wifi greyed out after update to ios7

Mrm1ke: very well said.

Apple has been aware of this problem at least since the introduction of iOS 6 (just google: iPhone 4S wifi greyed out)

Although they were fully aware of this issue with this problem causing Broadcom wifi chip for over the past year they have kept on selling the 4S with this chip. Actually, even today this sub quality quality phone is still being sold, and when people lucky enough to get replacement phones get their replacement phones, they are also the same sub quality phones. (As you can read from some of the posts of customers getting replacement phones, where the Geniuses installed iOS 7 for the customer which immediately caused the wifi to grey out again)

Therefor Apple bears responsibility for knowingly selling iPhones of which Apple for the longest time has been fully aware this problem exists. Furthermore since Apple knew this problem quite often occurred with the introduction of iOS 6, it also was fully aware this problem could also occur on iOS 7.

However they must also have been very aware that they could try and hide between the legal fine-print since almost all iPhone 4S phones would just have passed the one year warranty period.

But Apple was fully aware within the warranty period of the issue.

Someone buys a car with say a three year warranty. Unknown to the unsuspecting customer the manufacturer knows however there is an issue with the brakes malfunctioning after new replacement (original and manufacturer endorsed) brake-pads are installed.

After 3 years and say 1 month, the car crashes, seriously injuring all in the vehicle. Would the manufacturer get away with this on the ground of the warranty being expired? No way. Every manufacturer has his own responsibility, regardless if it's BMW or Apple.

profit is what you earn, but it should be earned fairly.

Apple is in this case clearly not treating her customers fairly.

Just a reminder to everyone that lives in the European Union. You have by EU law two years warranty on any electronic product. Even if the manufacturer does not openly promote this, they still are legally obliged to follow this in all EU markets. If you call up Apple Support they will confirm this, I checked and they did confirm this. And even if they would not they still are bound to follow this law.

So if your product is less than two years old and you bought it within the EU you can claim warranty on it.

You can read more about this here: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/ecc/consumer_topics/buying_goods_services_en.htm

Hi Darkacrow, what you are saying is partially correct.

It is NOT the manufacturer who has to provide 2 years of warranty but the store you bought it from.

Meaning, in the first year the manufacturer is responsible for the warranty (directly or through the store) and in the second year the store is legally responsible and not the manufacturer.

This makes the store having to pay the customer compensation while not being able to claim it from the manufacturer.

Europe has started something good with the warranty extension, but they made ONE BIG MISTAKE; which is making the store/retailer responsible instead of the Manufacturer.

So now the retailers, with often very narrow margins have to bear the costs while Apple a.o. can continue making astronomical profits and crappy products.

Therefor I would have difficulty claiming warranty by some small shop that is clearly not responsible for this issue, while the big fish, Apple, happily swims away. Knowing it will be the small shop that pays for their mistake.

It just is not fair....

Just my opinion....

Bottom line is that these chips are/were a known issue thereby creating a known, defective product in certain control situations. Do they all go bad? No, apparently not (which is too bad - because they'd find a software fix in a hurry if that was the case). Apple seems willing to suck up the bad press and/or forego future product purchases by the affected 'few' (thousands, tens of thousands...?).

In my case, this phone is 7 months old. Should it be covered against a known defect? To quote a famous American: you betcha. I certainly wish I had never upgraded the device from iOS6.whatever, that's for sure.

Actions and inactions have consequences. We have two ipads in the family now - a '2/32' & a '3/64', do you think I'll buy another? Second, my wife's company currently supplies management with Blackberry devices but will end that practice at year-end. An iphone WOULD have been a natural fit for a stocking stuffer as she needs some kind of smartphone, but do you think that will happen now? Last, as I type on this 4+ year old HP Pavilion, I know that a new MacBook would fit in well as my next home PC...does Apple REALLY think that will happen? Seems kind of foolish but then again, I'm not the guy with a $520 stock price.

Bin Kroon wrote:

Hi Darkacrow, what you are saying is partially correct.

It is NOT the manufacturer who has to provide 2 years of warranty but the store you bought it from.

Meaning, in the first year the manufacturer is responsible for the warranty (directly or through the store) and in the second year the store is legally responsible and not the manufacturer.

This makes the store having to pay the customer compensation while not being able to claim it from the manufacturer.

Europe has started something good with the warranty extension, but they made ONE BIG MISTAKE; which is making the store/retailer responsible instead of the Manufacturer.

So now the retailers, with often very narrow margins have to bear the costs while Apple a.o. can continue making astronomical profits and crappy products.

Therefor I would have difficulty claiming warranty by some small shop that is clearly not responsible for this issue, while the big fish, Apple, happily swims away. Knowing it will be the small shop that pays for their mistake.

It just is not fair....

Just my opinion....

Apple has a retailer program in place to compensate the stores that provide coverage in those situations. Apple isn't 'swimming away'. If Apple left those retailers high & dry, those retailers would stop carrying Apple's products.

True, however if you buy it from Apple Store they are liable 🙂

What are the most popular tech sites that discuss mobile technology? Does anyone know off hand...I s'pose I can search it out. If I'm not going to end up wth a fully functioning phone because Apple chose to hide a defect then I want everyone to know, as to not make th esame mistake(s) that I have regarding trusting these products to be free from obvious functionality defects.

Anyone?

TJBUSMC1973 wrote:.

You're not going to like this answer; if you can't afford the device, you shouldn't purchase the device. Just like if you can't afford the maintenance costs for a BMW, you shouldn't own one.

