iPhone 4S problems- can anyone help?

[Foz88]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help. I recently went to the apple store as I'd been having problems making calls on my iPhone 4S. As I was within my year's warranty, I was given a new phone. However, I wish I'd just kept the old one! The new phone will suddenly say 'No service' or have very poor signal. Often it won't register 3G. Even when it does say I have full signal AND 3G I cannot send texts (the progress bar gets almost to the end and then I get a message can't be sent exclamation mark-with both imessages and text messages), use the internet or make calls-I get 'call failed' after about 20 seconds, if I even get that far! I know it can't be my sim card as it worked perfectly well with my old 4s- the problems I'd been having were that the 'down' volume button had frozen and I'd started not being able to hear people on calls- this was a hardware fault with the phone I was told.

I went back to see a genius and was told that the new phone was perfectly healthy and I might have been having teething problems as it was a new device. He also told me to go back after a week if I was still having problems- which I probably will end up having to do. I just wondered if anyone had any advice in the meantime, as I'm pretty hacked off that I'll be paying for a contract I cannot use for a week and have a feeling Apple aren't going to help me out that much anyway... Thanks for reading!

[kornchild2002]

I had a similar issue with my iPhone 5 in that it would not keep a steady LTE connection over Verizon despite me living right next to one of their towers (i.e. full bars and a 45Mbps download speed). That was with my iPhone 5 as ordered from Verizon. I restored it with iTunes and that offered a temporary fix but the problem kept coming up. Apple gave me a new iPhone 5 and it started to do the same thing. Reading online showed me that it is a common problem. However, this time I was able to restore my iPhone with iTunes and that solved it.

Try restoring your iPhone 4S with iTunes, it might be able to at least offer you a temporary fix until the Apple Store gives you a new phone.

[Foz88]

Thanks. I should have mentioned that I've already tried restoring the phone with itunes- with no success I've also taken out the SIM card and put it back- still having the same problems. I hope Apple just give me a new phone and that it works- it's no good them telling me that the phone is very healthy when I can't use it! Thanks for your reply anyway.

[Jubel_358]

Are you restoring as a new device or are restoring from previously backed up software?

[Foz88]

I restored from my iTunes back up- would restoring as a new device help?

[Jubel_358]

Originally Posted by Foz88

I restored from my iTunes back up- would restoring as a new device help?

I had a feeling you restored from backup, it's what the majority of people do. I know it's less hassle to just restore from backup but sometimes this can cause problems.

Since your thinking of returning the phone anyway, try restoring as a new device. Doing this usually solves most problems. Give it a try and let us know if it works.

[kornchild2002]

It may. theoretically the backup does nothing more than store syncing instructions for iTunes along with your contacts and various small aspects. The backup does not store an image of your iPhone so any problems with your iPhone will theoretically not be backup up. However, some people are able to fix issues by restoring their iOS devices and not syncing from a backup.

[Foz88]

I thought I had it there.. restored as new device and fired off a couple of iMessages no problem. Then tried a text and it was the same old story. Now not even managing iMessages! Argh it's so frustrating. I will head back to the genius bar I guess. Thanks for your suggestions anyway.

[Jubel_358]

Originally Posted by Foz88

I thought I had it there.. restored as new device and fired off a couple of iMessages no problem. Then tried a text and it was the same old story. Now not even managing iMessages! Argh it's so frustrating. I will head back to the genius bar I guess. Thanks for your suggestions anyway.

You could try toggling Airplane mode in settings (turn it off and then on again). That is my last suggestion to you because It does sometimes work for people.

However my opinion is that such problems usually are due to network providers and/or damaged SIM card. If you definitely know that this is not the case; then you now know that it's a hardware issue since any software issues would have been eradicated after you restored as new (that's why I suggested it in the first place).

The one good thing about Apple is that they will refund you your money if you're not satisfied after numerous replacements, so if u decide to return, there will be no issues.

Good luck with the fix :-)

[kornchild2002]

They won't issue a refund a year out. The refund period for ANY product is 14 days and, unless the iPhone was purchased directly from them, they aren't going to issue a refund for it.

[Jubel_358]

Originally Posted by kornchild2002

They won't issue a refund a year out. The refund period for ANY product is 14 days and, unless the iPhone was purchased directly from them, they aren't going to issue a refund for it.

The 14 days return period which you have referred to applies to all products (i.e defective or non-defective); hence refund is issued without any problems by Apple.

However from personal experience, I can say with certainty that Apple will issue a refund if they have had to replace a customers iPhone more than 2-3 times within a very short period (as long as the customer's phone is within the warranty period). I do not know for sure about other countries, but within the UK that is usually how such issues are dealt with.

[kornchild2002]

Not in the U.S. the only period for getting a refund is during the initial 14 day period. After that, it is impossible to get a refund even with multiple service problems.