Ah fuck you, Mexican Armed Forces

"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
07/01/2019 at 16:16 • Filed to: None

So, my Iphone Xr developed a screen backlight failure... so I went to the apple store to change it... as per my warranty.

But I bought this Iphone in the US, and it’s got CDMA technology for some fucking reason.

As it happens, CDMA is banned in Mexico, because only the armed forces are allowed to use it. COFEPRIS banned it in 2013.

So Apple can’t give me a new phone because that would be illegal... they can only change the display... which they did, and they damaged the FaceID sensors in the process. So now I have a good display but no FaceID, on a phone I bought primarily because of the tech.

Now I need to go to the US in order to get a new phone, for the warranty.

DISCUSSION (12)

The Ghost of Oppo > Spanfeller is a twat
07/01/2019 at 16:22

Fuck Apple. Your $750 phone shouldn’t break in less than 9 months

Ash78, voting early and often > Spanfeller is a twat
07/01/2019 at 16:23

“Sorry for the double post”

--Princess Diana’s Driver

Ash78, voting early and often > Spanfeller is a twat
07/01/2019 at 16:23

My wife dropped her 7 Plus yesterday from a height of just 2' (with a mid-range Otterbox case on it) onto a soft vinyl floor and the screen is FUUUUU... getting repaired as we speak.

Thankfully it’s our only warranty request in almost 10 years and they’re footing the bill. The phone is only 8 month old and is way too fragile. They wanted to charge $300 or so, but thankfully Apple does a good job rewarding loyalty if you don’t take too much advantage of it.

Also, CDMA-only phones are so confusing . I thought all the iPhones switched to Dual/Triple- band several generations ago, and could work on GSM as well.

user314 > Spanfeller is a twat
07/01/2019 at 16:34

CDMA is still being used in the US for 3G coverage. Verizon plans to turn off 2G and 3G at the end of 2019. T-Mobile will turn off 2G and 3G at the end of 2020. AT&T has already turned off 2G, but they and Sprint will keep 3G running until 2022.

facw > Spanfeller is a twat
07/01/2019 at 16:35

Do you actually need a CDMA version? Can’t they just replace it with local variant?

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Ash78, voting early and often
07/01/2019 at 16:38

I believe that iPhones built for the US market all have CDMA and GSM. This way they only have to support one model and it should lower (ha!) the cost to manufacture. I would guess that ones for Mexico are a more expensive GSM only model.

Interesting story re: Apple support. Back in 2010, about a month after the iPad came out, I found one on the lawn in front of Hertz rent a car. It had been run over - you could see the tire prints on the cover, and the display was smashed into a thousand pieces. I took it to the Apple store to find out how much it would cost to repair, and instead of giving me a price they just gave me a replacement iPad. WTF? Needless to say, I didn’t turn them down...

Spanfeller is a twat > The Ghost of Oppo
07/01/2019 at 16:38

I bought it in march

Spanfeller is a twat > facw
07/01/2019 at 16:39

They cannot due to conpany policy

facw > Spanfeller is a twat
07/01/2019 at 16:52

Just wierd...

bhtooefr > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/01/2019 at 19:28

It’s not that it’s more expensive to be GSM-only - in fact it’s probably cheaper, as it supports fewer bands and has no CDMA radio. Simplifies the supply chain to only have one model for the US, though - and IIRC in the past it was a thing that AT&T and T-Mobile locked devices were GSM-only, Sprint, Verizon, and unlocked devices were GSM+CDMA.

(There’s four models - the US/Canada model, the Japan model , the China model (these three differ in band support) , and the everyone else model (which is the non-CDMA one) . Mexico gets the everyone else model.)

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > bhtooefr
07/01/2019 at 19:48

I was saying that under the assumption that they probably make fewer of the simpler GSM-only model as compared to the GSM/CDMA model and therefore the cost would probably be higher for the allegedly simpler model. It’s like why a two-liter bottle of store brand soda costs less than the store brand seltzer, even though the seltzer has fewer ingredients and should cost less to make - it’s all about the number of units produced, not necessarily the number of ingredients in said item.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Spanfeller is a twat
07/04/2019 at 09:39

First, sorry about the phone. Dealing with Apple can be maddening.

Second, I want to make a joke about visiting the US from Mexico, but it’s no laughing matter. I am appalled.