I am not sure how many are aware of Apple’s Send-in Service. I was not. So if your Apple device is under warranty, you are eligible for this service. What happens is that Apple will send you a kit. You pack your device in that kit. And courier will pick it up on a scheduled date and deliver it to Apple Service center. Once the device is diagnosed and fixed, Apple will send it back to you. Apple will cover the pickup and delivery charges, both the times.

So why am I writing about it now? I had run into this issue with my Airpods Pro. One of the earphones wouldn’t charge unless you opened the case and applied a little pressure on it. Some weird loose contact issue I guess? I reached out to Apple Customer Support and told them about my issue. They said this can be fixed since the device is still under warranty and gave me two options:

• I can make a reservation and walk in to the service center.
• Or I can opt for the send-in service.

I did not want to go to the service centre because it was an 1 hour drive away. And I would have to drop it there and again drive one hour back to pick it up again if the technician needed more time to address my issue. Send-in service looked like the more convenient option for me. Of course, I wouldn’t opt for this option if it were for my phone or my laptop, as this would take about a week for you to get the device back in your hand.

I am not sure why the device had to be sent to the service center in Bengaluru when there’s already one in Hyderabad. Anyway, it was not my problem as Apple was covering the delivery charges.

I was impressed with the service kit sent by them. I had forgotten to take pictures of the kit they had sent for pickup but I now have the kit which is delivered which has the repaired/replaced device.

One bonus protip: You can reach Apple support directly on iMessage. It’s not clear how I had managed to add Apple as a “contact”, shall update this post with the info if I remember how.