WOT: Apple Support Rant

wwaag wrote on 7/11/2016, 3:33 PM
Bought my wife an iPad Mini-2 last Dec. It has an intermittent problem--the battery shows 100% and then goes dead. Shows black screen with battery needing re-charging. Finally convinced tech support for product return. A week later, it was returned, saying nothing could be found. Immediately died on first use. Since then, I've spent over 6 hours on phone with different tech support levels, Reinstalled OS--twice and set up as new device. I've sent numerous crash logs, the last one this AM. Also screen photos showing charge at 100% and a few minutes later showing 14%. It's as if they don't believe that I'm having a problem since running their diagnostics didn't show anything. and that I don't know how to charge the device. I've asked for a replacement--they can't do that even though it's still under warranty. Right now, it's completely dead, but may spring to life at any moment like in the past. It's really a nice little tablet--when it works. My wife bought me a $50 Fire tablet from Amazon--not nearly as elegant, but it works flawlessly.

Any suggestions on what additional steps I might take with Apple other than throwing the iPad away and moving on? At this point, I would NEVER buy another Apple product again, although I still use a couple of their phones.

wwaag

AKA the HappyOtter at https://tools4vegas.com/. System 1: Intel i7-8700k with HD 630 graphics plus an Nvidia RTX4070 graphics card. System 2: Intel i7-3770k with HD 4000 graphics plus an AMD RX550 graphics card. System 3: Laptop. Dell Inspiron Plus 16. Intel i7-11800H, Intel Graphics. Current cameras include Panasonic FZ2500, GoPro Hero11 and Hero8 Black plus a myriad of smartPhone, pocket cameras, video cameras and film cameras going back to the original Nikon S.

Comments

wwjd wrote on 7/11/2016, 4:36 PM
go to one of those live Apple churches, and show those people how it fails.
GeeBax wrote on 7/11/2016, 5:30 PM
^ This. It would be much easier to demonstrate the problem to one of the Apple-Kiddies than by phone or email, and you have the added benefit of being able to amp up the annoyance level if they don't solve it for you. They don't like scenes in the happy little place.
OldSmoke wrote on 7/11/2016, 5:40 PM
Have you tried a different charger and charging cable?

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wwaag wrote on 7/11/2016, 6:13 PM
Have you tried a different charger and charging cable?

Yes--different cables--different chargers--many times. Again, it shows 100% charged and "boom"--black screen. Afterward, it only shows the black screen with battery, red lines at bottom and the error log shows a low battery crash. I've left it charging overnight--same thing. Whatever the reason, all I know is that it doesn't work and Apple thus far refuses to admit there is a problem. After paying a lot of money for a 7" tablet, I'm just a wee bit annoyed--to say the least.

wwaag

AKA the HappyOtter at https://tools4vegas.com/. System 1: Intel i7-8700k with HD 630 graphics plus an Nvidia RTX4070 graphics card. System 2: Intel i7-3770k with HD 4000 graphics plus an AMD RX550 graphics card. System 3: Laptop. Dell Inspiron Plus 16. Intel i7-11800H, Intel Graphics. Current cameras include Panasonic FZ2500, GoPro Hero11 and Hero8 Black plus a myriad of smartPhone, pocket cameras, video cameras and film cameras going back to the original Nikon S.

rmack350 wrote on 7/11/2016, 6:24 PM
Take it to an Apple store. If that's not possible then get a person on the phone and ask to escalate it. Tech support hates escalations.

If THAT isn't possible then make a video illustrating the problem and place it on youtube so you can show it to them. Before you show it to them, invite all your friends to look and comment so that it is looking very public. Direct them to the comments as if they were helpful ideas.
JJKizak wrote on 7/11/2016, 6:32 PM
Back in the old days we would just toss the thing and buy another one from a different manufacturer like Samsung.
JJK
Grazie wrote on 7/12/2016, 1:07 AM
Was this bought directly from an Apple store? If not, was it a refurb? I don't know what your consumer rights are, but here in the UK if a product is not fit for the purpose we can demand, yes demand, a repair or replacement or full money back and for most consumer items, this lasts for up to a year - period!

OK, I have had four iPhones. Great piece of technology. But, they do NOT like heat, and that means anything over 35degs C for a sustain period. I had my first iPhone4 for fpour years and it worked very well indeed. My last middle 2 have had a mixed "lifetime". Black Screens and need for reinstalls and so on - not happy. Batteries have failed and I've been given/offered replacements for the cost of a replacement battery. Knowing that the AppleTechs use a s/w to gauge battery health, not just charged state, and have found an App to check the actual HEALTH of the battery, while its charging and what the amp draw actually IS, I have installed this on both my iPad and iPhone. This has been most edifying indeed!

What I have learnt from this is that:

1] Both devices have healthy batteries.

2] I can SEE the milliamperes being used to charge and those that are being used while the battery is charging - whilst charging.

3] Not all chargers ARE what they seem at first.

