[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear all - during a recent flight that I took out of Mumbai, I tried to switch off my i-phone on the aircraft before the flight but nothing happened. The screen remained static at one display only. This caused a huge problem besides embarassment for me in the flight. I informed the flight attendants who after a lot of internal deliberations (I guess must be with the Captain), they allowed me to keep the phone as it is with me.

Just imagine this scenario - I would have had to miss the flight if they had not considered my genuine predicament. Further, after reaching my destination also, nothing happened. I was totally cut off from my office / net connect which caused a lot of problems for me. At one point I had to stop the car and make calls from a pay phone in a small hotel.

What to do? - In such cases, normally the battery has to be removed and refitted but this thing seems to be completely sealed from all sides and I did not want to take any chances with such a costly product. So after cursing Apple for selling me a product which did not work when I wanted it to, I packed it and kept it in my bag.

What next? - After returning to Mumbai, I logged on to "apple.com" from my laptop, searched all over the site, finally found the customer feedback area neatly tucked away in a not so easy to find corner and read that "WE SHALL READ YOUR FEEDBACK BUT SORRY, IT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE FOR US TO REPLY". These guys build impregnable walls around themselves even before we report the product issue to them. So I wrote to them that what happened was ridiculous and that I expect a human being to at least talk to me or I expect at least an E mail from them. It's been 2 days now and nothing has happened. For them, silence is golden / by remaining silent, the problem will go away. Therefore, I am sharing this information on this open forum. I hope that at least now good sense will prevail and these guys who pride themselves on being very innovative and ingenious will at least talk to a customer whose product did not work out there in the field. In other words, I hope that something will happen. Let's see what the "so-called best of the corporates" will do now.

This is for your information only. Please think twice before buying the I phone.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

Quote - "There is only one Boss, the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the Chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else". - Unquote.

[deepakhon]

One of my colleagues had a problem with macbook, and he tried the customer care. Nothing worked. He shot off a mail to Steve himself, and everything was sorted out in a jiffy. Not that I advocate you to take this route at the outset itself, but this is also a route if all the other ones fail.

What state is your phone in now?

[anekho]

For a frozen iphone there are some common and easy and easy work arounds (Removing the battery is not one of them). Some searching on the net and you'll find plenty of options.

Please see this Troubleshooting Guide from Apple's official support:

Apple - Support - iPhone - iPhone Troubleshooting Assistant

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

What next? - After returning to Mumbai, I logged on to "apple.com" from my laptop, searched all over the site, finally found the customer feedback area neatly tucked away in a not so easy to find corner and read that "WE SHALL READ YOUR FEEDBACK BUT SORRY, IT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE FOR US TO REPLY". These guys build impregnable walls around themselves even before we report the product issue to them. So I wrote to them that what happened was ridiculous and that I expect a human being to at least talk to me or I expect at least an E mail from them. It's been 2 days now and nothing has happened. For them, silence is golden / by remaining silent, the problem will go away. Therefore, I am sharing this information on this open forum. I hope that at least now good sense will prevail and these guys who pride themselves on being very innovative and ingenious will at least talk to a customer whose product did not work out there in the field. In other words, I hope that something will happen. Let's see what the "so-called best of the corporates" will do now.

On Apple India's official site, hit support, then 'Contact Support' under 'Talk to Us' and you have a multitude of option of contacting to them (including phone).

See this link for the Indian phone numbers: http://www.apple.com/support/contact/phone_contacts.html

To be honest I don't think it's fair to criticize the whole company without searching their website properly.

[sanjayc]

To reboot iPhone just keep the top right button and home key pressed for few secs. The phone will switched off. Press on off button again to switchon. Did u try this?

[issigonis]

>>> Behram,

Obnoxious experience. I find it disconcerting that the only way to reach to the customer care is through the 'disembodied' email and /or IVR. I would prefer to talk to a human when I have a serious problem- may be I am old fashioned, but there's nothing better than the human touch.


This particular problem is unusual and if the crew is not understanding, then as you rightly said, one runs the risk of being offloaded.


Let's hope they get back to you and correct the problem.

The customer actually pays the salaries of all employees of a firm -this insight was brought home to me by a wonderful manager of a telecom services firm to me, when I was a relative greenhorn some fifteen years ago. Imagine the difference this thought will make for all firms which transact with consumers.

Regards
issigonis

[fuel_addict]

That must have been embarrassing. Did you not try switching to the airplane (flight) mode instead of turning off the phone?

Like Sanjay said, did you press the power button and leave it pressed for 3-4 seconds? That should restart your phone. If it doesn't, I would suggest you to call the Apple helpline number in India. Its a toll free number and can be reached by dialing 1-800-425 0744 from a land line. These guys are helpful and I'm sure they would help you out on the phone. If they can't, they will direct you to the nearest service center.

Did you not try visiting a local Apple store or a service center in your area? If you are from the suburbs, there is one in the Khar/Bandra area just off S.V.Road.

I recently had a battery bulging issue with my 3 yr old Macbook. After few calls to Apple customer care and couple of emails, they agreed to replace my battery free of charge (I did not even have an extended warranty).

[vasoo]

From the heading of this post I thought it has something to do with flight! In any case I would suggest you to follow the instructions on their support website or on public forums before trying to contact their service desk. Regarding switching off mobiles phones while flying, I never used to do it. I will just keep it in silent mode from airport itself.

[fuel_addict]

Originally Posted by vasoo

From the heading of this post I thought it has something to do with flight! In any case I would suggest you to follow the instructions on their support website or on public forums before trying to contact their service desk. Regarding switching off mobiles phones while flying, I never used to do it. I will just keep it in silent mode from airport itself.

Isn't that a breach of the flight rules? You can always use the Offline profile if you do not wish to turn off your phone.

[KA18]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

The screen remained static at one display only. .... Further, after reaching my destination also, nothing happened. I was totally cut off from my office / net connect which caused a lot of problems for me. At one point I had to stop the car and make calls from a pay phone in a small hotel....In such cases, normally the battery has to be removed and refitted but this thing seems to be completely sealed from all sides and I did not want to take any chances with such a costly product. ... I packed it and kept it in my bag.

So Sir, you did not want to remove the battery to reset the phone.

But what after that, did you remove the battery or did it correct itself?

Are you not using the phone now?

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Quote - "There is only one Boss, the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the Chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else". - Unquote.

Behram Sir, these are simply golden words!

[Jaggu]

You can try a hard reboot, press power and home button simulateneously so that phone restarts and then switch it off or move to airplane mode.

[raghu230506]

As mentioned by everyone, a hard reset (home + Power) allways solves it. My Iphone 2G created the same issues (not during the flights) though.

[sgiitk]

I think there are two issues. I myself have left my mobile on on a couple of occasions (in the bag in the overhead locker). Never had any problem at the other end. If you remember 9/11 as per reports. there were people on the ill fated flights talking on the mobile. The ban on mobiles is more of a regulatory issue.

So we have an iPhone lock up and how to fix it as the real issue. The flight part is coincidence.

[sanjayc]

When the phone becomes unresponsive how come airplane mode can be activated. The only way is to do a hard reset. It always works unless the buttons itself have conked off.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by KA18

So Sir, you did not want to remove the battery to reset the phone.

But what after that, did you remove the battery or did it correct itself?

Are you not using the phone now?

iPhone is a sealed phone, user can not remove the battery. It requires some effort + tweaking.

[srishiva]

The hard reboot in Iphone/Ipod are so hard for everyone to know. They should have a dedicated hard reset pin/button since the battery cannot be removed.