Man Punches Female Sales Clerk Over iPhone X Face ID Dispute
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A 23-year-old Thai man is facing formal charges after punching a female sales clerk in the face over a dispute about Face ID.
The incident took place at a Studio 7 — an official Apple retailer — in Bangkok over the weekend. Reportedly, the man brought back an iPhone X he had purchased that day and asked for it to be replaced due to a faulty TrueDepth Camera that would not scan his face, according to English-language Asia news site Coconuts.
The Studio 7 saleswoman checked the iPhone X and found nothing wrong with it or its Face ID scanning. She told the man that a perfectly functioning device couldn’t be replaced or repaired.
Visibly infuriated, the man seemingly attempted to enter a back storage room and was confronted by the female employee. He punched the woman in the face.
Security camera footage depicting the incident went viral in Thailand over the past few days. A 30-second clip of the assault has been shared more than 1.4 million times on Facebook as of the writing of this article.
Reportedly, the man refused to leave quietly, too. Another video showed that he paraded around the store after the assault, speaking of his “misfortune” and urging customers not to buy an iPhone X. The video also depicts him claiming the saleswoman had “pinched his arm” before he took any action.
The 23-year-old, later identified as Kritpan Kitjit, later turned himself in to Bangkok police. Reportedly, he met with the employee that he had punched — who decided not to take legal action, Coconuts reported.
In an interview with TV reporters at the Bangkok police station, Kitjit apologized for the incident.
“I’d like to apologize to the society that I overreacted. It was the heat of the moment,” the man told reporters. “I’ve apologized to the victim and she didn’t want to take legal action.”
Kitjit said he was attempting to enter the storage room to take a picture of the Studio 7 manager, who was in the room.
The young Bangkok man is now facing bodily harm charges. He has been fined THB5,000 (about $150) and has paid THB50,000 ($1,500) in restitution to the saleswoman.