4] My iPad Air2 requires more mA than my iPhone. I have chargers that supply 1000mA and the one I use for my iPad Air supplies 2100mA.

It can be a real pain.

G
rmack350 wrote on 7/12/2016, 12:34 PM
Not all chargers ARE what they seem at first.

One requirement their tech support should have is that you use the charger they provided with the product, or a replacement Apple charger for that product. I assume though that the problem occurs with the stock charger.

I think the best course is to get one's hooks into a specific tech agent, which often happens through an escalation. Individuals are usually more responsive than faceless organizations.

Rob
wwaag wrote on 7/12/2016, 1:11 PM
I've been working with one agent now for a couple of weeks. Am awaiting their response from "engineering".

In my opinion, this is really NOT a charging problem. Installed the app suggested by Grazie and it shows the battery charge to be at 100%, capacity to be at 99% and only 4 recharge cycles in its lifetime.

For some unknown reason, it just "crashes", stays dead for awhile and then awhile later starts working again. I guess it's understandable why such intermittent problems are hard to diagnose.

The nearest Apple store is three hours away, and even if I went, odds are, given my luck, the thing would be working.

wwaag

AKA the HappyOtter at https://tools4vegas.com/. System 1: Intel i7-8700k with HD 630 graphics plus an Nvidia RTX4070 graphics card. System 2: Intel i7-3770k with HD 4000 graphics plus an AMD RX550 graphics card. System 3: Laptop. Dell Inspiron Plus 16. Intel i7-11800H, Intel Graphics. Current cameras include Panasonic FZ2500, GoPro Hero11 and Hero8 Black plus a myriad of smartPhone, pocket cameras, video cameras and film cameras going back to the original Nikon S.

Grazie wrote on 7/12/2016, 1:16 PM
Only 4 recharge cycles since last year? Really? Not correct. Look at the Health (?) tab, what does that say?

wwaag wrote on 7/12/2016, 1:37 PM
That is correct, only 4 cycles. It's from the Raw Data tab that includes temperature, discharge current, etc. Like I said, this thing has hardly been used. I installed a few apps at the outset, but since then, it's only been used a few times. My wife gave up after it crashed like its doing now a few times. It's just been gathering dust (not literally) until now when I decided to get it fixed, assuming there would be no problem since it is under warranty and Apple supposedly has a good reputation.

wwaag

AKA the HappyOtter at https://tools4vegas.com/. System 1: Intel i7-8700k with HD 630 graphics plus an Nvidia RTX4070 graphics card. System 2: Intel i7-3770k with HD 4000 graphics plus an AMD RX550 graphics card. System 3: Laptop. Dell Inspiron Plus 16. Intel i7-11800H, Intel Graphics. Current cameras include Panasonic FZ2500, GoPro Hero11 and Hero8 Black plus a myriad of smartPhone, pocket cameras, video cameras and film cameras going back to the original Nikon S.

Grazie wrote on 7/12/2016, 1:48 PM
What does the Wear level say?
wwaag wrote on 7/12/2016, 2:07 PM
0% Battery Wear Level. Perfect. Sounds like new to me.

AKA the HappyOtter at https://tools4vegas.com/. System 1: Intel i7-8700k with HD 630 graphics plus an Nvidia RTX4070 graphics card. System 2: Intel i7-3770k with HD 4000 graphics plus an AMD RX550 graphics card. System 3: Laptop. Dell Inspiron Plus 16. Intel i7-11800H, Intel Graphics. Current cameras include Panasonic FZ2500, GoPro Hero11 and Hero8 Black plus a myriad of smartPhone, pocket cameras, video cameras and film cameras going back to the original Nikon S.

JJKizak wrote on 7/12/2016, 2:16 PM
When a battery is marginal very funny things happen.
JJK
Grazie wrote on 7/12/2016, 2:33 PM
I'd be taking it back and getting my money or replacement.

G
gpsmikey wrote on 7/13/2016, 9:58 AM
The fact that it can go from 100% to black screen/dead almost instantly rules out the charger. If it was really 100%, it would be good for quite a while even without charging. It almost sounds like a bad connection for it to fail like that - try turning it on and shaking it or twisting the case slightly. See if that causes the failure. It may also (as others suspected) be a bad battery, but the 100% to dead rules out the charger itself as a problem.

Also do a Google search on the problem - ran into a similar issue a few years ago with my daughters cell phone - turn it off and it would go dead in 8 hours or so. Verizon insisted there was no problem, but Google turned up quite a bit of comments about the problem including on Verizons own site - seems it was a design error that caused much higher battery drain when it was off than when it was on. Took the printouts of the documented problems and the measurements others had taken of the problem into the Verizon store, asked to see the manager and showed him the 30+ pages of documentation of the problem. He gave us a new phone, agreeing it was a problem ... yea!!!



mikey
Grazie wrote on 7/13/2016, 11:04 AM
Mikey, I agree. Wayne, take it back for replacement or cash.

G