When it comes to regular repairs carried out by its technicians, Apple devices can cost a fair few bucks to fix when something breaks. But if your iPhone 11 is among the handsets affected by a strange bug that causes the display to become unresponsive to touch, Apple will now carry out a fix for free.
Display Faults on iPhone 11
Reports about the unresponsive display fault started emerging this summer after the iPhone 11 had already been around for more than six months. Apple has now acknowledged the issue, and said that it was a defect caused by a problematic display module. It affects a subset of iPhone 11 devices produced between November 2019 and May 2020.
To determine if your iPhone 11 is among the affected handsets, first check the serial number on your handset. This can be found by following our easy step-by-step guide explaining how to find the serial number on your Apple device.
You can then visit Apple Support’s dedicated iPhone 11 Display Module Replacement Program webpage, where you’re invited to enter the serial number.
If your phone is among the handsets suffering from the problem, you can follow Apple’s instructions to have your phone serviced either at your local bricks-and-mortar Apple Store, through one of the third-party certified repairers Apple has approved, or by mailing in the device to Apple.
But what if you’ve already paid out money previously to have this problem fixed? Don’t worry: Apple’s thought of that, too. It will refund the full repair costs for any users who paid to fix the screens prior to Apple’s offer of free repairs.
You will just need to provide Apple with the necessary receipts. It’s also worth noting that Apple will only reimburse you for fixes relating to this particular problem. If you’ve had other, unrelated repairs carried out, it won’t pay you for those.
Doing the Right Thing for Customers
Quality control and customer service are metrics that Apple typically does very well on. Occasionally, however, there is a fault—which is what’s happened here. From Apple’s perspective, acting quickly to get it fixed is in everyone’s best interests.
The last thing the company wants is to put off loyal, long-term customers by failing to remedy an issue such as this.
Furthermore, if Apple didn’t spring into action it would be opening itself up to the possibility of class action lawsuits, such as those that accompanied Antennagate, Batterygate, and every other similar controversy the company has faced in its history.
Your iPhone 11 Is Probably Fine
Apple hasn’t revealed the exact number of iPhones affected by this particular fault. But given that Apple sells tens of millions of iPhones each year and the number of people complaining about this is relatively low, it would appear to be a tiny percentage of the overall iPhone 11 units the company has sold.