We bought our first OtterBox iPhone charging stand about 9 months ago from the Apple Store Changi Jewel. It was an expensive buy but it look pretty slick and solid. It was a nice piece to sit on our study tables and with the angled MagSafe magnetic circle plate we could stuck our phone on and still read any messages on it. Overall it was a good design so was well worth the $200+ we pay for each.
However it was only a few months in that we found that pieces of plastic at the corner of the hinges beginning to disintegrate. Small pieces would fall off at a time and eventually it would expose the metal hinges. It wasn't just a rare occurrence on one of the stands. We had bought 3 of them and all had the exact same problems. And interestingly, Apple Store stopped carrying them too.
Meimei was very irritated that we blew our money on what we thought was a good equipment. So she wrote a feedback to OtterBox and showed them pictures of 3 of the stands. One of them doesn't show it but the plastic on the bottom part of the plastic on the right hinge is disintegrating too.
Somehow the complaint got through to the right people. Although they couldn't refund for the stands, they sent replacements for them. Doesn't really solve the issue as we fully expect the stands to crack again in a couple of months. But at least they tried to 'resolve' the case. I joked with Meimei that they could send these because they are a 'dead-on-arrival' product and could no longer be sold at the stores. They must have received many similar complaints that they are simply clearing out their inventory of this dud.
I believe this is a manufacturing flaw that they didn't know about till they put it on the market. If the stands were couple of dollars I doubt anyone would have bothered. But for this to be priced so expensive it gave customers a sense of expectation that they are made with good quality materials. Oh well, lesson learned I guess. We'll be careful in buying Otterbox products going forward.
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