I have an iPhone 12 Pro Max that I got in November 2020. It’s been working great since then. At one point my battery started to run out by mid-afternoon, and I had a new battery installed. But otherwise, it has worked perfectly. And considering that I am almost constantly using it during my waking hours, that’s pretty damn good.
On Saturday, I dropped the phone. This was not the first time since I had this phone that I dropped it, by the way. But as the saying goes, it takes a licking and keeps on ticking! Oh wait, that was the tagline for Timex watches back in the day.
I picked up the iPhone from the hardwood floor and inspected it. No broken or cracked glass. Keypad worked, screen gestures were responsive, and all of my apps worked, including the Jetpack mobile app. Yay, my iPhone survived yet another drop intact. I was elated.
But the elation soon wore off. I tried to take a screenshot, which involves pressing the side button on the right and the volume up button on the left. But instead of taking a screenshot, all it did was increase the speaker volume. Then I thought maybe the device needed a reboot, which involves pressing and holding either volume button on the left and the right side button until the power-off slider appears. But all that happened was moving the speaker volume up and down. Then I tried downloading an app from the App Store, but that requires double-pressing the right side button. Again, that didn’t work.
Realizing that shutting down my iPhone, taking screenshots, and/or downloading apps from the App Store won’t work if the right side button doesn’t function, I set up an appointment for yesterday at the local Apple Store to see about getting it fixed,
My wife drove me there (since I’m still not supposed to drive yet because of my ladder fall injuries). We got there and met with an Apple “Genius Bar” tech. He ran some diagnostics on my iPhone and confirmed that the right button on my iPhone was history. He offered me two options: 1) trade in my broken iPhone 12 Pro Max on a brand new iPhone 14 Pro Max for only $750, or 2) pay for essentially a rebuild of my current three-year old iPhone for $500.
I was not a happy camper. I told him that I’ve been a loyal Apple customer for over a decade. I showed him my Apple Watch. I told him about my Apple AirPods. I told him about my wife’s MacBook Pro laptop at home. The guy gave me the once over, stood up, and told me he’d be back shortly.
Maybe he bought my story about being a loyal Apple customer. Or maybe he looked at me and saw an old fart with holes in his jeans who needed to use a walker to get around and felt sorry for me. But he came back and said he spoke with his manager, and for only $250 — one-third of the price to upgrade to an iPhone 14 and one-half to repair my three-year-old broken iPhone — he would give me a brand new, straight out of the box iPhone 12 Pro Max — the exact same model as my broken iPhone.
So here I am, a day later, happily tapping away this post on my brand new iPhone. Now I’m a very happy camper!
What’s not to love about my iPhone?
This, That, and the Other 
what a stroke of good luck you had! I love my iPhone too! Now be careful not to drop it 😛
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🙂 Fandango, I would like you to go out and purchase a protective case for your iPhone.
In the meantime, please be very careful with it.
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My phone had a case. Sometimes it’s not that you fall but how you fall. I’ve fallen off of a ladder before, but only broke my hip and arm once.
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Sweet! I’ve dropped my 12 a few times, but so far so good (it’s in a protective case but not an otter). I kinda love the canary gold 14 💛
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You know that song Short People. When I sing it I replace short with Apple. LOL – Long live Android and my Pixel 7 Pro! All kidding aside I’m glad to hear you got a great deal on a replacement, Fandango.
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You got a sweet deal my friend. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
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That was really very nice of him. Sometimes, people can be unexpectedly kind. It’s refreshing.
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After all the injuries you needed something good to happen and it did finally 😄. Enjoy your new iphone.
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That was a good bargain. Good
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What’s not to love about your (old) iPhone? It’s that it wasn’t sturdy enough to take a couple of knocks, and the whole thing became junk when one little button stopped working (and couldn’t be cheaply and easily replaced). Next question?
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I’ve dropped it quite a few times and this was the first time there was damage. I don’t think it’s better or worse than other smartphones on the market. And it didn’t become “junk.” I could still do 90% of what I typically do, and I found a workaround for everything that didn’t work except for one thing: downloading apps from the App Store, which quite honestly I don’t do that often. So junk, no. A bit of an annoyance, yes.
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Things break if dropped wrong. Doesn’t matter what it is. The old phone was no different. I had my previous one for 9 years and dropped it constantly. It was the charging port that finally forced me to retire it. I’ve already dropped this five thousand times. It happens.
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They have, what I refer to as klutz cases. Maybe invest in one?
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I oughta.
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The otter is supposedly amazing. I know someone who got one and decided it would be fun to use his iPhone as a way to play wall ball. His phone survived 3 years. It ultimately ended its life because Mr genius decided that it would be a fun experiment to see how strong it was and he decided the perfect way to test this $20-ish dollar case was to run over it with his car, while it still held is $1200 phone. If anyone needs to buy only refurbished flip-phones to do mental defect, it’s him. If you want to test your case like that, even with the phone not in it, just do the world a favor and check into a mental health facility. You clearly need it. And give your license back to the government and your car to the nearest passer-by. You’ve lost all privileges.
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I need you with me next time I need a new phone…
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Wow! Congratulations. Shows the spirit of kindness. 🙂
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Congratulations Fandango! Glad they did that for you
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I take a lot of screenshots but use the assistive touch feature. Easy peasy and much faster and easier than hitting two buttons at once
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
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I actually tried to use that feature, but for some strange reason, in order to set it up, because it could also be used for the App Store to download apps, you have to link it to your iPay credit card, and to do that, you have to double click on the right button! So much for activating AssistiveTouch. But I could make screenshots by tapping the back of my iPhone twice.
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Those are kind of important features. Glad you were able to work it out with the Apple folks!
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