iPhone 3G S has yellowish tint

We went into the Santa Monica Apple store today with one of these defective 3GS phones with the yellowish screen, and the Apple Store absolutely would not help us. Even though Apple's website referred us to the store after verifying the serial number of the phone, once in the store the genius said because the phone was purchased on-line by AT&T, we would have to call AT&T by phone, it could not be returned in any physical store. In addition he looked at only the front icon screen (with the black background) of the phone and said it looked fine to him.

When you call AT&T by phone and enter your phone number, it automatically transfers you back to Apple.

At this point I really don't care what excatly the issue is. I just want one with a normal screen!

I am on my 3rd replacement and all of the replacement units I've looked at in the store are the same...

I am flabbergasted that people are getting ones without it while I've had 3 in a row...15-20 if you count all the comparisons in the store...some were better then others...

developer99 wrote:
We took the iphone with the dark screen and yellowish tint today into the Apple Store in Santa Monica. Even though this phone looks really bad (we've compared it with a 3G, 3GS, and every phone in the Santa Monica store), he claimed that it looked fine to him and was well within Apple's specifications.

The "genius" then said that the Apple Store WILL NOT EXCHANGE ANY PHONE PURCHASED BY AT&T, NOR WILL THEY EXCHANGE ANY PHONE PURCHASED ON-LINE BY APPLE. He also said that you don't take it into an AT&T store, you exchange it by phone. If you purchased it on-line with AT&T you must call AT&T; if you purchased it on-line with Apple, you must call Apple.

Yet, when you call AT&T support, and put in your phone number, it automatically transfers you back to Apple.

The part of AT&T's website that explains exchange refers you to the Apple website, and Apple's website verifies the serial number of the phone, and tells you to take it into an Apple store for exchange!!

So what is going on here?

It's called "passing the buck" when something has gone wrong.

I suppose the lesson to be learnt here is never to buy anything or sign up to anything without first seeing and examining what your buying. If you have any consumer rights organizations where you live I would be very tempted to seek their advice as to where you stand legally with getting some sort of redress to this problem.

Talk to the manager. Go online and write apple feedback (find the link) and tell them how you feel. Believe it or not, Apple does care and has great customer service. That is a management function. Genius staff are technical geeks (not trying to offend people) who have NO customer service skills, let alone people skills. They are gen y folk who grew up having interaction with people on a screen not face to face. I had two run ins with geniuses over this phone and I took it up with management who helped me.

Shaun, I too have replaced this phone two times already. I still have the problem. Monday I will call Apple again and see what we can do. I'm tired of going to the store only to leave with the same problem I walked in with.

Secret,

Thanks for the feedback. I have opened a case and may call apple today. I also wrote to a contact I know for some advice/assistance. Please keep in touch and let me know how you make out. I will do the same. It is completely unacceptable, but so far everyone has been willing to help, they just keep getting units in with the same issues.

Purchased the 3Gs at Apple Retail Store to replace my 3G on the Friday Morning 26th (Launch day in Australia), activated in store, had been lined up since 6am so tiredness and launch day mayhem prevented a thorough check of any screen issues. Did notice colours looking a little washed out, text blurry with screen kind of brownish, yellowey with less contrast compared to 3G. At time thought it might have something to do with the default brightness setting.

Upon further inspection and comparison to current 3G discovered the only way to reduce the yellowing effect was to set max brightness (obviously not practical).

Discovering this thread prompted a Genius appointment (no sarchasm intended). Genius confirmed issue, and agreed to replace. When comparing my 3Gs to his, genius mentioned that he also had to cherry pick to get a non yellow display, but ended up with a slight scuff mark in the chrome bezel instead, but still better than the a yellow tinged display.

Genius then palmed me off to an activation specialist with replacement phone. After activation had a quick play, and adjusted setting to 2/5 brightness. Yellow tinge still there but to lesser extent, but contrast marginally better and colours not as washed out. However tinge still present, and instead of an overall brownish/yellow tinge now have the bottom end of display with tinge.

Raised the issue with the Genius MC, who attempted to make various excuses along the lines of: new model display is meant to be warmer, you just need to adjust brigtness above midway.

But comparing his model showed a pristine white similar to my previous 3G display. He said that I would need to re-schedule another appointment, and even suggested going to another Apple store, plus they no longer had any 32Gb models in stock, but got the feeling he just wanted me to go away.

Now have another appointment 3 days away, and specifically requested morning to hopefully get around the no stock issue.

This is terrible, surely Apple are aware of this issue, how many attempts do people require to get a decent display. Am now considering demanding refund if subsequent model has same issue.

Wow what a let down!!!

