Apple Community Discussion/Support

[#1]

The store manager at the retail location in Studio City, CA... claims I am ineligible to purchase a replacement iphone, at any price, for six months!  What is this insanity about and has anyone else dealt with this situation?  Help !

[#2]

they will not help in any way! and if your not eligible for an upgrade your stuck paying full price!  or hit ebay or craigs list and hope you get lucky to find a phone at a lower price.  you should be able to buy the Iphone at the full price of 399$ or 499$  i never heard of that what he was telling.  any one could by the iphone or any phone they want at full price long as they have a vaild AT&T account

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pmoshay wrote:
The store manager at the retail location in Studio City, CA... claims I am ineligible to purchase a replacement iphone, at any price, for six months!  What is this insanity about and has anyone else dealt with this situation?  Help !

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[#3]

i was willling to pay full price, but the guy said they (and any Apple store for that matter) refuses to sell me another, at any price for six months.  Nuts.

[#4]

Right now there are only 2 ways to buy the iPhone, "early upgrade" pricing of $399/499 when you're not available for an upgrade, but that still extends your contract 2 years... And the other option, of course, standard upgrade when you have one available for $199/299. You JUST extended your contract 2 years by buying the iPhone 3G you lost, so they won't allow you to extend your contract another 2 years. The prices without subsidization are probably going to be $599/699, but he's right, it's not allowed to buy it without a contract as of right now. Go on eBay and pay a ridiculous price, or buy another phone.

[#5]

that's not quite the situation.  

I started ATT service with my first iPhone (3G) about 6 weeks ago.  So it wasn't an upgrade situation.  The store manager swore up and down neither ATT or Apple Stores would sell me another iPhone, at any price, for six months.  Does that make sense to you...?  Anyone ?

[#6]

plus, if i'm willing to pay $599 for a replacement 8GB why would either ATT or Apple not allow me to do so?  Makes zero sense.

[#7]

Call customer care at 800.331.0500.  You may have better luck there.

[#8]

I don't understand it either I mean I can't believe the manager would just blow away an opportunity to make another $600.  I think you should call customer care and tell them what happened.  If you get better luck there or even go to an Apple store and try your luck.  If you get what you need that way.  Then I would call CS and tell them about what happened with this store.  Give them the store's address and phone # as well as the manager's name if you got that information.  Then CS can possibly have the heads at AT&T raise heck with that guy.  And as for going on Ebay and paying a rediculous price I would be careful about doing that as a lot of those ones you see on Ebay that claim it's a brand new unactivated phone are actually scams.  The person bought the iPhone legally but then ended his contract within the 30 day period but called his/her credit card company and disputed the charge so they get their money back then they put it up for sale to make more money.  While you may actually get the phone what will happen is after you activate it with your SIM card a month or so down the road once AT&T and Apple figure out that the serial # of the device was an unreturned device from a service termination guess who ends up with a mysterious charge for the MSRP on his/her bill and it's not the seller who sold you the device. 

[#9]

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pmoshay wrote:
i was willling to pay full price, but the guy said they (and any Apple store for that matter) refuses to sell me another, at any price for six months.  Nuts.

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Don't believe this guy and go into an Apple store.

[#10]

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pmoshay wrote:
The store manager at the retail location in Studio City, CA... claims I am ineligible to purchase a replacement iphone, at any price, for six months!  What is this insanity about and has anyone else dealt with this situation?  Help !

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Welcome to the insanity that is Apple and the iPhone.

You can go the ebay / Craigslist route or...

Go into the store.

1) Get a replacement for the simcard that was lost with your phone.  That SIM will have your current phone number on it.  This may cost up to $25 but considering what you are doing next they should comp it.

2) Sign a new contract for a new iPhone - you can do that at ATT or at Apple if there is no stock in the ATT store.  You can then get the phone for $199/299 plus tax and activation.  Put this on the cheapest plan you can and don't put any text plan or anything else on the plan.

3) Activate

4) Take your sim chip and put it in the iPhone.  You now have an iPhone with your phone number.

5) Call ATT about the new contract you have just put in place and ask them to take the data plan off of it.  You will need the IMEI number from a non iPhone handset.  I imagine you have such a handset somewhere in your life.  This will save you another $30 over the next few days.   This is perfectly legitimate as long as you never put the sim you pulled out of the iPhone in step 4 into an iPhone.