Live within your means. Most people already get a $450 discount on their iPhones. If they can't afford $69-99 for protection of the device, then they need to buy a cheaper phone.

What you have stated is not an answer. You see, the issue is not whether the consumer can afford or not the device, it is their willingness to have to pay an extra premium that they do not wish to afford because it should be included in the original price of the product. In your case, you do not think twice about handing over extra money for a service that many others expect to be included and that is where we misunderstand each other.

You mention "Live within your means." and we are doing just that, we do not want to encourage companies to charge us extra for something that is not produced to our expectations. You seem to still be stuck at the point of "it's ok to charge for proctection" but the proctection you speak of is not protection from the user but protection for a component defect. I really liked the argument with car manufacturers because it really shows that those car manufacturers do issue recalls on they cars even though the warranties have long expired. It is similar with Apple and the wifi chip of the iPhone 4S I feel they should issue a recall for the bad chip, similar to Microsoft and the xbox360, similar to Intel with the faulty Pentium chip in the mid 90's. There is a difference between maintenance costs and a recall, do you not agree? Do you still feel your BMW example to be valid?

You can keep arguing your point as much as you'd like but I feel you are not seeing the real issue here and that is why you are still not understanding how we feel.

Bin Kroon wrote:

After 3 years and say 1 month, the car crashes, seriously injuring all in the vehicle. Would the manufacturer get away with this on the ground of the warranty being expired? No way. Every manufacturer has his own responsibility, regardless if it's BMW or Apple.

That's a poor analogy. No one's life is endangered by wi-fi not working on their iPhone. Change your example and remove the 'injury' part, and then analyze it. If your brakes needed to be replaced at 3 years & 1 month, and the warranty was for 3 years, then the obligation was fulfilled.

The older a device gets, the harder it is to determine whether it was abnormal wear & tear of factory defect that caused a failure. Who foots the bill to analyze and determine the root cause?

That burden is always on the complainant.

TJBUSMC1973, I do not think I will succeed in making you see how we feel about this broken wifi chip situation. I feel I have tried to show you as best as I can the reasons we, the complainants as you put it, are feeling cheated by Apple. I am thinking this may be because of cultural differences between us. We have different values and different upbringing and all around different views of what is acceptable and what is not.

All of this is OK and it is normal. I feel dissapointed, not in you but in myself, for not being able to make you understand or feel our problem with Apple.

Having said this, I have just received my free replacement iPhone 4S thanks to my local consumer protection law, but I will not be using this "new" phone, I will instead sell it as a new iPhone 4S and simply shop elsewhere. I'm hoping in your mind you are thinking "this is just too bad, Apple just lost this customer", instead of thinking "good riddance, Apple doesn't need this kind of customer who's expecting his iPhone 4S to last at least 2 years without faulting."

With this, I wish you all the best and even though our disagreement, I hold no hard feelings towards you.

Take care.

Not true, I am in this field and this is not the case.

Apple provides a one year warranty in Europe. After the first year it is the retailers responsibility, not Apple.

That is since it states in the European Law that the reseller (not the manufacturer) is responsible for providing a two year warranty to the consumer.

The Law leaves it up to the retailer and manufacturer to work this out between them.

Don't forget the law focuses on the consumer and this way the consumer can claim warranty with the reseller who can not claim in return with the manufacturer.

Only when bought directly from the Apple Store, Apple by law will have to honor warranty claims for two years, and in some countries like The Netherlands, even longer.....

Read it up, but make shure you get your facts straight before you make statements like this, claiming this.

Always protecting Apple... Can't stop can you??

I was not comparing it to the brakes (iOS7) , but to the vehicle (iPhone 4s)

How much I wish you would have an iPhone 4s with wifi problems like all of us, and no extended warranty.

And I would feel just as much sorry for you as you do for us.....

End of discussion.

Congrats Mrm1ke! You're out! :-)

Agreed - Mrm1ke - glad it worked out for you. Apple should be embarrassed - Jobs has rolled over several times just reading this thread.

I may not get a iphone to replace this 'lemon' but I'm going to spread the word from every mountain top and can pretty much guarantee the truth will cost Apple more than the value of repalcement iphones....

Bin Kroon wrote:

Not true, I am in this field and this is not the case.

Apple provides a one year warranty in Europe. After the first year it is the retailers responsibility, not Apple.

That is since it states in the European Law that the reseller (not the manufacturer) is responsible for providing a two year warranty to the consumer.

The Law leaves it up to the retailer and manufacturer to work this out between them.

Don't forget the law focuses on the consumer and this way the consumer can claim warranty with the reseller who can not claim in return with the manufacturer.

Only when bought directly from the Apple Store, Apple by law will have to honor warranty claims for two years, and in some countries like The Netherlands, even longer.....

Read it up, but make shure you get your facts straight before you make statements like this, claiming this.

Always protecting Apple... Can't stop can you??

Perhaps the retailer you are affiliated with should contact Apple regarding the out-of-warranty compensation program. While the law in Europe may not require Apple provide support to the secondary retailers, that support is there and available. Your ignorance of such a program does not disprove its existence.

Additionally, extended warranty coverage via Apple isn't limited to purchases directly from Apple Retail Stores or Apple Online. http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/statutoryrights.html

I can buy an iPhone from a non-Apple retail store in the U.K., and 13 months later, Apple will cover the device. In fact, up to SIX years later they will do so.

Finally, I find it interesting that you state you are WISHING that another person has a problem with their device. I don't wish for it to happen to anyone. That's a little petty and spiteful on your part. Perhaps karma does exist after all.