Apple Gives Thief Replacement For Stolen iPhone

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Now that is what I call "quality customer service."

4 months after the theft took place, she received an automated email from her local Apple Store letting her know that her phone had been repaired and was awaiting pickup. Upon contacting the store she learned that her phone was indeed there, and that the alleged thief had brought it in, claiming it was his, and received a brand new replacement phone at no cost.
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Thats what happens when you have morons working at the counter.
 
APRIL FOOL dumb asses at the Apple store for NOT doing your job and checking ID like you should be and at LEAST TRYING to protect your customers!! :eek: :D
 
"Olson then contact the local police who tried unsuccessfully to retrieve the stolen handset from the store in British Columbia. Now, nearly 8 months since the original theft, and after contacting multiple local news outlets, Olson finally caught the attention of Apple's loss prevention manager. Her ordeal is almost over, and she is expecting a new phone in short order"

Sounds like apple cares more about their image than their customers, but nothing new there.
 
My wife found a beat up ipod touch 32gb in her classroom last year. No one came to claim it so at the end of the year it ended up in my hands. I wiped it out and used it for 2 weeks before the battery died and it couldn't hold a charge long enough to boot up.

I called support to see if it was under warranty and was able to have a new one sent right out to me. I even told them it was a lost and found item. I now have a brand new replacement in my hands. I would have returned the unit to the original owner, but Apple said they couldn't give out personal information, but they could transfer the unit to my name.

Go figure.
 
Just use the phone location service to locate the phone and bust the criminal. It's not rocket science.
 
RiPpLeeFFecT said:
My wife found a beat up ipod touch 32gb in her classroom last year. No one came to claim it so at the end of the year it ended up in my hands. I wiped it out and used it for 2 weeks before the battery died and it couldn't hold a charge long enough to boot up.

I called support to see if it was under warranty and was able to have a new one sent right out to me. I even told them it was a lost and found item. I now have a brand new replacement in my hands. I would have returned the unit to the original owner, but Apple said they couldn't give out personal information, but they could transfer the unit to my name.

Go figure.
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Did you have to return the old one? :p If not, bring it into the store and get another replacement. lol
 
RiPpLeeFFecT said:
My wife found a beat up ipod touch 32gb in her classroom last year. No one came to claim it so at the end of the year it ended up in my hands. I wiped it out and used it for 2 weeks before the battery died and it couldn't hold a charge long enough to boot up.

I called support to see if it was under warranty and was able to have a new one sent right out to me. I even told them it was a lost and found item. I now have a brand new replacement in my hands. I would have returned the unit to the original owner, but Apple said they couldn't give out personal information, but they could transfer the unit to my name.

Go figure.
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Wow... :rolleyes: (Directed at Apple, not you)

Clearly they don't care if people replace stolen items or not.
 
"Because Olson's phone was still covered under her extended warranty, no identification or other information was checked."
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RiPpLeeFFecT said:
I would have returned the unit to the original owner, but Apple said they couldn't give out personal information, but they could transfer the unit to my name.

Go figure.
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I hear people talk about how great Apple Care is! This is great??? Someone can walk into an Apple store with a stolen device and have a replacement handed to them? Another person can call up Apple to help locate the owner of a lost device and, instead of finding the original owner, Apple transfers the device into the finder's name?

I understand that RiPpLeeFFecT and his wife are NOT thieves here, but it's pretty obvious how this could EASILY be abused (and probably is being abused!). Why should I buy stuff from a company that is just going to transfer ownership into the hands of the people who are trying to return it to me, or the people who stole it from me?!
 
Apple will not do anything if you call claiming the phone was stolen. It takes a huge amount of effort and the media to get any type of response. You can thank the lawyers for that. It because the person who is calling in about it may of bought it off Ebay or some other way or that the owner sold it and thought that he wanted it back and claim it was stolen or if they were worried about info left on it they could of used MobileMe if they had subscribed to it.

This is not an excuse for what apple did/does. This is the way it was explained to me when I used to work support for them. The amount of calls we got for stolen iphones was staggering but for apple it was a win win. Stolen IPhones had to be replaced so that was another phone sold or replace by whatever ins the customer had. If he had any. Apple care purchased for the iphone. Followed the phone not the customer so the customer also had to buy that again. The whole Iphone black market was a huge cash cow for them.
 