32 days later

1) Call ATT and terminate the contract you opened in step 2 above.  You will pay a $175 early termination fee.

You will now have spent $199/299 +$175 + a months service (no data / texts) on a new iPhone.

And a lot of hassle but this is about the only way you can do what you want to do.

[#11]

Or you could just try again at one of the over one hundred other AT&T stores in the L.A. area.

[#12]

AT&T has several reasons for not selling you another iphone soon after you buy your first one, but one of the biggest reasons is that at&t realizes that people are still making money off the iphone on ebay, etc. When the iphone 3G was launched, at&t didn't have this rule. It was only later that they realized that people were going into the stores to get another one and selling it.

I don't know if at&t is going to relax this rule once people stop making money online. For now, I would be more than surprised if you found ANYONE willing to sell you another iphone at any price.

Let us know how it goes.

[#13]

Yeah it's always the same a bunch of [****] who abuse the system ruin it for the rest of us but still I can't see why they wouldn't sell anyone a replacement device if they walked in with your receipt and in the OP's case his/her phone was lost/stolen if the OP files a police report about the loss/theft and walks in with a copy of said report and/or receipt I don't understand why they would refuse to help the person out of his/her dilemma. 

Message Edited by Sentry on 10-13-2008 01:39:50 PM

[#14]

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tsdtitan wrote:

AT&T has several reasons for not selling you another iphone soon after you buy your first one, but one of the biggest reasons is that at&t realizes that people are still making money off the iphone on ebay, etc. When the iphone 3G was launched, at&t didn't have this rule. It was only later that they realized that people were going into the stores to get another one and selling it.

I don't know if at&t is going to relax this rule once people stop making money online. For now, I would be more than surprised if you found ANYONE willing to sell you another iphone at any price.

Let us know how it goes.

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But no one is really making money off ATT when they sell their iPhone on ebay etc.  They are just making use of their upgrade provision for a phone they don't want and there is a secondary market for.

ATT ties the flipper into a new 2 year contract (though the flipper also now benefits from the reducing ETF charge)

ATT gets another customer retained on the network who could not get a phone through an alternate route (at the moment it can be jailbroken, but not unlocked so the handset is tied to ATT, no migration to Tmo possible here).

The other scenareo - new contract and day 32 termination means the seller outlays $199 (phone) $36 activation $175 ETF and a months fees so say $80 Thats $489 and they might get $650 for selling it.  Thats a lot of work for $160 in your hand.

Who loses?

[#15]

Not saying this is the case with this particular poster, but I wonder how this works out in the case of a customer who they suspect has had a history of "lost" iPhones, and would refuse to sell based upon that suspicion.

I'm a business person myself, and I cannot imagine turning down a $500 or $600 sale, outside of somehow thinking I was protecting myself from some sort of defrauding scenario. Shoot, maybe even then. LOL!!!

[#16]

if u have an iphone 2g, throw that back on ya acct and go back to the store to "upgrade" to the 3g again.

[#17]

the upgrade from 1st gen. to 3G version isn't valid anymore after July 11th, is it?

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memphisking wrote:

if u have an iphone 2g, throw that back on ya acct and go back to the store to "upgrade" to the 3g again.

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[#18]

nah u can upgrade to the 3at anytime as long as ur an existing iPhone user. So, switching back to the 2g and trying to upgrade again will definitely be worth the try.

[#19]

Apple phoned the ATT store and came back saying they are within their rights refusing, and should have just referred me to the Apple store without citing their 6 month rule.

[#20]

Sorry, but that's wrong.  If you read the OP's posts, he/she did not have a 2G iPhone.  However, the 2G-3G iPhone upgrade works once....you can't just keep activating the 2G iPhone on an account so that you can buy cheap 3G iPhones.

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memphisking wrote:
nah u can upgrade to the 3at anytime as long as ur an existing iPhone user. So, switching back to the 2g and trying to upgrade again will definitely be worth the try.

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[#21]

For all of you saying "he turned down an opportunity to make $600"... THE PHONE MAY BE SOLD AT SOME POINT FOR $599 WITHOUT CONTRACT, RIGHT NOW YOU CAN'T BUY IT WITHOUT CONTRACT. There's nothing any single employee or manager at the Apple store or AT&T store can do for you. YOU CAN... NOT BUY... AN IPHONE... WITHOUT... EXTENDING YOUR CONTRACT 2 YEARS. That's all there is to it, that's ALL there is to it! And no, you can not extend your contract another 2 years a month and a half after your contract began.

