Background:
I am Rajat Rathi, a senior software engineer having 8+ years of experience in Software Industry. I have worked with Nagarro & JP Morgan Chase in the past and currently working with another MNC.
You might be thinking that why I am sharing all the personal details, but I think these are must to share, so my voice can be heard and my problems can be understood & taken seriously. I am one of the Apple customers who trusted apple for its quality & service but unfortunately received a defective product which has made my life difficult and I am not getting support & not being listened, not being trusted.
I have used different brands of android mobiles in past which includes Samsung, Google Nexus, Motorola & Oneplus but never had such experience what I am facing with Apple.
I am not very big fan of apple but almost all friends and family members use apple products, primarily iphone. Many of them are still using their 4-5 years old phones which are still working smoothly, that create an impact & reputation of Apple & it’s products.
So, with all positive reviews we bought an iphone 13 mini on last day of February, with a hope of premium and long-lasting experience of phone which never troubles its consumers, do not hang even after years o[censored]sage.
This is all just background; actual story starts now:
Initial usage experience:
We setup our new phone in 3-4 days and started using it. But surprisingly we started facing some small intermittent issues in just second week of purchase. We were like iphone can’t have such issues, so we were confident that it will be sorted by Apple. We will visit apple store whenever we get some time out of busy schedules.
Those intermittent issues were:
1. Sometimes touch doesn’t work, we need to tap same spot multiple times. (it was frequent but not a blocking one that we rush to care centre)
2. Another being call issues, even with very good network quality, other person over call is not able to hear our voice and need to redial.
3. One issue being, on WhatsApp calls, calls are not reaching to other side, when in the same wifi, with other mobile able to do it quickly.
4. Sometimes charger doesn’t work but just re-plug and it works (it happened 2-3 times in first 2 months.)
5. We saw it hung 4-5 times within a month o[censored]se.
6. One day we observed, every time we open a pic of size ~30 MB (taken by other phone camera), screen flickers and not able to open pic. This happened every time but did not notice, when this stopped troubling.
There were issues, but these were not blockers and our schedules were so tight that we could not make time to visit apple service centre and we were quite relaxed that we have a year of warranty period, we will visit anytime and get this sorted. We actually trusted apple.
Major Blocker Issue:
It was going like this only and one day (21 June) both o[censored]s (me & wife) were working from home, as usual. In the evening looking at low battery, wife tried to charge the phone and the cable was not being detected, she was shocked, we tried 2-3 times and then thought of a restart.
On restart, charging started working and we left the phone, after probably 30-40 minutes, when we try to use the phone, touch is not working at all. Just to let you know – phone was in 100% normal condition, no heating, no abusive use.. nothing.
We thought of a restart and that was also not working, because touch is not working at all.
It was around 9pm in the evening, still we thought if we can get help from any store but as it was late, we did not get any help, came back hopeless. That time my leg was fractured but there was no option.
So now because of some important meeting, wife had to go someplace next day and phone is a must to have thing in today’s life. we did not have any standby phone, so we did setup my phone by syncing contacts and all, so she can carry my phone and we will visit apple service centre once she is back, whole night she was tensed about how she will manage without her own phone.
Next day morning, thought of googling and got a way to hard restart without touch… on restart it worked… we got a bit relaxed and thought now apple service centre visit is must, but we can wait till weekend, no need to take off from office & visit service centre.
The same problem repeated 3-4 times in the same week and we planned to visit authorized service centre, but on Saturday, we got to know about prior appointment requirement, otherwise no one will entertain. We tried to get appointment, but no appointments were showing. The service centre guys asked us to check online for appointment on Monday.
It’s not easy to check for appointment everyday and get a slot which suits us as well, this way finally we got appointment for Next Saturday. But meanwhile this issue changed… touch issue was not coming now, but charging issue became more frequent and when tried to take a backup, connection was not persistent, so we could not complete backup & went to the store without any backup.
Response by Apple Authorized Service Centre on first visit:
Here comes starting of worse experience and unexpected behavior from Apple authorized partner, they were not interested in our problem, even after telling all the details shared here, they were like not hearing us, not trusting us. Just started giving conclusions. At first your cable is damaged (because on first attempt he was able to charge with his cable, and I kept saying it’s intermittent,
you can’t conclude in just one attempt), on second attempt when it did not work, he gave conclusion that phone charging socket & cable both are damaged and you have done liquid damage, it won’t be covered under warranty.
We kept saying that there has been no liquid damage or anything to phone, we have kept it with so much care and if there had been our mistake, we would be aware about it and would not be lying here. It was very rude behavior and did not get any help about backup. They denied for standby phone as well. We came home and fortunately this time phone connection with laptop was persistent and was able to complete backup.
Next day (Sunday) service centre was working, but Mumbai traffic (deadlock on road at one signal) took our 2 hours to cover distance of 4 km and we could not make it to service centre within working hours.
Again, working days come and becomes difficult to manage to visit service centre in working hours, somehow got appointment for Thursday and could make time to visit in evening working hours.
