Apples and Lemons

I was helping a friend recently at an Apple store. The problem? An iPad mini that reports the headphones are always plugged in even when they're not and won't play sound through the speaker. This has been an ongoing issue for 6 months which I attempted to fix by updating the iPad to the newer iOS 7....

The problem itself started after plugging in a set of headphones into the headphone jack on the iPad which were then removed an hour later and this issue has occurred ever since.  Headphones were purchased through the Apple store, were plugged in by a sighted person, used for this period of time to listen to music by a child and then removed again by the adult. We finally find out now that the issue is that part of the headphone jack has snapped off in the socket.

And you guessed it...
That VOIDS the warranty. So it would be $250 to repair (outrageous).
The basic story from Apple is that this issue has been caused by a third party product (even though Apple sold this product) and therefore it is not their responsibility, they will not even follow up with the manufacturer of the Headphones to determine if there is an issue that is known by the company about the Headphone jacks being faulty.

This makes me wonder how Blind people feel when they are required to plug cords, cables and all other manner of items into their i-devices? Especially when a lot of people in the Disability sector are using non-standard equipment, or at least equipment that Apple does not even remotely endorse. I guess we all must line up now to get someone "Officially Endorsed" by Apple to plug our equipment in, just in case.....