My iPhone 6+ Bent
Apple calls it “accidental damage”. Really? Isn’t a phone that bends a defective product?
Photo by Lewis Hilsenteger, the guy who revealed Bendgate in this video: https://youtu.be/znK652H6yQM
Apple calls it “accidental damage”. Really? Isn’t a phone that bends a defective product?
Remember Bendgate? Some of Apple’s new iPhone 6+ units bent at a point right below the volume buttons. (If you don’t remember, here is an excellent and exhaustive summary from 9to5 Mac.) At the time, I thought the whole thing was overblown. I never thought my iPhone would bend. But then I noticed that my iPhone 6+ had got a bend in it.
I’m not re-hashing Bendgate here, and I didn’t notice any functional difference in the phone. But when I took it into the Apple store, my assigned Apple Genius immediately treated it as damaged and started the process to replace it. (The dispatcher admitted to me, while I was waiting for my Genius, that bent iPhones were the most common problem with the phones.) More specifically, the company classifies a bent phone as “accidental damage,” similar to dropping your phone in the water or cracking the screen.
You should purchase AppleCare with your phone; I learned always to do this after I broke my first iPhone. AppleCare provides you with a cheap fix to two such “accidental damages” (a $79 fee). I had already used my two accidental damages, since I have already broken the screen twice. At the time, I had thought Apple brilliant because they redesigned the screen in iPhone 6 so that it could be replaced in the store, rather than having to exchange the whole phone.
It might be cheaper for Apple, but it still counts the same as bending or submerging your phone, both of which still require exchanging the whole phone. Result: I had to pay $329 for my new iPhone 6+. That’s a real steal, given that the equivalent model costs $949 without a phone contract. But it’s still more than the $79 fee I paid for replacing my screen(s). (My first thought is that I wished I had bent my phone before I cracked the screen the second time!)
But here’s the thing. Accidental damage is what it is: dropping your phone and breaking the screen or submerging are clearly accidents. But should a phone bend? What is the basic expectation for phone-ness? I you look at the back pocket of almost every woman walking on the street (and yes, I have been known to look at that particular part of a woman’s anatomy!), you’ll see that a very high percentage have their phone — no matter what model — in their back pocket. (I’m not so sure about men, since I haven’t been focused on their rear ends.)
Don’t consumers expect a piece of hardware, particularly a slab that is designed to feel and actually does feel, really solid not to bend? I don’t know when my phone bent or how. I do carry it in my back pocket when I don’t have a jacket on. And I’m sure I sat on it, which is probably how it got bent.
But if that’s accidental damage, then Apple should have a clear and visible warning on the product not to carry it in the back pocket and warn that the product isn’t covered for defects like bending. I think a phone that bends is a defective product. I think Apple should fess up to the design flaw, and even consider recalling the product voluntarily.