iPhone 7 back to Apple 3 times, same issue persists & am at my wits end, need advice

Pulse8

Ok I'll try to keep this as short as poss, would appreciate some advice.
I'll preface by saying there has been no physical or water damage to the iPhone 7, this just happened out of the blue.

August bank holiday, my phone becomes really sluggish & non responsive.
Even swiping from app page to app page on the home screen locks it up & opening apps is a 15 to 20 sec wait.
You also cannot answer any calls that come in, the phone does look like it's answered but the timer counter never moves & you cant hear anyone through the phone nor can they hear me.
You also cannot take pictures, the camera app stays black, eventually opening the sensor window & will not take pictures, there is another trigger that causes the phone to completely lock & that is switching the vobrate switch on the side of the phone.

I restored as new phone & pulled everything back across, still no joy.
Must've restored it at least 5 times during this period & still phone is just a disaster & unusable.

I contact Apple tech support, they send the UPS box & back to them it goes.
Luckily at this point I'm able to use a phone from work but I'm on borrowed time with it.

A few days later I get a mail saying they've received the item, then that night another mail saying they "cant replicate the issues & are returning the phone to me" :rolleyes:

I wait for it to come back & contact tech support again.
They take tons of notes & i advise them I'm going to be in Las Vegas for a few days that week, they suggest taking it to the Genius Bar so I do.
The girl there is dumbfounded by the issue & has never seen anything like it & takes lots of notes, however when she does their diagnostic mode test the phone somehow passes the screen response test (they have to colour the screen in blue or something?)
She says as a result she cant swap it out but that she's very sorry & will write me up some killer notes for my second return to apple engineers.

I get home from Vegas, again contact the same dude I'd been dealing with on tech support, he takes more notes.
Then sends the box once again. I return the phone, again get the "we received" mail & then nothing for 2 days, finally a "we've repaired your iPhone" mail - REJOICE!!!

Phone comes back yesterday, there's a docket within saying it's been repaired & it outlines some kind of replacement due to "display - calibration unsuccessful"
I can see on the repair docket the engineer apparently tested "post repair function" too

So I boot the phone up, stick my sim card in & BOOM....the exact same issue is there, I can barely make it through the setup screens that come after "HELLO"

The phone as usual appears to work as normal but if you do any of the little triggers like switching it to vibrate with the switch on the side or opening the camera app (which stays black for an age & then will not take a picture) the phone once again locks up & becomes unrepsonsive!

What in the hell can I do with this? Apple tech support informed me that I orig had 30 days on my warranty when this started but becuase I reported it within it I get an extra 30 days, now the repair says it's got 90 days warranty

I'm beginning to think should I have gone to Vodafone in the first place with this as that's who the phone came from (their online store not bricks & mortar) but I assumed they'd just send to Apple as I am anyway.
Would I be an idiot to try & start this process all over again with them???

Apple just do not seem willing to replace the phone with a refurb no matter what, am currently waiting on yet another call from my tech support guy....any thoughts??? As this is utterly ridiculous :mad:

*congrats if you made it this far, I appreciate it!

whiterebel

Can you bring it to Mactivate or CompuB or one of the Apple resellers/repairers and see if you can replicate it in front of them?

Pulse8

I'm in Waterford so stuck between CompuB stores in Cork & Dublin, bit of a pain to make it to either but looks like I'm going to have to now.

Might be able to make it to Dublin store Sunday afternoon, previously Apple tech support mentioned having to make an appointment with them, anyone know if this is true or can I just swan in on Sunday afternoon with this banjaxed yoke?

Oafley Jones

Do you have Apple care plus?

Edit: Just re read warranty period info.

Pulse8

Na just the standard one

I've had every iPhone since the 3GS & have never experienced any issues like this, I remember back in the day when they'd send you the UPS box to return & a refurb phone you kept, seems times have changed

Pulse8

Just off the phone to CompuB, I can drop it in Sunday but obvs there'd be no one to look at it or run a diagnostics test on the day.

I'm afraid though what might happen is it'll be the same as in the Apple store in Vegas, it passes diagnostics & can't be swapped out but is virtually unusable when it's in your hand - this is a complete & utter disaster :mad:

Deep Thought

Pulse8 wrote: »

Just off the phone to CompuB, I can drop it in Sunday but obvs there'd be no one to look at it or run a diagnostics test on the day.

I'm afraid though what might happen is it'll be the same as in the Apple store in Vegas, it passes diagnostics & can't be swapped out but is virtually unusable when it's in your hand - this is a complete & utter disaster :mad:

Maybe its you !!

You don't have an internal EMP source perchance ?:D

crazyderk

Pulse8 wrote: »

Just off the phone to CompuB, I can drop it in Sunday but obvs there'd be no one to look at it or run a diagnostics test on the day.

I'm afraid though what might happen is it'll be the same as in the Apple store in Vegas, it passes diagnostics & can't be swapped out but is virtually unusable when it's in your hand - this is a complete & utter disaster :mad:

I dont think compub do any diagnsotic or repair for iphones or watches, they send those away. They would only do repairs on macs so you would probably end up in the same position despite the phone being in for repairs for 2 weeks.

OP, apple offer an additional service where they ship you out a new phone and then take back the old phone. If you have apple care its normally a free service they just put a hold on your cc for the full amount of the new phone in case you don't return the old phone.

If you don't have apple pay then there's a charge of like 35 euro maybe to take advantage of the service. I've asked to speak to a supervisor before due to other issues and they have waived the charge for me. its a handy way to know for sure you are getting a replacement rather than a repair.

whiterebel

crazyderk wrote: »

I dont think compub do any diagnsotic or repair for iphones or watches, they send those away. They would only do repairs on macs so you would probably end up in the same position despite the phone being in for repairs for 2 weeks.

OP, apple offer an additional service where they ship you out a new phone and then take back the old phone. If you have apple care its normally a free service they just put a hold on your cc for the full amount of the new phone in case you don't return the old phone.

If you don't have apple pay then there's a charge of like 35 euro maybe to take advantage of the service. I've asked to speak to a supervisor before due to other issues and they have waived the charge for me. its a handy way to know for sure you are getting a replacement rather than a repair.

Not any more. its gone 12 months or more. Only available with APP+ now.