Interestingly enough, I dropped my iPhone 4 two feet onto a HARD surface. The backplate shattered.
Virgin Mobile stonewalled me the whole time, told me to take to to Apple. There being an Apple store in the same mall as the Virgin kiosk, I did.
The Genius at the Apple store listened carefully to my complaint, took my phone off to consult with some folks in the back room, and came back with a brand-new one. Told me that it shouldn't have happened and here's a replacement, but be more careful because they're not gonna replace it like that again.
Now, I found out later that replacing the backplate is hella-cheap ($15 delivered from cnn.cn for example), but the fact that Apple would just straight-up listen to me, believe me, and replace the phone in-store like that?
I'm not a Mac fanboy (I'm the only Windows user in a Mac office), but I'm an Apple fanboy, and this is why.
>Virgin Mobile stonewalled me the whole time, told me to take to to Apple.
That's because the physical phone is between you and the manufacturer. That includes the warranty, unless you purchased special insurance through Virgin. I wouldn't expect the carrier to provide you with a new phone. This is all in your contract.
That said, I think the expectation and problems like yours are rampant enough that most carriers are in fact offering some kind of "no hassle replacement" insurance for the handset. As the front line in the cell phone business, the carriers hear it from the customers in cases like these.
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Interestingly enough, I dropped my iPhone 4 two feet onto a HARD surface. The backplate shattered.
Virgin Mobile stonewalled me the whole time, told me to take to to Apple. There being an Apple store in the same mall as the Virgin kiosk, I did.
The Genius at the Apple store listened carefully to my complaint, took my phone off to consult with some folks in the back room, and came back with a brand-new one. Told me that it shouldn't have happened and here's a replacement, but be more careful because they're not gonna replace it like that again.
Now, I found out later that replacing the backplate is hella-cheap ($15 delivered from cnn.cn for example), but the fact that Apple would just straight-up listen to me, believe me, and replace the phone in-store like that?
I'm not a Mac fanboy (I'm the only Windows user in a Mac office), but I'm an Apple fanboy, and this is why.
>Virgin Mobile stonewalled me the whole time, told me to take to to Apple.
That's because the physical phone is between you and the manufacturer. That includes the warranty, unless you purchased special insurance through Virgin. I wouldn't expect the carrier to provide you with a new phone. This is all in your contract.
That said, I think the expectation and problems like yours are rampant enough that most carriers are in fact offering some kind of "no hassle replacement" insurance for the handset. As the front line in the cell phone business, the carriers hear it from the customers in cases like these.