MacLochlainns Weblog

What happens when your 16 year old doesn’t know he has a hole in his pocket, the iPhone slips down his pant leg unnoticed, and he runs over the device with a snowblower. It’s called instant shredded iPhone. You think that’s bad news but that’s why I purchased AppleCare for the device.

Then, you call Apple and discover that unless they can find and read the IMEI number from a chip, there is no warrantee coverage. That tells me AppleCare is worthless against EXTREME damage. It’s only of value when you drop it and break something while the unit remains more or less intact, or you have one of the growing number of iPhone’s with manufacturing defects that you can’t catch within the first year of ownership.

After three calls to Apple, the “senior” technical analyst said you can bring it into the local Apple Store. At that point, I asked, “Did you fail to hear that I live over 250 miles away from the nearest Apple Store?” The analyst said, “Yes, I didn’t hear that.” It was obvious that the situation didn’t fit inside the box that let them close the issue and move on with positive outcome on their staff metrics.

What Apple would like is: The customer pays $99 to replace the phone while they evaluate the pieces to see if they can find an IMEI number. They probably have that policy to avoid fraud on broken iPhones. If they can’t find an IMEI number though, they get to charge full price for the replacement iPhone. I opted for an alternative: they send me a box, I enclose the pieces for evaluation before pay $99 for a replacement iPhone, assuming they can verify from what’s left its was once an iPhone. This way, I can avoid getting soaked for the retail price when my plans support a less expensive upgrade of the now defunct device.

Ultimately, the likelihood of any value from AppleCare appeared to only occur when you break it without destroying it. However, I was wrong because Apple replaced the iPhone. 🙂

Life’s interesting, and thankfully AT&T is no longer the sole provider of the iPhone. On December 21st, 2010, I replaced my iPhone 3G with a LG Optimus S using Sprint. It was adequate, and far cheaper than what AT&T was charging me. It also had 3G service because AT&T didn’t provide coverage in Rexburg, Idaho.

The iPhone is now on Sprint, and I switched to the iPhone 4S. When I went and got it, I thought it strange that there wasn’t an order option for AppleCare+. No one mentioned that AppleCare+ was now the ticket, and that it’s the responsibility of the vendors to advise you at the time of purchase. They didn’t advise me! Is it possible that they don’t want to advise you because AppleCare+ provides for two repairs for accidental damage at $49 per service opportunity and covers any part that might fail earlier through normal use. Who wouldn’t opt to protect the iPhone from both a faulty part or grip for $99 over 2 years?

A rumor or rumbling that may have its origin in Apple Support is that AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon aren’t telling customers at the time of sale. Customers must then take their iPhone to an Apple Store, not an authorized reseller, have their phone inspected before they can get AppleCare+ after sale. That is if you do it within 30 days of the purchase with proof of purchase and a Genius Bar appointment.

Alert to potential buyers, demand AppleCare+ before you get your iPhone! Let your friends know because this may be more than a baseless rumor. That is, unless you like inordinate risks. Those in that category should watch this unfortunate Assuie bungee jumper go swimming with the crocodiles. At least the crocodiles didn’t get her below Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, which is a miracle in itself.

The downside was that I’d have to go to Salt Lake City for the coverage, the upside is I have an iPhone again. The upside outweighs the downside, but like Shylock in the Merchant of Venice I’d like to get my metaphoric pound of corporate flesh. When I posed the question to the Sprint kiosk, “Is it possible that the vendors have some financial interest in folks not purchasing AppleCare+?” 😉 That question asked; and, miraculously, Sprint said it was their error and they’d fix it – add AppleCare+. Apple support emailed me to confirm that AppleCare+ is now enforce on my new iPhone. That proves the squeaky wheel does get oiled.

I strongly recommend you don’t waste your money on anything less than an Otterbox Defender Series Hybrid Case & Holster for iPhone 4 & 4S.The video below explains why.

The only problem I’ve found is the hip case because it’s hard plastic and breaks. Fortunately, you can buy just the OtterBox iPhone 4S Defender Case Replacement Belt Clip Holster through Amazon.com for less than $8 at the time of updating this blog post.

The distorted video problems introduced by NVIDIA on MacBook Pro is old news because it affected early 2008 machines. Alas, those intermittent little gray lines at the bottom of my MacBook Pro early 2008 model now transcend my screen 4 out of 5 boot cycles, as shown below:

The screen shot from the MacBook Pro shows the image is fine when emailed to another machine. As Pooh Bear (my daughter’s favorite) would say, “Oh, bother …”

Now I’m urgently moving all files over to other media. That includes conference presentations, code, and several VMs.

While waiting on the USB transfers, I checked out what it might run to fix it and ran into this Apple Support page. It basically says my inaction at the annoyance during my AppleCare period, which just lapsed in July, won’t make it my problem. That’s because I’m within the extended 4 year window from date of purchase.

Living in Eastern Idaho has a number of perks, like the environment and community. It does have some downsides, like a 250 miles drive to the nearest Apple Store.
It looks like I’ll be making a little drive to Salt Lake City next week.

Actually got this fixed at the University’s help desk. Apple sent the exact same logic board that it had previously, and guess what the bars are hemming me in now intermittently. Ouch!

A little more research and it appears that this may be related to the Black Vertical Lines on MacBook Pro 15″ Display and from MacRumor’s archive. It’s odd there’s no recall on the monitor. Maybe that’s because Apple would pay for it, and NVIDIA paid for the other?

As with every purchase in technology, there’s an upside and downside. Clearly, the failure drove me to opt for the less expensive 13″ MacBook Pro upgrade with a 2.8 GHz CPU, 8 GB of memory, and 750 MB harddisk. I’ll probably avoid ever purchasing the leading, and pricier, Apple technology again.