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_ Home Page News _ Where Do iPhones Go When They Die?

Posted by: Slacker

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A few months ago I purchased my first Apple device: an iPhone 3Gs. I have had a device with every version of Windows Mobile since it first came out. I know a lot about Windows Mobile and I know a lot about the hardware. I also know what it is like to brick a device or just have a random hardware failure. It happens. Maybe it is the hard drive on your laptop, or the keypad on your phone, but at some point we are all likely to have a hardware failure at some point. Right?

This is my experience of a failing iPhone and the process to get it all working again. For all of the companies that produce hardware for the WiMo platform this is required reading.

http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/index.php?showtopic=27185

Posted by: Slacker

When I purchased iPhone 3Gs' for my wife and I the Apple rep suggested getting the Apple Care Plan. Normally I don't get extended warranties because they http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/10358/what_consumers_should_know_about_extended.html but this time I decided to get the protection. It is a new platform for me and there is no telling what I might try to get the phone to do. As it turns out this was a really good move.

For the first couple of months I was content with using the phone the way Apple intended. After some time I discovered there were a lot of things I wanted to do with the phone but was unable because of Apple's choke hold on the App Store. Thanks to a young man called geohot (http://twitter.com/geohot) I was able to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jailbreak_%28iPhone_OS%29 my phone and install software from other app stores like http://cydia.saurik.com/ and http://www.rockyourphone.com/ to gain more functionality. I have used the phone like this for a couple of months without any problems.... Until this past Friday...

I was at my volunteer gig driving around in a car when my phone just went black. It was plugged into the charger so the battery wasn't dead. It had been running http://www.navigon.com/site/us/en so the phone should not have gone to sleep. I tried to turn the phone on and I got a message telling me to connect the iPhone to iTunes. Uh Oh. What could have happened to my phone? It was in a windshield mount and plugged in. It was working perfectly up to that point but now it needs to be rejoined with the mother ship? I was a little worried. As it turns out my worries were justified. I am not one to ask for help unles I have exhausted every other possibility first so I spent most of the evening Friday searching Al Gore's Amazing Internets for a solution. I tried downgrading firmware, upgrading firmware, wiping the phone, DFU mode, and any other wild and crazy suggestion I could find but none of them helped. I needed someone else to guide me.

I reluctantly picked up the phone and called Apple Customer Care. I spoke to David and he asked me all sorts of questions. The error I was getting happened every time I tried to restore my phone. It said I could not restore the phone and gave an error 23. The phone itself said the SIM was invalid even though it is an AT&T SIM. I swapped out with the SIM from my wife's iPhone and saw the same message. David suggested I go see a Genius at my local Apple store. Fantastic. My phone is dead and I have to go stand in line to see someone who will talk to me like I am an idiot. Perfect. I made the appointment for 11:50 on Saturday morning at the http://www.apple.com/retail/tysons/.

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I arrived early (that's my good Army training) and checked in with the concierge. Almost immediately I saw my name pop up on the display in the back as the number 3 person in line for iPhone support. Wow! No waiting in line. I like this better already. In less than ten minutes my name was called and I was introduced to Ben who, as I was told, would help me resolve my iPhone problem. Ben took my phone and asked me what happened. While I was explaining he began to try to bring my phone back to life. At first the phone did nothing, showing only a black screen, but eventually he was able to get the phone to ask to be connected to iTunes. Unfortunately Ben had the same error I was getting so he immediately said he would get me a new iPhone. Seriously?

Ben pulled a new iPhone out of a box and plugged it in (the battery was drained) to let it charge a bit. Within 15 minutes of my walking in the store I had a new, activated iPhone. During the entire process, from speaking to David on the phone, making the reservation for the Genius Bar, and the replacement by Ben every person I spoke to was courteous, helpful, and seemed genuinely interested in solving my issue. While there have been helpful people along my journey with Windows Mobile nothing can compare to this first time experience with Apple.

I explained to Ben that as an Editor for MGN I had a lot of experience with Windows Mobile devices. I explained that the iPhone was the first Apple product I had owned. His response?

"Welcome to the light side."

Light side indeed.

Posted by: abatis

There is a reason Apple is making a ton of money even in a ghastly recession and it is not just the superior user interface.

Posted by: GrYph0n

I had the same experience with their Customer Care at an Apple Store. I've never jailbroken my phone, and not sure if I ever will. My issues was a connection port issue where my phone thought something was plugged in that wasn't supposed to be, even though nothing was plugged in. It would ring, but I wouldn't get any other notifications, or be able to play my "iPod" over the speakers. It was really weird, but determined to be a hardware failure. Within ten minutes I was walking out with a brand new iPhone. I too opted for the extended care for the very same reasons!