ZM's Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley - Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley's Lil Bitta Pod - 6th May 2023

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

On todays Lil Bitta Pod, Vaughan FINALLY reveals the full iPhone story!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The ZM Podcast Network. Fleshwood and Hayley's Little Bit of Pod. Thanks to McCafe. Great things are brewing, one cup at a time. Welcome to A Little Bit of Pod. Now, you've received a message. Yeah, somebody said, we need to know the story with your phone

and Sandy, who perhaps was dead at Threadbow, on her weekend off from being an Apple service care manager. Where did Sandy go? So, okay. I think we need a quick recap. Recap, recap, recap. To bring us all up to speed. Recap, recap, recap, recap.

I have an Apple 12 Pro Max. Must be nice. Must be nice. Pretty nice. The Sky 8. And then- Tax him more. Tax me less.

Eat the rich. Tax me less. And eat the rich. Tax me less. And eat the rich. And then in Auckland, he got hit by some floods, like two floods in two weeks sort of at the start of the year. Oh God, now he's thumbing in his charity work.

I was out and about unblocking drains and such. You know, just outside, making sure everything was all right. You saved those horses in the river? I did. I rode them. I carried one horse and I rode the other. So really that horse was carrying a horse and a man

but I guided the horse through the river no I just carried bales across a flooded river to some horses that would have otherwise starved to death which is no way for anybody to go anyway enough of the charity, enough of the kindness enough of the great golden heart so

at some stage, my phone never went underwater in the entire time of that. But my screen started playing up. And I was like, for a start, it wasn't too bad. You turn your phone off and turn it back on again, and it would last for another couple of days without the screen playing up. You don't want that. But I was like, well, something's wrong here.

So I took it into an Apple third-party authorized reseller and repairer. Not an Apple store. Yeah, we don't have those in New Zealand. We don't have them. Make that happen, by the way. We'd love one. Oh, my God, I'd love an Apple store. Direct to the source.

We'd love one. God, we might sound like we're on Big Apple money talking about ear tags this week. Well, we do nothing but shit on Samsung phones. Well, you're about to see that they're not perfect So I took the phone in And they said It is $79 For a To send it away And to get a Like to get this underway

I said Well that's expected That's fine Then I borrowed A phone off Fletch His backup phone Which is an Apple Pro Apple 12

Pro Max Must be nice Must be nice Your backup phone Is better than my actual phone Tax Vaughn Moore Eat No but I use. Eat the rich.

He's you. I'm on an iPhone 10 at the moment. He's a 14! He's on a freaking 10. Shut up. So Uncle Scrooge over here is kind enough to lend me his phone. He came up from his pool of money and said, can I help you, sir?

Which, by the way, can I help you a lot? And I was like... And I'm Donald Duck In this situation Sort of a calamitous sort With nothing And certainly no pants But somehow I was happy to help you out

With my charity phone So then A couple of days later They send me That it needs Screen replaced Yep And you gotta take

The whole screen out It's not the glass Oh goodness It's the whole screen unit Right $729 replacement Jesus I'm like that sucks But at the same time I'll get insurance Yeah It's the whole screen unit Right $729 replacement Jesus I'm like that sucks

But at the same time I'll get insurance Yeah It's out of AppleCare Otherwise it would have been Taken care of automatically Of course And they said

And the quote They sent me the quote And I said Accept quote Three weeks passed So you accepted $749 Well I was going to claim insurance Oh yeah of course

Yeah if it's a screen repair You've damaged it Yeah yeah I just feel like something's happened I'd get from them what happened And then pass it on to the insurance Oh yeah of course Yeah if it's a screen repair You've damaged it Yeah yeah I would just be like Something's happened I'd get from them what happened And then pass it on To the insurance company

And then three weeks had passed And I hadn't heard anything I said this is unusual You know when my Apple watch got broken It was pretty like three days But a different Authorised repairer

And reseller Which has since moved To Woody In South Auckland It's a long way to go Yes Next time I'll be going there.

Here's why. Well worth the drive. Three weeks after I hadn't heard from the store, I contacted them saying, hey, I'm just wondering where we are in this process. And that was when they were like, oh, we've tried our best, but we're going to need to send it to Apple in Australia.

I was like, wait, so you haven't sent it to Apple in Australia yet? There was all this umming and ahhinging and i was like you totally forgot so then two days later i get a message from apple in australia yeah saying we would like to call you to discuss your phone i'm like this is interesting this is where sandy comes in i'm like anytime the phone rings it's sandy from customer relations she's like, we've been sent this phone. It's got water damage. And I was like, oh, that's unusual because the Apple 12 Pro Max,

the iPhone 12 Pro Max, is waterproof. I've literally watched my friend with his jump in a spa and be like, what am I sitting on? I think I'm sitting on my phone. Pull it out and be like, oh, shake, shake, and put it over there, and it was fine. Not even a bag of rice. Not even a bag of rice. Not even a bag of rice.

