Apple Inc — Apple ruined my phone when submitted to them for Sleep/Wake Replacement Program. Discrimination in service vs US

Address:

Mumbai City, Maharashtra

Recently I gave my iPhone 5 for diagnostics to Apple for their sleep wake button replacement program (free replacement program in which they are recalling faulty phones). I felt discriminated on the quality of service provided (US and developed world versus that I got in India) and they managed to ruin a perfectly working phone which is now not switching on after they opened it up. They are not ready to accept their mistake and instead offering me a paid replacement at INR 22, 000 (Approx US 366). I wrote the following to Apple's CEO Tim Cook recently and am forwarding the same to all the Board of Directors in Apple. Needless to say, I have suffered severe stress due to this and Apple is to blame for every bit of it. All the details are in the email pasted below. Hi Tim, Good Morning. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kanishka Chaudhry. I am a loyal apple customer and love my iPhone 5 and iPad mini, much to the point of adoration and to the annoyance of my friends. I have never minded paying extra for the design, quality and the perceived stellar customer service. However, I write this to let you know how Apple has recently failed to provide me the latter and ruined a perfectly working phone submitted to them for the Sleep/Wake button replacement Program. I know you are a busy man and I will try to keep it concise. I appreciate your time to go through this. My iPhone 5 (Sno C32JT0TRDTWF) qualifies for the Sleep/Wake button replacement program. As is the process, I went to the George Street Sydney Store 3 weeks back. They diagnosed the phone and told me that though it qualifies for the program, they cannot replace it at their end as the phone's apple care has expired and it was bought in India. They advised me to take it to an Apple Store/Authorized Service Provider in India. I do the same and take my phone to on July 5, 2014 to Maple (Authorized Service Provider) when I came back from Sydney. Maple took my phone telling me that they would like to run diagnostics again on it for 3-5 days to assure that it qualifies for the sleep wake program.Apple US's website says that Customer will get a loaner phone (from Apple or the Authorized Provider) while their phone is with Apple under this program. Maple did not provide me the same saying that they do not have that agreement with Apple. Maple failed to call me within the promised 48 hours and I give them a call on July 7 2014. To my surprise they tell me that there is a liquid presence in the phone and hence the phone is not covered under the Sleep/Wake Program. Maple offers me a paid replacement for INR 22, 000 (approx USD 366). I find it strange because the Sydney Store told me that it qualifies for replacement. I raise a case with Apple care (case id[protected],[protected] to understand the disconnect. The trouble does not end here. Apple care gives me the contact number of their India helpline and I talk Santosh and then Shambavi.I get a call from Shambavi on July 10, 2014 telling me that my phone is not switching on and I need to take it back or I can go for a paid replacement (again INR 22, 000 ~ USD 366). I went to the Maple store on July 11, 2014 and asked them what went wrong. They told me that there was a liquid in the phone which they knew as per the indicators. They said that they knew that if they open the phone it might go dead because of the liquid, still they opened it to know if the phone qualifies for the Sleep/Wake program. They never informed me of the risk involved. If they had, it would have been my decision whether to give them a go ahead in opening the phone or not. They told me that they received a call from Apple to give it back to me in the dead condition or ask me to get a paid replacement. The TL, Fredrick, at the Maple store was very helpful and told me that he will try charging the phone again, keep it for another 3-5 days and see if it works. But he will go as per the direction from Apple. I asked Shambavi to escalate the matter at her end. I get a call from hervi on July 14, 2014 telling me that she had done the same but the escalation team also says that I need to either take delivery of the dead phone or get a paid replacement. She also tells me to talk with Maple directly as she had done all she could at her end. I have requested her to pass me some documentation for the escalation but I have not received that yet. I had also requested her for an email id of the legal team but she only has an address for the APAC legal team in Australia on record and no email id where I can reach them. Tim, I write this to understand from you what happens if the phone is not in warranty but is knocked off dead due to the mistake of the Apple Authorized Provider (while the phone is submitted to be diagnosed for an Apple Sleep wake replacement Program). I gave them a perfectly working device and they cannot give it back to me in the same state in which it was given to them. Also, I want to understand why there is discrimination between providing loaner phones in the US and other countries but not in India while our phones are being examined / diagnosed for the sleep/wake button replacement program. Effectively every customer would have paid the same price for the phone and deserve the same service level. I will not go into the details of how vague I feel in my "non Apple days", leave aside the difficulties in using an old personal Generation 1 mobile as a backup. I hope being an Indian doesn't have anything to do with it. I don't really care much about the replacement phone as I am anyways going to buy the iPhone 6 in September when it launches. All I require from Apple is my iPhone 5 back in the same state I provided them. I don't think it is an unfair to ask for that and for refusing to take a paid replacement. I am appalled at the service quality and find it strange how it can not even be at the basic level in India while it is stellar quality in the US and Australia. Tim, I have taken too much of your time here but I do appreciate you going through this. I will go ahead on this as guided by you. I have not taken delivery of the phone yet from Maple. Thanks a lot and have a good rest of the week. Best Regards Kanishka