You’ve read the few stories floating around, you’ve seen our round up of ‘#Bendgate’, and you’ve even watched some fools bend iPhones on YouTube only to dismiss the issue just like I did. It wasn’t until I discovered my own iPhone was bent that I started to believe those YouTube bending fools. It’s not as bent as some iPhone 6 Pluses I have seen mind you, but when placed face down it certainly doesn’t sit flat.

From day two I’ve had the phone sitting in its nice official leather case living out its quiet life in my hand, in my pocket, or on my desk. So how exactly can my phone bend in its short quiet life? Your guess is as good as mine.

I went into this this frustrating journey of replacing my bent iPhone filled with confidence that it would be a simple issue of getting the phone replaced after a few calls, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

‘CPW Cares’

The number of phones in stock would be my first major hurdle. Considering Apple has sold so many iPhone 6s in the short time they’ve been out, they may be in short supply and make it harder to get an exchange. I figure calling the store I purchased the iPhone 6 from was my best bet to check and see if they have stock and explain my situation. Forty minutes later of being on hold and I’m beginning to think going to the store is best option. Not a huge deal, having worked there in the past, thinking this would be easy.

When I arrived, the store manager checked to see if I was ok after waiting less than five minutes, but unfortunately I still ended up leaving the store empty handed. He quickly informed me that I would have to go an Apple store, the nearest of which is three to four hours of driving away, even after I told him that I only had the phone for a little over a week.

“Out of our hands” he told me, “it’s not faulty so it’s your problem”. Strange thing for him to say when he hadn’t even set eyes on the handset. Below (and above) is a picture illustrating the ‘not faulty’ iPhone.

I even went as far as pointing out the fact that under UK Law, 11N of The Supply of Goods and service act (1982) states that responsibility is placed firmly at the retailer’s door. This information didn’t even raise more than a grunt from the scruffy supercilious manager.

Please Hold, Your Call Is Important To Us

Right or not, I presumed that one store manager didn’t speak for the business, so thought it best to try a little higher up the chain. I called the Carphone Warehouse Customer care number who, despite the name, didn’t seem to care at all.

I was assured that “Apple has put the phone through rigorous testing and it requires a large amount of force…” but I tuned them out after that. The nice lady went off to see what my options were and informed me when she returned after ten minutes that I could take it back to the store and they will send it to Apple (which could take up to three weeks) or I could take it myself.

AppleCare

I called my mobile network (o2) and they said they would be happy to exchange the handset but, since I bought it from CPW, there was nothing they could do. Resigned to the fact I am going to have to sort things out myself, I suppose fours hours out my day is not the worst thing in the world. I have since booked an appointment at the Apple Store in Sheffield on Tuesday, so hopefully that will be the end of my journey.

This whole experience has left me feeling like it’s me that has the issue, or that I’m crazy and just being too picky. I am most of all annoyed, not at the phone, but at at the service seeing as the issue should have been sorted after one hour and not several days. These are the considerations you must take into account when buying a phone from now on.