Response by Apple Authorized Service Centre on second visit:
Another visit, repeated all the details, shown them a video where touch was not working at all, there we see many things conflicting.
1. About the touch issue, that guy says, it’s a routine thing, many customers come with this. It’s just deep sleep mode. If you don’t restart your phone every week, device goes into deep sleep. Do those guys see us as fools? does he really understand what deep sleep means? My device got totally unresponsive after doing a restart and he is saying restarting every week keeps such problems away. On cross question, response changed from restart to hard restart… and now my question comes, how many of apple customer even know that how to do a hard restart phone?
2. Again, they are stuck on pins being damaged, consistently arguing, not trusting even a word. When customer is complaining, they don’t listen customer, they say Apple will decide everything. They themselves tested and charging was not working but their diagnostics software is telling that all hardware’s are perfect, no issues at all. Everything in green. When apple diagnostics software’s are not able to detect hardware issues confirmed manually by service centre guy, how can a customer trust other diagnostic?
3. We confirming consistently that there has been no liquid spill or dip in liquid or nothing such event. Although apple commits its phone as water resistant but we don’t carry phone openly in rains, just to keep it safe, do not take any kind of risk. And with this much care, if any incident would have happened, we had been aware about it. And if it would be our mistake, I would not have been arguing this much. My time is very important than money but I can’t accept anything wrong. But they are like, we don’t trust customers, Apple will decide.
4. Although we haven’t taken any risk with phone, but have seen my friends carrying their apple iphones openly in rains, they use rough & tough, obviously don’t drop it or dip in water but don’t care about regular rains, and their phone is working perfect even after 5 years. Then how my device got damaged without any such usage???
5. On liquid damage thing, based on an online article at apple website about liquid damage, we asked the guy, that if there was liquid in socket (assume by chance), why did not we see any warning ever? on that his response was that warning comes only after pins are already damaged. So does he mean that warning is useless & article at apple support site is having wrong information? Or the phone is originally defective that it could not raise warning.
Anyways we had no option & submitted phone to apple service centre with a promise of getting it repaired & returned with a week.
I have shared the story in details to help you understand, what all troubles and struggles I am facing after buying a premium apple product by my hard-earned money in an expectation of very satisfying experience. Devices can be defective; it may happen in a rare case but response by Apple or its authorized service partners is totally unexpected.
My questions to Apple & Apple support:
1. Don’t you find all the shared details genuine?
2. Did I make any mistake by trusting apple, first by purchasing phone & then not making hurry to visit apple care because long period pending for warranty?
3. I accept that 99.9% devices perform really well, but can’t there be 0.1% device with a defect and some unfortunate people like us get them?
4. When normally devices & users don’t report any issues even after years o[censored]sage and I already faced this much issues in starting month o[censored]se, then don’t you think that device is defective?
5. As described earlier, if there was liquid by chance, why phone did not raise a warning? And why it’s intermittently raising warning now when charging already not working & there is no liquid at all (we validated this already by keeping phone in front of table fan, left it overnight but next morning warning was still there). Doesn’t that mean phone is already defective and its sensors/circuits are not working properly since start.
6. In my life experience, never seen a device getting corrode even after some liquid contact, then how this got corrode without even any liquid contact?
7. As per article at Apple Support site, there are liquid indicator as well in device (behind sim tray), if there was liquid incident, then why liquid is not detected by device?
8. When customer can trust apple with hard earned money (when there are other competitors with better features & quality at better affordable price and affordable maintenance & compatibility), then why can’t apple trust customers?
9. Why apple just assumes customer’s mistake and customer need to prove that he has not made any mistake? And is there even a way to prove that customer has not made any mistake about liquid damage?
10. Have I really paid money for this experience & harassment? I don’t even find an email where I can reach out and share details.
Here we are expected to prove that we have not made any mistake… why don’t apple prove that it got contact in liquid? I did not click pic at the time of buying the device because I trusted apple and it’s testing process…. Who knows if there was some problem since start. but it kept working until it became bigger.
I have written this mail taking out time from a busy life to raise a voice against wrong. It’s not just about money, it’s about harassment which I am facing. It’s about the wrong behavior. Being software engineer, I can comfortably bear the expenses if there was my mistake but here case is different and I can’t just bear cost when responsible is manufacturer.
I am raising voice because something is really wrong with the phone, which is not being accepted by Apple… not hearing anything from customer. just following their own rules without understanding genuine problem.
I bought first apple product in my life, unfortunately which is defective, troubling us. Add on to that is Apple support.
I expect a reply and satisfying solution to the problem raised by me.
Latest response by Authorized Apple care (as per my interaction, i can say they are not qualified enough) - Based on corrosion at socket pins, they are concluding it as liquid damage and device will be replaced under chargeable basis. They did not find any liquid trace & I am 100% sure the device is defective since start, there has been not liquid contact at all.
Only accepted resolution:
1. Either Free replacement of the device
2. OR 100% refund
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