This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
iPhone Woes
Oct
17
2018
Some Wife’s iPhone 6 was having trouble charging. It would connect just fine, but it either wouldn’t charge or it would lose its charge very quickly. We had a Saturday afternoon without the kids, so we went to the phone store.
“Hello, how can I help you?”
“Her phone’s not charging, can you check it?”
“No, you’ll have to go to the Apple store for that.”
“Okay, thanks.”
We drove over to the Apple store, which is in the middle of the fancy mall a few miles from the phone store.
Never having been to the Apple store before, I had higher expectations based on what I’ve heard (or at least seen in ads).
We were greeted pretty quickly, but since we were there for diagnosing a problem, we were directed to a line which seemed like it wrapped halfway around the inside of the store. I bet if we had said we wanted to buy something, we would have been helped right away.
After waiting in the line for a while, we made it to the front, where we were asked again what our problem was and we were directed to a waiting table, of which there were a few.
While we waited at the table, we wondered how many other waiting areas we would have to go through before we were actually helped.
After waiting at the table for another long while, we were helped by some guy (no, not me, this guy is lowercase). He asked us what the problem was, we explained that we plug it in to charge and it connects but doesn’t charge, and he wanted to check it out on his fancy shmancy equipment – a cord he knows works well. So he plugged in her phone and said he’d be back in 5 minutes to see how it was.
After those 5 minutes more, during which the phone went from about 10% charged to 8% charged, he came back and thought maybe the charging port was clogged with lint. I had that problem a few months back with my phone, and I knew that debris in the charge port causes the cord not to connect to the phone (i.e. the phone doesn’t display the lightning bolt next to the battery symbol). But I figured it’s best to let him work through the process he needs to follow.
He cleaned the port, making sure to save the lint on a piece of tape so we can see that he accomplished something. Then he plugged in the phone and we waited a few more minutes, during which the phone lost some more charge.
He came back, noted the lost charge, and concluded that her iPhone 6 was broken in that the charging circuitry must be bad. He offered to fix it for $299, but at that price we might as well get a refurbished phone that’s right around that price, and if we were interested in that he could send over a sales agent.
“Why not?” we thought. “$299 is as decent a price as anywhere else, and we’re here already.”
So we had him send her over.
She came over, and the prices she starting talking about were 4 digits long. Then she came down, but the prices were still more than the last car I bought. Yes it functions, I just drove it yesterday to work and back.
“No thanks.”
Well, her phone was at 5% and was not charging. This was our one opportunity to go phone shopping and be able to discuss it in person. Normally one of us either stays home with the kids, or has to stick with the younger kids in the store so no damages occur and so we never get to discuss things.
We went back to the phone store. Their prices weren’t as bad as the Apple store, because they had a wider range of phones. But the salesman was helpful in that he mentioned that if we waited two weeks until Apple announced their next phone, all the prices of these existing phones would drop by $100 each.
Or, as another money-saving option, we could sign up for their TV service and that would knock the price down further.
“So I could pay $600 per year for TV in order to save $400 off the phone bill?”
“Well, yes.”
“No thanks.”
I think I didn’t get the numbers exactly right in this post, but the concept is correct – I would have to expend more money overall. The point isn’t the phone bill itself, but my expenses in general, Mr. Salesman.
We left, and Some Wife’s phone died completely before I could save her contacts list.
On the way back to the house, she called her mom (using my phone) and she (her mom) realized that she had an old iPhone 5 that she kept after she upgraded. We figured that would be an acceptable temporary measure until we agreed on what her new phone should be.
Upon arriving at their house, I plugged in the dead phone. I forget why. But oddly enough it started charging. We found the old iPhone 5 and charged it. We successfully reset that phone so that it was under our AppleId, so we had two functioning phones when we left there.
Her iPhone 6 has been working ever since. The battery loses charge faster than it used to, but she has a phone charger in the minivan so it hasn’t been a major problem. And Alpha is happy because he got to upgrade his iPhone 4 to an iPhone 5 (grandma’s old phone to him) and now it will run some apps that he couldn’t before.
Moral of the story: I plan on not visiting an Apple store ever again. When her iPhone 6 does die, we’ll get a used phone from somewhere else.
So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father charged before he died, saying,
Genesis 50:16
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 10:21 pm and has been carefully placed in the Life category.
