September 22, 2016

Utterly Frustrated

August 1st. My phone stopped charging.

It took me some time before I figured that out. It was 47%. 
First I thought I hadn’t put it on the charger, so I tried again.  Then it was 23%. I assumed I hadn’t plugged it in well, so I made it sure it was plugged in well. I ended up with a critical 15%.

Maybe the cable was broken? I bought a new cable. 7%.
Okay, it must be the electricity plug. So I bought a new plug. 2%
Maybe it needs to be an official Apple charger? So I went out and bought that one. Those are expensive suckers. The phone was now dead.

Nothing worked.
I called the Apple Store in Holland. Could I please make an online appointment to visit their store?
Come again? An online appointment? I needed the phone fixed right now, because I am flying back to Lebanon.
Try Apple Lebanon, they said.

I tried Apple Lebanon. They don’t do phones. I kid you not.

So I went to the local repair man.
It’s the battery,” he said with authority, and he replaced it with a new one.

That worked for a day or 3, and then we were back at 0%.
Maybe that was a faulty battery,” he mused, slightly less confident, and replaced it with yet another battery.

That worked for a day or 3, as I saw it slowly drain in front of my eyes to 0%.
Hmmmmm,” he wondered, now seriously confused, “could it be the part between the battery and the charge plug?” and so he changed that part.
A day of a functioning phone. And then it slowly drained again.

I decided to go to a more reputable phone repair store downtown. They’ve got several branches, over 6 employees in a store, people lining up and valet parking to deal with the flow of customers. That must be a sign of professionalism.

They didn’t take any half measures. The battery got replaced (yet again), the part between the plug and the battery as well, and some other small chip processor type of thing. A whopping $210! But hey, you want your phone to work, right?

And it worked a bit longer, although I could not quite understand why the phone never really charged beyond 75%. Even after 24 hours on the plug. And then it didn’t charge beyond 53%.

Back to the store. “We’ll fix it,” they said with confidence, as I dropped it off. Yeah. Right.
Today I called them. Yes, it was ready for pick up.
So I drove to the store, where I retrieved my phone with a mere 23%.

“No, I said I’d pick it up if it were a 100%.”
“But I swear it works. It was a 100% when they dropped it off.”
“That’s what you said before.”

“Ya wallah Madam it work.”
We came to an understanding. I would go shopping for an hour, and if I would return, they’d swear, it would be a 100%.

And so I went shopping.
And I came back after an hour.
And it was 26%.

The manager now took charge.
Tomorrow, you come pick it up, and it is fixed. If not, your money back.”

Tomorrow. Can’t wait.

Any suggestions?

10 comments:

Arzleb said...

There a few bench of technicians who can really fix your problem very few one of them is located in Sin el Fill. Your problem is not the battery its the power circuit.

Anonymous said...

As an electronic technician myself,it sounds like the the actual phone motherboard has had it. :(

Sietske said...

The motherboard? Now what do I do?

Anonymous said...

@motherboard

Ha ha Sieske,
Not much can be done except changing the whole phone (very pricey I'd imagine).
To be sure its your motherboard at fault, try charging the battery by its self if it has its own stand (since i don't know your brand of phone) your using. And I'm also guessing your charger is functioning correctly.

Anonymous said...

Me again,
Try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpMYz6OWQ6Q or read
http://www.payetteforward.com/my-iphone-wont-charge-heres-the-real-reason-why/

Good luck.

Unknown said...

from the beginning you shkuld have done the dollowing by chronological order:
first step you charge the battery alone (either on a stand charger or through another similar phone). if it charges to 100% then the battery is operational and has no issue whatseover.if not, then you replace the battery.
second step, if the battery charged to 100% on the other phone then you should replace the charging circuits.
if the above doesnt solve the problem then your board is damaged (though there may be a slight possibility that it is a software issue, but it is less probable).
if the board is faulty indeed, you can eithet replace it or replace the phone altogether, the latter being the best option imo.
that being said, you should have not messed with the phone from the beginning as you should have not gone to any local repair shop ( even class as i understood from your hint), but rather you should have replaced it directly with the seller if you still have warranty, and for free.( sending the phone back to amsterdam or at least to dubai and waiting a couple of weeks to get it repaired or to get a new one is better than wasting 300-400$ with no result whatseover...

Unknown said...

from the beginning you shkuld have done the dollowing by chronological order:
first step you charge the battery alone (either on a stand charger or through another similar phone). if it charges to 100% then the battery is operational and has no issue whatseover.if not, then you replace the battery.
second step, if the battery charged to 100% on the other phone then you should replace the charging circuits.
if the above doesnt solve the problem then your board is damaged (though there may be a slight possibility that it is a software issue, but it is less probable).
if the board is faulty indeed, you can eithet replace it or replace the phone altogether, the latter being the best option imo.
that being said, you should have not messed with the phone from the beginning as you should have not gone to any local repair shop ( even class as i understood from your hint), but rather you should have replaced it directly with the seller if you still have warranty, and for free.( sending the phone back to amsterdam or at least to dubai and waiting a couple of weeks to get it repaired or to get a new one is better than wasting 300-400$ with no result whatseover...

Anonymous said...

Suggestions? We all warned you for Apple, for Apple Phones, for Apple Service, Apple Warranty. For everything Apple.

Unknown said...

http://www.payetteforward.com/my-iphone-wont-charge-heres-the-real-reason-why/

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