(long) Stuck button after minor drop - seems to be a problem for many

Question

And it won't go away. I visited iPhone Feedback and sent the following; I thought I'd share it here, too:
The phone is beautiful in its simplicity and is easy enough to use that even my octogenarian grandfather was able to navigate and use it with ease. With that in mind I have a few points:
1. No MMS? According to the rep I spoke with at the Apple Store in Jacksonville, FL for item #3 below, the iPhone is a SmartPhone-class device; however, every other smartphone on the market with a camera is MMS-capable. Surely Apple has the engineering know-how to write an effective MMS application that preserves bandwidth (think: auto-optimization of iPhone camera images when sending). Having to hop back and forth to see the username/password for MMS messages sent to my number in order to see what cute thing my new niece is up to when my sister sends me pictures is, quite frankly, an unnecessary pain in the butt.
2. Custom ringtones. I have CDs that I have legally purchased from non-RIAA and DiY labels and have created a few custom, 2 second MP3 ringtones that I am fairly attached to. I have actually spoken with bands on these labels and asked if they minded my ringtones (played back on my old Razr v3) and they were honored that I would create ringtones from their music for other people to hear. My wife carries a Sony/Ericsson W600i and can play my ringtones, my old Motorola Razr v3 played my ringtones; in fact, most every other phone on the market will play my custom MP3 ringtones (Motorola's mobile Phone Tools software even contains a ringtone editor). While having ringtones available via iTunes is nice and convenient, I will not buy iTunes ringtones because of this policy and am less likely to buy any music from iTunes because of policies like this. Please value your customers more than you value an industry that is looking for more ways to squeeze blood from turnips.
3. Durability. For Christmas this year, my 3-year-old daughter broke her arm. While she was proud of her pink, princess cast, this is an experience I would rather not relive. Her cast was removed two weeks ago and she is required to wear a brace and avoid falling. This past weekend, after getting out of the family car at my mother's house my daughter fell (as three-year-olds sometimes do) and, without a 2nd thought, I bent to pick her up and check out her arm. As I bent down, my iPhone fell from my shirt pocket onto the asphalt and hit right on the power button. This 2.5' - 3' fall bent the case enough to trap the power button in the depressed position and severely limit my use of the iPhone. I have discovered that with the phone plugged in to either the charger or a sync cable or with the iPod application playing, the phone will operate normally (with the exception of my being able to push the power button and put the phone to sleep). Otherwise, the phone shuts down and goes into a reboot loop, which to me seems quite natural given that the power button is always depressed.
I bought the phone with the knowledge that the application pool is not yet populated; with the SDK having not even been released. I am willing to wait on the improvements on 1 and 2 that I expect will come with time. 3 is a big sticking issue with me. I acknowledged my desire to protect the beauty and integrity of my iPhone by spending an additional 10% of the iPhone purchase price on a protective case. This case, made by Contour; however, makes the phone quite bulky and I occasionally find need to carry my iPhone in its original, intended, elegant, unadulterated form-factor. When carrying the phone without bulky protection, I do expect it to be durable enough, like every other "smart phone" on the market to survive the occasional, non-abusive, non-negligent tumble.
Contrary to the assertions of the Apple Store employee who told me that all "smart phone class devices" are fragile and not built to survive occasional drops, every other smart phone on the market is drop tested before release and free of engineering defects like the iPhone power button and too-fragile case that would render them useless unless their owners discovered that running the one application disabled the devices' sleep mode or keep them plugged in 100% of the time.
The Apple Store representative made it quite clear that, since issues like this aren't covered by my Apple Care plan and AT&T offers no equipment coverage on the iPhone, I was free to pony up $250 for a replacement phone and that this is my only option. This is not the service that Apple is known for. My simple, dinged case is not worth a $250 total-phone replacement. If I had abused the phone or rendered it a totally inoperable brick, $250 would be a more-than-reasonable, bargain-basement replacement price. $250 because of a dinged back case is unreasonably punitive and I am hoping that my appointment with one of the "experts" at my local Apple Store this evening will find a more consumer-friendly resolution.
Here's a potential solution: As a former Motorola PCS Engineering employee, I have the skills and tools necessary to perform case and component replacement on devices like the iPhone. There are people like me all over the country. If Apple offered an Apple-certified repair program with resources (people with skills and Apple certification) near Apple Stores where we could take or send our devices for simple (non-circuit) repair then Apple could restore the type of service consumers have heard Apple gives. I know I would easily part with $40-or-so (discounted 20% thanks to the Apple Care plan I purchased) to replace my iPhone's back case and preserve my warranty. No, Apple wouldn't make much off of the repair program but service is an investment in the customer well worth making.

Answer 1

Apple is no more what it was before. They don't care about people when changing a hardware, they are no more reliable. It's a shame.