[mbateman]

The Apple store in Philly just opened recently and they've been wonderful so far. Ex.: A few weeks ago I spilled water on my iPhone, rendering it unusable in important respects. I went to the genius bar (unscheduled), told the genius guy I spilled water on it. He was a bit surprised, said that no one ever admits to doing that, and gave me a new phone, for free.

[patrickk]

iPhones and iPods have LCI (liquid contact indicators) built into them. It's a little white spot that turns red if exposed to moisture. Often, the LCI can be triggered for all sorts of reasons (not just dropping your phone in a puddle either, think a few drops of rain etc.)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3425 (applies to macs and keyboards but the same point remains)

People tend to get very hostile when there's some problem with their iPhone and get denied service due to the LCI being triggered, even if that isn't the root cause of the current problem. Hence the genius guy's surprise and over-generous response.

(Disclaimer: former Apple employee)

[city41]

I dropped my iPhone on cement and it died. Took it in and told the guy I dropped it. He responded with "what? I didn't catch that, did you say it just stopped working? That must be what you said." and then gave me a new phone for free.

[stevederico]

I bring all my apple products to the apple store for this very reason. Spilt water on my iPod, they handed me a brand new one.