After following this thread for a week or so, I have seen a few people say they were able to return their iPhone and get a replacement with a "perfect" screen, however, I have yet to see a comparison with a 3G iPhone and the 3GS iPhone (good blueish tint screen) side by side. I am wondering if they even exist outside the display models. Anyone?

This does seem to be widespread. I'm sorry to hear that you have the same problem.

The colours on my 3Gs seem to be truer then my 2G but the 2G display seems to show more detail.

I am afraid to exchange my iPhone and maybe get one with other problems.

Set an appointment to have my phone replaced for a second time and the Apple Store told me that they can only replace the phone one time for this issue. I had called Apple Care and they told me that a one time only replacement was not correct. I am not going to be unable to replace a second time in the store. Maybe this is different if you call in. I did call a different Apple Store and was told this is a one time only replacement. If you have had success replacing more than one time, please share how this was possible.

I feel your pain on that one. I picked up a 3GS on launch day. Took it home and it had horrible signal. Took it back to AT&T and they said I need to head over to Apple to get it replaced. I go over to the Apple store after making an appointment and they look it over after giving me crap for taking out the sim before they can do their testing. They test it and ask me whats wrong. I tell them the signal is not correct. The "genius" tells me he is getting full bars. I said of course you are, this is an Apple store, just like the AT&T store has full bars. He rolls his eyes and gets me a replacement. He asks for my receipt and I gave him my AT&T one. That pretty much put the brakes on everything. He said I need to take it back to AT&T to get it replaced and that Apple does not replace them. I told him AT&T said to come here and they do not replace them you do.

I go back to AT&T the next day and argue with them over the issue. They are basically telling me there is nothing they can do and Apple is wrong. I told them Apple said they will not be replacing it. She calls another store and they were able to find a replacement for the bad signal phone. They swap it out however, the "new" phone is not sealed, no plastic on it and is missing the sim tool. I take it anyways and find out later - the yellow screen issue.

I got back to AT&T the next day and explain the issue and get the run around again about how AT&T does not replace the phone and Apple does and I tell them Apple states you have to replace it, they do not. The manager at the AT&T store calls and gets someone over at Apple on the phone and chats a bit. She makes an appointment for the genius visit the next day. I go the next day, - and what happens? They refuse replacement because it was not bought at Apple. Manager comes out and states the same thing. I put him on the phone with the AT&T manager and they talk and whatever. He goes away without telling me anything and the AT&T manager is telling me that they can't do anything and Apple can't do anything and I am like - *** - who is responsible for this $300 dollar phone I just bought? Really? WHO? He comes back and says he can't do anything. I told him ok fine, I will take it back to AT&T and get my money back and buy it here.

On top of all this AT&T charged me twice for the iphone on launch day so I am still waiting for my refund on that. I go back to AT&T and tell them that I am returning the phone and want a refund. She gives me some hassle and then relents but is charging me the restocking fee. The guy said it was $20 so I asked her to credit my account so I don't incur the fee/it equals out. She said she could credit me the difference in not being able to use my phone for the past few days. I was like ok. It came out to $15 dollars. I am like ok sure. I come back the next day because I am swapping phones (not an iphone just a regular dumb phone) and they do my return/exchange thing and I find out the idiot told me the wrong restocking fee. He then tells me it's $30 dollars or whatever. I am like ok, whatever at this point. I get my refund started. I also finally got my refund for the double charge.

I am now iPhone less. I go over to Apple and they have no phones and I ask when will they be getting some in. We can't tell you that due to security issues. I am like ok. You can't tell me if your getting anymore in? They are like - no. I am like ok. The guy telling me this and helping me was the dumbest idiot I have ever met in my life. I asked if I had a phone bought elsewhere if I could return it here and he said yes. Then he said what? I told him again. His response changed 4 times to the same question. Idiot. I leave but before I do that I call the store while I am still at the mall and ask the manager if/when will they have more phones. He tells me another story. I was like jesus.

Anyways - suffice to say - I called Best Buy - they had 2 32GB Black phones and put them on hold. I go there, in and out in a few minutes and I am done. Service was excellent and usually BB service is crap. The service I got from BB that day, made Apple look like Circuit City with it's thumb up it's bum.

Anyways, both the phones I received from BB have yellow screen issues. Both are better than the phones I received from AT&T but again, still have the yellow at the bottom of the screen. My brothers phone (one of the two) seems to have a battery issue. It drains within a couple hours doing minimal stuff.

Speaking with Apple does nothing. The service I received and the back and forth crap just put a sour taste in my mouth. To top it off, 4 different phones all suffering from various degrees of problems. That is just horrible quality control on any level. Period. Then you get the stupid genius' that are horrible with customers and think they are always right giving you lies about what they are able to do and telling you they WON'T be replacing it or there is nothing wrong - horse crap.

