Q&A: How can I take my iphone to the applestore for repair without having to sign a contract or get the data plan?
Question by alguy982374: How can I take my iphone to the applestore for repair without having to sign a contract or get the data plan?
Here is my situation: I am currently an AT&T customer out of contract and I bought an used original iPhone (2g or 1st gen or whatever) online. I unlocked/activated the phone in order to bypass the itunes activation so I was able to just pop in my current sim card and enjoy the iPhone without having to get the data plan or sign a new contract. Since then I started to feel that the signal reception and call quality is really bad; I constantly get dropped calls, call failed message and people on the other end always complain they cant hear me or that i sound "underwater" or muffled. Most of the time I only get 1-2 bars at the house while my old blackjack used to get 5 so I think there might be a problem with the antenna.
I checked online and the phone is still under warranty until may. I called the applestore and gave some excuse about how I was gonna bring "my wifes" iphone in but she was using the sim on another phone and I was gonna bring it without the sim card (basically to avoid them knowing I dont have the dataplan). Well, it did not fly. The lady said that in order for them to service the phone I needed to bring it with the sim.
So does anyone have any advice? Basically I want the phone repaired or exchanged but I am scared that if I bring it in with my current sim they will notice that I dont have the dataplan on my account and tack it on and resign my contract.
One idea that I had was the following: my sister has an iphone 3g. I was thinking about borrowing her sim card and putting it on my phone before I take it in but Im not sure if that would work. Another idea is mailing it directly to apple but im not sure how to set that up and I also fear that since I cant explain the issue in person that they will just send it back and tell me there is no problems with it.
Obviously I am going to do a full restore of the phone on itunes to erase any track of jailbreaking.
Has anyone been in this situation before and successfully resolved it?
I know my post was long but thanks a lot,
I removed cydia and any apps that made obvious the phone was unlocked and made an app with the genius bar.
When I got there, I told the guy I was having problems call quality and reception. I told him I had tried resetting network settings, hard resetting the phone and cleaning the mic holes. He took my phone and quickly browsed through the apps then flashed a light inside the mic and speaker holes to check for water damage. After that he tried cleaning the mic again then asked me to make a call to test it. I called my sister and it still sounded bad. At that point he said: "well seems like you have a problem with the mic. Im just gonna replace the phone for you". I was pumped. He took my phone, popped my sim card and handed me a new phone. In the beginning I had told him I was currently with AT&T but was not ready to resign my contract and get the data plan so he did not make me activate the phone or anything else. He just said that once I did I would need to activate it though itunes
@Sam: You are WRONG. Restoring the phone definitely does the trick. All the genius checked was to see if there were any "illegal" or "unsupported" apps installed and if there was water damage. The guy was really nice and did not give me a hard time at all since I was under warranty. As a matter of the fact, they even gave me a replacement screen protector for my new phone since I had one on the damaged phone. I was definitely impressed. So for those of you wondering, tell them that you bought the phone used (and hence already activated) but that you are not ready to sign/renew the contract yet. It worked for me.
Cheers!
Best answer:
Answer by Sam
Doing a restore will not prevent them from seeing that you unlocked it. You are wasting your time doing the restore because they will refuse to replace it. This is the consequence of unlocking your phone. It does void the warranty as you probably know.
What do you think? Answer below!
Question by Dino: Where can I find places to learn how to repair cell phone or open my repair center?
I own a cellphone store now, but I would like to add repair service in my store.
Best answer:
Answer by COMPUABLE
There isn't anywhere to learn how to repair cell phones since most (like 98.%) aren't repaired anymore these days; they are simply replaced.
Cell phones currently all use surface mount components, which means parts can't be easily replaced from their circuit boards. The days of discrete, separate components are long gone.
Additionally most cell phones and their inner components are manufactured in China on robot machinery and therefore the vast majorities of the parts are not even available here in the US (or anywhere else) anyway.
Nor are the schematics and technical diagrams to examine how they are designed and then determine how to repair them. There is no provision whatever for repairing them anymore.
Also, since the price of cell phones is so low, they have become disposable, even with the most expensive models. It's WAY cheaper to ship the customer a new phone than to repair or rebuild.
What carrier wants to take in an old phone, ship it to the manufacturer, have Samsung or Motorola chase down a defective transistor or diode, replace it, put the phone back together again, and then ship it back? They’d be out of business in months, maybe even weeks if they offered to do this for their customers.
The last phones that anybody tried to offer repair on were the Motorola 'Flip-Phone' Micro-Tac models of 1987-89, and those had to be shipped to Motorola for service. That's why you'll find trash bins at Office Depot and elsewhere with signs on them saying 'deposit cell phones and empty printer cartridges here.
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