A couple of years ago my Nokia N93 took some damage to one of the microphones, after a visit to my local Nokia Service Center I patiently waited for my beloved N93 to return to all shiny and new. I waited, I waited some more, phoned the service centre and was told to wait a bit longer. Eventually, after a mere 3 months, my phone was returned to me. Imagine my anger to discover that there was no improvement, the microphone was still obviously broken. After a 20 minute chat with a manager and another 4 days wait the phone was replaced.
After such a bad experience I was not looking forward to my trip to the Apple Store yesterday. With 2 broken iPhones in hand I approached the Genius Bar of the Southampton store.
Here’s how things went…
Me: I need to replace 2 iPhones, 1 first gen and 1 3G.
Genius: Do you have an appointment sir?
Me: Erm, no. I had no idea that I would need one.
Genius: Let me see if I can book you in today… No appointments left today, sorry.
Me: I’ve just traveled over an hour to get here! Surely someone can help me?
Genius: I’m about to start my last appointment of the day, let me see if I can get someone else to help you sir.
Within 35 minutes, another Apple Genius appeared, gave the iPhones a quick once over (peering down the headphone jack with an endoscope! What’s all that about?), agreed to replace both phones, activated them and thanked me for my patience. As you can see there is quite a difference in the level of customer service between each phone vendor. Thankfully, for iPhone users, Apple is first class in this regard.
If you have a faulty iPhone or even, like me, a 3G with a slight blemish on the casing and an odd mark on the screen, do not hesitate to visit your local Apple Genius Bar, you wont regret it. Just remember to back up your iPhone first!