Last week marked the 1 year anniversary of the release of the Apple iPhone. Unfortunately, fate caused my wife to mark the occasion by accidentally dropping her iPhone into some water.  Yikes! 

Typically, they say to remove the battery immediately when you get a phone wet.  The iPhone battery is not removable, so that wasn't possible.  And suddenly the screen went white.  I managed to turn the phone off, or, at least, to blank the screen, so I put the phone under a fan overnight to dry.

The next morning I turned on the phone and got the icon saying the phone was in recovery mode.  I plugged it into her computer and proceeded to reload her backup on to the phone.  It looked for the moment like it would be a full working restore - and there was much rejoicing.  But then I tried to use the menu button to return to the main iPhone screen from the calendar application.  Nothing.  Apparently the menu button was no longer working.

We made an appointment at the West Des Moines Apple store to see one of their techs that morning.  When we got there, they told us that they could replace the phone for $200, where they would just give us a refurbished phone and swap SIM cards.  With the new iPhones coming out in less than two weeks, we asked if we could think about it, and they said sure.

I started researching the new iPhones.  The biggest downside that I could find to one of the new iPhones was that they required the update to the 3G data plan.  This data plan is $30 per month, where our current iPhone data plan is $20 per month.  Why the difference?  Because 3G is faster.  Or at least it would be, if it were available anywhere in our state.  But if you get the new phone, you have to get the data plan.  Oh, and with the 3G data plan, text messages are no longer included, so it would be at least $5 more per month to add a base 200 text message plan (which is currently included with the $20 old iPhone plan). 

So basically we were looking at $15 more per month for no new features.  Oh, I guess there is GPS that can't be used for turn guidance.  Woo.

But I thought, 16GB of size would be ok, but I really didn't want a 3G phone because of the unnecessary extra costs.  Now you're probably thinking, oh, it's just another $15 per month, what's the big deal?  But consider that we are already on a 2100 minute family plan with two old iPhones, so we are already paying $150 per month before fees and taxes.  Anyway, I wondered if it would be possible to do the replace/repair on her phone and upgrade to the 16GB old phone in the process for an additional fee.  Monday this week I was in Des Moines for work, so I stopped by the Apple store to ask them, but they said that wasn't possible due to warranty reasons.  Ok, but I can bring my wife's phone up that was dropped in water and still replace it with the old model for $200? Yup.

Kim and I decided we'd better go up to the Apple store this evening so we could replace her phone, figuring it would be easier to do so before the (presumed) crowds of the 3G (speed not available here) iPhone launch.  We go to the support counter, and get the same guy I talked to Monday this week.

"How can I help you?" he asks.

"We were here eariler this week.  My wife dropped her phone in water accidentally, so we need to get it replaced."

"Oh, I'm sorry.  We are no longer able to replace water damaged phones.  With the new phones coming out, we could not recoup our investment in the repair," he says.

Jaws hit the ground.

"What?"

"If it was broken some other way, like if you had dropped it and cracked the screen, we could replace it.  But not if it was in water."

"But," I told him, "I was just in here a few days ago and was told you could replace it."

"Who told you that?" he asked.

"It was YOU!" I said.

"Sorry, but we just found this out on Friday."

"But I was here on Monday.  That was AFTER Friday."

"I'm sorry, but you can get one of the new phones."

"The ones that cost extra per month for a service we can't get here?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

My wife is a Realtor, and at this point was getting really upset.  She had been patiently working around not being able to switch tasks on her phone for nearly two weeks, and now they were saying they wouldn't replace it (at our cost none the less) after all.  I asked to talk to the manager.

The manager came over and asked us how he could help.  I explained the situation, and he said he would be back in a moment, he needed to find out some more info.  I pointed out who we had talked to on the prior visits, and even told him the days and times if he wanted to verify our appointments with their support desk.  He went to the back room, and we waited.

"I'm sorry," he said upon his return, "but I've talked with our Geniuses (what they call their support people) and what they told you was correct *when they said it*.  But we've since been told that we can't replace phones that are water damaged any longer."

"And when were you told this?" I asked.

"On Friday."

"But I was here on Monday the 7th!  That was AFTER Friday.  And I was told you could replace it.  What they told me was NOT right at the time, according to you, you were told 4 days prior that you couldn't do it."

"I'm sorry, but there is nothing I can do.  You can always by the new phone tomorrow."

"At the higher monthly price for a service we can't use?"

"Yes."

So we learned a couple lessons from this:

Lesson 1.  Apple apparently cares nothing for customer service. 

I shouldn't be surprised to learn this given the fact that a friend of mine had three MacBook Airs fail on him in a row and they did nothing to fix the situation.  Oh and they told him a month earlier that the 30" screen he bought two years ago with a screen problem - a problem he reported right after he go it two years prior was having an issue and they said was due to a firmware issue on his laptop - was actually broken and now that he was out of warranty he would have to pay to fix it.

Lesson 2.  If you are going to trip with your iPhone, make sure it lands on cement and breaks instead of it getting wet, because apparently they will fix/replace it if it's broken but not if it has water damage.

So in the end we will most likely buy the new phone and pay the extra monthly fee for the service we don't have here.  We've got to have a working phone.  Oh well.  It does make me think twice about Apple products in the future though.