As some of you may remember back in October of 2008 my beloved iPhone went into be fixed, this was done by Carphone Warehouse under the 12 month warranty because the screen went all weird and the accelerometer went all funny. Some of you may also remember i wrote several posts about how Carphone Warehouse sucked balls, today i follow that post with more Carphone warehouse failings.

So apparently something quite common with White iPhone 3Gs is cracking, these are small little hairline cracks in the areas where plastic is thin, typically around the speakers or headphone jack. My iPhone began to develop them around 4 months ago and it wasn't really a massive problem for me, however on Friday one of the cracks go worse, up to the point where the iPhone was almost in half.

Naturally i did some research using Google and found some articles about how common they are, so this lead to me contacting Carphone Warehouse, this time i used Twitter as it wasn't urgent. I got a reply within 30 minutes and within 2 hours was communicating nicely with someone called Rebecca who was very helpful, she even passed on this file....

.... Which shows the level of damage that can be fixed by Apple for free under your warranty, on the second row at the top my cracks fitted quite nicely, so as i understood it was a free fix by Apple.

Now, the nearest Apple Store is at the Trafford Centre so i wasn't going to race down the motorway to the Apple Store only to be turned away, so i opted to let Carphone Warehouse send it off again, this time being well aware of the waiting time. I visited Burnley (The Mall) Carphone Warehouse where i was greeted with a 40 minute queue.

After a wait i reached the front and explained the problem he agreed to send the phone off, however there was a problem, apparently the system is trying to charge me for the fix despite the warranty running out on the 23rd August 2009. He suggested a come back another day, although typically most people work and there wouldn't be a way for me to get the phone sent off before the expires. So i decided that the shop was just as useless as before and walked away, i was told by a member of staff to try the Apple store because they sometimes straight-up replace them.

So i decided to travel the 40 miles to Manchester to the Apple Store and i was quite happy at the possibility that they would happily replace the phone without questions. So when i got there i walked to the Apple Store and approached a member of staff and explained the problem, his immediate response was "Well we are not going to be able to book you in to the genius bar today because we are very busy, so you will have book yourself in here, normally there is a 4 day wait"

Obviously the guy was a moron, i have seen the store much busier and also the Apple Store Tech Staff (Apple Geniuses) were not engaged at all, but i wasn't going to get anywhere so i decided to march to the Trafford Centre Carphone Warehouse shop.

Without going into too much detail, these people were even more moronic because they said i couldn't book it in due to phone being registered under a different carphone warehouse account and doing so would put his job at risk, even though this was done in Blackburn without question by Carphone Warehouse the year before.

I decided to scream down the phone at the Customer Support team for Carphone Warehouse with no help at all, in fact it made me look rather silly in a busy shopping mall. So not only had Carphone Warehouse made me drive over 40 miles only to be told i would have to travel 40 miles home and then return 40 miles the following day, oh and then 40 miles home again, but they had told me they couldn't book it in because it was in warranty on the system, but the system wanted to charge me and then told me the phone was under a different name and couldn't be booked in.

So by this point i was stood in the middle of a busy shopping mall looking pissed off with a stupid company and nothing I could do about my iPhone.

So naturally i decided it was the fault of Apple for poorly making iPhone 3G Whites - so i went back to the Apple Store, bypassed the original douche and went to the Genius Bar where the real help was. They took the phone off me, i explained the problem, they inspected the phone, prodded it, then replaced it. It took them 10 minutes to replace the phone and fill in the paper work.

So there you have it, if you ever get cracks in your iPhone go and get them replaced at the Apple Store, not the carphone warehouse. Infact i would suggest just avoiding the Carphone Warehouse altogether, they are shit.

Thanks to The Genius Bar at Trafford Centre's Apple Store i now have a new iPhone 3G which has a brand new battery, which holds charge, no scratches and no cracks. I say WIN for me.

Keywords: apple, iphone, earphone warehouse, mobile phone, cell phone, white iphone 3g, tafford centre, manchester, customer service