Is triggering of Liquid Contact Indicator (LCI) an automatic reason for voiding warranty?
I bought an iPhone 6 128 gb from Amazon.in on Feb 11, 2015, which was delivered the next day. The website states that the phone carries a 1 year manufacturer warranty. The moment I unpacked it and started using it, within a few hours, the phone abruptly shut down and restarted. This was weird but I thought that it must have been on account of an update that required a restart. I used it for the next 5 days without incident. However, 6 days later (Feb 18, 2015) the phone behaved similarly but this time it just shut down completely and refused to re-start. The very next day I took it to the authorized service center in Mumbai, who after running diagnostics, said that there was water damage and that the LCI had been triggered. They then proceeded to tell me how the warranty was voided because of that (LCI) and that the option for me was to buy a new phone (because Apple does not repair its phones). Now I have a couple of issues with this diagnostics:
1. The consumer HAS TO accept whatever the 'one-sided secretive' diagnostics the Apple service team provides. There is no third party that evidences their diagnostics or have approved such tests (point 2 below will state why that is important). There is no evidence that Apple provided to me of the fact that the iPhone wasn't affected by water BEFORE it was delivered to me; THAT, according to Apple, I have to take at face value basis the warranty that they advertise. How do I know that the service engineer did not mistakenly knock over a glass of water on the phone while running diagnostics? Also, it would require some seriously artificially intelligent software that would work enough to start the display, show me the Apple logo and then refuse to go further because of water damage!! If truly there is water damage, the phone won't start up at all.
2. Apple paid $ 53 mn in a class action lawsuit where it was revealed that the LCI can turn pink because of humid conditions and doesn't necessarily have to be exposed to water. Yet, Apple in India, refuses to take cognisance of this fact and continues to void its own warranty. Anyone who lives or operates a business in India (Apple does) knows that Mumbai has an extremely humid climate. So then Apple should stop selling their iPhones here if they are not homologated for Indian cities, which they wont because they want the business.
I am now holding a Rs 65,000 (US $1,050) paperweight that is frankly, completely useless to me. My question is whether anyone faced this issue and what has Apple's reaction to such situations in the US? If there are Apple company personnel that read these posts, is there any help that you can offer in resolving the issue.
Regards.
iPhone 6, iOS 8.1.3, DEAD in 6 days!!!!
