So, my iPhone died last week. Plugged it in at night, next morning, it was dead-dead. Not just “mostly-dead”, but dark, unresponsive, no combination of button-pushing got any response at all. Even tried swearing at it in several languages; nothing. So no option to re-load the standard 1.1.2 firmware, just completely dead is the point I’m making here. As you’d expect, I had “Installer.app” and a few dozen third-party apps installed on the phone. Well, _this_ could get interesting, let’s see what happens.
So, I called Apple support, and talked to someone whose primary language is actually English (nice surprise), who had good communication and technical skills, and was helpful and informative. Just like every other call center / helpdesk we all call, right?
So anyway. Explained what I had done (well, the parts they needed to know, anyway…), tried it on 2 different computers, 2 different cables, 2 different chargers, etc. He verified a few button-push combinations with me, went off to check something, and came back with “OK, let’s get you a loaner then”. Long story short, even though my iPhone went back in with a huge amount of third party software, they warranty-replaced it for free, no problems.
Now, it could be that it was so dead, they couldn’t boot it and find that out - if you send one in for service and you _can_ put the current firmware on first, do that. But, if it’s dead-dead, my experience at least, was that it’s not a problem. Good to know that Apple does the right thing…a hardware failure wasn’t related to me having Solitaire and whatever else installed on the phone, obviously, and they didn’t pretend it was. Also good to know that Apple hasn’t outsourced their tech support to a country where we can’t understand the people trying to “help” us.
Timeframe, in case you’re interested:
Call to Apple: Sunday Afternoon
Loaner iPhone arrives at house: Monday
Shipped broken iPhone to Apple: Tuesday
Apple receives phone, decides to replace, and ships out replacement: Wednesday
New phone received at house: Thursday
So, I was without an iPhone for less than 24 hours from when I called, and the hardware failure was fixed no charge. Not bad, Apple.