Filed under: iPhone
AT&T refurb iPhones arrive with incorrect warranty coverage
Doug Toombs from Howard Forums tipped us off that those refurb AT&T iPhones many TUAW readers bought a few weeks ago might not have properly issued warranties. He sent me over to Apple's warranty self-checking site and sure enough my new iPhone's limited warranty is due to expire on July 22nd.
I gave Apple a call at 1-800-694-7466. I was given the standard Apple line: they do not offer a full year warranty on refurbs. Your warranty ends a year from when the iPhone was originally sold and activated. She then connected me to AT&T, which promptly hung up on me.
So I called back. The sticker on the AT&T box says clearly: "Refurbished iPhones have a full 1 year warranty. You must retain receipt for warranty claims through Apple."
Second time around, I got the most fabulous agent. She contacted the agreement administrator and within a few minutes my warranty was extended to 03/2009, no fuss, no muss. I'm kicking myself though that I did not check into whether I could extend the warranty after that year through AppleCare--so if you find out, do let us know in the comments. Thanks!
Anyway, to summarize: I did need to confirm a valid AT&T account, explaining that I was upgrading from my 4GB to my new 8GB. I offered to send a picture of the sticker on the AT&T box but the agent said this had to be a known problem and that she didn't need either that or the receipt. I also took advantage of the Apple call-you-back service. Instead of waiting on line, they automagically take your number and call it back when you're ready to hit the head of the queue. Very convenient.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
HDB said 4:07PM on 3-31-2008
Wait.... apple has a call-you-back service?! How do we access this?
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aaron Alexander said 4:16PM on 3-31-2008
thats odd. i had my iphone fixed (purchased opening day) like 2 weeks ago. i asked if the warranty was extended a year or if my old warranty carried over.. he said it was my original warranty date. So since it was going to expire in 3 months i didnt wanna risk it and bought a new iphone so id have a fresh warranty . GRrrrrr
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maybesew said 4:26PM on 3-31-2008
@HDB - Just call applecare. When you are put on hold they ask if you want to be called back instead.
@aaron - That is correct. Getting your iphone replaced is not the same as purchasing a refurbished phone. In your case, the warranty would be from the original date of purchase.
@erica - you can purchase applecare at any time during your warranty period, so if apple sells applecare for your product, then you can buy it even on refurbished products
Rubbinz said 4:47PM on 3-31-2008
"I was given the standard Apple line: they do not offer a full year warranty on refurbs. Your warranty ends a year from when the iPhone was originally sold and activated."
BS! All of the refurbs that Apple sells, iPhone included, all come with the same standard warranty all Apple products come with. Apple makes this very clear on their web site on the refurbished product's description page. This CSR either flat out lied to you to get you off the line, or flat out lied to you because this person was lazy and didn't know the answer.
Also, AppleCare is an optional item you can purchase for any refurb listed on Apple's web site. They give it as an option with a radio button you can select before you add the refurb iPhone to your cart, and they also list it as a related item after you've added the refurb iPhone to your cart.
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aaron Alexander said 4:56PM on 3-31-2008
can you just walk in apple/att and buy one for 250?
i know if its completly broken they still want the physical phone from you.. and i know they want you on a 2 year contract to get the 250$ price, but really how would theyknow since these are home activations? i need another development unit and will go get one asap if this is true.
Valerie said 9:58PM on 3-31-2008
Yep, you can just walk into at&t and buy one (I did yesterday) but the warrantee may be an issue, i'm on hold trying to fix mine now.
Ross Harris said 5:09PM on 3-31-2008
Telling me the two phones I ordered expire in August and July. Looks like I need to call Apple.
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Galley said 6:11PM on 3-31-2008
My warranty expires in Aug. of 2008. Apple told me to contact AT&T about warranty. The girl at the AT&T store told me that they would honor the one-year warranty, but if I purchased AppleCare, it would only be good until Aug. of 2009. I honestly doubt I will keep this iPhone the entire year, as I will likely upgrade to a 3G model.
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Ross said 6:43PM on 3-31-2008
Wife called Apple, everything taken care of.
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Keith said 8:35PM on 3-31-2008
Grr. Just checked mine and it expires in June 2008. I'll have to call them tomorrow. or whenever I sign up with AT&T. My T-Mobile contract ends April 4th.
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Jon Rogers said 9:23PM on 3-31-2008
I called tonight. The agent told me they have an agreement with AT&T with phones bought through them that they offer full 1 year warranties on those phones. Refurbs bought through apple do not have full warranties.
