After having the phone for only about a week, the speaker on my Mom's iPhone went out on her. She couldn't hear any audio out of the bottom speaker, including when it was supposed to ring. Me and my Dad brought the phone up to the AT&T store to see if we could get some assistance there, but they informed us that we need to go to the Apple Store, which was about a 30 minute drive away in Germantown. They told us that they work on an appointment system, but if we let them know we need to swap the phones, then it wouldn't be a problem and would only be about a 10 to 15 minute process. We grabbed some lunch and made our way to Germantown to the Apple Store at Saddle Creek.
We arrive to a store buzzing with people at both the main counter and the Genius Bar. We spoke with a young lady at the main counter in the front of the store, explained our situation, and she told us that we would need an appointment. She did, however, tell us that we could be placed in "stand-by" in case someone didn't show up for their appointment. We asked about how long it would take to be waited on, and she informed us it would be somewhere around an hour. We agreed to be put on the stand-by list, and began our wait. Over an hour passed, and we were still patiently waiting. The genius at the Genius Bar did a quick roll call, and called out the next people in line. Everyone was there, including the 3 stand-by's in front of us. Me and my Dad both agreed that we couldn't stay and wait, and decided to leave. My Dad is a diabetic and can't just sit around and wait with no food or anything to drink.
On the way home, I called AT&T once again, and asked them if we couldn't just go into the store and swap the phones out instead of going through the whole Apple Store process, but they told me that the only way to swap the phones in the store is if my Mom upgraded her iPhone to a different model, which would be another $100. Of course, she's not going to do that, so we decide to make an appointment at the Apple Store.
We visit the Apple website and navigate to the Saddle Creek retail site, where appointments can be made. We input our information, and get to the screen where we are supposed to choose our appointment time. Instead, we see a screen that says that all reservations are booked, and to try again later.
All of this occurred on Saturday, July 11th. We tried that Sunday and that Monday, and the message still appeared when we tried to make an appointment. My mother called AT&T's main customer support line and spoke with an Apple Technical Support associate. They told her that it was no problem to swap the phones through the mail, and it would take 2 to 3 days. She agreed, and began the process of giving the information to get things started. We gave the service agent the serial number of the phone, and was then informed that there was a $29 service fee to swap the phones out. Basically, we have to pay them to swap a broken phone we've had for a week. Then, the associate told us that there was going to have to be a hold placed on a credit or debit card for the amount of the phone until the broken phone arrives at their hub. My Mom said that it wasn't a problem to hold $100, but the associate corrected us, saying that the hold was going to have to be for the full price of the phone, which is $499. My Mom declined immediately, saying that if for some reason the phone didn't arrive, her $100 phone would end up costing $600, and she will never pay that much for a phone. So we went back to the Apple website to check for an appointment, and they STILL didn't have any available appointments. We even tried calling the Apple store to set an appointment, but were informed that they do not take appointments over the phone.
The next day, we go to the AT&T store for one last try. We meet the associate that sold us the phone in the first place, who is a very nice person and was as helpful as he could be. We explain the situation, but he, too, says that there is nothing that the store itself can do with the phone unless she wants to turn it in on another brand phone. My Mom had to trade in her iPhone that she wanted so badly for another phone that she's not nearly as happy with, all because of a vicious catch 22 caused by Apple and AT&T.
The reason for this post is to ask the question, why? Why is it so hard to just swap a defective iPhone? Why do I have to drive 30 minutes one way to service a phone when the nearest AT&T store is right here in Bartlett? And most importantly, what can we do now? My Mom still wants her iPhone, but can't get it because of some insanely stupid agreement between Apple and AT&T. If they aren't careful, we'll take our 3 phone family plan elsewhere, iPhone or no iPhone.
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