Complaint Review: Sprint/Apple - Internet
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- Author Not Confirmed
- Sprint/Apple Internet USA
- Phone:
- Web: www.apple.com
- Category: Cellular Phone Companies
Sprint/Apple Apple Sprint sold me an iPhone 4s with missing parts, Apple won't service it! Internet
*Consumer Comment: What is your contract saying?
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I purchased two new iPhone 4S's from Sprint in May of 2012. Reception on one has been very poor (around 85%), but the phone otherwise operated smoothly. I assumed it was an issue with the carrier. After I noticed that my camera did not work properly for a week on my iphone, despite my clearing memorey, re-starting, and updating the phone, I went in to the "genius bar" at the local Apple store to have a look.
Upon opening the device, the Apple "genius" returned to report that there was some water inside the phone, but that they would not work on the phone because the phone was missing several pieces. The tech said they must have been removed when the phone was repaired, but I've never had the phone repaired nor even opened until that day! The "genius" implied that in fact I had, and said there was nothing I could do other than appeal to Sprint.
I called Sprint, and of course they said that i would need to address this problem with the manufacturer (Apple) and that they could cancel my contract for the one phone due to the service problem, but that I would have to leave my other phone on the plan. Carrying two plans rather than one is clearly more expensive so this is not an acceptable solution.
I called Apple's customer support after speaking with Sprint and was told that my phone must have been opened prior to my visit to the Apple store where they discovered the missing pieces. The representative told me that "Apple doesn't sell phones with missing pieces." She was unwilling to dicsuss any other possible reasons why my phone was missing the pieces.
Now, since Apple opened my phone, it won't work at all and I have had 2 Apple employees accuse me of lying. How's that for customer service? I frankly don't know what to do because it is apparently my word against theirs.
-Did Sprint sell me a phone that they had tampered with before I bought it in May of 2013? It seems unlikely.
-Why is Apple unwilling to discuss even the possiblity that the phone was not constructed correctly?'
-What possible recourse do I have?
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 07/16/2013 04:18 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/sprintapple/internet/sprintapple-apple-sprint-sold-me-an-iphone-4s-with-missing-parts-apple-wont-service-it-1067548. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content
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#1 Consumer Comment
What is your contract saying?
AUTHOR: MochaG - ()
SUBMITTED: Wednesday, July 17, 2013
There are 2 causes that can explain why the phone you bought is not new (or has been opened) if you did nothing wrong with the phone.
One scenario is from Sprint - they sold you an already defective phone. This could be either Sprint, as corporation, acknowledge or not acknowledge that the phone has been opened. If they acknowledged it but still sold it to you, the good news for is that it is their fault. The bad news is that it is unlikely that you can have a proof. If the corporation does not acknowledge/know, then the responsibility may fall to the people who work inside Sprint (inventory people to sales). I don't believe that the box is sealed with protected tamper sticker (at least mine didn't have any seal sticker on my box). So if one of Sprint employee did something with the phone, it is Sprint fault. However, the same bad news for you is that you may not be able to prove it.
Another scenario is from Apple. It is similar to Sprint (both corporation and employee). But in the case of employee, the person might have swapped your phone with another phone if the person did the inspection out of your sight. This has happened before in the past because it is an honest system. If all the sudden a phone which had been working is now no longer work right after it was opened, this case is fishy.
What you can do? It is not likely that you can do anything, but you could try. Did you get the name of the person who inspected your phone? Did he/she opened it right in front of you or took it into the back room? If he/she did not open it right in front of you, did you have the UDID (device ID which is uniquely given to each iPhone) of the phone before it was given to the Apple employee? One way to obtain the UDID is via iTune software (when you do the iphone backup on a computer with iTune software installed). This way, you could verify whether the phone you gave and the phone you received back are the same phone.
Do you still have the original box that comes with the phone? I am not sure whethere there is a unique information for each box. Anyway, you could try to get Apple to investigate your theory (telling them that you brought a working phone in but only the camera wasn't properly working. Then after their "genius" opened your phone and did nothing but supposed to look at it, it all the sudden no longer works. It should not be that way because a working phone should still be working if there is nothing done with it. If the genius did it out of your sight, you should emphasize that to them as well. That what I would try to do in your case.
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