So my iPad 2's screen got cracked, and I took it to the Apple Store...

[Michael Fortson]

... and they replaced the iPad at no charge, as a "one time courtesy". Looking around, it seems that this is an un-disclosed policy (or at least an option commonly taken by Genius bar staff).

It would have been a $400 repair bill, otherwise. I was very pleasantly surprised.


Side note: it doesn't just matter if you're gentle with your devices; if you let relatives handle them, despite warnings of fragility, accidents tend to happen. I still don't want to saddle my iPad with a case, but I'll probably be more careful of the environment that I let others use it in (no hard surfaces, etc).

[Chris Nahr]

Pleasantly surprised? Foolish human, it's all part of Apple's evil plot to lull you into accepting their terrible world domination!

Congrats on getting the free replacement. How did the screen get cracked, in case you were there to see it happen? Those screens look pretty sturdy, and I heard they were specially hardened glass that shouldn't be easy to damage.

[BennyProfane]

So you're saying you let some schlub cousin play with your IPad and it got cracked?

They'd be getting a bill from me pretty shortly after that. Though I'd also never let any of my cousins touch something like that lol.

[Charlatan]

In March I renewed our AT&T contracts. Got my wife an iPhone 4 and my son an iPhone 3GS. In August he was swimming in a river and when he got out he picked up his shirt - the phone dropped out of his shirt pocket, hit a rock (breaking the screen) and fell into the river (getting soaked).

I took it to the Apple store (since paying $200 to fix it seemed to be the best option) and since we'd never brought the phone in before they replaced it as a the one-time courtesy. So yes, this policy is awesome.

[XPav]

They replaced my wife iPhone 4 that the baby slapped out of her hand onto the hard unyielding ground.

[Hugin]

They replaced my wife iPhone 4 that the baby slapped out of her hand onto the hard unyielding ground.

Your baby's not part of your system, maaaaaan!

[Tracy Baker]

They replaced my wife iPhone 4 that the baby slapped out of her hand onto the hard unyielding ground.

Forgotten possessive, or strange secret one-time-courtesy Apple policy?

[Talisker]

He married his iPhone; their baby is a monstrosity.

[Tracy Baker]

At least someone has a legitimate reason to buy one of those iPood baby T-shirts now.

[XPav]

Your baby's not part of your system, maaaaaan!

No, he's not. He throws everything on the grroooouuunnnndddd.

[Michael Fortson]

How did the screen get cracked, in case you were there to see it happen? Those screens look pretty sturdy, and I heard they were specially hardened glass that shouldn't be easy to damage.

When my nephew was passing it to my cousin (we were playing Risk), my cousin's hand dropped low enough to bang the back corner on a metal firepit grate he was standing over, causing the glass opposite that point to stress fracture. He didn't see the damage until he passed it along after his move and my other nephew said "what the heck happened?!" -- the glass had spiderwebbed from the corner where the impact occurred, but it was mostly in the bezel area, and extended outward along the edges all the way across.

He was pretty bummed, and originally expected to have to buy me a new iPad. I told him it would just be a repair fee; he was super relieved that Apple took care of it gratis.

[Chris Nahr]

Wow, that's more fragile than I would have thought. Note to self: try not to drop iPod touch on hard surfaces.

[AndrewM]

I just a few days ago dropped my MacBook Pro on the ground, causing the frame to bend enough to cause a gap. I guess I should take it in and see what they can do...

[MonkeyPunky]

I've been really lucky with free repairs from Apple.

A long time ago I had an iPod that stopped working after a year and they swapped it out for me.

I had a first generation iPhone where the screen stopped responding to touches after a year and they swapped it with a refurbed first gen. I was actually kinda hoping they were going to tell me it was going to cost money since the 3G just came out and I wanted to upgrade. I ended up using that first gen until I got my 3GS

My Mac Book Pro from 2008 suffered catastrophic falling damage (jerk dogs!) last year and they quoted me a repair cost of a few hundred dollars. I agreed and when they sent the laptop off to the repair center I got a call that there more damage than they had initially told me and it would cost more. I said go ahead and fix it. When I finally got it back there was no charge because of the original misdiagnosis.

I didn't have AppleCare on any of those but I did end up buying AppleCare on my 2011 Mac Book Pro.

[rei]

They do this a lot and have done it many many times for '1st time breakage' for our fleet of iphones here at work. Their concierge service does do a lot to foster brand loyalty compared to the Bestbuy GeekSquad dance of frustration.

[ARogan]

I guess that explains this:
http://allthingsd.com/20110920/apple-tops-acsi-customer-satisfaction-survey-again/

[Sebmojo]

I dropped my ipod touch down a flight of concrete stairs and shattered the bottom right corner of the glass - a carefully applied strip of sellotape later, I was back in business. Still works perfectly and I think it looks kind of pimp.

[Linoleum]

I keep being tempted to bring one of my Apple IIs to the Genius Bar just to see what would happen.