The low level techs do not know this, I had to get escalated to get someone who told me this key piece of information. Very helpful after that issue was resolved.
Hope that helps!
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Sam said 10:04PM on 3-31-2008
I bought a refurb from At&t, 8gb for 250 last week.
I just input my serial # on the applecare site, and it says the warranty is valid until Jan 2010.
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P-Diddy said 11:38PM on 3-31-2008
Well after reading this post I jumped on the line and called Apple - Sorry sir you will need to call AT&T - they told me to call you!!! Well sir I'm sorry unless you buy apple care you will only have a warranty until August 08. So after she hung up i called back - Sorry we are now closed. GRRRR i will try again tomorrow!!
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Doc said 3:19AM on 4-01-2008
**Please Please***what AT&T store (location,state) can you just walk in and buy an iphone for $249?
Hoping I can call them on the phone and pay with a credit card and they would ship it to me?
Here in ATL they don't sell any referb phones at the at&t stores:(
I missed the online sale by a few hours. Please help
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Mario said 7:51AM on 4-01-2008
All right - let me try to clear up some of the confusion - all refurbs sold through AT&T come with a full 1 year warranty. What you need to do is to go on Apple's web site: https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do
put in your serial number and check the warranty expiration date. If the date is sooner than 1 year from YOUR purchase date then you will see a link to this page:
http://www.apple.com/support/service/help/warrantycheck/
that lets you update the purchase date. Fill out a form and fax your receipt to a given number and voila - you're set. I did that last week and a day after I faxed my receipt I got an e-mail from Apple saying that my warranty coverage has been extended.
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mjk said 9:18AM on 4-01-2008
just called at&t and spoke to a very nice gentleman who transferred me to another nice gentleman who fixed the issue. no sweat....when you call, just explain that you know this to be an issue with folks who bought the iphone refurbs, and just tell them you need to get it fixed. tell them what you need and expect and don't ask them to do it for you. be politely forceful and they'll fix it.
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Chiru said 1:38PM on 4-01-2008
I just called ATT and the CSR transferred me to someone from Apple who takes care of Warranties. He mentioned that he has been getting calls since morning today and that the warranty is only valid for 1 year from the date of the original purchase. so my warranty expires in Aug 2008, just 4 months after I got my refurb iphone :-(
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Techslacker said 2:09PM on 4-01-2008
It seems there is alot of confusion over this and makes me wonder if Apple is in the middle of making some changes to how they deal with refurbs. One reason I mention this is not just this screwup with AT&T but on Apple's own site where it seems some reps are stating Apple doesn't provide 1 yr warranties on their refurb iphones.
I'm at their site now and there is a graphic that states...
Apple Certified. Good as New.
We test and certify all Apple refurbished
products and include a 1-yr warranty.
Someone's dropping the ball here unless I'm misunderstanding someone here who posted what they were told.
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nate said 4:11PM on 4-01-2008
Coincidentally, my AT&T-purchased refurb died Sunday night. Yesterday morning I went to the Apple store and they gave me a replacement immediately, with no hassle. It was really nice.
But when the tech gave me the Work Confirmation to sign it had someone else's name on it & the wrong purchase date. Probably the original customer who returned it to AT&T.
I called Applecare later in the day, explained what happened, and they straightened it out lickety split.
It was strange that the entire process was so lacking in frustration. Most of my interactions with front-line customer support people are mind-boggling.
This was pretty much perfect.
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greg said 1:03PM on 4-02-2008
saw this, just called apple. first customer support "had heard of" this issue, but couldn't do anything. his manager said they couldn't do anything, but I had them put him on anyway.
after a long explanation about why they couldn't support it, the manager was about to transfer me to AT&T when he got his first official memo on the matter saying that Apple is going to cover it by adjusting the date of purchase. they're having me email a scanned receipt with my case number, but it should theoretically will work out.
It really does sound like this was AT&T screwing up and selling unauthorized refurbs with a mislabeled warrenty. I imagine any future refurbs they offer will only be the standard 90 days type.
Note: Even before this fix they said that you could get Apple Care as long as the original warranty was intact. If this hadn't worked out I was considering the $69 as still being cheaper than the additional $100 I would have paid to get an officially refurbished phone from Apple. This approach might be useful for those who got refurbs elsewhere since no phone should be over a year old just yet.
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