When I stood in line in front of the Apple store for an iPhone 3G last August I was nothing more than estatic. I had set my alarm woke up at 5 a. M made a cup of coffee and rushed from Raleigh to the the South Point Mall in Durham to stand in line for hours. A graphic designer with an eight year relationship with apple there was no doubt in my mind that what I was buying was the full package an equal balance of form and function. A beautiful machine that would excite you with every use. I wasn't eligible for an upgrade from AT&T so I was required to pay the full $400 for the 8GB iphone 3G. To me it was worth it. Its a tool, a toy, everything you could ever want. I have always been happy with my three other Macs and never had a single problem or complaint. Well after 11 months of using my phone (still under apples one year warranty) I started noticing little things here and there.
First my battery life was significantly shorter, which wouldn't be a problem if you could replace it yourself. Second my phone randomly vibrates by itself without receiving text messages or emails or alerting me of a low battery. Third and this is my biggest concern, three hairline cracks on the back of my phone. Now dont get me wrong things wear and things break. After buying a $30 rubber case to protect my $400 purchase, wiping it down every few days and taking special care that it is never dropped or mishandled I have cracks? How could this be? I have never heard anything but good things about Apples service so yesterday I made an appointment at the "Genuis" Bar inside apples store to see what they could do about the issues that I had. I didn't think I would have any problem having my phone at least repaired if not replaced. I figured worst case I would be without my iPhone for a week. I was sadly mistaken. After waiting for a long time to talk to a "Genius" (Tyler) at the Crabtree Valley Mall. I was to say the least treated very poorly. He was very defensive of all the problems I had with my phone. He acknowledged that my cracks were not from being dropped or from misuse and made a note in my file so it would not void any warranty. He told me that my cracks (one of which a quarter inch long were not "bad enough" to be repaired or replaced. That those cracks are "spec" for an 11 month old phone. He told me that if he gave me another phone it would do the same thing and at his discretion there was nothing he would do for me. He then said that all my other problems he could not recreate on site he could also do nothing about them.
At this point I'm feeling betrayed by a company I loved and recommended to everyone I know. I asked to talk to the manager. The manager also was immediately defensive and looked at my phone telling me he didnt see any cracks at all. The genius assured him that he saw two of the three but they were nothing. Only after arguing and them taking out a magnifying glass would they acknowledge all three cracks but again said that it was a manufacturing defect but not defective enough. I told him that for the money I paid I was not only angry but disappointed. I felt betrayed. I told them in the future I cant see spending so much on a phone or any of there products if a manufacturing defect isnt bad enough to do anything about. He says so your saying you wouldn't buy an apple product because of a little cracks like that? To me its not little its a quarter inch crack and two little cracks and its not even the crack. Its the fact that I'm one in a billion customers and they could care less about me. After getting home and feeling completely betrayed and defeated I looked online to see if there was anything further I could do. To my amazement I found numerous people with the same problems. Same cracks! Some even worse over a shorter period of time. I found lawsuits against Apple and reports of Apple removing questions about this problem from there website. After talking to two of my friends about my problems (which bought the phone because of my initial high regards) they looked at their phones and have the same cracks one of them even worse. This isn't right. I know I'm not alone!
Nick
Raleigh, North Carolina
U.S.A.
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