Just left it on there. So Sandy says, there's water damage. Can I ask you some questions? And I say, by all means, Sandy, knock yourself out. She's like, are you a scuba diver? And I say, not currently. Not currently. Nothing scares me more than scuba diving.

Yet to sit the license. Yeah. And she said, have you been water skiing with your iPhone? And I said, I haven't been water skiing for decades. Well, have you been water skiing with your iphone and i said i haven't been water skiing for decades oh you have been water i've never water skied i can only go in a straight line though corners freak me out so i'd let go and then i just go we straight over the wake and then fall over oh so no i haven't been water skiing no i haven't been scuba diving uh and she said have you uh been effectively she asked me if I've been hit with a fireman's hose.

All of these things you may realize have one thing in common. Have you? Yeah. Have you been blasted by a fireman's hose? You're lucky you still wear your skin on. Didn't we both do it? I don't think so. That sounds like it would have blown you down.

Yeah, no, it did. Are we speaking in? No, actually a fireman. Yeah, we've got... I'm sure you were there. It was a radio stunt thing. Oh, maybe. Yeah.

Maybe it hit me in the head so hard I can't remember it. You got concussion. So basically Sandy said water has been forced through the waterproofing. Oh my goodness. Oh shoot. And she said if you haven't been submerged more than five metres, had pressure applied or taken a Like a running smash Into some water

Yeah This is a manufacturer's fault Oh wow And she said We will replace the phone Oh great We're just replacing the screen We're going to replace the whole phone

It's a manufacturer's fault You don't have to pay $700 I said Oh so Even though it's out of Apple care And she said Yes because it's consumer guaranteed This fails to meet

Our high standards That we hold with our product Yep We'll be sending you a new phone Yes And we'll be back with the third party authorized reseller and repairer. Lickety split. Yep.

I said, Sandy, you're a goddamn angel. Yeah. And she said, it has been a pleasure. And then she disappears. Yep. Two days later, I get a call saying, your phone's back in the store. So I go to pick it up. She said, lickety split.

She said, lickety split. Two days later, there it is. I go back into the store, and the lady in the store says, fantastic, that's $729. And I said, oh, Sandy on the phone said it was a manufacturer's fault, so it was covered under the Consumer Guarantees Act. And she said, nope. And I said, but I pulled out the quote that I had and it said screen repair. I said $729 for a screen repair.

That hasn't happened. It's a whole unit replacement. There hasn't been anything. No, we talked about it on the thing. She said, and I said, open up the box.

Cause the box was literally sealed with a sticker to say that the box. Yeah. She pulled it out and had the screen thing that you have to take off. That covers the charging. I love those. So good. And I said, Oh look, it's a brand new to take off that covers the charging hole. Oh, I love those. So good. And I said, oh, look, it's a brand new phone. Yeah.

And she's like, oh, okay. It's a brand new unit. I said, oh, it's covered by apples. And then she's like, oh, okay, so $729. I said, you're not quite understanding what I'm saying here. Nothing's been repaired. It's an entire replacement. What was your tone at that point? At that point, I was kind of exasperated.

And she's like, well, you need to talk to Apple. And I said, could you talk to Apple and she said no we can't contact Apple. I said that's unusual you're a third party reseller. You're an authorised authorised. Surely you've got a direct line of contact. So I get on the blower and I get through to the technical desk and I ask to talk to Sandy

and he's got no idea who Sandy is and I said it's at this point we talked about this on air and we hypothesized that she was dead. Yeah, she died. At Threadbow. Yeah, maybe a mountain biking accident because it's not quite winter there. So I'm on the phone to the technical department.

Sandy works in customer relations. You'll remember that. Yeah. And so this guy's like, we can't actually see other departments' files. Oh. But I can see here that you sent in a phone and a new phone's been sent back. And I said, would you confirm that this store is not to be charged for that phone?

