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'I Felt Blind Panic.' They Opened Their New $2k iPhone Duo–and It Broke(wsj.com)

22 points by fortran77 2 days ago | 26 comments

Wow if you have blind panic because of a crack in your phone screen, you might have other problems. I can understand being pissed, but holy shit, you just bought it, they'll replace it. It'll be okay. Get your old phone... oh right you just traded it in and rolled it into your new payment plan. The fact that this is normalized in the article says something about our society.

[–] Tagbert 2 days ago

It is better clip bait to proclaim "blind panic" than to say "shit, I need to take this back for a replacement".

[–] darkteflon 2 days ago

Only a married man can know the exquisite burning humiliation of breaking a brand new expensive tech toy while showing it off to one’s sceptical wife.

[–] drum55 2 days ago

It mostly shows that people are spending well outside their means.

[–] joshstrange 2 days ago

While I don't doubt many people are doing that, using the iPhone/Apple Upgrade Program does not immediately equate to that being the case. I always use the Upgrade program but I could buy the phone outright if I wanted but why would I? It's essentially a 0% interest loan if I buy the phone out at the end. Sure if you turn the phone in after a year (or two) you are leaving money on the table (vs selling it or repurposing it) but the Upgrade programs aren't only used by people spending outside their means.

[–] quietsegfault 2 days ago

The iPhone update program /was/ a great deal for a number of reasons. The current klarna incarnation pushes the value lever in the wrong direction, this being the first year I haven’t upgraded in probably a decade. I /could/ pay cash, but it was just as easy to use someone else’s money so why not?

[–] joshstrange 2 days ago

My understanding is that while it's a loan->lease change, the TCO is the same under both plans. I might agree that the Klarna version feel scummier but it doesn't change the financials for me and it's still effectively a 0% interest loan. I set aside the full cost of the phone in my budgeting app on day 1 and then draw down from that category over the span of the loan/lease so it's effectively like I'm buying it but I get to park the money in a HYSA.

[–] quietsegfault 2 days ago

The TCO isn’t the same mostly because now you need to pay for AppleCare separately where before it was included.

[–] joshstrange 2 days ago

There’s a good chance I’m wrong about this, but I thought they lowered the price to account for not including Apple Care? So you’re correct, it’s no longer included, but the price per month and total cost of ownership is the same?

[–] thomassmith65 2 days ago

In normal circumstances, one cannot return a phone with a broken screen; it's generally accidental damage rather than the design being unfit for purpose.

In this case, it's obviously a manufacturing or design flaw, but were I in these customers' shoes, I would be a little nervous on my way back to the AppleStore, too.

[–] scratcheee 2 days ago

I think if I thought I’d wasted a paycheck on a broken gadget I’d feel blind panic for a second, I’d eventually think through the reality that they’ll probably cover such an obvious fault, but I’d still feel incredibly stupid for wasting my money at first.

Of course, that’s why i wouldn’t buy this thing in the first place, but i can empathise with those who were less willing to wait and see.

[–] ThrowawayTestr 2 days ago

What does selling an old thing to buy a new thing say about our society?

[–] jerlam 2 days ago

Phones are just a blip compared to the auto loan market.

[–] triceratops 2 days ago

A payment plan for a phone says things

[–] ashdksnndck 2 days ago

They’re giving 0% interest, which is a discount. It’s rational to take that instead of paying cash.

[–] Jtsummers 2 days ago

It's been normal(ish) in cellphones for decades now, at least in the US, to offer a payment plan for phones. It was tied to your plan, which is still how a lot of these work.

[–] lirolero 2 days ago

come on, vagueboy. what are these things?

[–] triceratops 2 days ago

That people can't even afford to save up the few hundred dollars to buy a phone outright.

[–] croes 2 days ago

Unless they claim you used it wrong and therefore it isn’t covered

[–] whywhywhywhy 2 days ago

Really feels the hinge is a vanity project from the design team, similar to using heavy curved glass on the Vision Pro.

One too complex with tolerances so tight manufacturing inconsistency or dirt can be catastrophic the other too heavy for purpose and the translucency unneeded on an enclosed vr headset. But if you talk to product design people both are things that look great on a resume.

[–] atleastoptimal 2 days ago

Foldable screens have perhaps the highest engineering difficulty:quality of life improvement ratio of any technology I've seen

[–] DropkickM16 2 days ago

There is a moment of sheer panic when I realize that Paul's apartment overlooks the park... and is obviously more expensive than mine.

-Patrick Bateman

[–] fortran77 2 days ago

https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/iphone-duo-broken-hin...

[–] ChrisArchitect 2 days ago

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50223580

[–] orionblastar 2 days ago

Just a few (pardon the pun) Bad Apples, that Applecare can fix or replace.

[–] croes 2 days ago

Isn’t that the pattern with every new hardware generation from Apple?

Quite often some kind of display problem.

Wouldn’t buy a Apple device without Apple care or I would wait for the later iterations when the early production problems are solved.