Scuffs/Scratches On New iPhone 5 Right Out Of The Box

i was plann to get iphone5 this new year but after reading all this...i think i bttr not get one for my self

Matthew Pendergraff wrote:

Just opened my iPhone 5 which I ordered from Apple.com. As soon as I opened the box, I noticed nicks and scuffs in the bezel. I realize that at some point this might happen from normal wear and tear, but right out of the box is unaccepted. Is Apple aware of this and if so, what can be done to get this taken care of?

Well, my fourth replacement from Apple, which I received today, is a real winner. The upper antenna seams are brownish in color (almost look kinda rusted), and the back has some minor scratches. I could deal with the scratches, but those seams being discolored like that bugs me. I called Apple and politely asked to speak to an AppleCare Senior Advisor. I got Kristal. Trust me, you don't want Kristal. LOTS of attitude. I explained the situation and she asked me to send her photos of the marks right then. I took three photos and sent them to her. She complained because they were "too blurry". Okay? What do you want me to do? You made the phone I was taking the photos with. I did the best I could with what I have to work with. I don't own a digital camera, so I couldn't take better pictures right at that moment.

She told me to send the phone back and she would credit me back the $29 shipping fee. Fair enough. Then she said I had to go to an Apple Store for further service. As it was "only 10-15 miles away it shouldn't be a problem." Yeah, okay. I make that decision, not you, sweetheart. She then told me she would call me back next Tuesday or Wednesday once they received the device I'm sending back tomorrow morning. At that point in time she would personally make the Genius Bar appointment for me. Well, not only will I NOT be taking her call next week, I will not be making that trip to my local Apple Store, either. I'll call Apple back and get a new Senior Advisor on the case tomorrow when I get home from work. I work full-time and also attend Pharmacy School full-time, so getting down time these days is a real challenge for me. Waiting to be seen by an Apple Genius isn't at the top of my list of priorities.

I spent an hour and a half at that same Apple Store when they sent me my first defective iPhone 5 (auto-focus), when I had made an appointment to be seen. Appointments mean nothing. My time is valuable to me at this juncture in my life. I've paid for two Express Replacements and have also made one trip to the Apple Store. I won't be making another. I've been pretty understanding up until this point. Apple can figure something else out. Kristal is dead to me. I'm done with her. Her curt "bye" at the end of the call was the icing on the cake.

As a side note, when I placed the last Express Replacement request I was accidentally shipped two iPhone 5's by Apple. The credit card only had one hold placed on it for $635. I think what happened is when they professed the replacement the first time I got no replacement request confirmation of ship conformation e-mailed to me from Apple, so I called back to see if the replacement had actually been shipped or not. The rep told me it hadn't for some reason, and that he would immediately have another one sent out to me. Well, an hour later FedEx knocked on my door with a phone. The following day another came. But my card only had one hold placed on it. Weird. I called Apple back and explained the situation, and said that I had something that belonged to them. The rep this time confirmed he had no record of two phones being sent, and thanked me for my honesty in returning the phone. I'm just that, an honest person. I wouldn't keep something that doesn't belong to me. And tonight Kristal gave off the vibe that I was making the whole defects on the replacement issue up. Sure, I like paying $29 over and over again for no apparent reason. What a joke.

I have been an iPhone user since 2007. The iPhone 5 has the worst build qualities of any phone on the market.

It was released in September and for the first time ever, I have seen carriers and retailers offer the phone for FREE or reduced to almost FREE! Never in my life have I ever seen an iPhone be given away so early after release! This tells me sales aren't as hot as they use to be and that bad PR is affecting Apple lately and the only way to move units is to offer them FREE with a contract!

This should be a wake up call to Apple to start spending money on R&D and QC and less on lawsuits. These scuffs, scratches, dents, nicks and so on are taking a toll on Apple and carriers are now stuck with millions of iPhones and have to offer them FREE to clear them out, 3 months after release. Not a good sign folks.

More quality issues... My phone just started doing this today. Two feint grey circles in the camera, and it isnt my roof leaking, its on every picture taken with a light background. Off to the apple store on Friday...

That's odd that it just recently started. Did you try cleaning the lens with a microfiber cloth? Did you recently upgrade the OS to 6.0.2? Otherwise, I have no idea. Lots of people have complained about receiving their devices with dust under the lens. Not sure if that applies to you, however. Let us know how you make out at the Apple Store. Good luck.

i agree with you.. i have a "scratch" problem with my iphone 5 out of the box and i'm having a hard time exchanging it in store at the genius bar (fairview mall)! i have to talk to an applecare senior manager for about 1hr on the phone to have a replacement sent to me.. i'm now afraid if i will get a problem fee replacement since i've read that the replacements are not in it's original box?

so messed up with the phone and this is my second one. the first one is flawless except for the bad battery! didn't expect this exchange hassle with apple since this is my first time having problems with their product.

should have kept my original one since the battery life of this second one is about the same!

Add me to the list, bought as a birthday present in december but wasn't opened until yesterday. Scrath on one side, scrape on the edge of the screen on the other and the screen is loose on the bottom right hand corner. Tried to get a replacement from apple store and they said it was bought one line so contact them, can't return it because it's now outside their returns date limit. So a badly built phone which has never been switched on will go straight into refurbishment and the apple guarantee for 90 days becomes a one month guarantee effectively. I'm appalled that the quality checks haven't picked up on these defects. And we pay a premium price for this? Sorry apple, another mistake and poor customer service to boot.

