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Zach Bass (a.k.a Ernie Varitimos) is Chief Bloviator of Investor in the Wilderness. He has 30 years experience as a Tech Maven, Investor and Consultant. Zach has been using Macs since their introduction in 1984, and investing in the markets just as long. His mission is to help guide all level of investors through the Apple Ecosphere and make sense of the markets. Zach's take on Apple, the markets, and life pursuits, will keep your mind tuned.

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AT&T Worms in Apple iPhone Buying Experience

August 2nd, 2008 • Related • Filed Under
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I bought a 3G iPhone yesterday (August 1) as an upgrade to my 1st gen iPhone. I gave the old boy to my younger daughter, now both my girls have iPhone sidearms. I bought a white 16 GB model, partly because everyone else wants the black and I’m a contrarian, partly because it won’t show finger prints and scratches as readily, and partly because I think it looks more sleek, more Apple-like.

So, I went to my local Apple Store in the South Shore Plaza in Braintree, MA. My initial buying experience was everything one would expect from the Apple Store. I proclaimed I wanted the iPhone to a blue-shirted Specialist, her name is Sarah, and Sarah was smiles ear-to-ear. She gave me a ticket that claims my iPhone, then summoned another Specialist to go get it from out back. In the mean time, Sarah took a few pieces of vital information on her handheld terminal, swiped my card, and by then the iPhone was retrieved. She led me over to one of the display MacBooks where we plugged in the iPhone to register it through iTunes. A couple of key strokes later and I was out of there toot sweet! The whole process took about 4-5 minutes!

When I got home, I plugged it in to my iMac to sync it up. I was really looking forward to the extra space the 16 GB afforded me. I was constantly trimming my podcast and music selections with the 8 GB iPhone, a chore I never appreciated. Once it was synced, I picked it up and pressed the home button, and nothing. I pressed it again, again nothing. This time I made sure I pressed it right smack dab in the middle with a little force and it responded. Needless to say, this was unacceptable, so I brought it back. I was disappointed, because having to return it so soon, marred what was otherwise a perfect Apple-esque experience. One that I’ve gotten quite used to. Plus, the Apple store isn’t exactly around the corner. I live in Sharon, a good 20-25 minute drive, depending upon traffic, and it was afternoon rush hour.

But like my buying experience, I expected the exchange experience to be as painless as possible. I know, because Apple Store’s are by far the best when it comes to resolving customer issues. I can’t say enough, as I’m a huge Apple customer and have personally bought at least 9 Macs and many accoutrements from this store. They always go above and beyond the call of duty. I called ahead to let them know I’m coming, and they set up an appointment for me at the Genius Bar.

When I got there, the Genius greeted me, I sat down showed him the problem and he said “No Problem. We’ll just return this and set you up with another iPhone.” I thought, great, I’ll be out-a-here in a few minutes, I can get home re-sync, and start evaluating the 3G and GPS (I’ll have plenty to report over this weekend). So, I’m waiting and waiting. Mr Genius is showing signs of consternation on his face, when he tells me that AT&T won’t let the swap go through without charging me an additional $200!

“Whoa! Hold one here!” I said. “I just want an iPhone that works, and I want the subsidized price, I’m entitled to it.” He agreed, but he said there was this problem with AT&T buying policy where you can’t buy two iPhones within a 24 hour period and get the subsidy. He told me if I returned the iPhone within the 14 day return period, and then came back no less than 24 hours later, he could sell me a new iPhone with the subsidy. Otherwise, AT&T was denying the transaction. We were both gobsmacked!

He said, “Don’t worry we’ll make this right, I’ll be right back.” And he went and consulted with a store manager. The first idea they had was to give me a $200 store gift card, then redeem it for the cash. I thought if this was the best they can do, that would be pretty lame, the Genius thought so too. Then he had a brilliant idea. He said he could dip into their service phones, which are brand new, they just don’t come with all the packaging, ear buds, power adapter etc. And he would simply swap them out and deal with the ramifications later. 

Great! The Apple Store comes through again! Although it’s odd they’ve not come across this problem before. And it’s certainly a huge whole in the buying process. I attribute this to the desire for AT&T to close all possible holes for people that might try and get an iPhone sans registration and then unlock it with one of the hacker methods. But this is clearly not the case here. AT&T needs to get their act together and fix this bug in the system. Has anyone else had to return an iPhone the day they bought it due to a defect?

 

  • Thom
    The wife and I had a frustrating experience trying to get the new phones because of ATT. Everything went fine on Apple's side but when it came time to set up accounts with ATT, their computer rejected us (we where switching from Verizon). Even though ATT's web map showed our area as having very good coverage, part of our zip code is in a dead zone (we live deep in the woods). Since there was no coverage, they wouldn't give us an account. We tried her father's address, who is an ATT customer, and it said the same thing! Finally we chose a friend of ours who lived in Los Angeles proper and it went through. So now we have to wait one more billing cycle before we can have the bill sent to us.

    We finally made it happen and the Apple store chick was cool and worked with us but what a pain in the ass. To end it off, the phones have better reception than our Verizon Palms did, 4-5 bars all the time.
  • CJ
    Yes. My iPhone would not send emails (only receive) on my comcast.net account (but it worked fine on my .mac account). I bought it at AT&T and exchanged it the next day at an Apple store, no questions asked.
  • taojones
    first of all Zach ATT has always been obtuse. I arrived 1/2 hour early on a sunday morning to the ATT store in Westbury Long island. having arrived 1/2 hour early we decided to wait. My girlfriend needed a bathroom (typical) and we went 50 feet to a diner nearby to use theirs when we returned her car was hooked to a tow truck the store had just opened and i went in to explain to the manager that we were headed here to his store and he said he had no control over the truck driver and the tow was controlled by the district office. Returning to the tow truck the driver added another 100 dollars because i was "taking too long" 300 dollars later we were unhooked and we hightailed it home feeling very abused . we wrote letters to both apple and ATT protesting our treatment Steve Jobs office called us right away appalled at the story and offered to contact At&t on our behalf a week later we got a call from At&t their position was "since we did not purchase anything that day we were not "customers" and we deserved the tow . fortunately for us a small claims court did not agree with their Alice in Wonderland point of view and returned our money to us . I have always maintained that At&T who regards you as a captive slave to the cancelation penalty was the worst partner Apple could have chosen. They are Obtuse with Corpthink and give bare lip service to customer service putting it on the back burner to their policy book (written for their benefit not the customer.

    Also ZACH i heard the antique word bloviator used friday night in an NPR All Things Considered report this means to me your going mainstream buddy! you have revived a lexicon!!!
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