BEWARE Iphone 3G

[Kevin Daly]

Ok I am a PC man. Like many I was captivated by that shiny Iphone with all is promise. Even got the nice ultimate ears for music.

To make a long story short, I woke up this morning and turned on the Iphone I have happily owned since Sept of 2008 (less than 6 months) . Everything functioned except when I called someone they couldnt hear me or they heard something that sounded like a scratchy bad robot immitation. It didnt matter if I used the phones mic or the earbud mic. I rebooted, I restored from back up, I restored completely. After spending 2 hours on the phone with a very nice tech guy from Apple (Federico from the Phillipines) he indicated that the phone needed to be replaced. Since I have a set of phone meetings with NIH on monday, I needed to resolve this ASAP. Federico identified the closest Iphone store to me (only an hour and a half away) and I took off after making my "reservation" (ok thats just some sort of gay apple thing).

At any rate I get up there and everyone was so nice (actually, it gave me the creaps!) at least until I handed my phone to the "genius" who promptly told me after careful inspection that I had submerged my phone in water.

Now let me tell you that is just not the case. I work inside (I am a professor and neuroscientist) I work and I sleep and that (unfortunatly) pretty much summs up my life. I dont take it into the shower (as if anyone would be that dumb). I have never even so much as made or answered a call in the rain (for obvious reasons, its too cool looking to endanger). The only possible way in which this phone could have interacted with water is via sweat whilst in my pocket or humidity in the air. I am the only one that uses it and you know I just havent had it long enough to have forgotton an event that could have endangered it. So its either in my pocket, on my face or on the computer getting charged.

Incidently for those of you wonder where the indicator is, it is located (visible) just behind the main port where you plug your phone in. If it is red THEY DONT CARE! you submerged your phone.

Now I would put this challenge to all you Iphone users to find this patch and confirm its color. If you find it is red I would like to know if you have ever exposed it to excessive moisture of any kind.

Of couse this is all academic, if you little indicator has even a little red on it, you are screwed.

-cheers

 

[happyPuppy]

What a bunch of BS. Go up the food chain to Apple and they will replace it. If the dot is red and was not submerged it was a manufacturing defect, which is their problem too. I have to believe there is another way to check for water damage. I have the 2g , my son has the 3g and his has small spider cracks near the headphone jack. So much for saving $1.00 by using plastic instead of aluminum.

 

[Kevin Daly]

yeah I wish I could hope with you but I have checked out the Iphone forums and apple will not even look at a phone with a red dot. nope you are on your own. and what really pisses me off was that I put so much effort in to making sure that I took excellent care of it. I could understand if they replaced it, complicated things like this are likely to have problems from time to time. But to flat out claim that I "submerged" it and in the same breath claim that I am not lying when I tell them that the phone has not been exposed to water (beyond what has been described) is just insane. Mutually exclusive statements and they are so comfy about saying that crap!

When my Dell breaks the replacement is in the mail in 24 h.

 

[ponyfool]

You are the third person I know personally that has had that same problem. Never been in the rain, submerged, etc, but Apple says "too bad". The new Palm Pre is supposed to come out in the next month or so. When it does, it will make the iPhone look obsolete.

 

[Crash Cash]

I had this exact same problem with a regular phone from T-Mobile. My phone had the little dot underneath the battery. It was bright pink too. It had never seen water, and just stopped working one day, and I got the exact same song-and-dance from T-Mobile. It had never been in the rain, and I would have to assume it was either sweat or the Florida humidity.

I happened to have a hole punch of the right size, and just for the halibut, I holepunched a piece of non-gloss address label, peeled off the red dot, and replaced it with my replica. I figured it couldn't hurt to try, so I took it to a different store and they replaced the phone. I canceled my contract the moment my penalty clause lapsed and haven't had a cellphone since.

And no, I don't feel bad about doing this, since they were the ones to call me a liar to my face.

 

[Kevin Daly]

You are the third person I know personally that has had that same problem. Never been in the rain, submerged, etc, but Apple says "too bad". The new Palm Pre is supposed to come out in the next month or so. When it does, it will make the iPhone look obsolete.

After sleeping on this, and calming down some, I think there is a class action suit here; this is a fraudulant means for getting out of their responsibility. its a cool phone but it wasnt designed to actually work under normal conditions.

Cash, I would say that if you left your phone in you pocket in an AC'd room then went out into 80+ RH you would have got condensation. Again this should be considered "normal use."

 

[Capt. Bob]

What's sad about this whole thing is, I have submerged my Motorola i730 not once but twice.

I pulled it apart and dried it out with a hair dryer. Kinda screwed up the LCD screen for awhile but after a few days, it cleared up.

The next time it happened, I took it apart and let it air dry for several days and it worked fine.

I guess they don't make um like they use to. :glare:

 

[Kevin Daly]

What's sad about this whole thing is, I have submerged my Motorola i730 not once but twice.I pulled it apart and dried it out with a hair dryer. Kinda screwed up the LCD screen for awhile but after a few days, it cleared up.

The next time it happened, I took it apart and let it air dry for several days and it worked fine.

I guess they don't make um like they use to. :glare:

actually the really sad thing is that I posted on some Mac/Apple forums that have thousands of people on line at any given time. not a single response; its like apple lovers are in their own "apple-verse" :dribble: :dribble: chattin away about all the great apps they can down load and how cool their apple stuff is and completely blind to the fact that they are being snooked by thier own mama-apple. Wow, after watching the apple employees work that store it reminded me of a conversation I had with some guys from the church of scientology :dribble: :dribble:

 

[krashdragon]

What's sad about this whole thing is, I have submerged my Motorola i730 not once but twice.I pulled it apart and dried it out with a hair dryer. Kinda screwed up the LCD screen for awhile but after a few days, it cleared up.

