Apple refuses to return repaired iPhone

My iPhone was stolen a month before the 3G came out, I regret not reporting it stolen. I still have the box, is it too late? lol

What is "on-sight detective work"?

It wouldn't prove anything if she filed a police report either. All that proves is that she told the police the same story. We all know what people tell the police isn't guarranted to be the truth, nor what the police themselves say.

All companies are required to behave this way. People tell stories all the time. There's no way Apple or AT&T can know for sure if an individual is telling the truth. There's a legal institution that does so instead ... the police.

Having a name tied to a serial number just means that the OP owned the phone at one point. Many iPhones are sold to people who then jailbreak them and use them on other networks, all without anyone ever asking the original wireless company to update their records of who owns the phone.

What if you sent in your purchased-on-eBay phone to Apple for repair and they mailed it back to a prior owner who claimed it stolen?

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if policemen in the US do accept to file every police report ? I'm from France and an Amazon order was stolen in my letterbox weeks ago and it was just impossible to file a report because the value was 20€, now there is a law which tells every report must be filed and that policemen can't refuse. In the real world, they did and acted against the law.

That could be a problem, imagine the policeman told her that it is not necessary to file a report in this case so that he doesn't have to do it, that could be a big deal.

Amazon refunded me while they had no reason to do so and I had no police report to show them. Sometimes our opinions are too, let's say, harsh and we don't have all the elements in hands. Since I don't know if policemen do their job well in the US, I ask you. That is very interesting for my culture.

I'm the Alisa of this story. I would like to make it clear that I DO HAVE A POLICE REPORT. -- Shortly after I sent Consumerist my email, i realized that I was wrong in assuming that it would be obvious that i filed a police report once the police told me they couldn't do anything since i didn't have one. For what ever reason consumerist didn't edit that post to state this information. So even with a police report Apple still refuses to do anything. I am now working with a lawyer to see what my options are legally.

Thanks

This is a stupid post. Should have never made it to tuaw.

I don't know how it is where this chick lives, or you other guys, but in North Carolina getting the police to do a little "detective" work will generate a police report. You don't need to go file a report at the station. You go pick one up.
Having said that, it's so easy to get a police report. Some will email you a PDF - Savannah/ Chatham County Metro in GA.

Even with a police report, that doesn't entitle her to recover the stolen iphone. Let's assume she did file a police report, and that she was covered by insurance that replaced the stolen phone with a new phone, then the stolen iphone belongs to the insurance company. Only the company would be entitled to sue the thieft at this point. At least that's the way it is with French laws. When there is a compensation, there is a transfer of property.
In this case, I don't know if she had insurance. But in any case, only a court could order Apple to return the iPhone to a different person than the one that brought it for repair, not even the police. In modern democraties, there is a thing called separation of powers.

i normally really enjoy reading tuaw, but increasingly im left wondering why its bloggers dont ask a fellow colleague about an article before posting it. as others have stated, its quite obvious why they would not be able to help her without a police report. if her car was stolen, her house broken into, or her wallet and identity taken, would she have found it too much of a hassle to report to the police? seriously, its 2010, get with the program!