A working iPhone
Several months ago my iPhone 4 packed in due to water damage, so I had to get a replacement sorted out – you can read the article here.
Well lo and behold after travelling four hours the other day to a hotel by car, I plugged my new iPhone into one of the hotel room sockets to give it a recharge. After an hour or so I picked up the phone and found that it was wet on the base.
I then realised that the area around the kettle in the hotel room had a small pool of water in which my iPhone had been placed.
I dried off the iPhone the moment that I realised it had been lying in water and all appeared well. After surfing the net and setting up my Sat Nav App for the next day I lay back on the bed and took in some TV.
An hour or so later I picked up my iPhone to send a friend a text and found that it had gone dead. Completely dead. I tried desperately to get the thing to work, but to no avail.
I tried recharging the iPhone, resetting it by holding down the on/off button and home key at the same time, took out the sim card and put it by the room fan, but nothing would bring it back to life.
After going into a panic and then calming down, I decided to go to the hotel reception and see if they could book me a Genius appointment at the Apple shop in the Trafford centre the following day, which was a Sunday. The girl on the reception was very helpful and went online to see if she could get me an appointment. After several minutes she informed me that the next Genius appointment at the Apple store was three days later on the Wednesday – oh dear.
I was now in a bit of a situation because I could not contact my friend, who I was supposed to be meeting the following day to let her know my predicament, due to all my contacts being on my phone.
The following day, I decided to take a chance and drive to the Trafford Centre to see if I could get the iPhone fixed or replaced. I arrived nice and early for a Sunday at 10am and fortunately there were some Apple employees outside the store scraping off a promotional sticker from the shop window.
“Hi”, I said. “Can you tell me what time the store opens please”
“12 noon”, one of the Apple employees said. “We’re not allowed to open before then because of trading standards”
“Oh, ok”, I said. “Would there be any chance of seeing someone about my iPhone, which has gone kaput?”
“You have to have a Genius appointment I’m afraid, and the next one is on Wednesday unless we get a cancellation”, came back the reply from the assistant.
“So I’m without a phone for three days?”, I argued.
“Sorry, but that’s the Apple procedure”, said the assistant.
After getting a coffee and snack, I made my way sullenly back to my car and drove home which took a whopping four hours.
On a plus, I arrived home just in time to watch the Wimbledon final between Federer and Murray. While watching the match, I browsed my local Apple store on my laptop and checked out the available Genius appointments. To my surprise, there was an appointment in an hours time, so I booked it and headed off to the town centre. I arrived early at the Apple store so checked out the latest tennis action on an instore iPad.
Eventually, I was seen by an Apple Genius and he took my iPhone into the back of the store to inspect it. After about fifteen minutes he emerged from the back of the shop with my iPhone and told me he could not find a reason for it to stop working. There was no evidence of water damage.
He gave me a couple of options – he could see if replacing the battery would fix the problem (cheaper option) or I could purchase another phone for £119.
By now the time was 4.35 in the afternoon and the store was due to close at 5pm – I opted to replace the whole phone. I didn’t want to take the chance the replacement battery would not fix the phone and I would be stuck without a phone until Tuesday (the next available Genius appointment)
I was a surprised to find out that although I had purchased a replacement iPhone just over three months earlier, the phone was not within warranty.
Apparently the iPhone replacements are only covered for three months.
After doing some research on the internet, a useful tip if your iPhone is affected by water is to turn off your iPhone, take out the sim card and put it into a small bag of uncooked rice – this is supposed to draw out the moisture from the phone, but it could take several days.
If however, you are like me, and cannot do without a phone for a few days, it’s best to take it to your nearest Apple store, but do book an appointment with a Genius online before you go, otherwise you may get turned away.
Another tip is to get your iPhone added to your household insurance.
Conclusion – iPhones really don’t like water, even small amounts.
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