I've had four iPhone 5's in under two weeks.

First one was scuffed on the left chamfer brand new out of the box, and also a very loose screen on the lower left side.

Second one lasted all of thirty paces from the Genius Bar to the store front! I turned back as I noticed a nick/scratch on the top left corner of the rear chamfer.

Third one lasted a full 24hrs but in that time it would randomly hard boot and power cycle itself. It did this at random several times even after several restores and updating to 6.0.2.

My fourth, and current phone, is perfect out of the box, no scuffs nicks or scratches, and the screen in solid. So they do exist in the wild outside of Apple's product photoshoot environment. You just have to open several boxes to find one, but even then there's no guarantee that there is not something wrong with the magical chips inside. I'm happy for now, but it doesn't inspire confidence that this will be problem free for the rest of my contract life.

It sounds like a lot of the USA stores are not very helpful, but i have to admit I've been to two different UK Apple retail genius bars and they were both amazing, totally understanding and happy to open as many boxes as they had to to find me the 'perfect phone' as they put it.

The customer service I've received from apple retail has been nothing short of astounding, no questions or quibbles just helpful and understanding every time.

Apple's manufacturing and quality control however is on the serious downward spiral. This is worse than antenna-gate IMO. Where that was a bad design decision, this is just poor craftsmanship which is something Apple just can not be. Not with the premium they charge for the shiny logo. They have to deliver the goods to warrant that otherwise even hardcore supporters will drift to the edge of the distortion field.

Hello everyone,

There's no doubt that I question the apparent quality control issues of the iPhone 5, especially the black model. In In hopes of the quality control issues in the manufacturing plants have been resolved, I purchased a black 32gb iPhone 5 on December 28. When I opened the box, I immediately noticed severe discoloration located around the perimeter of the power button. I was horrified that this unit even passed inspection and someone gave the "go ahead" to box it up and sell it to a consumer (lucky me).

I immediately brought it back to the place I purchased it (unfortunately I should have bought it at the Apple store as I had to wrestle about waiving the restocking fee) and I had the salesperson open up another one right in front of me. Sure enough, there was a chip located on the lower bottom left side of the phone. It was microscopic but it was enough to irritate me knowing my current iPhone 4 had none of these issues upon opening it.

So at the moment, I have a brand new screen protector, 2 brand new cases but no iPhone. I'm not confident that these issues have been resolved by any means. First off, this appears to be a "post" Steve Jobs iPhone. I don't think he would have approved the design of using soft aluminum as a material for a device that gets a lot of us (granted it is used on the iMacs and MacBook Pros). Using more aluminum appeared to made the phone lighter but I was quite happy with the glass blacking on my older model as it gave the protection.

It was just announced this morning 1/14/13 that Apple announced that it was cutting back orders for iPhone 5 parts. Now of course, that doesn't mean anything in regards to QC but after reading this post with currently 1,268 replies, it appears that this phone has it share of issues.

Yes, after going through about 13 iphone 5s (cosmetic issues, antenna issues, firmware issues, build quality issues) i finally gave up and gave my iphone 5 to my fiance. As i gave it to her I said "your problem now" haha

anyway, im with my 4S now and I can honestly say I am much happier with this the 4S than I ever was with my 5. the 5 is a good phone plauged with qulaity issues.

Jwages, is your iPhone 5 glue leaking very in a very serious condition.

I got my iPhone 5 a few weeks ago, I saw something in between the screen and the side, as I try to remove it with my fingers, it snap but there is still a bit of it stuck in between the screen and the side. It is quite elastic so I was wondering is that glue or something else.

I wish apple can help me to remove it but I scare they will ignore my problem since it is just a small bit of it.

Quick, Easy and Lame Solution to the scuffs/dents ! 😀

(Works only for the black iPhone 5)

I bought my iPhone 5 four days ago. I got mine in black. And today i notched that there are some scuffs or "mini dents" near the corners. One reason being, my phone fell ! But the drop was from a very low height, so it's not that bad a dent. I have a quick and easy solution for people who bought the black one and are experiencing such problems.

Step 1 : Buy a black marker that's used for rough surfaces. Not the white board marker.

Step 2 : Touch up the exposed silver.

Step 3 : Rejoice ! 😀

I'm almost scared to reply to this thread, because it's been ongoing since September 2012. But I did just find this video about it - maybe it is now sorted. Perhaps not the "out of box" problems, but the ease of scratching the back?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7081UpsPy0

This is NOT my video. Just found it by searching google for info about scratches on the black and white one.

I hope the issue with the damage out of the box is fixed. As of around Christmas however, i noticed the problem with the damage still remained. i received my iphone with a bad scratch about 2 inches long on the back aluminum. They refused to replace it for me so I just gave it to my fiance for Xmas. IT also had large specks of dust under the camera lens. Sad. The iphone 5 is an amazing phone. The build quality just *****. I guess a Swiss watch, it is not.

And it is kinda thought of as the Swiss Watch of phones.... isn't it.