UPDATE: Bless Mophie’s hearts – they say this post and sent me two replacement caps. Thanks, Mophie!
When my friend Bill De Rouchey showed me the external battery he was using with his iPhone at Web Visions a few months ago in Portland I got excited. Whenever I’m out all day at a conference or other intensive event I tend to use up the battery on my phone. When on the road this leads to a frustrating inability to phone home in time for timezone-shifted goodnights.
As soon as I got home I marched down to the Apple store in fake Bay Street in Emeryville and bought an nice black Mophie case for myself. I also noticed that the “I’m the decider” t-shirt I picked up at the first iPhoneDevCamp was from Mophie as well. Small world!
Better still, the Mophie case really did the trick. It’s not as grippy and protective as ruggedized Speck case, but it solves a real paint point for me.
There’s just one problem, and it has more to do with industrial design than anything else. I was having to switch from case to case a lot, and the top part of the Mophie has a very thin plastic strip where it surrounds the volume buttons on the side of the iPhone.
Very quickly this area snapped, and then a large piece broke off (see the photo above), and ultimately more of it is chipping away still. At this point the aesthetic value of the case is nil although the functionality is still nearly as good as when I first got it.
I’d like to get a replacement. I’d like the Apple store or Mophie to give me a replacement, but I’d really like to hear that this design flaw has been fixed and that my replacement doesn’t have it.
A complaint posted on twitter fell on deaf ears so this is the old-fashioned blog product customer rant. Let’s see if it helps.
Comments
4 responses to “My shattering mophie case”
Hi Christian,
My name is Michael Krupinsky, I’m the director of eCommerce at mophie. I saw your tweet and followed it to this blog.
I’m sorry that you have had this problem and I would like to help you get it taken care of. If you email me directly I can make sure you get what you need. I apologize for the inconvenience you have had with this.
We very much value our customers and I appreciate the passion you have put into this subject. All of us at mophie use our products and understand your concerns. I can assure you that as we develop new products like the juice pack for the iPhone 4 we have strived to make it better in many ways.
Thank you for your passion and continued use of the juice pack. I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Michael Krupinsky
Director of eCommerce, mophie
http://www.mophie.com
Thanks so much for your reply and customer service. I received email contact about replacing the cap from one of your reps and things are well underway.
I’ll post an update to this blog post thanking y’all when I receive the replacement cap.
I am glad I found this site. I too was also very impressed with the mophie case until the top park of my mophie juice pack air edition broke. I looked online and saw the top piece for 7 dollars which sounded great but then I realised the shipping costs outside of the US are ridiculous. Its disappointing because when I called Mophie yesterday the customer service person also rushed me off the phone. I like the idea of Mophie but the cost and customer service I experienced was not what I was used to. I just thought I would share my story.
This is a Mophie rite of passage, apparently. Happened to me and a friend, and in both instances Mophie immediately sent a couple of replacements. As a result, would not hesitate to buy their products again.