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Level 1

8 points

Waiving 10% restocking fee?

Would like some opinions from the apple faithful on my situation. My wife and I have been AT&T customers since 2005 and we decided to purchase new iphones since our contract was up for renewal. We purchased our new phones on monday (9/8/2008) from an authorized AT&T corporate store. Got them phones home and realized that my phone wasn't allowing me to talk. No one could hear me on the other side. Took the phone back the next day and explained to them what was happened. They tinkered with it, reset the iphone and still no help. They told me they could exchange it, but there would be a restocking fee of 10%. I argued that it is a defective unit and that it is less than 24hours old. It's never worked. They told me I could also call Apple and utilize the 1yr warranty. AT&T said apple would send me a new one and I would have to send the defective one back. Said I would give that a try. Went back home and spend 2.5 hours on the phone w/ Apple diagnosing the phone and same conclusion. Defective phone. But they wouldn't send me one because an Iphone must be repaired 3-4 times before they would authorize a new replacement one. So their offer was to mail my unit to them for repairs. So now I would be without a phone for another 5 days. They also told me I should go back to AT&T and see if they would waive the restocking fee since it is less than 24 hours old.

Any one have any luck on having this restocking fee waived? I could see if I didn't want the unit and just wanted to return it, BUT I am returning a defective model (which they agree it is defective) and just want a new working one. How difficult do they have to make this?

Thanks anyone for your imput

Phil

Iphone 3G, Other OS

Posted on Sep 10, 2008 9:19 AM

54 replies

Tamara

Level 6

13,744 points

Sep 11, 2008 11:26 AM in response to spikesnet

You would still pay the restocking fee. The whole reason companies started restocking fees was to cut down on people using a product for a few days and returning it. If someone returns an iPhone regardless of perfect working condition or defective, that phone is going to be sent back and refurbished which costs money. It will not be put on the shelf as an "open box" buy.

Sep 11, 2008 11:42 AM in response to Tamara

Tamara wrote:

... If someone returns an iPhone regardless of perfect working condition or defective, that phone is going to be sent back and refurbished which costs money.>

Not a defective phone ... a phone where you can't be heard. It might cost money to repair it but it should NEVER be the customer's money. I've never been charged a restocking fee for a defective item ... if I was, I'd refuse payment via my credit card company. Who would ever buy anything if it might cost you 10% more to actually work?

Tamara

Level 6

13,744 points

Sep 11, 2008 11:57 AM in response to Mary Glynn

Since the phone left the store in working order, there is no reason that ATT would even have to accept it as a return if it is broken. The customer is not returning a product in the same condition as when it left the store since it is no longer working. At that point, the ATT CSR should have assisted the customer in making an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar.

Sep 11, 2008 12:05 PM in response to Tamara

The original poster said: "We purchased our new phones on monday (9/8/2008) from an authorized AT&T corporate store. Got them phones home and realized that my phone wasn't allowing me to talk."

From what he said it NEVER worked.

pfry10 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 11, 2008 12:20 PM in response to Tamara

Tamara wrote:
Since the phone left the store in working order, there is no reason that ATT would even have to accept it as a return if it is broken. The customer is not returning a product in the same condition as when it left the store since it is no longer working. At that point, the ATT CSR should have assisted the customer in making an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar.

Let me be perfectly clear again...The phone was not in FULL working order when I left the store. It was brought back when I realized no one could hear me when I made phone calls or received them. That was explained in the first post. I'm a very honey person and would own up if I did something wrong. Was I supposed to check that before I left...I didn't realize I should have made a phone call to check that. How many of you who bought a new phone in the past (not just an iphone) made a phone call yourself before leaving to make sure the phone was in working order. I've bought phones in the past where the CSR did that. They make 1 or 2 at the most to test it out. If the AT&T CSR would have maybe taken the 5 seconds it takes to make a test call, he would have seen it never works and all this could have been avoid. But Corporate America action is wam bam thank you mam and kick you out the door. We have their money. "Oh you have an issue or a problem, we don't handle that, sorry"

Tamara

Level 6

13,744 points

Sep 11, 2008 12:23 PM in response to pfry10

I'm sorry that your CSR was lazy. Our CSR at ATT encouraged us to make sure everything was fine before we left.

Hopefully, your trip to the Genius Bar will straighten things out.

pfry10 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 11, 2008 12:29 PM in response to Tamara

Tamara wrote:
I'm sorry that your CSR was lazy. Our CSR at ATT encouraged us to make sure everything was fine before we left.

