New iPhone

I had to send my iPhone in for repair. The ringer switch (one of only four moving parts that I'm aware of on the entire device) broke off. I'm not a huge Apple fanboy, and I have a few issues with the iPhone, but I've been pleased so far with their repair process, once I actually got to it.

I started the process online on Friday afternoon, but the online reporting process has a very limited set of problems, and "broken ringer switch" was not one of them. I found the 800 number for support and called to report the problem. I was on hold for about 10 minutes when my iPhone lost the connection and couldn't get it back. I called on another phone and was on hold for over 30 minutes before finally getting someone. They did at least have the courtesy to announce that it would be a long wait right from the outset, and that I might want to call back later, but I was on a speaker phone and working on the computer while I waited so I persevered.

After I finally got through to someone I spent most of the next 20 minutes on hold while he confirmed my serial number and figured out what to do about my problem. Eventually he suggested that I take it to the closest Apple store. I pointed out that the closest Apple store to me wasn't even in the same state and he quickly confirmed that I was right and said he'd send out a box so that I could send it back in for repair. The problem was that by this point we'd just missed the cutoff for sending out an overnight package that night, so it was going to be Monday before I got it.

This would have been incredibly frustrating had my phone actually been in a non-operable condition, and he was very apologetic, but since my phone was fully functional, aside from being able to put it into silent mode, I wasn't concerned.

Once I did get the box on Monday morning things went very smoothly. The instructions on how to send it in were very clear and easy to follow, and everything needed to do so was included, right down to a paperclip in a ziplock baggy to remove the sim card with. I didn't get a chance to send it out until Tuesday afternoon. They acknowledged receipt of it Wednesday afternoon by email, and early Wednesday evening I got notice that it had been shipped back along with a tracking number. I checked the tracking number and saw that it would arrive Thursday morning. Thursday morning I received a new iPhone with a note that it was determined a replacement was necessary.

Restoring from my backup took a while, but was relatively painless. The direct cost to me was zero as my iPhone is still under full warranty. I did lose a little time and gas, but it was minimal. My biggest financial loss is the cost of a new Zagg Invisible Shield protector. A product I've been very happy with, but which is effectively a one-use product, so having to remove it to send in my iPhone means I'll have to buy a new one. Even here they did a good job though, as I had left the front part of the protector in place, and they removed it and sent it back with the new phone. On the bonus side I got a very nice box for safely storing and transporting my iPhone. I doubt I'll get much use out of it, but it's a nice box.

The shipping box

My biggest complaint had nothing to do with the repair process. After the restore I realized that I was missing a lot of photos. Despite all my settings appearing to be correct, it looks like iTunes failed to save any of the photos I took over the past month or two. Photos from before then were saved, but not the more recent ones. Fortunately I'd already emailed some of the best of them to my wife, but it pisses me off that the rest are gone forever. I'm going to have to keep an eye on that in the future.