That Phone
The last word on Matt’s, now Diane’s, iPhone.
After sitting in the snow and slush for two months the only noticeable problem was a quirky keypad. The numbers 4, 5, and 6, when tapped, would register the numbers above or below, unless you hit the center of the desired number and held your finger to the screen. After awhile even that didn’t work. This morning I made an appointment with a genius at the Apple Store in Pelham, N.H., and at 3:40 PM I was greeted by a young woman with straight black hair and a black t-shirt that read, “not all heros wear capes.†I looked at her and thought not all geniuses have hair like Phyllis Diller.
Kristen promptly pulled out an otoscope, one of those things you look into ears with, and peered down the hole I plug my ear bud jack into. She looked up and wagged her forefinger side to side and said, â€Has this phone been wet?†Before I could lie and say, “No, I removed it from it’s original box yesterday,†she said, “Because if it has that voids the warranty, and the little red strip inside this hole suggests it has. Would you like to look?â€
They ARE quick! Maybe the first two people to try that got away with it, but no more … So once the beet red color faded from your face (or have you learned to suppress even that normally autonomic reflex … ?), did you discuss whether anything could be done?
Comment by el Kib — April 29, 2008 @ 6:20 pm
When I was about 12, I had my first pair of Levis. They were guaranteed very thoroughly against (against?) rips or tears, no matter what.
After I had worn them once or twice, I was trying to reach a venetian blind cord at school which was just out of reach; I jumped up to catch hold and mangaged to do so on the second or third try. The only problem was, as I leapt, I had rubbed against a bookcase which had a nail sticking out. (Thank goodness for the Levis; I was protected from a nasty gash on my upper thigh.) The nail caught on the jeans, and ripped them neatly, right through.
So I took them back to the Army-Navy store and waited patiently for a replacement pair. The woman asked me all these questions — had I spilled acid on them, had I … ? (I can’t remember what else she asked, but the interrogation lasted a while.) I didn’t really understand why; they were guaranteed, right? Finally, after she seemed about to give in, she asked, “What DID you do?”
Well, apparently the guarantee didn’t apply to jumping up and down while rubbing against a nail. Thirty-seven years later, I’m still angry.
Comment by jennifer — April 29, 2008 @ 8:46 pm
Kristen told me I could : Send the phone to an internet related repair site which would void the warranty which had already been voided; dial numbers using the contact list which is what she’d do; buy a new phone for $250.00.
I told her we’d keep the phone as is, and then I confessed that it’d been out in the weather for two months.
Comment by michael — April 29, 2008 @ 9:15 pm
I thought the squirrels kept it well protected in the tree trunk for those weeks!
Comment by Peggy — April 29, 2008 @ 9:32 pm
Michael broke the screen on his video ipod. We knew we couldn’t return it as it was his fault (the Rad gene of breaking screens…please) so we did what you said to do above…sent it off to have the screen fixed, for a nominal amount. When we got it back with it’s brand new screen, it still didn’t work when he put the head phones in. Brought it to the Apple store and within minutes he had a brand new ipod.
Comment by La Rad — April 30, 2008 @ 7:46 pm
Still no confessor on who returned it. Must have been a visitor.
Comment by Jen — May 1, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
Jennifer’s story about her Levis reminds me of the years when Sears guaranteed their shoes, “No Matter What”. Except they really meant it. For years my dad bought shoes for me there, with a 6-month, rock-solid guarantee. This was when I was growing fast, maybe 6 years old, or so, and my feet grew about a size a year. I’d wear the shoes day-in and day-out, and after 5 months, they’d be tattered and worn, with big holes in the soles, knotted laces, missing tongues, etc. And my very pleased Dad would take me back to Sears to get a new pair of brand-new shoes, absolutely free! This free-shoe caper went on for a few years until either Sears withdrew the guarantee, or I outgrew their style (can’t remember which).
Comment by rakkity — May 1, 2008 @ 3:35 pm