Apple is a company famous (or perhaps infamous) for its customer service. Its wood and glass flagship stores are a guaranteed presence in every major city around the world, and its Genius Bars can be hugely useful, if you don’t mind the wait. So long as you’re within warranty there should be little reason for you to not be able to walk out of the store with a brand new replacement for absolutely no extra cost.
But what happens when something goes wrong outside of warranty, through no fault of your own? The iPhone 5 has had a higher-than-average number of reported complaints regarding its lock button. The small oblong button is located on top of the device, and is used to both awaken and sleep the screen, lock the device and take screenshots (when pressed in tandem with the home button). Naturally when it breaks that’s a bit problematic.
As of May 2nd US owners suffering from broken lock button syndrome will be able to send their device off for replacement via an official Apple support page. Owners in the rest of the world will soon be offered a localised service of their own.
If you were thinking that this was a free ticket to get your smashed handset replaced though, we’ve got some bad news. Any other visible faults with your handset will have to be fixed first before the lock button replacement will be granted, so if you dropped your phone shattering its screen and breaking the lock button then you’re out of luck.