# My phone wasn't THAT dirty!



## geko29 (Dec 23, 2008)

So this morning during breakfast, I'm hearing a repetitive thump coming from the dryer.  After about 10 minutes, I asked my wife if she threw some shoes in there, and I got "I have no idea what's in there" as a response.  So I go to look.  Inside I find a very warm and tumbling iPhone, which I had last seen the night before when it was in the pocket of my fleece that I wore go pick up dinner...said fleece is also in the dryer.  This leads me very quickly to the realization of where both items were just 20 minutes before...

Naturally, it's very, VERY dead.  like visible water under both front and rear cameras and inside the flash dead.  I ask why she decided to wash my phone (there were some fingerprints on the screen and dust in the speaker/mic grills, but it was pretty clean overall. ), and I get the third degree about leaving it overnight in the pocket of what is essentially a coat, that has been worn exactly one time since it was last washed.  So now it's somehow MY fault that I have a $700 paperweight.

So I head out to the Apple store at Old Orchard (Skokie, IL), hoping that they'll let me get a $199 replacement, even though there's clearly water damage and it's clearly my (or at least someone in my household's) fault.  I detail the situation to one of the blueshirted greeters, and he explains that I will be able to get it replaced for $199 (insert token of thanks to your chosen diety here), but no one at the genius bar is available, and the next appointment is at 12:15, so I'll have to come back in a couple of hours.  I make the appointment and head home, pleased that I at least don't have to make the decision between dropping seven benjamins or being smartphone-less until June at the earliest.

Head back to the store at the appointed time, and talk to Steve, who listens to my tale of woe and reaffirms the $199 cost for a straight swap.  He then pulls out the SIM tray and enters the serial number (bet you didn't know it was recorded there!) into his phone, and gets the message "This iPhone has already been replaced with iPhone serial # XXXXXXXXXXX".  He goes to consult with someone and comes back with several phone numbers on a post-it.  He explains that someone had a phone replaced, and my serial number had been accidentally entered at the time of the swap, so my phone technically doesn't exist.  This is the first time he or anyone else he talked to at the store has seen a situation quite like this.  If he just replaces the phone, it'll come without a warranty, because the device that the other customer got replaced is out of warranty.  So he's going to have to make some calls to get the info corrected, which will take some time, and he was going to try to get my replacement fee covered (SWEET!) but when he calls to make the corrections, they'll force him to charge me (bummer, but still what I was expecting).  So he says he's going to check one more thing with the manager, and he'll come right back.

After a few minutes, he returns, saying he'd transferred the situation to his manager, Emily, and she was going to make the calls for him, but it was going to take a while, so they'll give me a call later when it's all squared away and I can come pick it up.  And because of the unique situation and the fact that this will now be the third trip today, they're going to wave the replacement fee (YAY!).  A few hours later, Emily calls to get the number attached to the phone so she can activate it, and I head down to pick it up.

So in a period of about 8 hours, I went from a depressed, smartphone-less mope, to the happy owner of a brand-new (well, refurbed) replacement iPhone that didn't cost me a penny, thanks to some great customer service.  Hat's off to the Old Orchard crew, and advice to everybody:  when you f*** up your phone, come clean.  I'm thoroughly convinced that, absent the serial number fiasco, they would have replaced my phone for free anyway, largely because I didn't try to pass it off as some sort of defect.  I certainly wasn't expecting it (and didn't deserve it), but that's the feeling I got.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Nice. We stopped at the new store on North Avenue yesterday, as my husband's iPhone had trouble with a sensor that wasn't working, and it took them about ten minutes to do a warranty replacement.


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## skyblue (Dec 23, 2009)

I am beyond impressed with Apple CS!!  They are hands down the best!  

Great story!  I bet you check your pockets from now on!


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