Because they're trying to tell me that they're going to be charged. And he's like, well, they wouldn't be charged for a repair because it's a replacement. To which I said, yeah, I understand that, but I've said that three times and they don't seem to be getting it. So then he's like well i'll um get them to call you back and i was like okay so i'm not getting my phone today and she and he said no it doesn't look like it and i thought well that's not handy so i said to the person i was like apple i went into the store and i said well this is frustrating i'm gonna have to

come back yeah apple's gonna call me yeah and so this is about two months down the track right at least yeah at leastoser to three. And so then I get a call. And then the next day, I'm like, I'm going to call Apple. No, no, no. A while later, I rung them and I said, have you heard from Apple? And they said, no. And I said, so that phone you're saying was repaired,

that was definitely replaced. I still owe you the fee for the repair. And she said, yes, we've been charged by Apple. But it hasn't been repaired. And I was like, well, how would you be charged by Apple? Because Apple said they're not going to charge you. They said there would be no repair job. And I said, it's under the consumer guarantees action. She said, no, your AppleCare's run out.

And I said, yes, I know, but this is outside of that. You must be familiar with. Oh, my God. So I'm getting frustrated at this part. Then I ring Apple. I'm like, I'm going to just grab the bull by the horns. I rung back and I said, I haven't heard back from customer service. Now, that's when I get put through to a guy called

Drew, who is fantastic. Wait, not Sandy. Not Sandy. Have we confirmation that Sandy's not dead? Sandy exists. So this is when I'm on the phone with Drew and I sent you guys a screen cap. I was on the phone with him for one hour, six minutes and 57 seconds. At the end of which, Drew said he'd been put on hold to talk to Sandy. Sandy had then conferenced in and said, yeah, absolutely. Like, it's a brand new unit. It's consumer things. This was on the notes on the thing we sent back to these people.

They haven't been charged. This is ridiculous. I'm starting to think these people are fucking useless. I'm starting to think that as well. I was on the way to beginning to believe that too. So then Drew said to me, okay, all good. We've got a thing called the portal. Bourne, if I could just stop you there at the portal.

Play ZM's Fletchford and Ailey. Play ZM. So let's get back to the portal. Here we are on the other side of the break. On the other side of the portal. So the portal is a way that they communicate with these stores that are authorized resellers and repairers. Oh, so they do have a way to contact them.

So they do have a way to contact them. So you've been lied to. Or they're fucking useless. I really feel like just they're fucking useless at this stage. So then,

Drew is like, I've forced it down the portal. He's like, He's forced it down the portal. He's forced it down the portal. He's pushed it down the portal. He's like,

give them an hour. Yeah. This is all taken care of. It has been my pleasure. I have been Drew. I said, I've been Vaughn. Hang up. One hour, six minutes, 57 seconds.

Thank you for coming. Good night. I give it one hour and 30 minutes. Yeah. I give it a little extra bake time. Give it a little extra time for the portal to settle. Because it's got to get through the portal. Then I ran and I say, hello, it's Vaughughn smith here now this is the call to the store with my phone yeah and i say um i've just been talking to drew at apple yeah and he said

he was pushing something through the portal and they said it's not here oh my god and i said well that's frustrating he's like sometimes it takes overnight i said drew was pretty sure it was automatic yeah and this guy's like mark can't see anything here so he said uh it'll be here in the morning no doubt no then after work i'm start driving home i try ringing the store ring ring ring ring ring ring ring no answer phone just cuts off oh god ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring cuts it gets to the point where i'm like well i have to go one way to the store or one way home so i go to the store yeah because i'm like they said it would be there in the morning yep i park up outside the store no doubt in fact they finally answer i can see inside the store. Yeah. Because I'm like, they said it would be there in the morning. Yeah. I park up outside the store. You said no doubt, in fact. They finally answer.

I can see inside the store, but I'm in the car. I said, hi, I'm just parked up outside. I rung yesterday. My phone's been replaced. Every time I call, it's like I've never heard, never, not familiar with my case. No, no. I have to re-explain the entire situation. No, nothing.

And they said, oh, yeah, there's a phone here. I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. And she said, yes, it's ready for pickup. I was like, fantastic. Now, there's a phone here. I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. And she said, yes, it's ready for pickup. I was like, fantastic. Now, there's no sort of like attached fees. And she said, oh, hold on, there's something here. $729 for a screen repair. I said, now, this was the first time I would say I lost my temper with them.

And it was not immediately on that part of the phone call. I said, hey, look, yesterday I spent an hour and six minutes and 57 seconds talking to Apple. Drew said he's going to put something in the portal, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. And to which she said no. And I started getting frustrated. And she just kept saying the same thing. You need to call Apple.

