I bought an iPhone 3G on Sept 20,08. The phone broke at 32 days (Oct 22, only white screen can be seen) while I was charging it using a computer and Apple's USB cable. I did not abuse it nor drop it at all. I bought a protective skin right after buying the phone.
After hours of conversation with Apple technician, I was told to go to the Apple store at Northbrook, Illinois. It was swapped with a refurbished phone only. After using the refurbished phone for a few days, it started to behave funny, the light had problem. After another round of conversation, the customer support finally agreed to send me a brand new one. The brand new phone is concluded as a broken BRAND NEW phone since it does not take any SIM cards AT&T put in.
I went back to the Apple store, I was offered another reburbished phone again. I refused to take it. I was told by the technican in the store if the phone was bought in an Apple store, it is subject to be replaced by a brand new phone. Since the phone was purchased in a AT&T store, only refurbished phone can be offered as a replacement. I feel unreasonable on this kind of arrangement since customers who buy iphone from AT&T are treated unequally and were not warned in advance. Moreover, AT&T is the only phone company which is authorized by Apple to sell iphone. Even if I go back to AT&T, Apple does not authorize AT&T to swap a brand new for the customer either.
Another thing is: a customer uses $299 to buy a brand new phone and if it broke, there is no reason it is replaced by a refurbished phone when the phone is still under warranty. All the technicians and customer support person keep telling customers 'refurbished phone' is not being used by anyone before but were heavily tested. I think this is a big lie since they could not answer me how they first justify to make a brand new phone to become a refurbished phone.
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