluctantly agreed to set up an appointment at the Apple Store, but stated that I hate driving all the way to one due to the distance. They then recommended my local Best Buy, which was only 5 minutes away, but was also an Apple Authorized Repair place, something I didn’t know. They said that the Best Buy can do all the same repairs that the Apple Store can do, and has access to everything that the Apple Store has access to, such as support call notes, diagnostic reports, and repair notes. It made me happy that I didn’t have to go to the Apple Store, so I set up the Appointment.
A few days later, I was at my local Best Buy, hoping to get my iPhone fixed, only to find out that what the Apple Support rep told me about Best Buy ended up not being true. The Geek Squad guy only had access to repair logs and diagnostics, but not the support call notes. He said that the glass repair should have had a before and post diagnostic, which it did not. He said that the diagnostic would have showed that the iPhone was in need of repair, and it should have been done when the glass was repaired.
He also informed me that while he could do the repair, he would have to charge me a deductible since the repair was already initiated by another party, and suggested taking the phone to the Apple Store, as that is proper procedure anyways in cases like this.
So, another call to Apple Support. Of course the person I talked to this time said that the proper procedure would be to take the iPhone to the Apple Store, apologized for the situation, and set me up with an appointment at the Christiana Mall Apple Store in Delaware.
It was originally scheduled for the Monday after the iPhone 11 launch, so I ended up scheduling it for the following Sunday so I wouldn’t run into any launch weekend crowds.
I drive the long drive to the Apple Store, paying tolls along the way, just hoping that the repair appointment goes smooth. I go in the mall, and as I get closer to the store, I see huge crowds of people, two crowds, on both sides of the store. I walk up, there is no organization to what these crowds are for and who should wait in what crowd.
I walk into the center of the two crowds, there are a few Apple Store employees standing, or more like guarding the store entrance. I attempt to talk to one of them, but he just starts chasing down two girls that walked into the store, kicking them out.
Basically, they are bouncers, as if the Apple Store is an exclusive club and they are currently at capacity.
I finally get someone’s attention, telling them that I have an appointment. I am then directed to another employee who directs me to another employee that directs me and another person with an appointment where to sit.
It was hectic, confusing, unorganized, and very, very loud.
I asked the employee that sat me about what the two crowds of people were for and was it normally crazy like it was, and she one crowd was for people buying new iPhones and the other was for people buying other products. She also said that the Christiana Mall stays pretty busy with it being in a sales tax-free state, it attracts many people from surrounding states.
I sat for almost thirty minutes and finally I am helped by someone. According to the Apple Store employee, there is absolutely no notes on my account. He has no idea why I am there and what I need help with.
He blames the fact that I have so many different Apple devices tied to my @mac.com address as to why the notes on my account are screwed up.
I give him the story that I explained above, although it would be in all caps because of how loud I was talking in the Apple Store due to all the noise. Everyone just trying to talk louder than the many people around them.
He says he has to go to the back and decipher the notes attached to my account, and comes back 20 minutes later and asks where I had my iPhone screen repair. I said that they repaired it, I mailed it in using a box that Apple Support shipped to me. He says that there isn’t a record of my screen being repaired.
It is just a fuster Cluck.
Based off my experience up until that point, I thought that I would be in the store for another few hours.
Finally some good luck, as the Apple Employee helping me realized that I was given the runaround too much already, he just replaced the SE with a refurbished one. I left about an hour after being seated, with a working iPhone in hand, and many months since the initial call to Apple Support.