The next time it happened, I took it apart and let it air dry for several days and it worked fine.

I guess they don't make um like they use to. :glare:

actually the really sad thing is that I posted on some Mac/Apple forums that have thousands of people on line at any given time. not a single response; its like apple lovers are in their own "apple-verse" :dribble: :dribble: chattin away about all the great apps they can down load and how cool their apple stuff is and completely blind to the fact that they are being snooked by thier own mama-apple. Wow, after watching the apple employees work that store it reminded me of a conversation I had with some guys from the church of scientology :dribble: :dribble:

simple... they never get out of the airconditiong so there is never any condensation in their phones!

See... there's a reason they''re all in their own little world! :blink:

Mary

 

[Scab]

My daughter dropped her phone into the Gulf of Mexico. It must still work, though. Occasionally, I get extra charges on the bill..."just for the halibut."

 

[antirustbug]

OK this is what i did to my cell phone, I put a piece of clear tape over it, no problems yet! or maybe if its already red, can you just remove it and say I don't no why its not there!

 

[Capt. Bob]

My daughter dropped her phone into the Gulf of Mexico. It must still work, though. Occasionally, I get extra charges on the bill..."just for the halibut."

That story "stinks".

 

[Capn'D]

My daughter dropped her phone into the Gulf of Mexico. It must still work, though. Occasionally, I get extra charges on the bill..."just for the halibut."

That story "stinks".

It sounds "fishy" too!

 

[flying junior]

My grandson colored the dot with a sharpie of the proper color and got a new iPhone. If the way he uses it is "normal," the IPhone isn't rugged enough for a normal environment.

I had one for a few days and took it back. It did lots of things, but not as well as a real gps, a real iPod, a real laptop, etc. And I was always having to get my glasses out to see what I was doing.

 

[zip]

actually the really sad thing is that I posted on some Mac/Apple forums that have thousands of people on line at any given time. not a single response; its like apple lovers are in their own "apple-verse"

Kevin, that might be right, but here's another possible explanation for the lack of responses: It's a good product that most people haven't had problems with. I'd be frustrated in your shoes as well, and even though I don't have an iPhone* (I do have the iPod Touch, which I really like), I've had consistently excellent service from Apple over the past 20 years on and off with their products, from an overnighted laptop replacement on a failed drive to near-shore telephone support (Idaho on my last call to them, which I prefer to India.) A buddy of mine who had an error with his iPhone recently walked right in and had it replaced. Not an Apple fanatic, but still loves the product.

I'm agnostic on this whole thing; I use good, elegant computing platforms of the Windows, Macintosh and Blackberry varieties every single day. Nothing's perfect, and it's a shame that you've had difficulties. But you're sounding a little too PC to me. If you want to start a class action lawsuit, perhaps we should consider doing so about Windows Vista? What a frigging memory hog.

Here's the thing: Where's Microsoft's iPhone killer?



* And why don't I have an iPhone? My company provides me with a Blackberry, and though I'd prefer an iPhone, there's no reason to carry two phones and bills. The Blackberry Curve is a pretty damned good device, though not everything I'd like.

 

[jbh]

I dropped mine in the toilet about 6 months ago. At first it was having some problems right away but I cooked it with a hairdryer for about 30 minutes to try to get the moisture out. I don't have red by the charger port but I do have red in the headphone jack, where my wife's non toilet Iphone does not have that red so I guess mine is marked. I will not be supprised one day if it just quits but I am hoping it will last 2 years.

It was only my own urine in the pot, no captains logs. And if you were wondering if I had any hesitation to reach into the toilet. Not one bit, especially considering the replacement cost.

The good part is that no one at work wants to check out my phones cool features when they find out what happened.

 

[turbodave_98]

simple solution to this issue, get a Blackberry Bold as I did after speaking with an A T&T shop and wanting the IPod G3. I was warned by the guy about the major problems of the IPod and bought the Bold instead. Very pleased with it, magnificent PDA with unbeliveable high resolution images.

 

[SecuLaw]

I dropped mine in the toilet about 6 months ago. At first it was having some problems right away but I cooked it with a hairdryer for about 30 minutes to try to get the moisture out. I don't have red by the charger port but I do have red in the headphone jack, where my wife's non toilet Iphone does not have that red so I guess mine is marked. I will not be supprised one day if it just quits but I am hoping it will last 2 years.
It was only my own urine in the pot, no captains logs. And if you were wondering if I had any hesitation to reach into the toilet. Not one bit, especially considering the replacement cost.

Sometimes it really isn't necessary to share everything.

 

[SecuLaw]

You are the third person I know personally that has had that same problem. Never been in the rain, submerged, etc, but Apple says "too bad". The new Palm Pre is supposed to come out in the next month or so. When it does, it will make the iPhone look obsolete.

After sleeping on this, and calming down some, I think there is a class action suit here; this is a fraudulant means for getting out of their responsibility. its a cool phone but it wasnt designed to actually work under normal conditions.

Cash, I would say that if you left your phone in you pocket in an AC'd room then went out into 80+ RH you would have got condensation. Again this should be considered "normal use."

A class action is possible and probably already being considered if the problem is as prevalent as it may be. That said, you would need to establish that small changes in or even normal humidity cause the red dot to appear (it would be a real kick in the arse if its the dot that's defective). You can also bet that these claims for warranty coverage are being tracked hourly (well, maybe not hourly) with constant reports to some internal committee that includes Apple's general counsel (or, at least, his assistant). If it appears to be a manufacturing defect and the number of potential claims justify it, Apple will come out of the "closet" and offer to fix the problem for free because that's just the type of magnanimous corporation it is.