What Happens if You Break Your 3G iPhone
ehPhone.ca reader Stephen F found himself in a similar situation, here is his story:
I lined up on July 10, 2008 to get my iPhone 3G. I joined the line (in 3rd place) at 10:30 PM. It was a wonderful experience to get to know the people in line, but it was even more exciting to get my hands on my first iPhone. To be honest, I hadn’t even seen a 1st gen iPhone in person until someone pulled theirs out in line.
The past month using my iPhone has been amazing. It truly is a revolutionary device, and while the firmware is still a little glitchy, the iPhone absolutely changed the way I use a phone, and the way I use a computer! I was checking my email more often on my iPhone than I was on my computer…and I much preferred the iPhone Facebook app’s interface to the web interface.
However, my relationship with this particular iPhone ended last night. I had been up at a friend’s cottage the night before, and had been unable to find my iPhone during the day yesterday. Assuming I had left it at the cottage, I drove up late last night. I searched the cottage high and low, unable to find my phone.
Giving up looking shortly after midnight, I began driving home. When I stopped the car to close the gate to the lane which leads to the cottage, my worst nightmare came true. I saw my phone case on the ground. My iPhone was still inside it. When I removed the iPhone from the case, I could immediately tell it had been run over by a car.
I was devastated. I drove home immediately and went to bed.
This morning, I surveyed the damage. The phone was protected by a phone sock and a front and back BSE skin. The screen is cracked, but not shattered, and one side of the phone/chrome bezel is slightly bent/warped. It looks like the 3M skin material snapped spontaneously in a few places, but for the most part the phone is free of scuffs. I haven’t plugged it in to see if it still works yet, but I’m not particularly hopeful.
On a more intriguing note, I thought you might be interested to know that it is a white iPhone, and that even after being run over by a car (perhaps multiple times), the white casing is not cracked!
I’m fairly convinced at this point that the cracked plastic many have been reporting is limited to a production run (or perhaps several). I’m pretty impressed that the plastic isn’t cracked after being run over by a car.
What is the accidental damage replacement policy of Fido/Rogers? I know Apple had an accidental replacement policy for the first iPhone; have they continued this policy with the iPhone 3G?
Here are some photos of the unfortunate event:
Here’s an update on how the replacement process has gone thus far.
1. I called Fido. The customer service rep asked what had happened to my phone. I said the screen was cracked, and that it was most likely accidental damage, not covered under warranty. She indicated that she would have to speak to one of the technical support staff, as this was a new issue for her (I guess not too many people have broken their iPhones yet!). The customer service rep was very friendly and understanding, but unfortunately after spending 27 minutes speaking with CSR’s and on hold she indicated that for issues most likely not covered under warranty, Fido’s instructions are to have the customer contact Apple directly.
2. I called Apple. Hold time under 10 minutes. The representative was extremely nice and understanding, explaining that he loses his iPhone all the time, he’s just lucky enough for it still to be in one piece when he finds it. Surprisingly, he also asked whether I was calling about a 1st gen or 3G iPhone! He had me put the iPhone into restore mode by holding the home button while plugging in the USB cable to test if the internal components would be recognized in iTunes. No such luck. After a few tries, he indicated that it most likely was moisture damage, as opposed to the impact, that had disabled the phone. Either way, the damage would unfortunately not be covered under warranty.
3. However, all was not lost. He explained that Apple has a support plan in place to service iPhones that have expired warranties , or have been accidentally damaged and are not covered under warranty. He explained that the price to replace my iPhone would be $329 (for the 16GB model, $229 for the 8GB), and that I could make credit card payment right away, over the phone. He explained that they also have an advance replacement warranty option which costs $29, in which case they would ship me a new iPhone and a shipping box to return my old one in.
Labels: 3G iPhone, iPhone News
