For several years, we’ve been writing about the iPhone’s built-in humidity detector and numerous customers’ complaints that an incorrect reading had voided the phone’s warranty. Now one Consumerist reader explains why he’s voided his long-term relationship with Apple over this little pink dot.
Reader Jon says he’s stuck with the iPhone since it first launched: “I’ve never had issue with its price, the fact that it cant be modified beyond Apple’s policies, that the iPhone 4 lost antenna power without the bumpers, that there were cheaper, more customizable models with Droids. No – I just was happy that I had a phone that was perfect for everything I need. After nearly 5 years it’s stayed my most reliable electronic device.”
That is until about a month ago when Jon’s latest iPhone began freezing up and and its Home button became unresponsive. A call to Apple support walked him through a factory reset and all was back to normal for a couple of weeks.
Then the iPhone began acting up again so after it froze on the loading screen, Jon took it to the Genius Bar:
The guy behind the counter was nice enough to try and help, but told me that a small pink dot hidden in the charger slot had appeared, meaning that there was water damage to the phone, and although I still had time left before my year warranty ran out, I didn’t qualify for a replacement.
He did however inform me that if the dot was not pink, they would immediately have been able to switch it out my obviously faulty iPhone for a new model that did not fail continually. He spent another 10 minutes behind the counter with my phone plugged into a computer before handing me back my phone with a half-sincere, “This is the best we can do for you.”
Jon says the Apple staffer was eventually able to do a forced restart of the iPhone but that the Home button wouldn’t work and there was still a ton of lag. Yet all the Apple employee could say was, “I’m sorry, but there’s a pink dot.”
He was told that the dot would only appear if the phone had been submerged in water, but he also says that he takes every measure to avoid getting any water on or in the device. “The phone has never been in my bathroom during a shower or in the kitchen while I’m cooking because I am paranoid about steam,” says Jon. “The phone never goes into the gym with me because I’m paranoid about sweat or dropping a weight on it. But somehow THAT phone got submerged in water.”
Jon’s roommate works for Verizon and when he heard Jon’s tale about the pink dot, he laughed and said the indicators can change because of anything from humidity to sweat on your hands and that stores use the humidity detector as a first option to refuse to service to a customer because it saves money.
It was at this point that Jon’s decade of Apple fan-dom ended. The man who had learned to type on a lime green iMac, whose first laptop was a MacBook, who had rocked the original iPod, he went out and bought his new laptop — a Sony VAIO.
He and his roommate had also been talking about getting an Apple TV, but this weekend they purchased a Roku box instead. And it almost goes without saying that he’ll be switching to an Android phone.
“Maybe Ive been too obsessed with Apple products over the past decade,” Jon writes. “Maybe that pink dot was just the wake up call to make me realize that Apple cares little about their customers when there;s a bottom line… Congrats Apple. I hope you choke on your pink dots.”
PREVIOUSLY:
Can High Humidity Void Your iPhone’s Warranty?
Is The iPhone 3G Liquid Sensor A Filthy Liar?
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I had quite the opposite experience after my iPhone 4 was waterlogged for 2 hours (unbeknownst to me) during an international flight. I was stranded in Krakow, phoneless, unable to speak the language, with a very wet, very expensive paperweight.
I got back to the states 10 days later and took my phone to the Apple store. The dude at the Genius Bar told me what I already knew: all four moisture sensors were bright pink. He then checked to see if I was under warranty. Bad news, my warranty had expired four days prior. Good news, he swapped out my broken phone for a brand new one. Free of charge. To this day, I cannot figure out why he did this. I suspect it was because the iPhone 5 was about to launch and he was trying to push old stock, but that’s the only reason I could fathom.
I went in that day fully expecting and perfectly willing to pay full price for a replacement, only to walk out with a brand new, free phone. Can anyone explain this?
Jon can’t have been that dedicated a customer if he was so willing to jump ship so fast. If he had’ve done what any sane person would have done, he would have asked to speak to a manager and/or did some simple Googling when he got home. There have been many cases of the dreaded pink dot turning out to be a false indicator and Apple would have happily replaced the iPhone if he had bothered to escalate…
Oh well, good luck trying to get any support out of Sony!
the only trouble with swearing off Apple products is that all phones now have the water exposure dot. Who’s to say that the same thing won’t happen with an Android from Samsung or Motorola.
Maybe the phones are just too fragile. I’m using a Motorola Verizon slider phone with touch screen that I borrowed from a friend & activated under my number. It’s a casualty of too much drinking and a fall into the river. Her husband retrieved it from the bottom, and they dried it out in some rice. I’m sure somewhere inside there are colored dots, but it works perfectly.
