Filed under: iPhone
iPhone Returns and Cancellation Policies
Hey boys and girls, you might be used to trying out phones and getting 30 days to cancel and return the unit (that is, at least, depending on your state of residence). Our Chris tells me that in California, you even get back the activation fee. The iPhone return policy won't be nearly as friendly. Here's a rough-and-ready review of the iPhone policies you should expect.
iPhone return policy. You have 14 days (not 30) to return your iPhone. It must be returned to the original point of purchase. You can't buy at store #1 and return to store #2. If the iPhone isn't unopened and shrink wrapped, you'll be charged a 10% open box restocking fee. Returns must include the phone, all accessories, and all manuals that shipped with the product.
Canceling the agreement. If you cancel within 3 days of iPhone activation, You're entitled to a refund of the $36 activation fee. If you cancel within 30 days, you can terminate service without paying a penalty. After 30 days, you must pay an early termination fee of $175. After fulfilling your 2 year agreement, your service switches to a month-to-month automatic renewal.
Rough Costs
So here's a rough breakdown of how much you can expect to pay under various return scenarios. I'm using the $499 4GB iPhone in these calculation and the lowest ($60/month) plan. I assume about $10 in fees and taxes (including 911 Tax, Federal Telecom Relay Service Fee, Universal Service Fund, Cost Recovery Fees, etc.) and a 5% sales tax on the unit itself.
$50.00. Try it out, cancel service, return unit within 3 days.
$86.00. Try it out, cancel service, return unit within 14 days.
$561.00. Try it out, keep the phone, cancel service within 30 days. (I assume they don't charge you for that month. If they do, the cost is $631.00.)
$946.00 Use the iPhone for 3 months, pay $175 termination fee.
$1576.00. Use the iPhone for 12 months, pay $175 termination fee.
$2241.00. Use the iPhone for 24 months, no termination fee
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
TD said 4:15PM on 6-27-2007
So after is it activated does that mean you can wack in any SIM?! I am pretty sure this has already been answered, but I'm lazy ... sorry!
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Erica Sadun said 4:18PM on 6-27-2007
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock
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james said 4:27PM on 6-27-2007
so, what if you buy it, take it home, and then discover that you don't pass the credit check when you try and activate it through your itunes? would you then have to return it, opened, and get charged $50-60 for the open-box re-stock fee?
so, basically, you have to give apple 50-60 bucks as a penalty because you get turned down for bad credit? isn't that tantamount to stealing?
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kory said 4:39PM on 6-27-2007
i have a question?
so i actually wasn't sure if my credit would be good enough to activate the phone through sign up, so i went to at&t online to try and sign up for their service and i ended up being approved (which is kinda hard to believe...long story. big mistakes with credit cards)
so yeah, i'm now signed up for service through at&t and my phone will be here in a few days. so here's my question...
can i now just buy my iphone and activate it on friday or do i now need to wait for my other phone to come in and upgrade the data plan since i'm techincally signed up as a customer now?
i know you guys prob don't know, but i thought maybe someone had some idea of how that would work.
sorry that was so long. i'm a dumb (;
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Michael Hodges said 4:41PM on 6-27-2007
james - if you read some articles back it mentions credit checks can be done at the store, and activate it with a code given from the credit check.
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mike s said 4:44PM on 6-27-2007
james, if you don't think your credit is good enough to qualify for a run-of-the mill cellphone plan, you're probably better off not putting that $500 phone on your credit card....
And just because these are policies doesn't mean that Apple won't give you a break if you go in to an Apple Store, pockets turned out, crying about your bad credit.
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Hobbes said 4:51PM on 6-27-2007
I'm amazed at the amount of people asking questions regarding bad credit, but still considering shelling out 500/600 bucks for a phone + service charges. No wonder you have bad credit to start with.
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Otsego said 4:54PM on 6-27-2007
FYI, if you return the phone in at any point before 30 days you will also be charged for your cellphone/data usage at a pro-rated, uh, rate.
Also, the at&t site says if you are worried about your credit, you can ask a at&t employee to run a credit check on you BEFORE you purchase.
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djfred said 5:00PM on 6-27-2007
I've been babbling about this for about five posts now, but I doubt you could be held legally responsible for restocking fees if you couldn't activate the phone because you were turned down during the credit check.
Perhaps the fact that Kory was approved even though he's apparently a bad risk means that AT&T has adopted a more lenient stance.
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Tate Roam said 5:03PM on 6-27-2007
Hobbes,
Life is long. We all have histories. Kory may now have a better job, or fewer health problems, or less dependents, or any of a number of reasons which may have left him in a good position to buy an iPhone today but still have bad credit from his past.
