“I just wanted to seek justice, but I was kicked like a ball for half a year.” This is the sentiment left by Indian user Southern_Chest_9084 on the Reddit forum. On an ordinary afternoon last September, he was wearing an Apple Watch and working in front of his laptop as usual. Suddenly, a sharp pain hit his wrist. The pain came without warning, like being burned by fire. When he took off the watch in panic, the sight before him made him take a breath: a burn mark that exactly matched the shape of the sensor on the back of the Apple Watch suddenly appeared on his wrist. The skin was red, swollen and blistered, and the wound was shocking.
Indian users accused Apple Watch of burning their wrists. After half a year of fruitless rights protection, they angrily criticized customer service for “kicking the ball”
This incident should have been a simple product safety issue. However, the six-month rights protection process that followed left this once loyal Apple user completely heartbroken. From the indifferent evasion of telephone customer service, to the ignorance of physical store clerks, to the “cannot read back” message after promising to pick up the package at home. The “high-quality customer service” that Apple is proud of has completely collapsed in this incident. This is not only a tug-of-war between consumers and technology giants, but also a mirror that reflects the arrogance and incompetence of multinational companies when facing product safety issues.
What’s even more shocking is that this is not an isolated case.
Incident: Sudden severe pain in wrist and burn marks found
According to the user in Reddit He described in detail that at the time of the incident, he was working on a laptop at home when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his wrist, where he was wearing the Apple Watch.
「當我取下手表時，手腕上出現了一個明顯的手錶形狀灼傷痕跡，起了水泡而且很痛，皮膚也有明顯的損傷。」
The user attached a photo to the article, showing that the burn marks on the wrist match the shape of the sensor on the back of the Apple Watch. As can be seen from the photo, the wound is in a regular round shape, which is obviously the part where the device directly contacts the skin. Such injuries obviously cannot be explained by ordinary skin allergies.
Difficulties in safeguarding rights: Half-year customer service marathon encounters “kicking”
In the six months after the incident, the Indian user had to repeatedly explain the same experience to different customer service personnel on the phone, online chat, and email. Just waiting for customer service to be connected takes at least 30 minutes each time: this kind of waiting time will undoubtedly make people even more angry for a consumer injured by the product.
Even more frustrating is the attitude of customer service. One of the customer service staff actually denied that the Apple Watch could cause burns, believing that the problem was just a “skin allergy.” This statement was obviously unconvincing to users. However, the perfunctory customer service did not end there. After requiring multiple equipment tests, officials even requested that the watch be sent to Ireland for engineers to investigate.
Since the user is 1.5 to 2 hours away from the nearest Apple Store, he requested customer service to arrange a pick-up of the device for inspection. The phone customer service initially agreed to the request, but then “cannot read it back.” When he contacted another customer service representative to make the same request, he was told that Apple did not provide door-to-door pickup service.
「這讓我感覺被人耍了一道，非常憤怒。」
Physical store experience: The store clerk is completely unaware
After numerous unsuccessful calls, the user decided to go to the Apple Store in person to seek explanation. He took a day off and drove nearly two hours to the nearest direct store, hoping to solve the problem face to face. But what shocked him was that the store staff had no knowledge of the incident.
What’s even more outrageous is that the store clerk also used “skin sensitivity” as an excuse and refused to admit that this was a product safety issue. This phenomenon of “the clerk not knowing” exposed a serious problem in Apple’s customer service system: the complete disconnect between online and offline information.
「我已經被蘋果客服忽視、誤導，被不斷地踢皮球。電話會突然斷掉，客服也經常玩消失，沒人願意認真調查到底發生了什麼。」
This is not the first similar case
This is not the first time Apple Watch has caused injuries to consumers. According to AboutLawsuits Report, as early as 2021, consumers filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple, alleging that design flaws in Apple Watch could cause the lithium battery to expand and cause wrist cuts.
The lawsuit points out that Apple was aware of the design problem before the first-generation Apple Watch was launched in 2015, because the lithium battery needs enough space to naturally expand, but the internal configuration of the Apple Watch does not reserve a buffer, which may cause the metal or glass case to break and cut the user.
In addition, Apple’s official community forum also has Many similar reports, users reported that the Apple Watch sensor area caused skin redness, swelling, burning, and even blisters. These cases show that the problem of skin damage caused by Apple Watch is not an isolated case, but may have systemic design or quality issues.
User considers legal action
After half a year of fruitless efforts to defend his rights, the Indian user said he was considering taking legal action. He wrote in the article: “This incident has been going on for almost half a year, and the reason is simply that the watch really burned my skin. But Apple did not take it seriously. Instead, it sent me from one customer service to another, with no response for weeks and giving conflicting information.”
His experience resonated widely among netizens. Many people shared similar experiences of communicating with Apple customer service. Some people suggested that he write directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook, which might speed up the process of solving the problem.
Arrogance from tech giants?
This incident reflects a question worth pondering: When technology giants face product safety issues, do they always choose “cold treatment”? Or are the grassroots staff taking matters into their own hands and failing to report the issues to the higher-ups? Apple has long been known for its “excellent customer service” and “user experience,” but this incident has revealed possible problems hidden in this huge customer service system.
For Southern_Chest_9084, the experience of these six months has completely changed his view of Apple. “I used to be a loyal Apple user, but now, I’m not sure I can trust the brand anymore,” he wrote at the end of the article. This may be the biggest cost of this incident. It is not the burns on the wrists, but the fact that consumers’ trust in the brand has been completely burned through ruthless evasion again and again.
Source: KOCPC Chinese