I had purchased an Apple iphone XS worth approx 1lac INR.
What I am going to share, is what I've gone through being a loyal Apple customer.
So I purchased an IPHONE XS from INDIA last year at a whooping price of 1 lac 10 thousand bucks. I had just started earning and being a loyal apple customer, I had waited for almost more than an year to be able to afford an iphone of my own! Finally, the day came when I thought I could spare some amount of my income and own an IPHONE. Mind you I still wasn't capable enough to do a down payment at the time. So I put mysel[censored]nder an even greater stress of paying the amount through an EMI scheme. It was easy thinking of it at first, I mean it was just 15, OOO per month. But, as it came upon month after month it was quite a stress, I wouldn't be able to spend on going out with my friends etc, cause I had choosen to spend that part of my income on a Phone, Well, that was my decision and no matter how expensive it was, I owned it inspite of what people said around me.
I paid out the full course of my EMI that was 6 months, and now I finally, owned the phone to myself. One day me and a friend went for a swim, I did take my IPHONE XS which comes with IP68 rating, which mind you defines only the water resistance and indiacate the phone being Water proof. SO me and my friend chilled by the pool. Took a couple of boomerangs, to be cool, but everything was done under the claims Apple has made, regarding the IP68 rating. Infact, I didn't even try the part where Apple proudly writes, dropped your phone in the pool ? no worries, dive in, pick it up, wipe it and let it dry off. I mean I had barely taken a few pictures in the pool, and actually NONE inside the pool. My friend who accompanied me owns an Iphone 7 and we both used our phone equally, near that pool of water. I kept my phone by the pool after sometime and was enjoying my time, When I got out, my phone had switched off. My first thought was, the battery must have drained so I let it be. I wiped it thoroughly and let it dry off for the next 4-5 hours. I plugged it into charging, But it just wouldn't turn on. Not even show me the Apple logo. Now I began to panic. It was late that day so I could only take it to the apple store the next day, which I did.
Now, If you know, Apple doesn't have any APPLE STORE/SERVICE CENTERS in INDIA, whatever they do have, are Authorised 3rd party resellers. So on reaching the store, I was denied an investigation as the executive could see a bubble of water underneath the front camera itself and told me that from the looks of it, my phone looked water damaged, and as per APPLE'S policies they don't cover water/liquid damage under Warranty and they went on to suggest me to Pay another 56, 000 INR for a replacement of the handset. This got me really annoyed but, I knew there was no point talking to the people at the store, cause they were not apple executives. So, I contacted apple support online via chat and explained my whole case, the customer support also copy pasted a few articles on apples warranty being void in case of a liquid damage. At this point what I was failing to digest was the fact, that how can a company go on to claim, when I clearly have seen the claims fail in front of my eyes. And in such a situtaion who should they believe, the physical indicators which change colour on coming in contact with the phone or me, claiming that I did everything well within claims.
I somehow got an executive to talk to me over the phone, he listened to my case, and assured that they would open an investigation for my case, and asked me to the visit the store again so they could have a better look, this time around. I visited the apple store again the following day and the store did have an appointment in my name, but had no intimidation of the case I had just spent so much time explaining to the SENIOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT STAFF the previous day. So, I once again found my self standing there having to explain my case, all over again. I knew they won't beleive me, why should they. I could be any other person walking in with a damaged Iphone, claiming it to not be my fault but the companies.
During my conversation with the apple customer support, I was informed by him, that he would be rechable in caseof any issues or help, if needed, on the day of my appoitment at the apple store. I left early from office just to get to the apple store well within time, handed over my phone to the store staff and asked them to investigate, and so they did. Within 10 mins the guy at the store walked back to me and said that there was water inside the device and they could'nt do anything. I was frustrated and tried calling the customer support on the contact provied by him, but it kept ringing and then going to voice mail. I left him a couple of voice notes, thinking maybe he was away at that moment and would hopefully get back to me. Almost, an hour must have passed, but I didnt get any call back from this customer support, who mind you assured me full support from his side, the previous day. I stood there, not knowing what to do. The store then provided me with another customer support number. I was able to get through to another customer support staff and explain my issue, but the answer I got was quite hideous. So this particular staff told me, "THE ANGLE AT WHICH YOU EXPOSE YOUR PHONE TO THE WATER, MATTERS". I was really aggitated at this remark and asked him to tell me where apple had mentioned such a thing in there IP68 claims. He had no answer and just kept giving me some useless thing one after the other. At the end of all this I was DONE. Actually, I still hadn't processed the fact that without it being my fault, I would be in a situation, where I would be so helpless and wasted a whooping amount of money. I wanted to address this issue on the correct forums but I feel extremly sick and had to focus on being better first. So now I am writting this, Don't know if its ever going to matter to anyone. But for a loyal apple user like me, I am quite put off I would never suggest anyone around me to invest in Apple products. Apple gives big claims about there quality checks, I not only question it now. But, I know so, that no quality check is fool proof, even in 6 sigma, the defect rate is 3.4 for every million products manufactured. There are other examples, which sing about apples quality failure, the butterfly keyboard on the 2017 macbook pro, Customers complained the keys would stick too often and so apple had to launch quality programme for all users with the macbook pro 2017 model. That itself explains, if the production would have been with 0 defects (which is not possible) and they had such a strong quality check facilty, apple would have not needed that quality programme in the first place.
ITS NOT MY FAULT, THERE WAS A QUALITY DEFECT IN THE DEVICE I RECIEVED. I DONT THINK A DEVICE WITH A RATING OF IP68 CAN GET DAMAGED BY MINOR WATER CONTACT, ITS A MANUFACTURING DEFECT AND SOMEONE NEEDS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS.
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Thank you