The iPhone - and why I love Apple customer services and CraigsList

As many of you know, Alex has recently been converted to the cult of the Blackberry. Hers is red, so it's really more of a Raspberry. While she loves her iPhone, we both appreciate the fact that BMC pays for her entire Blackberry bill. So, about a week ago we decided to sell the iPhone.

However, the faceplate was damaged -- a hairline crack from the top-right to the bottom-left of the device. It happened when she took it out of her purse -- just around the time she got her new Blackberry. Those that know her know she's a bit of a maniac about keeping things "new looking" so it isn't something she did, and that it was probably more a design flaw than negligence.


All that being said, we still figured we were out of luck... no way the folks at Apple would replace it for free, and I didn't want to spend money fixing something just to sell. So, we decided we'd try to sell a scratched iPhone. That'll take the wind out of your sales (pun intended)...


Yesterday, while trying to deactivate the iPhone with AT&T in preparation for our sale, I mentioned the scratch to the AT&T tech support person. He said I shouldn't get my hopes up, but that he thought they might replace the unit for me. He transferred me over to the Apple support hotline and we made an appointment at the Genius Bar at the Apple store on Chestnut street for them to take a closer look.


Today, Alex, Nathan and I took her "previously loved" iPhone to the Apple store and waited patiently (10 minutes -- we showed up early?) for our turn with a Genius. Nathan liked the waiting part quite a bit, as he was able to touch the fancy Mac keyboards without anyone telling him "no no no!"


When it was finally our turn, our Genius took one look at our iPhone and said, "yeah, we can swap that unit out for you. Have you backed up all your stuff?"


My jaw dropped. I was stunned. And thrilled.

"Er, yeah... we wiped it out yesterday."


"Great," he said as he picked up our iPhone and put it into the now-empty box where the replacement unit had been. "Give me a second while I activate your new phone. What's your phone number?"


I gave him our number. And then, in less time than it took us to wait for a Genius to become available, we had a brand new iPhone in hand, and were on our way to lunch.


We ate lunch, triumphant.


And this effort actually translated into a VERY quick sale -- A little later, Alex posted the iPhone to CraigsList and within 1 hour someone from Daly City was standing outside our front door with cash in hand!


Three cheers for Apple Customer Care, three cheers for CraigsList, and three cheers for bargain-hunting Apple iPhone lovers (thank goodness they hadn't read that the new iPhones, likely being released tomorrow, will be twice as fast and have subsidized prices!!)