Recentely I had again a home button issue with my iPhone which I purchased originally in Hong Kong. Being in Beijing most of the time, I went to the Apple store in SanLiTun. There they decided to give me a brand new iPhone, I was very glad at the proposition at first, anyway I signed a couple of papers and within 15mn upon signing those docs I was having a brand new iPhone. After I arrive home later I went through the process of reinstalling the iOS and restoring my files settings etc... Everything was fine until I've noticed the YouTube app missing from the home screen. Also it was no where to be found in restriction and in the spot search. The following day, I called apple store to know why there wasn't the YouTube app on the phone and they replied that it's not allowed in China to have YouTube app on the iPhone. I though I could pass this limitation by installing an US or UK ipsw but nothing helps. Later while driving, I needed to use the map and there I've noticed that everything was wrote in Chinese compare to my previous one which was from hong kong and was having the map in English. I tried to view other countries on the map and things are all in Chinese. I then called again the apple store to know how I could change the language in the map and the same answer: the map languagecan not be change because this is a device for Chinese. Next I opened the safari browser to google about the map issue and I was so surprise to see that www.google.com wasn't allowed to work in China, but www.google.cn instead, then whenever I made a search on google.com I was redirected to the google.cn
The YouTube app didn't worried me at all, I'm not a YouTube man and moreover I easily create a YouTube short cute to my homescreen. But I travel fairly and use the map most of the time where ever I go and so I need the map rather in English than in Chinese since I'm not a Chinese, the same goes for google search which actually display most of the results in Chinese and few of them in English. I called back the apple store and told them to get me back my original hardware which was hong kong made, that wasn't easy, I argued with 5 of apple staff on the phone for 2h13mn, I would even have invited the to police into this matter since none of them informed me about what will be missing in the iOS compare to my previous one. It sure maybe was mentioned In the docs I've signed, but they were all in Chinese and well they where too busy at the genius bar to explain me the content of the docs resulting of me just signing it without knowing really what I've signed. I took it as administrative formalities since I saw other clients signing those kinda docs. At the end they finally agreed to bring back my original hardware from the factory because they've said that they've send it to the factory. They refuse to call apple store in Hong Kong to ship them a new one to Beijing, and also they've refuse to fix only the home button on my original hardware, they said that they agree to give me a new one as a replacement but they will not fix that home button.
So if any one go to China and have to go to apple store in China, make sure that you do not agree to change your phone if they want to do that. You will not have the YouTube app, map will be in Chinese and google search will always be in Chinese.
The YouTube app didn't worried me at all, I'm not a YouTube man and moreover I easily create a YouTube short cute to my homescreen. But I travel fairly and use the map most of the time where ever I go and so I need the map rather in English than in Chinese since I'm not a Chinese, the same goes for google search which actually display most of the results in Chinese and few of them in English. I called back the apple store and told them to get me back my original hardware which was hong kong made, that wasn't easy, I argued with 5 of apple staff on the phone for 2h13mn, I would even have invited the to police into this matter since none of them informed me about what will be missing in the iOS compare to my previous one. It sure maybe was mentioned In the docs I've signed, but they were all in Chinese and well they where too busy at the genius bar to explain me the content of the docs resulting of me just signing it without knowing really what I've signed. I took it as administrative formalities since I saw other clients signing those kinda docs. At the end they finally agreed to bring back my original hardware from the factory because they've said that they've send it to the factory. They refuse to call apple store in Hong Kong to ship them a new one to Beijing, and also they've refuse to fix only the home button on my original hardware, they said that they agree to give me a new one as a replacement but they will not fix that home button.
So if any one go to China and have to go to apple store in China, make sure that you do not agree to change your phone if they want to do that. You will not have the YouTube app, map will be in Chinese and google search will always be in Chinese.
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