First encounter with the Genius Bar - Result

Associate
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Thought I'd share my positive experience at the Apple Genius Bar - Arndale Centre Manchester. It's the first time I've ever visited an apple store with a problem and overall it was a great experience.

8 month old Iphone 3g 16gb developed a crack running from the dock port straight up around 3 cm. Seemed to be getting worse even though it was in a case so decided to take it to Apple to see what they could do.

Very friendly staff and after giving it the full bright light inspection noted that the dock connector water sensor had gone pink! My first thought was "I'm shafted" or words to that effect. Odd the sensor had stained though especially as it had never been in water. Anyway the guy said he'd check inside to see what the internal ones are showing and came back a few minutes later saying they were fine.

"How does a new iphone sound?"

Turned out to be a brand new one as well and according to the serial number it was manufactured in January 2010 with 12 months fresh warranty. Can't be bad.

Just a heads up really about the excellent service and hats off to Apple. If you do have a problem give them a chance to sort it, you might be surprised. :)
 
Soldato
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That's not fair, exactly the same situation with my phone but I took
it to Regents Street and they refused to replace it because the indicators in the dock connector and headphone socket had changed colour even though i'd never got it wet :(
 
Caporegime
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That's not fair, exactly the same situation with my phone but I took
it to Regents Street and they refused to replace it because the indicators in the dock connector and headphone socket had changed colour even though i'd never got it wet :(

What about steam from being next to a shower, or kettle or something? Or just in a humid room, like a bathroom shortly after bath has run?
 
Associate
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The staff at the Arndale branch are fantastic :)

Did they give you a new 3g 16gb? I thought that wasn't made anymore?

Yeah I couldn't fault them either. Even though the place was rammed they still found a stool and were only a couple of minutes late on the appointment time. They even kept my 2 year old entertained, which is a skill in itself.

About it not being made anymore, neither did I, but 880010C**** serial number gives Jan 2010 on the http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html website and on apple it has warranty until March 2011. I don't know if they put refurbs on new serial numbers but I'm happy with it.

@justin - Try again another day or another Apple Store. I just kept it simple and said I've never got it wet and looked confused which seems to come naturally to me. ;) As I said, they took it in the back and opened it up to check the motherboard ones, you could ask them to do that.
 
Soldato
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manufactured in January 2010 with 12 months fresh warranty. Can't be bad.

I would check your warranty as they don't extend them, they go from the purchase of first iphone i thought?

Edit, ignore i just saw the above post. Wierd that as my warranty didn't get extended!
 
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Soldato
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My 3G has the same crack. Never thought about following it up.

Do it.
I took mine to the Regent Street store 2 weeks ago, they said it was 50 days out of warranty but gave me a brand new one anyway :D

Apple really are one of the best for customer care, right up there with Logitech in my opinion.
 
Associate
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lol update on the warranty. On the service check it's now changed to the original expiry of June of this year. This is what I had left on the previous phone.

Oh well :)
 
Soldato
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That's not fair, exactly the same situation with my phone but I took
it to Regents Street and they refused to replace it because the indicators in the dock connector and headphone socket had changed colour even though i'd never got it wet :(

Take it in with an appointment to the iPod bar....

I have to agree Logitech are supprisingly good, they replaces a speaker from my 5500 speaker system because I undid a screw and it wouldn't go back together.
 
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Commissario
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The staff in the Regent street store are generally not as good, probably because it's so much busier. I've had fantastic results from Southampton and Brighton :)
 
Associate
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There's a manager at Bluewater, red hair, he was bang on when I went in there with an issue.

Dealt with that exact guy earlier; bought a 21.5" iMac today and had to return it due to the yellow screen issue. They swapped it for another one, no questions asked, and even looked for one of the week 40-49 batch for me so I'm now a very happy bunny.

EDIT: Scratch that, this one appears to have the yellow tinge too. /Sigh.
 
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Associate
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Dealt with that exact guy earlier; bought a 21.5" iMac today and had to return it due to the yellow screen issue. They swapped it for another one, no questions asked, and even looked for one of the week 40-49 batch for me so I'm now a very happy bunny.

EDIT: Scratch that, this one appears to have the yellow tinge too. /Sigh.

Unlucky!

Guess you'll be taking this one back aswell?
 
Associate
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Unlucky!

Guess you'll be taking this one back aswell?

Small update; I took the previous one back and they swapped it for the next model up (the 21.5", 4670 model) and said if there were any problems I could get a refund.

Well, this one has the yellow tinge too. That's three iMacs in less than three days, all with the yellow tinge!

I'm going to see if I can get a refund now, which is a shame as they are amazing machines but this issue makes it unusable for me. :(
 
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