I suppose it isn’t possible at all that he did actually have water or moisture damage to his phone which caused the problems he was having with the Home button considering the proximity to the charger port. But no of course it’s gotta be faulty product and bad customer service or it wouldn’t be a story you could post here for clicks.
My wife had somehow exposed her phone to excessive humidity and the phone started working improperly, but instead of blaming the company, we simply paid to have it repaired/replaced.
This person seems a little knee-jerk reactionary and sensationalistic. You really are going to switch from a Mac to a PC because you are unhappy with your phone experience? And the quote:
“Congrats Apple. I hope you choke on your pink dots.”
Really, hyperbole much?
Eh, I don’t know. Intermittent problems and a non-responsive home button does sound like what happens if the phone has been exposed to enough moisture to develop corrosion on the button/dock connector assembly.
He might have been better off just telling Apple he dunked it somehow. The genuis bar once replaced my phone “under warranty” because I fell into a pool with it in my pocket. That was a strictly a one-time thing and was noted as such on my account, so YMMV.
And they still do the $199 swap for any non-warranty repair.
First of all, it is a LIQUID immersion indicator, not a HUMIDITY indicator. As a computer technician I have worked with them for many years. They do not turn pink/red without coming in contact with liquid. In fact, if a single drop of liquid is place on it the indicator still remains white. There must be some “pooling” of water over the indicator to trigger the change in color.
What I have seen often, however, are customers who refuse to consider that maybe their device in fact has come in contact with water or some liquid. It may not even be them who made the device come in contact with water or liquid. It could have been a family member or friend who was using the device. If it was true that the indicators were defective everyone living in a humid state would have their indicator turn pink/red and this is not the case.
Amen. I live in a very humid place. No red sensors. Also former Apple tech..and I’ve heard all these stories before while having the benefit of having super high res photos of the damage. The things people come up with!
Apple set out a memo to store a while back not to just trust the dot. but to look for signs of real water damage.. http://www.tuaw.com/2011/02/01/apples-softened-water-damage-policy-gains-notice/
This is one of the reasons i bought a lifeproof case. and applecare +
I love all the Apple apologists… “He should escalate…”, “Try a different store…”, “This will never happen with any other manufacturer…”.
Why? He did nothing wrong. Why does HE have to run around either in person or on the phone, etc.
He got crappy customer service. He changed services. He should be congratulated for having acted, rather than suffering, running around and escalating.
He did not get poor customer service (he said the guy behind the counter was “nice enough.”). His phone was wet as per the liquid indicator and that is why it was not covered under his warranty. Had the iPhone not been wet it would still be under warranty (and probably still working as its likely the water that damaged the iPhone in the first place). Those sensors aren’t put there to unjustly prevent warranty claims. They are there to determine if the issue is related to a manufacturers defect or physical (liquid) damage.
If you want to say that the indicators are rigged to turn pink/red then that is another issue (conspiracy maybe) to take up with the companies that manufacturers them for ALL electronic companies, not just Apple.
I moved to Florida a year ago and it’s very hot and humid. Like woah. I also take very hot showers in a room with no vent fan and both visible sensors are perfect. I also go to the gym, I sweat, I ride my motorcycle in the rain with the phone just in my jeans pocket. I’ve retrieved it to find both front and back glass slightly moist…still no pink sensors.
I also worked for Apple’s iPhone division in a supervisory capacity, so that paired with my current experience lets me understand that Jon has damaged his phone. I saw some BS comment about how all sensors have to be tripped. That is 100% not true. More people than you know drop their phones in cereal bowls, coffee cups, etc. The top sensor wouldn’t be tripped but the bottom one certainly would be. The symptoms he describes line up perfectly with exposure to water in the dock area.
Have Apple deny the repair, then request images of the phone from the repair depot. They take super close up pictures of the damage and they will share them with you. I guarantee there will be green discoloring in the port and other obvious signs of water damage.
Yea that pink dot is BS is why you put clear nail polish on it to prevent it from turning pink for any reason
u can also remove the sticker totally too. so no pink dot at all:). or u can buy a new one on ebay, pink dot that is… i know u have to replace the whole headphone port to fix the pink dot issue in it. but yea . he should have worked harder. poor customer skillllzzz
LOL. He didn’t like Apple’s customer service and went with Sony? I guess he never deal with Sony’s customer service before.
Man, this guy just likes spending money. From an Apple to a Sony…
I know someone who purchased their iphone from Verizon. When she experienced the same problems as the user above, Verizon told her the same thing – it’s been in water. She knew it had not been any where near water.
