Not my best day
By Bill Fox/Columnist
On a recent Thursday I’d just come back from a doctor’s appointment when my wife informed me that her iPhone 7 was not working. It had been charging for several hours and still was not working. As it was only eight months old, we took it back to where we bought it at the Rogers store in the Oshawa Centre.
Surprise! They don’t do repairs even though it is well within the warranty. They suggested we take it to Device Care store off Ritson but surprise! At that store we were informed that they no longer fix iPhones! Now what? We were informed that we would have to take it to an Apple store and surprise! The closest one is at Markville Mall on Highway 7 at McCowan in Markham. Upon finding the Apple Store we line up and surprise! We are asked if we had made an appointment? Seems we should have made an appointment? By now it is around 2:30 and surprise! The earliest appointment is at 6:45. Now there is no movie theatre in Markville, but we have never been here before and it has a very big mall. Eventually we have done a tour of their Walmart and the Bay and we have only three more hours to kill. Shame on Rogers. Where else can you buy an expensive product and they cannot at least try to fix it. At the Apple store, what if they cannot fix it and after that entire wait, we have to leave it with them?
So to say the least I am not in a good mood. I had better things to do that day than to travel to Markham and have to kill four hours while waiting for an appointment.
However, my wife reminded me of my son Brendan’s “game changer.” Now Brendan is, among his many talents, a life coach. So I followed his “game changer” when faced with difficult situations. I’m to ask myself three questions:
- What’s good about this situation?
- What can I learn from it?
- How can I make it better?
- What was good? Well we spent time discovering a mall we had never visited before. We had dinner at the Pickle Barrel restaurant in the mall and discovered the largest chocolate milkshake I had ever seen. For dinner I had a BBBLT – three bacons, including applewood smoked and peameal, with Avocado, etc. on artisan bread. And though I was hoping it would take two hours to eat dinner, it was very, very delicious! I’m surprised to find that there is an actual Mercedes dealership right in the mall. I learned that a nice, smaller convertible was available for just over $50, 000. Never imagined that!
- What did I learn? I learned you need to make an appointment before bringing an Apple product into any of their stores. I learned that Rogers, despite selling me my iPhone, does not service them. Can you imagine a watch store not fixing their products? I learned of a name I was not familiar with. Mansoor was a fantastic technician who helped us through the process of doing the diagnosis on my wife’s phone. I learned that the diagnosis process is quite extensive as it took Mansoor some time to discount things like a dead battery, etc. I found out that if there was any water (or wine, as I told my wife) in the iPhone, we would be charged the replacement cost. Luckily, Mansoor, upon opening the phone, discovered a glue smell in the iPhone, and I learned Apple warranties are excellent as we left with a brand new iPhone for $0!
- What could make it better? If Rogers would hire Mansoor to do repairs at their stores. If the Oshawa Centre had a Pickle Barrel and/or if the Markville Mall was a little bit closer, it might have been a better day. But be thankful for small blessings as my wife is very happy to have a new iPhone and is appreciative of the time I spent at the mall, putting thousands of steps on my Fitbit.
For more information on “game changer” as always I’m at bdeefox@rogers.com