Hopefully, your trip to the Genius Bar will straighten things out.

I know going forward on the new iphone or any other phone we may buy in the future, we're going to make a call, send a text, write an e-mail, pull up some sport scores on the web, download an application, use the speaker phone....pretty much run my own testing phase before I leave the store. 🙂

Maybe they'll offer me a job since I'm doing a better job than their own employees.

pfry10 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 11, 2008 1:40 PM in response to pfry10

can someone give me the name and address again for the chairman/CEO of AT&T Wireless? It was posted on here and I believe the moderator deleted it before I could write it down. thanks!

tokatta

Level 3

869 points

Sep 11, 2008 1:52 PM in response to pfry10

Just do a Google search. They have a Mobility CEO, Ralph de la Vega.

This is public information. Not sure why an overzealous moderator would delete this information as it was NOT A HOME ADDRESS that was listed.

Just find the corporate address, put his name on it, and do a return receipt requested so someone has to sign for it. Then you have proof of delivery. If you address the main letter to Customer service and then CC him, then his office will usually make sure that customer service gets back to you.

I have done this with a quite a few fortune 100 companies where I was wrongly treated. If you take the time to write a real letter that is very polite and factual, you will usually get a response from someone that wants to find an equatable solution.

Sep 11, 2008 2:03 PM in response to tokatta

id like to know where we can complain about this overzealous mediator? Anyone know off hand?

SteveDC

Level 1

139 points

Sep 11, 2008 5:07 PM in response to Tyler Parker

Yeah, I posted the Chairman's name and address and it was deleted.

To avoid that happening again, go to the AT&T web site, go to investor relations, and look at the Annual Report. His name is in there, and his real address at headquarters in San Antonio is listed as well on the next-to-last page. AT&T has a lot of addresses. Use that one.

I would not fool with the Mobility Chief, or whomever. Go to the top.

Sep 11, 2008 5:57 PM in response to SteveDC

For the record, I bought my iphone at the apple store on release day and they didn't even open the box. It wasn't opened for the first time until I got home that night. Guess I got lucky.

Does this apply for notebooks too? What about camcorders and dvd players? Shouldn't new stuff just work or is that asking too much?

Sep 11, 2008 7:26 PM in response to spikesnet

Apparently not. Sounds like if you leave the store with something and it doesn't work when you get home then you must pay a restocking fee.

At least that is what some people think. If I buy something new from ANY store and it doesn't work when I get home I WILL get my money back or a brand new working whatever, and I certainly will NOT pay any restocking fee, ever, period. It doesn't make a bit of different what company it is.

The Omega

Sep 11, 2008 7:31 PM in response to pfry10

phy10: Did you get a new phone, or your phone fixed at the Apple store?

The Omega

pfry10 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 12, 2008 6:54 AM in response to The Omega

Just wanted to let everyone know about my Genius Bar Experience.

Went to the Apple store last night early and received my little pager in order to wait for an available Genius. So I poked around the store...and came back with these 2 observations. The new Ipod touches are super thing. They are as thick at the top chrome section of our Iphone 3G's. And second, the biggest desktop screen you can get is absolutely HUGE.

Anyway....I only had to wait about 15 minutes past my scheduled appointment time (no biggie, I just pulled up the Philadelphia Phillies gamescast on ESPN and watched till I got the call). Went up to the genius guy and he asked what was going on. Went through my whole story and he just kept shaking his head in disbelief on how the whole situation was handled. He said he would get me a new one and I'll be up in running in 5 minutes. I expressed my concern regarding the refurbished ones and a new one (considering mine is less than 72hours old now and it was originally defective) and he completely agreed with me. He said unfortunately there was nothing he can do. The replacements all come in the "white boxes". Because the 3G iphones are relatively new, he said most are still new and the refurbished ones aren't really recycled back through yet. He did let me inspect it for anything and if I wasn't happy, he said he'll go back and get a different one. I looked at it, and it looked brand new. Nothing wrong with it. He loaded me all up and I was off. Made my test call to my wife and everything worked 🙂. And off I went. 10 minutes max! *Oh and P.S. I had to pay nothing! No restocking fee whatsoever. Not even a mention of one*

Thank you everyone for your help and guidance. Moral of story, if you are buying an Apple product that is used through AT&T...go right thru Apple for everything. Don't even bother with AT&T. I will be sending letters out to AT&T so I'll keep you posted on what happens on that end.

Waiving 10% restocking fee?