Apple weathers #bendgate, calls it ‘extremely rare’

Apple weathers #bendgate, calls it ‘extremely rare’

Out of the more than 10 million new iPhone's sold, only nine have been reported to Apple as bent.

Apple may finally be moving past the “bendgate” controversy that embroiled the company earlier this week. The iPhone-maker has announced that it will replace any iPhone 6 that bent while in someone’s pocket, on the condition that the device passes a Visual Mechanical Inspection.

The brouhaha started on Wednesday, when complaints surfaced  on social media that the iPhone 6 Plus unexpectedly bent when placed in a pocket. While the smartphones remained operational, disgruntled users reported, a slight bend developed in the middle or the top of the large handset. These users told ZDNet that the bend took approximately 18 hours in a pocket to manifest. The situation reached peak controversy once the hashtag #bendgate began to trend on Twitter.

In a chat with Apple support about whether bent phones would be covered by warranty, The Next Web uncovered that it would be determined on a case-by-case basis.

“That is 100 percent up to the Genius you speak with at the store,” said the Apple support representative. “There is a test called a Visual Mechanical Inspection that the device will have to pass. If it is within the guidelines, they will be able to cover it. If not, the replacement would be a paid one.”

The rep claimed that the inspection guidelines were not provided to chat support staff, but assured Next Web that Apple was “looking into this with an insane amount of detail.”

To be sure, only a small minority of phones contain the bend design flaw. The Wall Street Journal reports that out of the more than 10 million new iPhone’s sold, only nine have been reported to Apple as bent.

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