Sprint Complete repair for iPhone 6s

[jhall8]

I have an iPhone 6s 64GB on Sprint with Sprint Complete coverage. The phone is working very well after two years of use except for Apple Pay. The Apple Store Genius Bar ran diagnostics which showed that the NFC chip has failed. I could have the phone repaired through Sprint Complete. But the Genius Bar employee warned me that I'd likely end up with a refurbished phone, since Sprint may decide do a phone replacement rather than a repair. And I know that refurbs can be bad news. So I'm inclined to just live with the lack of Apple Pay until I get a new phone. Does anyone have experience with this type of situation and therefore advice? I'm planning to get Apple Care for my next phone, BTW. Thanks for reading this and voting!

 

[posguy99]

There's no reason to think a refurb through *Apple* would be bad news, but you wouldn't be getting a refurb through Apple. You'd be getting a replacement through whatever insurance provider Sprint is using, probably (but not guaranteed) Asurion. Said refurbishment to have probably consisted of wiping with a not-too-clean rag.

I assume you haven't restored the phone as new to see if it's software corruption?

 

[jhall8]

There's no reason to think a refurb through *Apple* would be bad news, but you wouldn't be getting a refurb through Apple. You'd be getting a replacement through whatever insurance provider Sprint is using, probably (but not guaranteed) Asurion. Said refurbishment to have probably consisted of wiping with a not-too-clean rag.

I assume you haven't restored the phone as new to see if it's software corruption?

Thanks for your comments. I didn’t do a restore as new. The Genius Bar ran diagnostics which showed no software issues. Then they checked whether the NFC chip was working, and it showed that the chip had failed. You’ve reinforced what I’ve heard about non-Apple refurbs.