Apple iPhone 6 plus Touch Disease Repair Program
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Posted on 11/18/2016 12:00:18 PM PST by Swordmaker
Apple has determined that some iPhone 6 Plus devices may exhibit display flickering or Multi-Touch issues after being dropped multiple times on a hard surface and then incurring further stress on the device.
If your iPhone 6 Plus is exhibiting the symptoms noted above, is in working order, and the screen is not cracked or broken, Apple will repair your device for a service price of $149.
Apple will contact customers who may have paid for a service repair related to this issue either through Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to arrange reimbursement. If you have not been contacted but paid for a repair that you believe was related to this issue, please contact Apple.
The reimbursement amount will equal the difference between the price you paid for the original service to your iPhone 6 Plus and the $149 service price.
Choose one of the service options below. Your iPhone will be examined prior to any service to verify that it is eligible for this program and in working order. This program only applies to iPhone 6 Plus.
Note: Wireless carrier partners are not participating in this program.
To prepare your iPhone 6 Plus for the service process, please back up your data to iTunes or iCloud.
Apple may restrict or limit repair to the original country of purchase.
Pricing offered by Apple Authorized Service Providers may vary.
This worldwide program covers affected iPhone 6 Plus devices for 5 years after the first retail sale of the unit.
I guess this is Touch Disease? Charge $150 to fix a design flaw?
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I had this exact issue — just about 3-4 weeks ago. Apple charged me 349 for a new phone, after trade-in credit.
Now our other 6+ is doing the same thing.
(By “other” I mean a different phone, not the new one from the trade-in)
I had this problem and got it fixed at the very tail end of my AppleCare warranty. I got a case of rigid Lexan to help stiffen up the phone, since this seems to be the root of the problem. Flexing of the phone causes a key connection associated with the touchscreen to go bad.
Design flaw is your assumption, Okie. Apple has determined the cause to be something other than a design flaw:
"Apple has determined that some iPhone 6 Plus devices may exhibit display flickering or Multi-Touch issues after being dropped multiple times on a hard surface and then incurring further stress on the device."
That statement is consistent with the reported numbers of affected iPhones afflicted with "touch disease." That number, after two years of heavy sales, is still effecting far less than an eighth of one percent — and even that is a high estimate — of the iPhone 6 plus phones ever sold, and there are some 275 million iPhone 6 models out there of which around 40% are the plus version.
That 0.125% of 110,000,000 iPhone 6 plus figure represents 140,000 phones, but an analysis of the number of phones involved put the potential actual number at under 70,000 world wide. . . and that is stretching it, especially when the repair depot most involved reported "seeing dozens a month coming in with the problem," and the Apple forum most heavily discussing the issue had just around 700 comments discussing the issue and only about 125 were people who reported then experienced it and the rest merely commenting on those. A design flaw would effect far more iPhones than that.
Again, what do you care, you don't use them?
... just about 3-4 weeks ago. Apple charged me 349 for a new phone, after trade-in credit.
How magnanimous of Apple, considering their phone cost (labor & parts) is ~$250 per phone.
On a conservative forum, that comment looks like it came straight from DU.
Ever hear of a concept called, "Capitalism"?
Are you sure you're on the right forum?
It is a design flaw. iFixit did a tear down and the circuits are not properly reinforced causing any flexing to break them. No need to argue and get defensive, read the facts.
https://ifixit.org/blog/8309/iphone-6-plus-gray-flicker-touch-death/
I guess this is Touch Disease? Charge $150 to fix a design flaw?
************
And APPLE has to slam the device owners and accuse them of being the cause of the failure..
Have you ever done any engineering design for manufacturing and made decisions on what is an acceptable level of failure rates? It is obvious you have NOT from your breathless and hyperbolic claims of what is a "design flaw."
A design flaw would impact for more than fewer than 0.0625% of the production of a product that was sold 110,000,000 units that starts developing the problem after 18 to 24 months of continuous use without a problem.
