If the Apple Store has one good thing, it is that their staff will try to treat you as if they have known you for a lifetime. They convey a feeling of closeness and it is really a pleasure to start a conversation with any salesperson although in reality, you know that so much kindness is only used to sell you something.
Well, today was one of those times that I came out pissed off Apple Store in the Rio Shopping Mall because they have really wasted my time and money, since the car travel is a bit far from my hometown.
It all starts with problems on my iPhone 5. Since a few days, when in the position of silence gives you to vibrate randomly without having received notifications, calls or messages. If I just turn on the screen when the phone vibrates, the bell appears crossed out as if the phone continuously switched between silent and with sound, so the failure is limited to the switch on the side.
To rule out software failure, I restored and upgraded to iOS 6.0.2 without getting any kind of improvement. The phone kept vibrating randomly with streaks that sometimes get very long. It is a very annoying glitch so since the phone is barely three weeks old, I decide to go to the Apple Store to make use of the terminal warranty.
Make an appointment, an essential requirement
A few days ago, a friend also had problems with his iPhone 4S. In the absence of two days for his warranty to end, he went to this same Apple Store to request a replacement. Once in the store, a clerk very kindly told him that it was necessary to make an appointment with the Genius or else they couldn't change your phone.
After traveling more than 60km by car, had to wait two hours until there was a free space. It is a nuisance that to make use of a warranty service, they make you wait when there were free store personnel but they were not Genius.
Since I already knew what to expect, yesterday I made an appointment. They were not going to catch me off guard and I booked a time for 12.30:XNUMX today. I go to the store, tell a guy I had an appointment, he asks for my name and after checking that it was on the list that appeared on his iPad, he kindly invites me to sit on a stool next to the counter. So far, so good".
Genius's turn comes
After several minutes, another store clerk appears who welcomes me and asks me about my problem. I tell him what happens to me and we try to reproduce the failure. Since it is a random vibration, it is not easy to get it but luckily, the iPhone 5 did not leave me in a bad place and began to vibrate for no reason for several occasions.
After verifying that the fault is there, the Genius missed start examining the case that accompanies my phone (the Belkin in the photo). He tells me that it is very fair and that he is constantly pressing the volume buttons, something that could have caused this problem. I tell him that it is impossible, that the buttons can be pressed with the mobile inside the case and that all covers are tight otherwise, they would not be covers.
This resulted in a conversation of more than 15 minutes about my case, constantly insisting that the fault was not with the phone but with the case that housed him. To all this, he had the phone in his hand, without a case and vibrating. He was not going to get away with it and even less when I have used similar cases in all generations of the iPhone and I have never had this problem.
Another detail that I did not like anything about this clerk, it was his way of treating my phone. I don't like being left resting on any surface by the tendency of aluminum to scratch so I usually always leave it on top of the cover. I told the worker but not once did he listen to me, always leaving the phone on the wooden surface of the Apple Store tables. Luckily it was not scratched but if it happens ...
I request a replacement, things are not on the right track
In view of the fact that "my iPhone 5 has no faults and the fault lies with the case that protects it when it goes in my pocket" (according to the clerk), I request to make use of the guarantee to get a new unit. Without any impediment, the employee begins to perform a series of checks on the phone.
First, Check the humidity sensors to see that it has been treated correctly and has not been in contact with any liquid. The second step was to send a diagnostic log to your iPod Touch-based terminal. To do this, he had to perform a series of steps on my iPhone 5 and to my surprise, certain gestures on the iOS interface revealed an incredible inexperience.
For example, the accesses to the different options of the Settings menu were carried out by means of a double click when a single press is enough. The SIM card was first looked for by the left loop of the terminal (seen from the front) and it took about 30 seconds to find a way to disable airplane mode to be able to connect to the store's Wi-Fi.
I and my companion, with a surprised face, We began to understand many things from the more than 20 minutes of conversation that we have already had with the Apple employee.
The phone is OK and we proceed to change for a new unit but something happens ... there is no stock of my model. Are you telling me that you have been checking for almost five minutes and there is no stock? Wow ... that really hurt my soul after the trip that I have hit.
Out of curiosity, I ask if they will give me a new terminal or a refurbished one and tells me they are always new, never repaired. I look surprised again and tell him that this is not true, that even refurbished ones are easily recognizable by their serial number. There he shuts up and agrees with me saying that "refurbished ones are the same as a new terminal."
Whether it is refurbished or not is something that I do not care if the phone is 8 months old but having 20 days, the truth is that it is not a dish of good taste. Total, that in the end I left the Apple Store without an iPhone 5 fixed and with terrible helplessness Having the feeling that the staff who have attended me have very little idea and eye, I do not generalize because in the Apple Store there are very qualified people. Too bad it was not my turn to receive adequate attention.
What a longer post ... I hope it has at least served to make you book an appointment if you have a problem with your Apple product or to demystify that "great service offered in an Apple store" when sometimes the opposite happens and treat customers like stupid with lies or making believe that the failure in a 669 euro phone that vibrates for no reason is the fault of the cover.
Now I will have to request the replacement online given the impossibility of going back to the Apple Store, something that leads to be without a phone for at least a week and with the high chances that they will not be able to reproduce the failure, thus returning me the same broken terminal.
In the end, so much planning and protocol to only waste a client's time. The worst of all is that if instead of going my father who does not understand technology goes, he leaves the store so happy with a new cover that they have sold him thinking it was the real cause of the problem.
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