Dear Apple,
I hope you are having a great start to 2018. Because I’m not. You know why I’m not? Sit back. Take a load off. Let me tell you a story.
Christmas 2017, I wake up to open presents like I have done every year of my life. I find that I have been gifted the Apple Watch Series 3. My excitement is through the roof because I have been wanting one. I see that it isn’t cellular enabled and I am okay with that because I hardly go anywhere without my phone. I got out my phone and began pairing it as I am getting ready to go to my grandmother’s house for Christmas lunch.
Once my watch and phone were paired and I was ready, we set off to my grandmother’s while I played with my new device. I was so excited... until I realized that none of my contacts had synced. I could read my messages but I couldn’t see who they were from. I texted everyone that I knew had an Apple Watch. All of them said that it should go away soon, to be patient. So, I waited.
Three hours later, and I still didn’t have my contacts. I decided I would investigate on Google. Google told me to unpair and repair, unpair and delete Watch app and repair, and turn off iCloud contacts and turn back on. I spent a majority of my Christmas afternoon doing just that. Nothing worked. My uncle, who has an Apple Watch too, said maybe it was because I had so many contacts (483 to be exact). I texted a friend that I knew would have a lot of contacts and asked her how many she had. She has 840. There went that theory. I decided I would just wait it out because even if I wanted to do something like go to the Apple store, they would be closed on Christmas.
I called Apple on the following Thursday, the 28th. The guy on the phone couldn’t understand why I was having the issue. He even remote accessed my iPhone to make sure that I had all the correct settings. He couldn’t figure out the problem. He decided there was nothing more he could do so he put me on hold to speak to his supervisor. The supervisor told me to do all these things that I had already done with the last guy. Nothing worked. He said his supervisor would be able to assist me. I’m not sure how far I went up the chain with my problem but I talked to at least five different supervisors with none being able to fix the problem. Finally, after four hours, one said that maybe the watch I got was bad and I needed a different one. So it was decided that I would exchange the one I had for another one. (Note that this wasn't a fix. This was a theory.)
I wasn’t able to go to Target until New Year's. I get to Target only to find that they were out of the GPS watches and only had the cellular ones in stock. Those were $50 extra without tax. I decided I wanted it then because Target didn’t know when they would get another shipment in. I took the watch to the checkout line and found out that with tax, I would have to pay $90 to have the watch that I didn’t really want but was only getting because my contacts weren’t syncing.
I got home and paired the watch. But guess what? My contacts STILL weren’t syncing. Imagine my frustration when I found out a watch I had paid $90 extra for, was doing the same thing my old watch had done...
The closest Apple store to me is about an hour away. So, I decided I would try AT&T because they have the devices in store. This was the following Friday. I got off work at five and headed straight there. The guy I worked with had no idea how to fix it. But, he had a theory. He said I could live with the problem or test the theory. It was up to me. He said if I wanted to test the theory, he would be there the next day.
I went home and slept on it. I woke up and texted the friends that I knew had an Apple Watch. They started confirming the theory. I decided I would test out. I went to AT&T. I told the guy my decision. We set everything up. Paired the watch again to find out the theory was correct. My watch now had the contacts all synced. Everything was right in my world again. Except now I was in debt to AT&T. Care to guess how that happened? I now own an iPhone 8.
The theory: my phone was too old. It was a 6. It was paid off. It wasn’t giving me any real issue that I *needed* a new phone. The issues it had, I could have dealt with.
According to MacRumors, the Apple Watch “will require connection to an iPhone 5, 5s, 5c, 6, or 6 Plus running iOS 8.2.” Well, mine was running 11.2.1, and it was in the list. So you would THINK it would work. Or you would think that all the Apple people I spoke to on that Thursday would have informed me. But, no. They didn’t say a single thing about the problem being with my phone. No one said anything. So, now, I have an installment bill of $849 for 30 months to add to my phone line, plus $10/month for the watch’s line, plus the extra $90 I had to pay to get this watch.
The reason for this letter is to inform you that what I went through was ridiculous. I want to inform the world of this problem. The 6 really isn’t that old, to be honest. It isn’t like it was a 5. But, even the Series 1 should work with a 5. My mom just got the Series 2 but was worried about hers not working with her phone because she has a 6s and she knew what I just went through. But her contacts are synced. But, I wonder if the Series 3 would sync with her phone. I hope no one else has to go through what I did. I hope no one else gets suckered into paying more money because their phone is “too old” even though it’s paid off.
Did you enjoy my story? Did you laugh at the ridiculousness because you knew from the beginning when I laid out my problem that it was probably because I had an old phone? Or do you not know? Think if you were in my shoes and it happened to you from another company say your TV bill. Would you be mad? Would you see it from my side?
Sincerely,
A Disgruntled, in-debt, but still loyal customer (Loyal because I own a Mac, an iPad, an Apple Watch, an iPhone, and I subscribe to Apple Music.)
