It was my second visit since I bought my iPhone in November 2008. The first “attempt to repair” was only 3 months after I used my iPhone. Somehow the motion sensor did not work very well. I had to wait for close to an hour to be served.

What I was more furious than having to wait was the nonchalance of the staff. She used the torchlight and shone onto both ends of my phone and said:“Oh..the liquid indicator is activated, that means your phone has been exposed to water. Because of that, your warranty is VOID. You can replace your phone with our DISCOUNTED PRICE – SGD 950.”

“Huh?? That’s it? I don’t think I am stupid enough to “immerse” my phone in the water!”
*carefully brushed off any dust on my phone* “You see, I take good care of my phone! It is all wrapped up!!”

She just shrugged her shoulders and asked me to replace. I felt so accused!! But knowing that there was no point to argue with her, she was only asked to do this SOP with her TINY TORCHLIGHT.

Miraculously, my phone went back to normal after 1 week.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago, it decided to act crazy again. My iPhone refused to detect any wireless network. Well, iPhone is useless if it is not able to connect to internet so I traveled half way through Singapore to Singtel repair center again.

Believe it or not, this was the queue that was in front me of (minus the long queue behind me)

At first, I thought the queue was waiting to get a Q-number. Then I saw this banner.

Obviously, there were SO MANY people taking their iPhone for repair.

While I was waiting, I observed how the staff handled the cases. Similarly, they used their tiny torches to look at the indicator and said:“It is activated, hence the warranty is void…” Then, followed by grumbles, @#*(#$&*#, and lots of arguments from the customers. This repeats xx times.

A very demure and polite lady who queued behind me tapped on my shoulder and asked softly:“This is the queue for iPhone repair right.”

“Yup! What’s wrong with your phone?”

She showed me her phone. The buttons on the side was gone.

“Wow…what happened?”

“I don’t know. They just decided to fall off one day. I thought it was still under warranty so I could get it repaired.”

“Mm…just to mentally prepare you..you may need to get it replaced. Look there, (point towards the counter) if they found that your liquid indicator is activated, your warranty is void.”


“But the buttons came off, nothing to do with the liquid indicator right?”

“Well..” I shrugged my shoulders.

When my turn came, exactly as I thought, I was told to replace my phone. The staff didn’t even bother to check through my phone. The indicator said it all. I thought I was pretty prepared but I felt so accused again. This time, I need to pay SGD 350 to replace it. The price has dropped from 950 to 350 in 5 months!! Worst thing was, it is out of stock! Too many people need to replace their phones. -_-

Of course, the demure lady after me raised her voice and argued till the cow came home.

Obviously, too many replacements that I had to be put on waiting list. I wonder how valid the indicator is. It said it will not be activated by change of temperature and humidity but how do we know for sure if it isn’t just a “design gimmick” to be excused from manufacturing flaws due to the mass production to meet the extreme high demands when it was first launched?

If you do a search, you can find many who have the similar complaints about the same issue.

I miss my Nokia phone. Went into the toilet bowl twice and was still able to function well until I replaced him with this OH-SO-SENSITVE-AND-FRAGILE iPHONE! *ROAR*!!

Posted under Life documentaries | [7] Comments