Now I am going to share one of my experiences with Apple Care that I had 3 months before. I am using an iPhone 5S(Space Grey, 32GB). I purchased it from infibeam.com(Apple Authorised Online Reseller). One fine day, when I got up and switched on my phone it was not turning on. I thought battery might be empty, so I connected with charger. After half an hour again the same thing. I was a little worried so tried searching on internet for the solution I did a Hard Reset and power reset, but it did not work.
I called Apple Care India, and went through complete process and they informed that it might be a hardware issue so I have to visit Apple Authorised Service Centre. They were very polite and humble. I was a little worried cos it was just 2 months old. So I rushed to the service centre Maple, Bangalore. There they received the device and told me that there is a small scratch on top right corner. Now to be frank, when we use a phone and keep it on the car glove box these kind of small scratches happen.
I tried convincing and finally after one day they said that I will get a replacement device. Now the next day I got a shocking news from them stating that the serial number on the motherboard and the serial number on the bill is not matching, so its a tampered device and the device is not eligible for any kind of hardware support. I called Apple Care, and the way they speak as if they own the company. Whatever you say, they will just answer stating " Sir, I understand, Kindly give us 24 hours time so that we can get back to you." Horrible Experience.
Days went by and finally after 14 days, (when my frustation level was at peak), one of their senior advisors told me that it looks like manufacturing issue, and it has to be covered under warranty. Now, I received a replacement device, but, is this the way a company should behave with its customers?
Being a customer our simple expectation is whenever the product is in warranty, if anything happens, the manufacturer will support and these are pretty expensive devices. They took 17 days only beacuse of one reason that the serial number is not matching. Who opens a cell phone while purchasing to see if the serial number on the box, bill and on the motherboard matches. For my case, one serial number was present on the box and bill and another serial number was present on the motherboard. The difference between these two serial numbers was just four alphabets and to be frank its not my problem and my headache.
Now my issue is resolved and these kind of things I ave never expected from a premium brand.
Regards
Diptanshu Mishra