Mark, I'm glad you had a good experience with your replacement in the Apple Store. Ivy had good experiences too in the past at the Apple Store but asking a family member to drive me there about forty minutes away is a major inconvenience and very time consuming for getting a $30 replacement item. My point is that one should be able to get competent service over the phone when paying $130 for AppleCare Plus. As Richard suggested, I'll start with Apple Accessibility in the future because they've always been very helpful with other questions I've had in the past.
I'm sure I'll continue to purchase AppleCare plus when I buy a new iPhone for the reasons I mentioned in my original post but I wanted folks to be aware of my experience and see what others have experienced. Alan Lemly Sent from my iPhone > On May 5, 2018, at 1:28 PM, M. Taylor <mk...@ucla.edu> wrote: > > Hello Alan, > > Yesterday, I went into my local Apple store in order to get a new set of > EArpods as the microphone was starting to go bad on the ones that came with > my 8 Plus.. > > I went into the store, got on the waiting list for the Genius Barr, waited > about 10 minutes after which a tech came up and ask what I needed. I told > him I wanted to get a new set of Earpods because the current pair was going > bad. He located the serial number on my iPhone 8 Plus in order to confirm > that I have AppleCare Plus. He went and got me a new pair of Earpods and > that was all there was to it. The entire experience took about 15 minutes. > > Over the years, I have exchanged many sets of Earpods, when they go bad, > without encountering any difficulties with Apple. Of course, I always go > into my local stores. I have never attempted to exchange a pair via mail. > > To me, the AppleCare Plus is worth it, if for no other reason but that it > pays for all the replacement Earpods during the course of the warranty period. > > Mark > > From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of > Alan Lemly > Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2018 9:57 AM > To: VIPhone Email List > Subject: AppleCare Plus Still Worth It? What's Your Experience? > > Hi List, > > I've always been a major proponent of purchasing AppleCare Plus when buying a > new iPhone. My reasoning is that these devices are not inexpensive and since > they are constantly being carried around, the opportunity for accidents or > physical wear and tear is fairly substantial. I'm starting to have second > thoughts after my last two experiences filing a warranty claim under > AppleCare Plus. > > I've posted on this list about an issue I'm having with my wired Apple > earpods and thanks to comments on this list was able to confirm that the > microphone on those earpods was starting to fail. I initiated over the phone > an AppleCare claim to get a replacement pair of earpods earlier this morning. > This was the second such claim for replacement earpods because the pair I'm > having replaced now were a replacement in January, 2018. My understanding is > that you qualify for two such earpod replacements under AppleCare Plus. I > can't tell you how frustrating it was to get this claim filed. The initial > person I spoke with had difficulty distinguishing my wired earpods from the > very expensive Airpods and had to be corrected when she set up the claim > incorrectly. She asked me to turn off Find my iPhone which I'm pretty sure is > unnecessary when doing a warranty claim on a $30 retail item. She ended up > putting me on hold for about 10 minutes at which point I terminated the call > and started over. The next guy I spoke with was a bit better but ended up > transferring me to a Senior Advisor for some reason. When the Senior Advisor > came on, she started talking about my Airpods claim. By this point, I was > getting pretty frustrated and again explained that this was a DIY claim for a > pair of $30 wired Earpods under my AppleCare, not for wireless Airpods. She > then came back and said the claim required a $30 shipping charge. I told her > she was incorrect and that the item cost $30 at retail with no shipping if I > purchased it new from Apple Online. She again came back an said she couldn't > waive the $30 shipping charge. I must admit that I was losing my patience by > this point but went on in a somewhat louder voice that the way these DIY > claims had always worked in the past was that Appple would take my credit > card info, send the replacement item, provide me with a return shipping label > that I could use with their turnaround envelope, and then credit me back the > hold on my credit card when I returned the defective item. I strongly > emphasized that I wondered if paying $130 for AppleCare Plus was worth it if > I had to pull teeth to file a couple of warranty claims for a $30 item that > probably cost Apple no more than $18. Finally, she said she did something > different and the claim was now showing correctly that a hold would be placed > on my credit card and cancelled when I returned the defective item and that > no shipping charge would apply. She was not able to answer me when I asked > her what she had done differently. It almost sounded as if she had refreshed > her screen or some such thing. > > After spending at least 45 minutes on the phone getting this claim filed, I > thought I'd write here to find out what others have experienced with > AppleCare claims. I've had great success in the past but the last two I've > filed for defective wired earpods replacement have not gone well. I don't > know if this is a trend with the support reps who are fielding these calls > but I thought I should ask the group. I try very hard to communicate clearly > to avoid confusion and I'm pretty sure the problem is with the listening on > the other end as opposed to what I'm saying on my end. Are others having good > experiences when talking with AppleCare folks on the phone? Is there a better > way to initiate one of these claims perhaps by using the Apple Support app or > online with a computer and a web browser? > > Thanks for reading my rant and for any comments you can supply. > > Alan Lemly > -- > The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: > mk...@ucla.edu. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at > caraqu...@caraquinn.com > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VIPhone" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: > mk...@ucla.edu. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at > caraqu...@caraquinn.com > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VIPhone" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: mk...@ucla.edu. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
