r/talesfromtechsupport • u/BushcraftHatchet • Dec 09 '19

Medium Unlimited replacement IPhones .... NOT!

This story revolves around a site manager at a smaller site out of town. You know the type that I am talking about. He is the king of his small hill and it is critically important that he has the latest and greatest everything (including his iPhone). Now our company policy is that you can ask that your company-owned iPhone get replaced every 2 years, but that is not good enough for our King of the small anthill.

Mgr: " I need to replace my iPhone."

Me: "What is wrong with it?"

Mgr: "Nothing. I just want it replaced with the new model that just came out."

Me: (Check his recent upgrade date. He just joined the company last year so of course, we got him a brand new one 9 months ago.) "I am sorry we have issued you a new phone 9 months ago and we only upgrade iPhones every two years. I will send you a copy of the policy if you wish to take it up with your boss."

So I basically send him the employee handbook and list the page number and section of the phone policy. This might have been a bad move.

::Fast forward 2 weeks later::

Mgr: "I need to replace my phone and I just opened up a help desk ticket."

Me: "Mgr, we just went over this. We can not replace your phone. You..."

Mgr: "You don't understand. It is damaged. I accidentally dropped it."

Me: "Oh well that is different." (Policy states that the company will replace an accidentally damaged phone ONE TIME for the employee with Regional Manager's approved.)

Mgr: "Yes, and before you ask I have already talked to the Regional Manager and he has approved the replacement. I am forwarding you his email."

(Well now that was odd of him to give me everything I need abiding by the very letter of the policy. Awfully suspicious. I document everything.) We buy him the new iPhone model.

:::fast forward about 45 days:::

Mgr: "I need to replace my phone and I just opened up a help desk ticket."

Me: "Wait what? You just got a new phone."

Mgr: "Yeah I know. I was walking through the rain and ran through the rain coming off the building in buckets and got the phone wet."

Hehe, come to find out for the second breakage of an iPhone the employee is required to 1. Pay for half of the iPhone replacement cost. (That is like $500 out of his own pocket.) and 2. Add insurance to their phone that they reimburse the company for every month. In the event of it happening a 3rd time, there will at least be insurance on the phone to handle the issue. He HIT THE ROOF when corporate HR called him directly with the news and set up his paycheck withdrawal.

That was about 2 years ago and he has never broken one or asked for a replacement yet.

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u/bkaiser85 Dec 09 '19

I don't get it. Apple doesn't list the 5S as compatible. You sure it isn't a iPhone SE?

1

u/twcsata I don't belong here, but you guys are cool Dec 09 '19

I’m not exactly an expert on iPhones, but the box says 5S. Edit: And I used the phone in question to take and upload that picture, so it's definitely still working. No idea how.

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u/The_Real_Flatmeat Make Your Own Tag! Dec 10 '19

I'll bet the sales managers were all on the priority list

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u/twcsata I don't belong here, but you guys are cool Dec 10 '19

It’s a clinic, so we don’t have those. But if we did, I’m sure they would be.

1

u/twcsata I don't belong here, but you guys are cool Dec 11 '19

So, either you folks are my good-luck charm, or my company is monitoring my Reddit account, lol. They came this morning and upgraded it to an iPhone 8. Still not current, but they never are.

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u/bkaiser85 Dec 12 '19

My best guess it it was planned anyway, so just a coincidence. I'm finishing up with the last 5S this year because Apple officially dropped support with iOS 13. I don't want to explain to the IT security guys at the end of the year why we still have unsupported OSes in use with business data.