Apple Warranty News: Guidelines for Assessing Warranty Leaked
Apple's 22-page guideline for assessing warranty coverage over iPhone 6, 6s, 7, and their Plus models have been leaked.
The guideline, dated March 2017, is titled "Visual/Mechanical Inspection (VMI) Guide" according to Business Insider. It is the manual that Apple's technicians — referred to as Geniuses — and authorized service partners refer to in determining warranty coverage when an iPhone is brought in for a repair.
There's also a list of questions included that Geniuses should run with the customer before they deny warranty or repair service.
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The request for a repair can either fall under in-warranty repair, out-of-warranty repair, or ineligible for service, according to one of the pages from the VMI Guide.
One of the significant things found in the VMI is that one hairline crack will be covered under warranty, which wasn't part of the service guidelines before. Also, dead pixels showing up on the Apple gadget's screen can be addressed under warranty as long as it is specifically requested.
The VMI is strict when it comes to spotting non-Apple materials inside the gadget. Once the battery or any other part of the device is replaced with a non-Apple part or is missing, it becomes ineligible for repair.
Geniuses and authorized service partners are also not obligated to fix cosmetic damages, which is a defect only on the case of the device without damages done on the hardware, according to the VMI.
An Apple retail technician confirmed with the publication that there's an equivalent VMI for all the company's gadgets.
"Used more for the physical inspection and how to determine cost for damage. That's basically half the training for iPhone techs," the retail technician confirmed.
However, another technician revealed that they don't always use the VMI when assessing warranty or service coverage in Apple products unless they encounter an "oddball issue."
"We can pick out abnormal issues without using it," the technician added.
But the VMI doesn't always make the final decision according to another Apple technician.
"There are always those one-off issues that the phone is technically not covered under warranty but we swap the phone anyways under warranty," said the technician.
Apple users can check out warranty and service repair guidelines here.
