8 replies to this topic

[ChriSOL]

So last week my girlfriend's iPhone 3gs did something new. She had just plugged it into the charger - the one that came with the phone when she purchased it - and plugged the charger into a wall outlet. My iPhone charger occupied the other socket. Within about 60 seconds, she noticed that the phone was getting extremely hot to the touch toward the bottom where the charger is. Then the burning smell started, so she immediately unplugged the phone. The end of the charger cable was actually hot enough to burn her skin and leave a scar where it touched her arm. When we looked at the port on the bottom of the phone, there were scorch marks on the contacts for the cable.

My phone was fine, we unplugged both cables and plugged them back in, then plugged her cable into my phone. It functioned perfectly. We plugged my cable into her phone and it said "this charging device is not supported." We tried some other cables we had from her old iPhone and our iPods, same thing. The issue was definitely related to her phone.

In the morning she called the local Apple store to make an appt. at the "genius bar." The guy on the phone listened to the issue, then said (in the most obnoxiously condescending douche voice possible) "Ma'am this could NOT be a problem with your phone but I guess if you want you can bring it in Friday and 4:30 and I will try to fit you in." Mind you, this was LAST TUESDAY so we know he is probably booked solid til then with people who have problems with their brand-new iPhone 4. Last night, on a whim, I decided to take her through all the troubleshooting steps they will go through and ask her if she did so they can send her away without resolving her problem.

I plugged the phone into my computer. Wasn't recognized by either device. I swapped cables, tried again, no dice. I tried unplugging it and plugging it back in a few times and for a split second it said "sync in progress" so I wiggled the cable and held it in at an odd angle and finally got it to sync up. I backed up all her data first, then I tried to restore it per Apple's troubleshooting docs. It would not maintain connection long enough to restore. I tried to update it to OS4, also no connection. My phone worked fine on the same cable in the same slot. I had a nagging idea in my head Apple would still try to f*** her over, so we registered her on their support site. It initially told us her hardware was no longer covered unless it was a "manufacturer's defect." Well, of course this is a defect! So I selected the exception and had a tech support rep call us.

She was polite but seemed like she knew nothing about what she was doing. Her first idea was for us to pay Apple $29.99 to cover the device, so we explained this is a manufacturer's defect and it should be covered for free. She had already heard the story once but we repeated it for emphasis that it was in fact the iPhone itself. She said, "Oh well it COULDN'T be the iPhone!" and suggested we restore it. I had just gotten done telling her that no computer would recognize that specific phone, so I asked her how she recommended we restore it. She read through her list of scripted responses, then told us to take it to an Apple store, but they "probably wouldn't be able to help us since it doesn't sound like the phone was the problem."

Now I KNOW that Apple told its support employees to DENY DENY DENY all responsibility for issues with their hardware, the memo was leaked and published all over the place recently. But this is just retarded. It's not even like we have an iPhone 4 and they can't afford to swap it for us... they have TONS of leftover 3gs's that nobody is going to buy. But still, we get screwed by their piss-poor customer service AGAIN.

So, I decided to make everyone aware of this issue in case they were wondering how Apple is treating their customers. I am no overzealous fanboy, I do happen to like my iPhone 3gs when it has service... It has provided the least number of headaches out of all the phones I have owned and tried recently. It's a grudging concession though, as I have had no small number of problems with their products before. But back then, when my 6th iPod died the same way as the other 5 before it, even a year out of the warranty, they would just send me a box to return it and a new iPod no questions asked.

I will update with results of our visit to the Apple store if I get to go with her.

[Hen(Tai)]

Thats Apple for ya

[Gibbs]

Mine works fine

[ChriSOL]

mine does too. this is why i think its odd that hers would malfunction out of the blue. someone got me a warranty coverage form so i am going to see about getting it replaced.

[Kyle]

I've had similar problems since I downloaded the new os. The website said it works for 3g as well, just no multitasking. Well ever since I did the upgraade it's been slow as fuck and plugging it in to the charger, i sometimes get the "not supported device" message or it has the unplug icon when the battery is dead when I plug it in. It's frustrating, and it won't let me downgrade back to my old shit. Oh, and two days after I did this, I woke up to find that my menu w/all the apps had changed and they were all rearranged. WTF!???!!

[Jacob]

thanks for the heads up on there customer service. I havent had to deal with them that way yet, but it's good to know that I'll be screwed.

-I had some random problems with my Powerbook at first but after I changed to 10.4 the went away. I've had this thing 5 years now and have dropped it from chest height 15 times... still works. Waiting for the next gen macbook Pro to come out.

-my iphone 3g was a bitch... 3gs gave me fewer problems. the new OS works pretty awesome... well, at least the camera takes faster/better pics now.

[Mo]

My G4 tower and my Macbook have gave me ZERO problems. My winblows machines have gave me problems up the ying yang Force close this, end task that, reformat this, fuck that.

[Joe]

my HTC Evo 4g works awesome.

[Kyle]

all of a sudden my phone function stopped working. I answered an incoming call like normal, then I tried to hang up and nothing. If I click on the phone button, it pulls it up to the screen where recents is and it's frozen. I can answer calls and that's it, but everything else is as it should be. WTF?!!!! Gonna have it looked at monday. Anyone had this happen before?