It works just the same if you call the main Apple line. And, not all Apple Store employees are created equal. I went into an Apple store last February in order to exchange a pair of Earpods. Apple Care Plus on my phone had run out about 4 or 5 weeks prior. I told the guy that I lived in a small place about 800 miles away and this was my closest Apple Store and that we had to come there (Calgary in this case) because my wife had surgery at the big university hospital there) but he made no exception. I had also mentioned that these Airpods I had in fact purchased at retail because when I tried to exchange them on warranty before I was also denied warranty because the cable was visibly frayed where the two thin cables which go to each ear split up (the Y-junction) and the rep at the time told me they could only warranty Earpods which weren't working properly but were physically in good shape. Anyhow, I hadn't noticed the physical damage but accepted it and I bought a new set. But last February there was no visible damage at all and when I got back to my hotel where I had my laptop I looked up my receipt and I realized that I had bought the new pair the year before when we were also there for medical stuff. I went back to the Apple Store the next day which happened to be exactly one year from when I purchased them, I explained what had happened to another Apple Geneous and he apologised for the service I got the day before and refunded me for the purchase price of the EArpods I bought. He said that if you buy a set of Earpods that they do have a 1-year warranty so while my Apple Care Plus had expired, they should have been covered that way. For the record, I think often companies are too generous with their warranties. There is such a thing as wear and tear and consumers nowadays are trained to get mad and threaten to post negative reviews on social media and so on if they don't get their way. I run an outdoor clothing and equipment retail store and I deal with this all the time. Companies like North Face, Mountain Hardwear and so on offer a "Lifetime warranty". Then on the one hand you get people coming in like one girl who was a treeplanter and who had bought a pair of hiking pants. She went out on her first day of treeplanting which is a hard job, often in rough terrain and she had gotten her pants caught on a branch and ripped them. It was ripstop material, but there was a nice L-shaped tear in the leg which clearly was not even close to a seam or anything like that. She got totally mad when I told her that the lifetime warranty offered by North Face covered defects in material and workmenship but not user-caused damage. Then I get people who come in with a 10 or 15-year old tent where the zipper needs to be replaced. This should not be covered under warranty after such a long time since a zipper clearly is an item which will eventually fail because of wear and just like anything else like that it should be up to the consumer to have it replaced. I guess one can argue whether a frayed headset cable after less than one year is "reasonable wear and tear" but all in all I have no problem buying something which I know I used hard and that it simply wore out. I use my headset every single day, I roll it up and stick it in my pocket, I sometimes drop my phone with the headset connected and it catches on the cable, I often catch the cable on something and it tears out of the 3.5mm jack so if it breaks after a few months or if there isn't any visible damage I think it should be covered, but if it's a year or more old and it starts falling apart because I wrecked it then I just buy a new one.
Regards, Sieghard -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of M. Taylor Sent: Saturday, May 5, 2018 11:28 AM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: AppleCare Plus Still Worth It? What's Your Experience? 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.
