Apple Launches iPhone 6 Plus Multi-Touch Repair Program
After much consternation from the user community, Apple has finally created a repair program for iPhone 6 Plus phones suffering from what has been dubbed “touch disease.” Symptoms include flickering and erratic multi-touch behavior. Other iPhone models are not covered by the program, but we haven’t heard of problems beyond the iPhone 6 Plus.
Apple claims the problems are associated with “being dropped multiple times on a hard surface and then incurring further stress on the device,” which seems a bit like blaming the victim. Adam Engst’s father’s iPhone 6 Plus succumbed to touch disease recently, despite having been protected by a wraparound case and generally treated well.
If your iPhone 6 Plus is exhibiting flickering and erratic multi-touch behavior, but is otherwise in good working order with no screen cracks, Apple will fix the problem for $149. You can schedule an appointment with an Apple Authorized Service Provider or the Genius Bar at your nearest Apple Store, or you can contact Apple Technical Support. As always, be sure to back up your iPhone to iTunes or iCloud before you take it in for service.
If you already paid for a repair from Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider, Apple will contact you to reimburse you for the cost of the repair minus the $149 service price. Should you not hear from Apple, or if you paid for a repair elsewhere, contact Apple.
What happened to the class action law suit? That this is a design flaw could not be more obvious so there's no possible way Apple could win.
Honestly, that's insulting to users not only to not cover the full cost of repairs, but to blame user actions for a design fault.
Those who have gone to Apple and received refurb replacement phones have had the same recurring problem almost straight out of the white box.
As an Apple user since the ][+, and a 6+ owner who's at risk of this problem, it's clear to me that Apple is no longer the same company.
All the signs have been adding up, and this just puts the nail in the coffin.
The company is now in the Post-Jobs Era II, and the only difference is that they have more market power, and more money in the bank.
Job won't be able to come back and rescue the company from its poor quality software and ho-hum, scatter-shot product lineup this time.
The Apple BOD needs to step up and remove Cook, Ive and some others. The Mac lineup is a mess, the iPhones are going and now their tech support is suffering. My iCloud account has been a mess for over two years and in troubleshooting mode for over a year, plus my iTunes library was munged when Apple Music was introduced and it still isn't fixed, and to add insult to injury, second tier support needs the blessing of the engineering department to guide users through any thing to do with Terminal!
I've been an Apple user almost as long as you (//c) and have never seen the company treat users this badly.