You need to call Apple. I was like, you don't understand. I will send you the screenshot of the phone call to Apple that lasted one hour, six minutes and 57 seconds. You're very calm. I would have burnt the store down by this point. So I was getting frustrated and I said, no, you are not listening. And I started talking like that, like really condescendingly. And she started getting really fed up, but not at all wanting to meet me halfway or check

for a portal. And she kept saying, we can't contact Apple. I was like, this is insane that you can't contact apple i'm not spending another hour six minutes and 57 seconds on the phone with apple so then i messaged drew oh yeah drew's direct contact i said drew my boy it's not there he's like this is unbelievable but I'm not at work today, so I'll have to deal with it on Saturday. Drew. And I'm like, okay, Drew. And then on Saturday, I get a call.

And it's, hey, it's Drew here. I said, hello, Drew. And he's like, this is one of the most frustrating cases I've ever dealt with. And he's like, I've tried calling them. They don't have an answer phone. If you're going to be an authorized reseller, repairer for Apple, you've got to have an answer phone. Oh, you've caught them. for apple you've got to have how many calls are they missing yeah and that was my frustration on the phone of the lady i said i've called five times no answer phone i get literally the outside your store to find out

you're not going to give me this phone so did drew like give them a dressing down drew and his manager there was a dressing down oh yeah and he said but also this store has launched its own contact with apple to try to work out what's happening i was like so you're telling me they can contact apple and weeks ago they could have contacted apple when i was in their store saying you can't you contact apple and he's like yes and i was like fuck drew i'm about to pop off and drew's like let's give this till monday and it'll hopefully be sorted so then i get a message from the store in that meantime telling me that my anger certainly didn't help the situation and getting

frustrated with them wasn't the answer and i replied fuck you you have got to be kidding me yeah like you have shown like absolutely no initiative in solving my problem yeah i've wasted so much time dealing with this shit i think at this point we said to you maybe just pay the money i was like fuck that i was so indignant to the entire situation so then i get a message on the tuesday Tuesday saying your phone is ready to be picked up. I was like, I'm in no hurry to go back down there. So I had reason to be in that part of town a couple of days later. And I walked in and I was like,

hi, I'm here to pick up my phone. And the woman who I had yelled at on the phone, who had yelled at me on the phone, who I had been frustrated with in person and who had blatantly not helped me whatsoever face-to-face, looked at me like she'd never seen me before. Oh, wow. Do you have your number?

Your. Yeah. Your number. I was like. I'm the guy. Do you not recognize this fucking face? But I didn't scream that. I said, my mobile number is.

And I read it out. And she said, oh, yeah. I'll get your phone from out the back. Oh, it's over. And I accidentally said, thanks. Oh. I was not going to say thanks No don't say thanks So I was like thanks

Fuck them So she walked out the back And came out with it And that's when she saw the notes On the phone And she must have realised This is the guy Oh yeah okay

And she didn't look at me Oh yeah She put the phone And she's like There's your phone If there's any problems There's our email address And there's our phone number

I almost fucking choked at that stage I was like I'm never coming in here again. What use is your phone number? None of those are any use whatsoever. And then I just held the phone in the box and she was looking down at the desk and I didn't move because she wasn't making logic contact with me.

Yeah. And then she looked up at me and I gave her this like slow blank that was double-eyed as a sort of a, in place of a nod. You have exhausted me. You have nearly broken me, but I have my prize. And I turned around and walked out of the store. And is that when she said, wait, sir, it's $760? No!

Fuck! If she had done that You would have got your arm All those MacBooks On that table Firebomb Boom So not an apology

No apology No apology No apology whatsoever It's weird because I've taken like Two devices And your watch And you've took my watch before

I picked up your watch And I haven't had a problem with them. Fletch does my admin by the way. I'm never going there again in my fucking life. No, I'll never go there again. As a stance for my friend. Go there again. Wow. And so all up from when you took your phone and they forgot about it, they lost it and then

fucked around. It would have been three months? At least. And all the time he was using my iPhone fucking it up. Scratches on the screen, dings, probably fucking submerged scuba diving. He's taking a water skiing. I mean, I just put pee into the search engine and Pornhub popped right up. That's because Hayley was using it before you. Hayley used it as well.

Okay, yeah, that phone's fucked. I'd absolutely burn that. I'm so happy you've got your new phone. That's the end of the story. And I kind of want to say, like, don't go to that store. That specific store. Because it's not like I'm just, you've literally heard my month-long saga. It's not like I went in there and they forgot to give me the charger.

Oh, fair go. Fair go would have had a field day with this. Look, if anyone who I know That uses Apple asks me for an authorised resell I will never be saying go to that place No I won't We will personally step by step Tell people to avoid

OOBE in Newmarket OOBE whatever they call themselves Actively avoid it Save yourself Seriously A stress induced headache and I never get them I had a couple of them