Solo Loop band breaks, defect?

Question

Level 1

13 points

Solo Loop band breaks, defect?

After 4 months, my Solo Loop band snapped in half while taking it off. I figured no problem, warranty replacement , right? After wasting my time with customer support chat, and them sending me links that didn’t work, i called customer support.

After 20 minutes of answering questions, just to find out if it is covered warranty. Good news it is! Bad news is that its $69 to file a claim for a $49 solo band. And thats even with apple care.

between the 20 minute online chat, and 20 minutes on the phone, thats a wasted 40 minutes of my life i will never get back.

Solution to problem, $10 clone band from amazon, it should at least last as long as the apple branded one, for 1/5th the cost.

Apple Watch

Posted on Feb 22, 2021 12:38 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Chefkifk Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 23, 2021 2:34 PM in response to deggie

I do have apple care. I called again today, talked to customer support. He was trying to find the ‘black solo loop’ band in their catalog, and kept coming back that it has to be a sports band, and that there was no #6 size, only 38mm to 40mm, or 42mm to 44mm. Tried explaining to him that is referring to the size of the display on the two watch sizes, but he insisted that it was the size of the band. I tried explaining to him, that 44mm would not even fit around my thumb.

At this point i said i either need to be transferred supervisor or i was going to hang up. He finally did transfer me to a senior customer service agent.. at this point they wanted a picture of the band, which was at home so we arranged a call back. This phone call took 45 minutes. Both customer service agents were quite certain that the only way to resolve this was to make the $69 payment, and this was the APPLE Care deductible, not a warranty fee. I did get that clarified.

They did call back exactly when they said, i was able to upload picture of the band to the customer service agent, answer a few more questions, they confirmed my shipping address, and a new band is supposed to be on its way. This call took another 20 minutes.

Total time to resolve this issue was 105 minutes. But i am getting a new band. I cant help but think that the time the customer service agents spent resolving this issue cost apple more than $49 dollars.

Reply

Answer 2

deggie

Level 10

167,519 points

Feb 22, 2021 4:35 PM in response to Chefkifk

Are you sure you were talking to Apple? If it is a warranty defect there is no charge to file a warranty claim. I would call AppleCare and ask to be transferred to Customer Service.

Reply

Answer 3

deggie

Level 10

167,519 points

Feb 22, 2021 5:52 PM in response to Chefkifk

Do you have AppleCare +? If so that may be the fee for replacing the entire Watch. But there is not a $69 fee for replacing a$49 band. Keep asking for a supervisor.

Reply

Answer 4

deggie

Level 10

167,519 points

Feb 22, 2021 5:16 PM in response to Chefkifk

Just to be clear you dialed 1-800-275-2273 and were told that Apple charged a $69 warranty fee for replacement of items under warranty?

I have NEVER been charged or heard of a warranty fee. And I called and asked prior to answering you.

Reply

Answer 5

deggie

Level 10

167,519 points

Feb 22, 2021 5:02 PM in response to Chefkifk

Sorry, but I checked this myself an there is no such thing as a warranty fee for a warranty claim. What number did you call and what country are you in?

Reply

Answer 6

Chefkifk Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 22, 2021 5:14 PM in response to deggie

I’m in USA, was told this during a online chat with customer service, and again while on phone with customer support. There are other threads here documenting apple support telling them same/similar excuse.

Reply