Geeky Girl- iPhone Replacement

Almost nine months ago I bought an iPhone 3G from Etisalat. That was on the very day they launched, back in February. As you might have read here before, I was so excited about getting my new iPhone and that I was buying it locally and unlocked. I was very proud because the UAE was on the Apple map with its own iPhone. Unfortunately my excitement soon became “I just want it to work”. I had a hard time getting Etisalat to activate my SIM and it took almost a week before I could use the iPhone.

Fast forward to about nine months later and I once again had problems with my phone. This time it was not Etisalat’s fault, it was a hardware problem. Basically it didn’t register any touch in the bottom one centimeter of the screen. You know, the area where you swipe to open the iPhone, press the icons at the bottom, etc. It’s a pretty important part of the iPhone’s screen. I did not think much about it because I bought my iPhone from Etisalat and I am still within my one year warranty, so all should be good. But do you think it was easy to get my iPhone fixed or replaced? Nope, and here is where another long story starts.

You know when you call 101 they normally tell you to go to the nearest business center, as they cannot help you? Well this time it was the business center saying that they could not help me and that I needed to call 101, then come back to the business center.

Here’s some advice for you too if you have problems with an Etisalat iPhone: don’t cancel your number that you received with that iPhone or loose the receipt or box that the iPhone came in. Right after getting my iPhone 3G in February I had canceled the number and the plan and kept using the iPhone with my old one. Now Etisalat kept asking me for this number, which I don’t even remember. The receipt I don’t know where it is and the same for the box. Yes, perhaps a bit careless of me but there’s an easy fix, or so I thought.

You would think they could look up all details by the iPhone’s serial number, right?

Not so fast, that would be too easy. Several Etisalat people told me they cannot do that because it’s not supported by the system. Some system that is, I say. You would think it should not be that hard, every Apple product has serial number. When I go to Apple in the US they only need the serial number, and I am in business.

Anyway, after about an hour on the phone to 101 they decided to take my serial number and email Apple with my problem. I had to wait 24 hours to see if Apple thought that my problem was a hardware problem or not. Etisalat said that they do not fix iPhones and if Apple said that my problem was hardware, then they would replace my phone.

After a few days I did get a replacement for my iPhone, but I don’t think that my replaced iPhone is a new iPhone because there was no new box or cables, it was just the iPhone.

I am thankful that I was able to get my iPhone replaced and that it is once again working. This made buying locally all that much more important. But the process should be much easier than this, Etisalat.