My iPhone wasn’t working right for about a month. I missed about 40% of my calls. Within the last month, the phone would receive calls but the ringer wouldn’t ring. I would see the 5-8 missed calls from one caller, and call back.
I get OK reception in my apartment. Reception might flare up if I’m not near a window or if I’m in my bathroom (which is an interior room), but I shrug it off. Maybe if I had Verizon, it wouldn’t happen. (Many believe Verizon tends to have better service on the East Coast. The fact that Verizon people get service on Metro reaffirms this for me, as the policy wonks get to check their crackberries on the way to work.)
I figured that it was shoddy reception. Friends got annoyed. Calling back wasn’t a good solution. I needed a new solution.
I went to AT&T and got the SIM card changed. It was a temporary solution. Calls “seemed” to go through. But my phone still didn’t get all of my calls.
I started lurking on message boards. Anything Edge-related could make sense; I keep mine off 3G because it sucks up too much battery for my liking and Edge works fine for me. I read a few things about how calls may not come through when the phone is surfing the Web or what not—except I wasn’t using any applications when I missed calls.
I could get calls when my phone was active… So I tried a new hypothesis: I’m not getting my calls because whatever is supposed to wake up the phone when there’s an incoming call isn’t working. I tried calling my phone from Skype when it was asleep, and there’s no response.
I took it to AT&T to ask them about it. The employees at this store claim they have never seen this problem before. They try calling my phone while its asleep, and the phone doesn’t move. They recommend that I go to an Apple store. I make my way up to Bethesda.
(I hadn’t been up to Bethesda since I dropped off my papers—and there is a ton of construction there. I walked to where the original Apple store was, saw its closed doors, and almost had a meltdown right there. Then saw the newer, huger store that looks like it could eat Uncle Julio’s. Then I let out a sigh of relief and walked towards the fruit/tech Mecca.)
I made my appointment, and told the girl that my phone doesn’t work. She plays with the software, and that doesn’t solve it. In the end, I got a new iPhone to replace stupid-not-working-phone. And this one works fine.
A frustrating part of this story was trying to figure out what was wrong with one of the hottest pieces of … technology in a while. My initial solution of cognitive-dissonance in which if I believed that it worked, it would work—that didn’t work and was told so. Often.
Message boards helped guide a little. And as I was looking for links to message boards for this post, I found this. If I had found this earlier…
To quote a great modern philosopher (totally out-of-context): “I’m tired of using technology…”
One Comment
1 Katherine wrote:
While I do think iPhones are more finnicky than other smart phones, I wouldn’t trade mine for any other piece. The bottom inch of my screen stopped working for a while, so I couldn’t touch any buttons on the grey bar, or answer any calls. The upside here is I took it to the Apple store and they gave me a brand new phone. While frustrating, I found the Apple support message boards helpful, and Apple was willing to hand me a brand new phone. The technology might have some quirks, but Apple has fantastic customer service.