A Belated Upgrade

Hooray for this new babe: iPhone 14 Pro Max (512 GB, silver)!

After nearly 4.5 years, my iPhone Xs Max (512GB, gold) is on the verge of a breakdown. A maximum battery capacity of 74%, smashed back glass, and constantly degrading performance have led to this belated upgrade. Why the word “belated”? I used to snap up the latest iPhone model on an annual or biennial basis, thanks to the iPhone Upgrade Program. Since the onset of the pandemic, however, my interest in buying a new iPhone has plunged. It’s not that the new iPhones are unexciting but that smartphones as a whole are no longer my focus of attention.

For anyone interested to know the timeline in the face of the low availability since its launch: I placed my order on November 2nd (side note: many thanks to Siva! 🙏), got charged on November 28th, and was expected to receive the product on December 5th. FedEx was really eager to surprise me at the doorstep, so they decided to make a delivery today, even though the FedEx app still says it is scheduled for “December 5th before 17:00” and they only deliver on weekdays.

I didn’t transfer anything from the old iPhone as it’s many years old and I wanted to start anew. While setting the ringtone, I found my previous choice, purchased from the iTunes Store, failed to load. I was not able to download it to the new iPhone despite signing in to the iTunes Store multiple times. As a last resort, I reached out to the Apple Support team (via iMessage for Business). Soon I was told the creator might have removed their content from the store, leading to a download failure. I had never believed it would happen. Nor had I thought it necessary to back up a 30-second audio file worth $1.29. But the loss is real: I’ve lost one of my favourite ringtones that I paid for.

Apple Support apologized for this “unusual” occurrence and hoped to offset the loss. They offered me a credit of $4.99 for movie rentals. I expressed my gratitude and also my wish to get a ringtone credit instead because I’m not really a movie enthusiast. Then guess what? They added 3 extra song credits to my account.

Apple is so good at cultivating customers with several dollars and having them invest thousands in the future. Small money, big impact!