Dodgy iPhone home button

Hi all,

The 'home' button on my iPhone has become a bit flakey. If you push it hard, it responds, but equally it's possible to "click" it and get no response... Anything from a light to medium click is 50:50 as to whether or not it responds to the click. (The tactile feedback is fine, it's just that iOS doesn't notice the button push. Very annoying when I need to double click to get into multitasking or iPod controls.)

My iPhone 4 is about 16 months old and is in a 24 month contract with O2.

My question is: what's the best way of getting this repaired? I imagine O2 will takes weeks to get a repair sorted, is that a fair assumption? Would an Apple Retail Store be able to fix or replace my phone then and there? Is there another option?

I want to minimise the time I have to be without my phone.

Thanks!

If you have had your phone for about 16 months, I presume it will be a '1st gen' iPhone 4 like mine. I also have intermittent problems with my home button. My problem started about 8 months ago and whilst it hasn't got any better, it hasn't got any worse, thank goodness.

I have been told that this is a known problem with the 1st gen phones and have been told that it can be sent away which will take about 7-10 days to get it back to me with no guarantee of a fix (as it's intermittent, it may behave whilst the engineers play with it to find the fault) or I can book an appointment with my local Apple Genius Bar, again with no guarantee of it being fixed or the phone being swapped. It may be worth ringing Apple Support and having a word, but they'll probably advise you to get a Genius to have a look at it anyway but they may be able to advise you if it can be swapped (although with it being over 12 months old, I doubt this may happen as there is only a 12 month guarantee on iPhones??).

hmm. Well, I'm thinking that a) it was sold with a 24 month contract and b) it must be fit for purpose and therefore c) the phone should not break through normal wear and tear within 24 months.

I can click my home button dozens of times without it registering* so I think I have a sporting chance of proving this to a genius. I'm less sure about O2. Last time I sent them a phone for repair they lost it. (But they didn't realise that as such. It just took them so long that they finally conceded that nothing was actually happening and that that meant that it was probably lost. So I complained. And O2 couldn't get hold of staff in their own store to investigate. And it went downhill from there!)

* pushing hard enough to make it "click" but not hard enough to make it register

Edited by xela (Sun 16-Oct-11 22:04:35)

Have heard of apple stores doing swap outs for original iPhone4 models

cool. That's what I was hoping to hear really... I'm a good 50 miles from an apple store so don't really want a wasted trip :/

Best bet is to make an appointment at an Apple Genius Bar and seek their assistance. Be nice and positive and they may in turn swap your iPhone for a reconditioned unit. I've always found the staff in Apple stores to be extremely helpful.

Also, if you have an Apple id and have registered the iPhone with Apple that gets you bonus points!

I note, from another post, you are some distance from an Apple store... might be worth phoning to discuss though I find face to face works best.

I don't know what part of the country you are in Xela, but I have had great service from:

www.ipatchonline.co.uk

who are based in Leeds. You can post them stuff, but they have done repairs for me while I waited. They charge:
Home button replacement - £40.00
Home button clean (sticky reponse but still functioning) - £20.00

I have no connection with the company -just a satisfied customer.

Leeds is nearby. Someone had a recommended a local phone repair shop but I wanted it done free

Still, with the hassle factor and cost of fuel, maybe I'd be better off paying £40.

Yes, but Apple know their own products like no-one else - and it's free.

It would be worth it imho.

I dont know if this is still the case, but when I asked my local Apple Store if they sold iPhones second hand they said they did, but only to people out of warranty on their contract. A sort of look after Apple adopters approach rather than sell them to anybody walking in off the street.

I thought that was a good idea. My 3GS is out of warranty and the external speaker has packed up. Would be nice if I can replace it with a recon as it does me well for work. Then I can keep it as a spare when my contract renews with an iPhone 4.

I think the guy in the store said it was about a hundred quid or something. I might ring them today and see if that's still the position.
.

well, it was a wasted trip! Apple weren't interested because it's 90 days out of warranty. The O2 store weren't bothered either, for the same reason.

Apple offered me a refurb iPhone 4 for £119. Given that my iPhone 4 is good enough to flog it to envirophone, o2recycle, etc and get £240ish for it, £499 for an iPhone 4S is probably more tempting.

But... I don't think I'm being unreasonable in saying that a phone on a 2 year contract should last 2 years (is that so crazy? ) so I'll see if I can get O2 to change their mind before I go down that route.

No, you're not being unreasonable.
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In reply to a post by xela:

But... I don't think I'm being unreasonable in saying that a phone on a 2 year contract should last 2 years (is that so crazy? ) so I'll see if I can get O2 to change their mind before I go down that route.

I love how all these companies love their contracts, but as soon as you throw it back at them over something like this, they don't want to know.

I see it much like this. The bank 'owns' your house until the very last penny is paid on your mortgage. That's how they can repossess it should you default on payments. This is a contract.

In a similar way, the phone is not your property until you have paid for it. If it's not your property, it must be theirs, until the last penny is paid on the contract. So it should last the duration of it (given it is looked after and maintained).

If you default on payments, the property/phone needs to be returned to the bank/phone company. O2 start chasing you for debt/ask you to return the phone. The bank repossess your home.

Ok, the two aren't completely comparable, but I think mostly similar.

Edited by deleted (Wed 26-Oct-11 06:20:15)

I'm afraid that's a bit like saying that if you buy a car on hire-purchase then you shouldn't have to pay for any repairs until you own the car. (A more extreme comparison could be made with a mortgaged house.)

Unless your contract states otherwise, it covers the cost of calls only. Some include insurance for the phone, but it doesn't sound like yours does. Normal consumer law is your only protection. You could try rejecting it as "unfit for purpose" (less than 2 years seems unreasonable for any mobile phone), but that may not work. Frankly, I'm surprised that Apple don't want to know.

Unlike my car, though, my phone is not built to be repaired. It is a sealed unit and the vast majority of faults will require a replacement, rather than repair. Also, most cars are sold with a much longer warranty these days.

The "unfit for purpose" line is the one I'll follow.