[#22]

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Android wrote:
For all of you saying "he turned down an opportunity to make $600"... THE PHONE MAY BE SOLD AT SOME POINT FOR $599 WITHOUT CONTRACT, RIGHT NOW YOU CAN'T BUY IT WITHOUT CONTRACT. There's nothing any single employee or manager at the Apple store or AT&T store can do for you. YOU CAN... NOT BUY... AN IPHONE... WITHOUT... EXTENDING YOUR CONTRACT 2 YEARS. That's all there is to it, that's ALL there is to it! And no, you can not extend your contract another 2 years a month and a half after your contract began.

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It doesn't actually extend your contract by 2 years.  It starts a new 2 year contract.  I was able to get the fully discounted price 18 months into my previous contract.  Rather than having 2 years added to that contract (giving me a contract end date 2.5 years from when I bought the iPhone), I now have a new contract that ends 2 years from when I signed.  And I'll be eligible for another upgrade 18 or so months into this contract.

[#23]

AT&T will no longer sell/upgradea line with a 3G iPhone that has done so within the last 18 months.  Seems there are people somehow abusing the system and selling the devices for more then a few hundred dollars.  More like  199 only then selling them for 600+.  Unfortunate.

[#24]

It's the "right to refuse service".  One of the oldest laws in the books.  Unfortunate, but there ya go.  Buy a Tilt or something.

[#25]

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archermoo wrote:

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Android wrote:
For all of you saying "he turned down an opportunity to make $600"... THE PHONE MAY BE SOLD AT SOME POINT FOR $599 WITHOUT CONTRACT, RIGHT NOW YOU CAN'T BUY IT WITHOUT CONTRACT. There's nothing any single employee or manager at the Apple store or AT&T store can do for you. YOU CAN... NOT BUY... AN IPHONE... WITHOUT... EXTENDING YOUR CONTRACT 2 YEARS. That's all there is to it, that's ALL there is to it! And no, you can not extend your contract another 2 years a month and a half after your contract began.

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It doesn't actually extend your contract by 2 years.  It starts a new 2 year contract.  I was able to get the fully discounted price 18 months into my previous contract.  Rather than having 2 years added to that contract (giving me a contract end date 2.5 years from when I bought the iPhone), I now have a new contract that ends 2 years from when I signed.  And I'll be eligible for another upgrade 18 or so months into this contract.

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That proves my point even more, why would they let you skip out of a 2 year contract a month and a half into it and sell you (the OP) the new phone? You're saying you want to knock 22 1/2 months off of a contract and start a new 24 months with a new subsidized phone, you're crazy if you think they're the ones being unreasonable.

Message Edited by Android on 10-14-2008 09:32:46 PM

[#26]

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Android wrote:

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archermoo wrote:

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Android wrote:
For all of you saying "he turned down an opportunity to make $600"... THE PHONE MAY BE SOLD AT SOME POINT FOR $599 WITHOUT CONTRACT, RIGHT NOW YOU CAN'T BUY IT WITHOUT CONTRACT. There's nothing any single employee or manager at the Apple store or AT&T store can do for you. YOU CAN... NOT BUY... AN IPHONE... WITHOUT... EXTENDING YOUR CONTRACT 2 YEARS. That's all there is to it, that's ALL there is to it! And no, you can not extend your contract another 2 years a month and a half after your contract began.

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It doesn't actually extend your contract by 2 years.  It starts a new 2 year contract.  I was able to get the fully discounted price 18 months into my previous contract.  Rather than having 2 years added to that contract (giving me a contract end date 2.5 years from when I bought the iPhone), I now have a new contract that ends 2 years from when I signed.  And I'll be eligible for another upgrade 18 or so months into this contract.

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That proves my point even more, why would they let you skip out of a 2 year contract a month and a half into it and sell you (the OP) the new phone? You're saying you want to knock 22 1/2 months off of a contract and start a new 24 months with a new subsidized phone, you're crazy if you think they're the ones being unreasonable.

