Gear

Custom Ringtone Voids iPhone Warranty?

Here’s one to scare all you iPhone fetishists: You don’t have to unlock, jailbreak or install unauthorized third-party software on your Magnifabrick to invalidate the warranty. Doug Rodriquez was able to do so merely by setting up a custom ringtone using a well-documented iTunes workaround. Rodriquez started getting SIM card error messages sometime thereafter and […]

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Here's one to scare all you iPhone fetishists: You don't have to unlock, jailbreak or install unauthorized third-party software on your Magnifabrick to invalidate the warranty. Doug Rodriquez was able to do so merely by setting up a custom ringtone using a well-documented iTunes workaround.

Rodriquez started getting SIM card error messages sometime thereafter and went looking for some customer support. Apple basically told him to piss up a rope because they had "determined that (the iPhone) has been subjected to accidental damage or misuse, which is not covered by the warranty or an Apple service contract.” Says Rodriguez:

I’ve never dropped my iPhone, I’ve never exposed it to water. I’ve never put third-party apps on it or hacked it. It just stopped working and Apple apparently does not believe me...The only thing I’ve ever done is back in September putting one custom ringtone on my iPhone via the “manual transfer” method. Nothing Else.

No word yet on what kind of warranty love using the Apple-sanctioned GarageBand method for installing custom ringtones will get you.

User denied iPhone warranty service for custom ringtone[iPhone Atlas]