This follows on from yesterday’s post, Battery failure.

Today promised to be hot, especially by the late afternoon when the sun’s heat had had time to accumulate.

I was not looking forward to travelling on public transport with Covid-19 still active but it was either that or resign myself to using a phone that was likely to keep collapsing with a dud battery. The obvious route would have been to take the tube to Covent Garden Station which is a few yards from the Apple store. Unfortunately, this station is closed at the moment. The next option, which I adopted, was to take a bus from the Angel to King’s Cross Station, then a Piccadilly Line tube train from there to Leicester Square and to walk from Leicester Square to Covent Garden and the Apple store.

I was relieved to see that the bus had very few passengers aboard and the same for the tube train. Would it be the same for the return journey?

As I have mentioned, I used to work in Covent Garden and often used to walk to the bookshop from Leicester Square station. The walk takes about 10 minutes.

The entrance to the Apple store is under an arcade which the store is using to full advantage, having set up ribboned paths for queueing. You have to go through quite a process before being admitted but I won’t bore you with the details as this happens in many places.

Passing the cleansing routine admits you to a queue where you wait until your name is called. My nane was eventually called and I was instructed to enter and mount the famous spiral staircase to the first floor. Yet again (for about the sixth time), I was asked my name and business. It helped that an appointment had been made for me the previous evening.

My iPhone and I were attended to by a pleasant young man who gave every sign of knowing his trade and being an ace at customer relations. Once again the poor old iPhone had to go through an analytics test and eventualy the verdict was announced. There was something wrong withh the battery and it would have to be seen to. What happened next was slightly unexpected but nonetheless welcome.

For some time, there has been a small bright patch in the bottom left corner of the iPhone’s display. It wasn’t a great nuisance and I didn’t notice it for much of the time but I thought I would ask the assistant about it at an opportune moment. In the event, I didn’t manage to do so because he anticipated me. He had seen it for himself and he told me that it was defintely a fault and that they would attend to it.

What you notice about your contacts with Apple is the massive amounts of form-filling that takes place. My assistant was typing pretty well continually throughout the interview. At last he produced the Grand Schema for me to approve and sign. They were going to replace both the battery and the display. I could see that the cost of this came to £161.66 but, as he assured me, “Apple will cover it”.

That was the good news. Now came the bad news, though I cannot really fault them for this, given the late hour of my appointment. They were sorry but they could not effect the repairs this evening. I would have to come back tomorrow at noon when the joyful reunion would be enacted.

Anticipating such a possibility, I had brought my old iPhone 6 with me and my assistant cheerfully swapped over the SIM from the iPhone 8 so that, in the meantime, I could use the 6 instead.

I left the store and walked back to Leicester Square tube station. It was hot, very hot. Wearing a facemask in these conditions is extremely uncomforable because it holds the hot air you breath out against your face. (That, after all, is the point of it.)

The tube station was now more crowded than when I came. The first train to arrive was pretty full so I let it go. Another was due in 2 minutes and I hoped it would be less full. It was, so I went aboard.

At King’s Cross, I boarded a 214 bus but it too soon became crowded. Drivers are supposed to limit the number of passengers but this driver was taking everyone.
At the stop before mine, still more people crowded aboard, so I left the bus and walked the rest of the way.

Tomorrow I will have to make the journey to the Apple store again. Perhaps at midday, and on a Sunday, transport will be less crowded. Let’s hope so.