On one seemingly normal, sunny afternoon, I was using my iPhone as I usually do. I don’t recall but I was probably watching a Vine or retweeting something. All of a sudden, my phone disconnected from my WiFi network. At first, I didn’t think it was a big deal. I calmly went to the settings to reconnect.
Once I got to the WiFi settings, the terror sunk in. My WiFi on/off switch had greyed-out. Thinking it was a temporary iOS 7 glitch of some kind, I restarted the phone. When that didn’t work, I reset my network settings. After doing both those things, I restored the phone. The restore did nothing but get rid of all my data. At this point, I’m already angry with Apple, iOS 7, and my phone itself.
Since the restore didn’t work, I knew (or was quite certain) that it was a hardware issue. So I set up a case ID with Apple and dropped my phone off at UPS. I dropped my phone off on Wednesday and they overnighted it to Apple.
On Thursday, my repair status changed from “service requested” to “diagnosing”. From my experience, it usually takes Apple one day to diagnose hardware problems and send out a replacement. That would be a grand total of 3 days without a phone.
When this whole thing started, I thought I’d get my phone back on Saturday or at the latest, Monday. I was wrong. Thursday passed and I received no updates. Then Friday passed, then the weekend and Monday.
As I’m writing this article, I still have received no word from Apple (it is Tuesday). I’ve been without a phone for nearly a week now. Come on Apple.
Update: I received a refurbished iPhone to replace my broken one. The replacement worked flawlessly until I upgraded to a newer iPhone.
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