I was furious. I still am ****** that Apple has YET to acknowledge this issue. NOT TO MENTION the obvious signal issue that is also being experienced by myself and many others (see the thread).

Terrible.

I had the same problem, a yellowish tint to everything and less contrast than my old 3G. I took it to a Genius at the apple store, he compared it to two of the demo 3GS's, the demos were not yellowish. The demos looked like my old 3G. He replaced my phone with a new one from repair stock and the new one is just like my old 3G with good contrast and good white balance. Take your yellowish phone to a Genius and have your old 3G with you to compare.

I upgraded from a first gen iPhone to the new 3GS.

A side by side comparison does show that my original first gen phone has a cooler color temperature leaning to blue/white as my new 3GS leans to yellow/white.

Personally, I do find the newer 3GS color temp to be OK. Colors are richer. My whites are...well.....white. Just a warmer white, but still white.

Mine was made in week 23 if anyone is curious.

I just got another replacement. This is the best one I've seen yet. It is "almost" perfect/consistantly colored, but I can see the yellow tint on the bottom 1/3rd if I look really hard. I would say this one is borderline "in spec". It isnt perfect, but I think I can live with this one for now. I will still be inquiring into the issue further, but feel I don't need to get a refund. I could see how someone may think the one I have is "perfect", but it is still there, just feint...Which I am kind of okay with for now if everthing else works.But this is not my ideal situation and will still pursue this further. I just don't think I will getting any more exchanges for a few months or until this is dealt with "officially".

Let me just say one more time. The geniuses I have dealt with have all been fantastic!

All the times I showed them, they were more then willing to exchange it.
Politely don't take no for an answer, or get a refund. I am disappointed it is this way, but it is what it is. They are collecting the data on these phones everytime I return them for their troubleshooting database and I have faith they will correct this issue. It may just take a few months.

I also have noticed the polarization on the 3GS is very different then the 3G and I think this could be part of the issue. If you take your 3G and your 3GS and load a black screen, then tilt your phone, you will see that from:

3GS
Bottom to top or left to right: the polarization is blue
Top to Bottom or right to left: the polarization is green

Who knows what it is, just food for thought:
Polarization?
Glass overheated gloss or oleophobic coating?
LCD?
Backlight?

If you are not satisfied take it back. If they have no replacements that are ok, go to another store. If you still can't find one you can live with, get a refund or open a case and note you have a defective phone and have been unable to find a yellow tint free replacement and are willing to wait. The warranty is for 1year...2 with applecare. Apple is more then willing to help, it is unfortunate some have been getting the wrong information or runaround...I am in the US by the way, so I can't vouch for oversea's policies, but this has been my experience.

Please keep me updated and I'll do the same. Good luck.

To the people that are having problems with Genius helpers:

- If they say it is 'in spec', ask how they measure 'in spec'. If their definition of 'in spec' is their own opinion -> not measurable, don't accept it.
If it is in spec, it means an actual spec exists, which can be measured.

- If they say they can give you only one new phone, dont accept this. As long as the product is different than what you could reasonably expect, they need to fix it. (In fact, over here in the Netherlands, if your product gets returned for the same problem for three times, the store HAS to replace the entire product.)

- Where you bought it, you get the service, if the service forwards you to an apple store, print this out or ask the name of the person who told you and tell the apple store to fight with that person. This is not YOUR problem, it's THEIRS.

- If a techie says 'it's fine, just turn up the brightness'. Don't accept this. This means you cannot effectively use the device the way it was intended, which means it is faulty and needs to be fixed.

- If they give you a hard time when it comes to switching phones -> as soon as they say "this is not the way it should be" THEY are responsible for making sure YOU get a proper device. It's not your problem if they need to activate 50 iPhones, that's their problem and they should talk to apple for the cost of those phones, not you.

You've got a lot of rights, don't let them make you think that you don't!

I'm hoping this screen issue gets fixed! I'm thinking about getting one, but I'm not buying an iPhone if €675 gets me a faulty product!

Message was edited by: Jognt

Tomorrow I plan to take two calls. One from the apple product specialist who opened the ticket and was very helpful. The other is from the manager from the apple store who called on Friday to have me explain what happened in his store that prompted me to write such a horrible review of my experience. I will let him know how put off I was at the responses of the geniuses who handled my problem. What gets me is the product specialist told me to have the genius call him when I got to the store. The genius took the number and called him in the back of the store (employee area only) and then comes back saying here's a replacement take it or leave it. I asked if he spoke with the specialist and he said no. Of course by that time he already had the SIM out so I couldn't call. What gets me is there is a breakdown in customer service. Why is it that common sense goes out the window? If a customer has a legitimate problem, address it. Fix it. Make them happy. That's what keeps you at the top of the selling game.