So she then took it to the apple store, one of their people looked at it, and replaced it on the spot. He told her the dot turned pink due to the humidity in the air. It had been a humid summer. The same problem had been a reoccurring one for apple so they were just replacing the phones.
If you buy Apple you get what you deserve.
If Apple didn’t have such a great design team, people might see them for what they really are.
Wake up, Apple cult.
I have never in my entire life bought an Apple product. When this sort of mistreatment occurs, my resolve to avoid Apple is justified.
I’ve always been amazed that phones aren’t made to be more water-resistant, considering the environments people typically use them in. Like in in an emergency in the rain, for instance.
im sorry but pink dot? what if you were sick and used a humidifier to get better and your phone was on your nightstand in your room. Does that mean the pink dot would be set off?
Fu Apple. FU
Read the written warranty! It expressly states that there must be a link between the so called mis-handling issued and the reported defect. All of the companies share similar warranty terms. It is a violation of the warranty to refuse warranty service merely because a moisture sensitive dot has changed color. But they all do it. The Justice Department needs to have a heart to heart talk with the industry over this abuse.
My experience with Apple was almost the opposite of the OP’s. I had an Iphone that was more than a year old, and therefore out of warranty. The home button had become spongey and unresponsive, but I still had close to a year on my contract before I could replace the phone. When I went to the Apple store, the employee looked at the problem, agreed it was bad, and gave me a free replacement even though the warranty had expired. I was startled–the only other time I’ve had something freely replaced after the warranty had expired was about 15 years ago, when my Apple monitor just died. I am very impressed with Apple’s willingness to go beyond the warranty.
Would not be an issue if he had a squaretrade. Square trade is amazing, I have never had an issue with them. If you do want a warranty for your Iphone this will take five bucks off of the warranty. The best thing is you get a check for your full purchase price of the phone less your deductable. This means you can buy a new phone if it were to break lets say when the Iphone 5 comes out……Or if it just breaks you don’t keep getting a crappy referb phone. Here is a link to save 5 bucks off a iphone warrenty. http://squaretrade.extole.com/a/clk/1JG4N
This has nothing to do with this specific issue but I am curious about something; I always hear about Apple’s great customer service when someone’s iWhatever broke. I have worked with and around Apple products for years and I am NOT impressed with their reliability or their performance. I have had great service out of most of the electronics that I have had owned over the years with the exception of one HP laptop. Now, I do understand that personal choice is personal choice but to me anything that receives a cult-like following like Apple everything does scares me off. My choice of phone? Samsung Focus Windows from AT&T.
The water damage indicator is far from accurate in every iteration. I’ve seen phones that have gotten wet NOT trip it and ones that have been new in a box for over a year show water damage.
Apple’s sensors are alot more sensitive than most other brands. My daughter dropped my wife’s eris into a milkshake. It was acting funky and we checked the moisture detector in case we needed to return her phone, was still in pristine shape.
“I’ve never had issue with its price, the fact that it cant be modified beyond Apple’s policies, that the iPhone 4 lost antenna power without the bumpers, that there were cheaper, more customizable models with Droids.”
Hmm, sounds to me like someone who does have an issue. “I never complained about the following eight detailed things…”
Wait till he learns as a Google customer that he is the product being sold to Google’s real customers the Advertisers.
When I get a new phone, I stick a small piece of tape over the moisture detector. I haven’t had to turn anything in for warranty repair yet but whenever that happens, I hope the tape keeps the dot white. Is that a bad thing to do?
I’m not saying that the OP should be blamed, but I did leave my iPhone 4 out in the rain one night and then dried it in rice for a day. It at first was constantly giving me the message about plugging in to a device that couldn’t charge or wasn’t compatible for about 3 days before I assume drying out. Now it works very well but as stated above, the home button is very hard to use and has been since the incident over 6 months ago. So I’m thinking though it may not have been submersed in water, like mine just getting wet in the rain can cause an issue. I’m sure my battery indicator is pink.
This OP is in for a rude awakening. Moisture sensors are ubiquitous in consumer electronics. And the manufacturers take a tripped sensor as an indication that the product has been immersed in water. Which constitutes abuse. Which means the warranty is void. An iPhone has, like, four moving parts. It’s much more likely that water killed it than it stopped working on its own.
That and buy a dang warranty for your phone. I realize that extended warranties are generally a waste of money, but let’s face it. You’ll probably kill your phone inside of two years, before you can upgrade. So the replacement cost of your $200 phone is really $600. Worth the $99 for Squaretrade (or Applecare+) definitely…