Message Edited by Android on 10-14-2008 09:32:46 PM

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Because at best they get there $175 termination fee, when they can charge $399/$499 ($200 more then the promo price) to upgrade and keep there customer! If you truly lost or had the phone stolen this is a poor fix for a problem (eBay sales) that AT&T came up with   I would like to see them tell a business with multiple lines/iPhones no we can't sell you a replacement..LMAO!

Message Edited by Demetri70 on 10-14-2008 11:35:50 PM

[#27]

Well, whatever the real deal is, it's unfortunate that comanies do have to devote time, energy, money -- and not to mention lose sales -- because of unscrupulous and dishonest people. Yeah, it may be a poor fix, but it's a fix they've come up with to protect themselves against abuse.

I bought my phone in good faith, fully intending to use it under the terms and conditions I promised to, just like most people here.

But, unfortunately, people can be jackasses.

Then the company gets the bad name, because they have to defend themselves from being taken advantage of, and because they're not defending themselves the way we think they should. Believe me, I know nobody's going to feel sorry for major conglomerates like Apple or AT&T, under any conditions. But, it is their business.

They have the right to run and protect that business the way they see fit, and we have the right to either accept it, or not.

[#28]

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RayHend wrote:

Well, whatever the real deal is, it's unfortunate that comanies do have to devote time, energy, money -- and not to mention lose sales -- because of unscrupulous and dishonest people. Yeah, it may be a poor fix, but it's a fix they've come up with to protect themselves against abuse.

I bought my phone in good faith, fully intending to use it under the terms and conditions I promised to, just like most people here.

But, unfortunately, people can be jackasses.

Then the company gets the bad name, because they have to defend themselves from being taken advantage of, and because they're not defending themselves the way we think they should. Believe me, I know nobody's going to feel sorry for major conglomerates like Apple or AT&T, under any conditions. But, it is their business.

They have the right to run and protect that business the way they see fit, and we have the right to either accept it, or not.

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ATT sell you the phone.  When you walk out the store it is yours, free of any lien or charge.  It is not leased, it does not have a loan on it, nothing.  As with anything else you own outright you are free to do with it as you please (as long as it is legal).  Selling something you own is a perfectly legal action (unless it is Class A narcotics etc...).  Selling your iPhone and switching to another handset is legal, legitimate and well if I was on here saying I just sold my Sony w580i on ebay because the keys cracked and it was no good for texting I don't believe anyone would be telling me that I had done something wrong.

Separately ATT sell you a service contract.  Under the terms of that contract you commit to pay them a monthly service fee for voice for 24 months.  Another clause in that contract states that IF you have an iPhone on the line you commit to paying for an iPhone data plan.

Nowhere in that service contract does it commit you to using the handset they provided you when you signed up for the entire duration of the contract.  There is good reason for that.  If that handset became lost stolen or damaged then you could claim the contract was frustrated and break it.  The sale of a handset and the service contract are effectively two separate transactions, that's why when you walk out the store you have paid a bill for the handset but you have not paid a penny towards your service contract.  That is initially in arrears, then billed in advance.

There is a healthy used market in all phones.  It is just that the used market in iPhones has priced itself at the ATT no contract price of $600/700 and that is a lot of $$$ so people take umbrage at that.

[#29]

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pmoshay wrote:
Apple phoned the ATT store and came back saying they are within their rights refusing, and should have just referred me to the Apple store without citing their 6 month rule.

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What is the 6 month rule?

As I have said, open a new account and get an iPhone on it.

Or switch to a family plan and get an iPhone as the handset for the second line, then either carry on paying the extra $10 a month for the change to the family plan or terminate the second line after 30 days and keep the phone and pay the $175.

It is really that simple.  Want a new iPhone - I'll sell you one 8GB will be $199+$175+$36+$30+sales taxes+$100 for my efforts.  I make that about $600.  For the 16Gb that will be $710 an extra $100 for the 8Gb or RAM and some extra sales taxes.

[#30]

This whole thing makes an assinie mess out of say using your homeowners or renters insurance to cover your iPhone if they pay up the $600/700 for a new one and ATT won't even sell you one!

Imagine writing off you 6 week old car when a tractor trailer drives over it in an accident and BMW, Ford, or whoever saying sorry even though Geico have just paid out $20,000 to compensate you for the loss of your car we can't sell you a new one.  We sold you one 6 weeks ago.  We suspect you might be buying them and selling them on eBay!!!

Message Edited by SMHarman on 10-15-2008 06:52:23 AM