I don't believe, even for a second, that Apple has a loss prevention manager working for them. Can't be true. Think about it... This would mean they are aware that small, high value pieces of hardware are likely to be stolen, and that they are making something more than a weak token effort to help protect their customers.
 
eh, title for this is biased as hell. If someone buys an iphone off of craigslist then goes to get the battery replaced does that make him a thief? I know it makes for more dramatic headlines but everyone involved in the article is ASS-U-ME-ing a lot of shit.
 
cfree1961 said:
APRIL FOOL dumb asses at the Apple store for NOT doing your job and checking ID like you should be and at LEAST TRYING to protect your customers!! :eek: :D
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Yesterday someone said Apple employees get 14 $ per hour, and they ridicule this guy behind the counter. What do you expect, if you want knowledgeable counter people, pay them more.
 
jiminator said:
eh, title for this is biased as hell. If someone buys an iphone off of craigslist then goes to get the battery replaced does that make him a thief? I know it makes for more dramatic headlines but everyone involved in the article is ASS-U-ME-ing a lot of shit.
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Actually it does. It is against the law to receive stolen property. Tho most likely the item will be taken from you and you will be out the cash you paid for it, but you can be charged with a crime.
 
dawp said:
Actually it does. It is against the law to receive stolen property. Tho most likely the item will be taken from you and you will be out the cash you paid for it, but you can be charged with a crime.
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luckily, you can sue in this country, so crimes are negated :p
 
Uncle said:
Yesterday someone said Apple employees get 14 $ per hour, and they ridicule this guy behind the counter. What do you expect, if you want knowledgeable counter people, pay them more.
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Pay them more for what? $14 is ample compensation (I am in NC, so states may vary) for what they do.
 
It sounds like the phone was registered to the person in question, but it seems like they paperwork shortcut-ed the process and didn't check a driver's license before giving the person the new or replacement phone. The fact that she received an email indicates that she registered it.

It'd be wonderful if companies had the ability to flag registered products. One would think that this would be a value prop that'd make their products more desirable.
 
RiPpLeeFFecT said:
My wife found a beat up ipod touch 32gb in her classroom last year. No one came to claim it so at the end of the year it ended up in my hands. I wiped it out and used it for 2 weeks before the battery died and it couldn't hold a charge long enough to boot up.

I called support to see if it was under warranty and was able to have a new one sent right out to me. I even told them it was a lost and found item. I now have a brand new replacement in my hands. I would have returned the unit to the original owner, but Apple said they couldn't give out personal information, but they could transfer the unit to my name.

Go figure.
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Bolded for "WTF?!" :rolleyes:

Mr34727 said:
Pay them more for what? $14 is ample compensation (I am in NC, so states may vary) for what they do.
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$14 sounds about right for the average sales floor associate there (i.e. not a technician or anything). Most people who come into their stores will gobble up whatever BS the employees spout and will be captivated enough by the visual appeal of their products alone to buy them. Very rarely have I seen a customer come in and ask legitimate technical questions about the products, most of the time its just simple stuff like "so is this computer good for watching movies in HD?" or something like that.

I actually had an employee, an older woman in her late 40s/early 50s, walk up to me once as I was using an iPhone, checking my Facebook and searching Yelp for somewhere good to eat nearby (I was doing some shopping, then got hungry :p). She came up to me and said, very quietly, "I know you just want to play with that, but can you just pretend that you're asking me a question or two? My supervisor is back there and I need to make it look like I'm helping people out with stuff". And this was at the Valley Fair location, mind you, which is supposedly their flagship location.

So yeah, I'd say $14 an hour sounds about right.
 
In 2005 I ordered an iPod nano from the apple website. When it arrived, the box had been tampered with and everything but the ipod itself was in the box. I called apple and they sent a new one no questions asked. I didn't even have to return the box, headphones, or anything at all. I could I've totally just lied and gotten 2 ipods.
 
Apple doesn't care about the meatbag attached to the iDevice of Glory. They just care about the serial number and status of the warranty/APP (AppleCare Protection Plan).
 
Mr34727 said:
Pay them more for what? $14 is ample compensation (I am in NC, so states may vary) for what they do.
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But were talking inflated dollars here, remember the USA is "that close " to being bankrupt. The US dollar buys less, reason US imports from China. Makes people think their wealthy, the average person can't afford US made goods, especially the guys that work a 40hr week at 14 dollars or less, like the Apple employee. After rent, food, medical, dental, car insurance, gas, not much left to buy American made goods.
 
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