If it were a design flaw, it would have appeared as soon as it was on the market, not 18 months later. Use your head for something other than keeping your ears apart, Okie. Since the problem did not appear as soon as it was released into the market, instead only appearing with use, and perhaps abuse, it is NOT a design flaw no matter what iFixit or you hold your breath and turn blue claiming.
Could the iPhone 6 plus have been designed better to avoid the problem for ALL such models? Sure. Would it have been designed better? I doubt it because it COULD NOT HAVE BEEN FOR SEEN AS A PROBLEM and was not seen in extensive testing.
Was the iPhone 6s Plus designed differently? Some have argued that because Apple designed the 6s Plus differently, it was because they knew the iPhone 6 Plus had a design flaw that required a major change in design. Yes, the 6s Play was designed differently, but it was not designed differently because of this "Touch Disease" issue as the design for the iPhone 6s Plus was already on the market for over six months before these "Touch Disease" problems in the iPhone 6 Plus model were even starting to appear.
Apple's unrelated stronger design of the iPhone 6s Plus and the overall layout of the 6s Plus was entirely different, with the offending ICs in a completely different location and orientation which was established much earlier in the design process and was dictated by the use of the A9 processor instead of the A8 used in the 6 plus with the design process starting BEFORE the iPhone 6 and 6 plus went on the market. In fact, the iPhone 6s plus was already being sent to manufacturing ONE YEAR before the first "Touch Disease" problem phones were being reported.
A design flaw is a phone in which a large percentage of the units made will burst into flames in the first year on the market. . . say a phone in which the incidences occur at 6,000 times the accepted rate for such battery failure in the phone industry in general and that failure appears from the very first few weeks the phone in question is on the market, say something like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Now THAT is a design flaw.
It is not something that appears after the phone has already been replaced by a superseding model. . .
You may be entitled for a $200 refund under this program. . .
I hope so. Right now I’m not happy. I will look into it. I definitely noticed that I could get the screen working again if I flexed the phone just right (though only for a minute or two before it screwed up again).
The one thing I noticed is, they were supposed to give me a new identical phone, and said they would, but the new one is a 6s+, the next step in upgrades.
Now I wonder if that’s because they knew there would be the same problem again if they gave me an identical model.
I’m using a 7+ and haven’t had any problems — it’s the 6-pluses I’m worried about. Now one is replaced with a 6s plus, and the other one is starting to act up.
The iPhone 6s Plus doesn't have the problem. It is differently laid out and has a steel stiffener bar along the logic board. You shouldn't have a problem with it. You essentially got quite a bargain for a new phone and they gave you quite a lot for your "trade in". . . now if they will refund you an additional $200, you will be in good shape on that one. GRIN.
Some of us, including some who looked into the phones themselves, were theorizing that the real problem is the growth Tin Whiskers as the products aged caused by a new EPA requirement for non-lead containing solder.
Lead essentially retards the growth of Tin crystals in solder and taking the lead out removes that inhibition. The crystalline whiskers grow and start shorting out the very small traces on the logic boards. Bending the phone a bit breaks the short and it will work again for a bit. Then it shorts out again. Other electronics with the new solders are showing the same thing.
How the EPA was thinking the lead was going to escape the alloy to endanger anyone is any body's guess, but it is, as always, overkill to achieve unachievable goals with unintended consequences such as growing whiskers.
Apple started using a different solder alloy with other whisker inhibitors in it to replace the lead starting with the iPhone 6s plus and then the iPhone SE.
I don’t know how you know all that detail, but thanks! It makes perfect sense. Probably has to do with concerns about phone disposal (lead in the phone). Just a guess.
I hear now Apple may start making phones in the states — there was something linked on Drudge about it recently.
What a ridiculous thing to say. I only read the first sentence and realized you don’t have a clue what you are talking about. Your degree must be in copy and paste.
I carry my iPhone 6S+ in something like this. All good.
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