screen damage

It is only $29 if you have AppleCare+ and one of your two accidental damage claims still available. Otherwise, without AppleCare+ the price is higher. So you are being charged the normal out of warranty screen replacement fee for an iPhone 8+, not the AppleCare+ price.

Where did you go, and were they able to verify that you have AppleCare+? I assume you're in the United States given the prices you're using?

$169 plus tax is the US out of warranty price. But $29 is the AppleCare+ price if you can verify that you have it.

Are you being asked to pay the full freight, but you get a refund when it's returned. I've heard of that with Express Replacement.

deggie wrote:

It is fairly clear they are referring to the standard AppleCare and they don't have AppleCare +. Your last sentence does not make any sense at all.

Exactly where can standard AppleCare be purchased in the United States for an iPhone 8 Plus? I didn't check the Express Replacement policy, which is to put an authorization hold for the full replacement value until the replaced device is received by Apple.

You don't have to purchase standard AppleCare, it is the one year warranty that comes with any iPhone (blame Apple for the terminology, not me). And some countries do not have AppleCare + but you can still buy an extended AppleCare. Since AppleCare + is tied to the serial number of the device and the service center told them it would be $169 (the cost of an out-of-warranty screen replacement) it is pretty clear they did not have AppleCare +.

The charge for express replacement is not $169 and that would not factor into this anyway as $169 would not be the cost of the full device.

It is fairly clear they are referring to the standard AppleCare and they don't have AppleCare +. Your last sentence does not make any sense at all.