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tnkgrl said 5:05PM on 6-27-2007
I am going to sign up for a new basic iPhone account and pick option #3 ($561), assuming my existing AT&T voice and data plan (450 minutes + MediaMax 200) - which is now past its 1-year contract - works with the iPhone (including visual voice mail) once the device is activated...
I have a hunch my plan will work! If not I can always cancel my existing account and keep the 2-year iPhone account (I dont care about changing phone #'s since my primary phone # is with T-Mobile on my Nokia N95).
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james said 5:19PM on 6-27-2007
tate,
thanks for that insight.
quite honestly, i wasn't asking for my sake. my credit is not an issue to me. i was asking for the sake of the customer at large. who cares about circumstances that put a person wherever he or she may be. i would hope that apple would ahve an explicit way out of an issue like that.
mike s makes a good point that apple retail may be willing to bend the rule to accept a return from customers stung, but that's still a bend in a rule. i would, again in the interest of consumers at large, like to see something more explicitly stated.
michael h., it is nice to see that you can run a credit check before hand in the retail stores. that may well be why i've been hearing rumblings of a bunch of imacs going up. i just hope apple retail is kind and clear that people more than just can, but *should* do that very thing.
i hope i was able to clarify my concerns a little. have a nice day, all.
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djfred said 5:20PM on 6-27-2007
I doubt that giving people the option of having their credit checked will do anything to shield Apple/AT&T from the responsibility of waiving those restocking fees.
People with consistently good credit histories can still be turned down on any given day for all kinds of reasons including recently buying a house, refinancing an existing payment, having too many lines of credit or even a bunch of credit inquiries.
If they want to be hardcore about they do it the old way and force you to run a check in the store. I like the way they're doing it. I just think there must be some way for them to deal with this issue of returns that we don't know about yet. And obsessively focusing on it allows me to avoid starting in on this hardwood flooring I should probably be installing a few more minutes.
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james said 5:25PM on 6-27-2007
amen :)
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mark said 5:44PM on 6-27-2007
the policy reads: "you may have to return any handsets or accessories purchased with the agreement...". Does that mean that option #3 (the $561 option of keeping the phone and canceling the service within 30 days) will not work?
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Erica Sadun said 5:44PM on 6-27-2007
Mark: It's unclear. A lot of the legal stuff is meaningless boilerplate. I think that refers to when the phone is included as a "freebie" or heavily discounted in the sale of the plan.
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Erica Sadun said 5:45PM on 6-27-2007
Actually, following-up to that boilerplate thing, check out what the agreement says about conference calling under "unlimited voice". It'll give you a few laughs.Here's the ref: http://www.tuaw.com/gallery/license-agreement-2-atandt/289092/
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punkassjim said 6:16PM on 6-27-2007
Actually, Erica, it's funny you should point that out (#18). Got a story for you, like to hear it, here it go:
My only concern about the credit check is because, when I was 18 (1994), I had an account with Cellular One (which ultimately became Cingular). I set up my cell phone to forward to my land line whenever I wasn't out-and-about, after checking with a CO customer service rep to ask if I'd be charged for that...to which, they answered me "no, you won't be charged for that."
Skip to the punchline, when my bill came at the end of the month, in the amount of $600+ whole american dollars. I called CellOne to put a voice to my "WTF," at which time they told me that I was billed for every single minute I was on my land line, since it supposedly DOES use a cell tower for the duration of the call if it was forwarded. I was aghast, I refused to pay it, screamed at many a service rep and their superiors, and eventually got nowhere. Being the stupid kid that I was, I did the rough equivalent of standing there with my arms folded, until my credit report had a nice big black mark on it. Stupid. Three years ago, I finally paid off the collection agency that bought the account from Cingular. But, several years before that, I went into a Cingular store to try and get a Moto V90 (when they were new and cool), and I was turned down at the credit check stage because I still had that black mark from my Cellular One past.
So anyway...real-world scenario to go with that clause. Fun. I'm hoping my new, cleaner credit report will be good enough for AT&T. I doubt it'll be a problem, but ehhh....
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err404 said 8:55PM on 6-27-2007
Watching the activation video, it stuck me that during the iTunes activation wizard (after you plug in your phone to your PC), you are presented with the TOS from both AT&T and Apple. Are you forced to pay the fee if you decide that you do not agree with the Terms of Service? I ask since you are not shown the TOS until you plug in the device.
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Mark said 10:37PM on 6-27-2007
What happens if I get home or to the office and the coverage stinks. Will people still be charged a restocking fee if they "have" to return the phone since the coverage is not acceptable for everyday use?
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