Two failed iPhone 7's - disappointed with Apple's quality nowadays

Man of Honour
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
29,508
Location
Surrey
My daughter's iPhone 7 Plus failed after four months (faulty buttons). It was replaced by Apple last week and this one has completely failed in a week. It won't even turn on. What on earth has happened to their build quality?

Yes this is just a rant but my daughter is going to two concerts this week and won't have a phone to record it with.

EDIT: Their online customer support was a joke too. After explaining it won't turn on I was asked to check what version of iOS it was running. How exactly could I do that? Was she listening or just reading from a script (I know it's the latter). Then when trying to book an appointment with an alleged genius (hah no chance!) she couldn't find the store and I had to google the postcode for her. Utter rubbish.

EDIT 2: Yep it seems their failure rate is quite high :(
https://dazeinfo.com/2017/05/22/failure-rate-iphone-7-iphone-7-plus-apple/
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
14 Oct 2009
Posts
9,537
Location
UK
Seems a bit odd for one to die within a week, maybe you need to question what it might have been through?

I have to say that Apple support has been awesome for me, plenty of issues over the past few months (helping various family members) and everytime its sorted within one live chat. Haven't had to go to a genius appointment but my understanding from hearing stories is that they are very good. You may have got unlucky with the person you had on support.
 
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
29,508
Location
Surrey
Seems a bit odd for one to die within a week, maybe you need to question what it might have been through?

I have to say that Apple support has been awesome for me, plenty of issues over the past few months (helping various family members) and everytime its sorted within one live chat. Haven't had to go to a genius appointment but my understanding from hearing stories is that they are very good. You may have got unlucky with the person you had on support.
The iPhone that died in a week was used once. That was to carry it home from the Apple store to our house. It was then placed on the side and not used until we bought a new screen protector for it. This was in the presence of my wife and I. The screen protector arrived and we realised the battery was now flat. We charged it and it just continually boot loops.

It was used literally once and then failed. If it was mistreated then it was done so by Apple.
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Jun 2008
Posts
8,328
My daughter's iPhone 7 Plus failed after four months (faulty buttons). It was replaced by Apple last week and this one has completely failed in a week. It won't even turn on. What on earth has happened to their build quality?

Yes this is just a rant but my daughter is going to two concerts this week and won't have a phone to record it with.

EDIT: Their online customer support was a joke too. After explaining it won't turn on I was asked to check what version of iOS it was running. How exactly could I do that? Was she listening or just reading from a script (I know it's the latter). Then when trying to book an appointment with an alleged genius (hah no chance!) she couldn't find the store and I had to google the postcode for her. Utter rubbish.

EDIT 2: Yep it seems their failure rate is quite high :(
https://dazeinfo.com/2017/05/22/failure-rate-iphone-7-iphone-7-plus-apple/
The spike in failures in 2017 over 16 is probably due to the iOS 11 “greyed out speaker” issue.
 
Associate
Joined
18 Dec 2007
Posts
484
Location
Hertford
The spike in failures in 2017 over 16 is probably due to the iOS 11 “greyed out speaker” issue.

Indeed - Had my misses phone replaced for this yesterday.
I knew I was getting somewhere when the guy kept popping out the back to run "tests" on the phone he left with us.
Last time we raised this a couple of months ago the guy stayed with us the whole time showing us the ipad tests

My theory is apple know the builds or serials of the ones that will have this issue and he was just getting the replacement ready without wanting to make it seem like a known issue.
Or I was just reading to much into it lol
 
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
29,508
Location
Surrey
Boot loop = audio ic failure.

It's an epidemic
Thanks. I went to the Apple store who confirmed it was a mainboard failure. I explained that I'd lost confidence in the iPhone 7 due to repeated failures in such a short space of time. The only option they could offer was another replacement which I could then trade in (at a massive financial loss to myself) if I wanted a different model. So I went back to John Lewis where I originally bought it and rejected the phone as not fit for purpose. They need to get their own report performed to confirm it is indeed faulty. But on the assumption it comes back confirming what Apple have already confirmed then I expect to get my money back.
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Jun 2008
Posts
8,328
Your looking into it a bit too much.
There’s a very specific selection of options the technician needs to select and a specific support number to quote in the system to allow the swap, they were probably getting the info they need from someone else/ more experienced
Indeed - Had my misses phone replaced for this yesterday.
I knew I was getting somewhere when the guy kept popping out the back to run "tests" on the phone he left with us.
Last time we raised this a couple of months ago the guy stayed with us the whole time showing us the ipad tests

My theory is apple know the builds or serials of the ones that will have this issue and he was just getting the replacement ready without wanting to make it seem like a known issue.
Or I was just reading to much into it lol
 
Sgarrista
Commissario
Joined
9 Aug 2013
Posts
10,421
Location
Bromsgrove
Yes this is just a rant but my daughter is going to two concerts this week and won't have a phone to record it with.


Good. Maybe then she can go and enjoy the music rather than take some crappy ear-murdering **** phone recorded videos of it and spend half the concert looking at her phone to make sure its in focus.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,055
Soldato
Joined
20 Mar 2007
Posts
5,413
Seems a bit odd for one to die within a week, maybe you need to question what it might have been through?

I have to say that Apple support has been awesome for me, plenty of issues over the past few months (helping various family members) and everytime its sorted within one live chat. Haven't had to go to a genius appointment but my understanding from hearing stories is that they are very good. You may have got unlucky with the person you had on support.

The question must surely be though - why are they/you having issues when Apple sell their brand on 'quality' and everything 'just works'?
 
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
29,508
Location
Surrey
Sigh... My wife's iPhone 6 Plus also broke this morning with the headphones jack problem (it thinks something is permanently plugged in - there is nothing stuck in the jack). So in the last few months that's two iPhone 7's and a 6 that have failed on us. I know people will question how my family are treating them but they are really well looked after, in cases and never mistreated.

Even my wife this morning, who would previously only buy iPhones, said to me "Apple are crap now". I think that's perhaps anger talking and to be fair her iPhone 6 is a few years old. So I guess every phone has to break sometime. But as it's happened so close to two iPhone 7's failing it's left a bad taste.
 
Back
Top Bottom