Release Notes: Sometimes It's Good to Buy the Extended Warranty

Will Smith — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:30:00 -0500

I suffered a loss recently: My trusty, first-generation iPhone’s touch screen gave up the ghost. On a sunny day in early June, it let loose this mortal coil. And, like every other piece of technology I’ve ever owned, the touch screen stopped responding at the worst possible moment—as I was in a cab on my way to the first leg of a two-week trip.

Upon landing in Los Angeles, my first stop was an Apple store, where one of the Apple-proclaimed “geniuses” explained my options. My first choice was to get a replacement phone for a mere $200 (I hadn’t bothered to buy the extended warranty). My other option was simply to pound sand. I took my busted phone and bid the Apple store and its smug “geniuses” farewell, vowing to never buy another iPhone.

Next stop was AT&T to purchase a new, non-iPhone phone. I put my name on the we’ll-help-you-when-we’re-good-and-damn-well-ready list, and started looking at phones. After an hour or so of waiting, I walked out of the building with a new Blackberry Bold and considered my mission accomplished.

Of course, when I returned to my car, it had a parking ticket on it. And, frankly, things went downhill from there. Connecting the Blackberry to my company’s mail server took multiple calls to our IT department, a call to AT&T, and the sacrifice of one chicken. (Well, actually we ate fried chicken for dinner and I dropped a drumstick on the ground by accident, but that still counts.) After more than a year using the iPhone, acclimating to the Blackberry was difficult. I had become accustomed to the convenience of the iPhone. I liked carrying 16GB of music, but I loved having access to thousands of apps in the App Store, so naturally I went searching for replacements. While I found Blackberry apps that connected me to Twitter and Facebook, I didn’t find analogues for other apps I regularly use—the ones that help me manage my expenses, find a good spot to eat, or entertain myself. Hell, the built-in web browser even choked on some pages. While I eventually managed to connect my calendar to the Bold, I mourned the loss of everything else—from Yelp to Flight Control.

After a week of use, it was clear that the Blackberry Bold wasn’t a good fit for me. Yes, it did excel in a few areas—namely, download speeds, mail, instant messaging, and maps—but it still had to go. On the day I returned the Bold, Apple announced a new iPhone and a price cut. And after careful consideration, I swallowed my pride and pre-ordered an iPhone 3GS.

Whether I like the way Apple treats its customers or behaves in general, I can’t argue with good tech. And the iPhone remains one helluva piece of hardware.

Also, this time I bought the extended warranty.

[Editor's Note: This edition of Release Notes was originally published in our September 2009 issue]

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Release Notes: Sometimes It's Good to Buy the Extended Warranty