My 2025 iPad Air suddenly stopped recognizing every charger I tried. An Apple Store completed a full diagnostic and said the likely problem is with the logic board or motherboard, meaning the device may need to be replaced. They also determined that the issue was not caused by physical damage or anything I did.
The problem appeared about three weeks after the one-year warranty expired, so I tried requesting a goodwill repair or replacement. A senior advisor took all the information from me and the store employee, then promised to call or email within two days. That never happened. When I called back, another senior advisor claimed he could not see any of the case details and wanted me to start the process over.
A third senior advisor was able to access the case, said he would take ownership of it, and again promised to contact me within two days. It has now been three more days with no update. I'm a broke college student, school starts in less than a month, and I currently don't have a working iPad or laptop. I'm worried that repeatedly calling could hurt my chances, especially since the goodwill repair could still be denied. What's the best way to move this forward?
3 Answers
Unfortunately, there may not be much to do besides keep contacting support and asking for the current case owner or a tier-two escalation. Give them the case number, explain that the promised callback was missed, and ask for a specific follow-up date. If the exception is denied, request the reason in writing or ask whether they can offer any student pricing, repair assistance, or other replacement options.
A senior advisor can usually ask a manager to approve coverage when the store confirms there’s no accidental damage and the failure appears to be a manufacturing defect. Some teams only routinely approve exceptions shortly after the warranty ends, but managers can sometimes authorize more flexibility when the case is well documented. Calling back and calmly referencing the existing case should not invalidate the request—just ask them to update the case rather than restarting the whole process.
Keep following up if the assigned advisor doesn’t respond. Exceptions for out-of-warranty repairs can sometimes be approved when the device is only a few weeks outside coverage, there’s no physical damage, and the store documented it as a likely hardware defect. Ask for the case to be escalated back to tier 2 and request that a customer-service escalation code be added. This sounds like a fairly reasonable exception request, even though approval isn’t guaranteed.
I’m hesitant to call too often because the third advisor made a comment about how many times I’ve contacted support. I’m worried that being persistent could somehow hurt the decision, even though I still haven’t received the promised callback.
The store already examined the iPad several times, ran diagnostics, and documented that I didn’t cause the problem. I’m mainly frustrated that I keep being told someone will call me and then nobody does.