My iPad screen shattered last week when I took it from the 105 degree Irvine CA heat, to the lovely cool low 70 degree air conditioning of the Sprint store for half an hour and then back out to the 105 degree heat. I had been using my iPad (with its protective leather case with keyboard from Brookstone) in the Sprint store, where the screen was intact, and then when my business was concluded there, took the iPad out to my car and put it in the front seat. Then I drove four short miles to my Training Center and promptly brought it into the building and put it on the desk where it remained untouched for about an hour. I opened the case and was annoyed to find what appeared to be a cracked protective screen cover. So I bought a new screen protector film to put on instead of the cheap $2 sheet from China that I had put on when I bought the iPad in November. But when I went to put on the new screen, AGH! It was actually the glass that had shattered in a L shape along the bottom border and the right side!
So I went to Apple at the Spectrum in Irvine. Well, apparently you need an appointment to talk to a "Genius" because they are the only ones who can provide customer service, according to the manager who I insisted on talking to after Blue Shirt Guy told me I needed an appointment. Unfortunately, the next appointment was in 50 minutes. Seriously? There were six blue shirts standing around yapping with each other and no one could help me? So I explained that that wouldn't work and why: I needed to get back to the hospital where I had left my husband to take care of what I thought would be a very quick errand. Silly me.
Eric, the manager was nice as he handed me off to Andrew the Genius - not! Eric and Reservation Genius Man did some whatever computer trickery so they could have an appointment created so I could speak to Andrew the Genius.
Well, Andrew the Genius couldn't help me get my nine month old iPad (which I had purchased in that store) replaced for a number of reasons. The primary reason was because I didn't buy the Apple Plus warranty. He told me that I should have purchased the warranty but it wouldn't have covered the problem because that coverage wasn't available at the time of my purchase. Now quite frankly, all of my electronics (except apparently the iPad) are covered with extended warranties because I use them a lot and I take them out and about for my job. Had I been offered a warranty, it was a no-brainer that I would have said yes to it, like I said yes to the warranty for every phone I have ever had, my lap top, my printer, you get my point. So not only was it not offered because it wasn't available but it wouldn't matter because it wouldn't cover the damage because the iPad was out of warranty because the screen shattered. Well, that's a head scratcher. The "Genius" couldn't figure out that irony. The warranty would be void because of what you were in there to have covered under the warranty? Andrew the Genius told me it would be virtuously impossible for the screen to shatter and I must have done it. Not that he was blaming me you understand. But the leather protective case the iPad never comes out of appears to have been damaged because the colored leather banding tape was coming off on the edge where I bend it up to stick my finger under it to turn off and on the iPad. And 1 + 1 apparently equals 7,395. Because that’s the kind of wild extrapolating Andrew the Genius engaged in.
Ok, I'm just a girl, but let's just walk through this so I can understand it. There's me. And there's Mr. iPad. If I'm not to blame, the leaves Mr. iPad. Which is what I said when I came in there! But Andrew the Genius says it couldn't have happened. No spontaneous breaking of glass. So he's not saying it was my fault, he's just saying that I'm lying about what happened and Apple is going to give me the opportunity - OPPORTUNITY! to purchase a new iPad at 40% off.
At this point I believe I suggested in a very (un)quiet tone that it seemed what I was really being given was an opportunity to bend over and grab my ankles. Andrew the Genius had nothing to say on that but except that it couldn't have happened. (Andrew the Genius should google that scenario, because guess what? Not so impossible Genius man!)
So totally infuriated, disgusted, and generally ****** off, I say something to the effect of "just get me a flippin new iPad and I'll figure it out later.” So he gets a new iPad, takes it out of the box, removes the plastic it comes in and hands it over. And charges me about $269 with tax. That’s what we call customer service in the Apple Store. I don’t even get the box.
But wait! It gets better!! Remember the "cracked plastic screen protector”? The shards of glass are adhered to the sticky side of the screen protector. Andrew the Genius asks me if I wanted to keep the screen protector for my new iPad. SERIOUSLY! Genius man! Dude! Get a cup of coffee!! Pay attention!
So here’s a re-cap: he's not saying it was my fault, he's just saying that they were going to give me the opportunity - OPPORTUNITY! to purchase a new iPad at 40% off because my iPad wasn't covered by AppleCare. BUT WAIT!!!!! Did HE, Andrew the Genius, offer me any sort of extended warranty or protection plan? NOOOOO! OMG!
So I go home, new iPad in hand and as I synch new Mr. iPad, I "share" on my FaceBook page my not so fun morning. Lo and behold, the husband of one of my friends WATCHED his iPad do the same stinking thing not once but TWICE AS IT SAT ON HIS DESK. And if you google it, I'm not actually one of only two people to whom this has happened. Apparently going from extreme heat to extreme cold and then back again to extreme heat causes expansion in the metal frame which causes, you guessed it, the screen to crack! DUH! Don't they teach that in high school anymore?
So, now New Mr. iPad is synched up. I unplug it. Power it up. See my wallpaper thing-a-ma-jig . . . for a split second before it shuts down and lines start shooting across the screen. Hmm. Odd. Turn it on again. See screensaver. See new Mr. iPad turn off. See shooting lines. See Michele go ballistic. See Michele make an appointment.
I go back to Apple at my appointed time later that afternoon. I to the Genius Bar and tell Mr. Genius checking appointment reservations that in fact I have an appointment. When? Right now. Wait. Recognition dawns. "Weren't you just in here." Oh yeah. Who did I talk to. Andrew the Idiot. OK. Clearly not going to have me talk to him again. So I see Thomas the Genius. I explain the problem. He verifies that it is a problem. He goes back and talks on the phone for 15 - 20 minutes with the "I-Care" (or some inappropriately named) team.
Are you sitting down? Because I don't have the Apple Care on the 3 hour old iPad, there was a question as to whether or not they would replace it. Seriously. Dead dog serious. Unbelievable. BUT I wasn't even half as mad as the other lady in the store who had to fight with her own Genius Squad who wanted to take the phone that the Huntington Beach Police had told her to retain because there was some fraud that they were investigating on it. Seriously. It was like there was a Genius Convention somewhere and these guys didn't qualify.
So Thomas finally tells me his manager (who he has also had to go talk to but who is very smartly staying out of my line of fire, never once coming over to perhaps calm down a clearly irate customer or two) has decided to "penny out" the 3 Hour Old New Mr. iPad for a new new one but the warranty is going to cost me $99 and they are going to trick the system somehow so it can be applied to the new new iPad and 3 Hour Old New Mr. iPad With the Shooting Lines and Inability to Stay On can be returned. C'mon Man!
No, it's not over.
The system is somehow so mightily tricked it's not charging me the $99 warranty fee. Hmmm. Back he goes to talk to the manager (who is STILL not coming over to see EITHER irate customer to offer some soothing salve). Manager, in his infinite wisdom, decides it would be good to go with what handheld device says and not charge me. Great! I confirm that New New Mr. iPad is capable of staying on for an extended period of time - say, 20 or 30 seconds - sign where indicated, thank Thomas and escape for dear life. Back to the hospital.
Now my husband The Teacher has been working on me all summer. He needs to get a new lap top and a desk top and since his school uses Macs, he is trying to convince me that I should make the switch from PC to Mac. After all, I just bought the new iPhone (remember the visit to the Sprint store?), have an iPod, a Nano and then there's Mr. iPad. Wouldn't it be great if we all ran the same OS? So much easier, blah blah blah.
Are you flipping kidding me???? With this kind of mickey mouse, jack it up, grab your ankles, inability to spell customer service much less offer any kind of customer service operation? The Genius who is the only one, according to the supervisor, who can offer any sort of customer service but who can't do that without the approval of a manager who can't be bothered to come talk to a customer with a problem, is the person I get to go to (after setting up an appointment of course) if, God forbid, I should have a question, and I'm going to spend more money there? I so don't think so. I have never been more appalled in my life.
HP here I come!
So I have new new Mr. iPad. I expect that he’ll die sometime within the next two years, if I’m lucky and he lives that long. Will I invoke my right to a new new NEW Mr. iPad? I don’t think so. But let’s just throw this into the mix: I’m a girl. Girls “share”. I share real good. I share loudly, with lots of hand motions and voice modulation, and generally speaking have a good size audience when I share. I share often. So far, I have shared my story over and over again, including on FaceBook and to other known serial sharers. I have shared with my friends, acquaintances and people I just met. I share in public and in private. And now I am sharing with you. Because at some point, it will make a difference. Maybe not to me. But to some other person who actually trusts Apple to stand behind their product, to do the right thing and to actually care. But I don’t trust Apple because I have seen that they don’t stand behind their product, do the right thing or care. And that’s sad. And the only tool I have is “sharing.” So I do.
