Apple Recalling Verizon iPad 2 Orders in Transit? [Updated]

[goosnarrggh]

Here's a deal for you: Wait for a new one or we can give you the broken one today.

Go ahead, it's your choice!

Allowing too many of the defective ones to get out in the wild would be a very bad move. Two different CDMA devices out in the wild with the same MEID, both trying to make use of the same cellular network at the same time could potentially have lots of very undesirable side effects, which could negatively impact not just the customer who received the defective unit, but the other customer as well.

As soon as they learned about the defect, Apple could not have responsibly kept on allowing any more of the defective units to make it into customers' hands. So, no matter how much the customers might have been inclined to complain about it, your second proposed option really wasn't an option at all.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Nope. Just a proof that Apple has no experience in releasing more than one model of anything.




Being ridiculous, aren't you? Apple knew all well that by design CDMA does not allow for concurrent voice/data transmission and yet they begged Verizon to accept iPhone (after Droids started killing it). I hope it was sarcasm.

Aren't you glad you wrote before the updates revealed it's Verizon's fault?

 

[macsrcool1234]

Verizon has done nothing but embarrass Apple. First, they crippled the iPhone (no data/voice multitasking) and now they cause a huge financial and customer satisfaction mess with this iPad screw-up.

Talk about stupid post.

AT&T has never embarrassed Apple? Never mind the fact that they have the worst ratings.

Oh yeah, Apple made the iPad, not Verizon.

Owned.

 

[btransue]

Reminds me of something that happen in the 90's with a company and network cards. It was not a pretty ending. Just can't remember the companies name. Oh well glad to see Apple is on top of the issue. Would have been one big PR headache if people had gotten these ipads 2.

I believe that was SMC - I was working as a network admin and we had about a dozen of the cards with duplicate MAC addresses.

 

[lilo777]

Aren't you glad you wrote before the updates revealed it's Verizon's fault?

Sure. Because update said this: " The reason for the withdrawal of Verizon iPad 2 units is unknown at this time, although it seems reasonable to speculate that Apple has identified a bad batch of units containing some sort of defect."

 

[aristotle]

Nope. Just a proof that Apple has no experience in releasing more than one model of anything.




Being ridiculous, aren't you? Apple knew all well that by design CDMA does not allow for concurrent voice/data transmission and yet they begged Verizon to accept iPhone (after Droids started killing it). I hope it was sarcasm.

Your post shows that you have no reading comprehension skills to speak of. This is not on Apple but rather a screw up at Foxconn where they reused CDMA network identifiers in a batch which had previously already been used.

 

[lilo777]

Your post shows that you have no reading comprehension skills to speak of. This is not on Apple but rather a screw up at Foxconn where they reused CDMA network identifiers in a batch which had previously already been used.

With this logic Apple will never be at fault because they produce absolutely nothing by themselves nowadays.

 

[ibis99]

Wow!

Even ATT knows better. Idiots!

 

[charlituna]

I was on vacation last week, and I hadn't turned on my data till I was there even though I have had my Ipad for a while now.

Anyhow, it wouldnt activate for anything, now that I'm back I need to take it in, but I havn't had a chance yet. But is this an Apple or Verizon problem?

If Verizon's policies on the ipad are anything like the iphone, all sales are final and if something is wrong, you go talk to Apple cause they made it.

As for that last bit in the article about free accessories etc. Apple's policies are to not do such things and any CS rep that does it can be fired. The most they would likely do is refund any expedited shipping fees paid and expedite all new units shipping at their own expense.

With this logic Apple will never be at fault because they produce absolutely nothing by themselves nowadays.

Sure Apple isn't at fault if the factory screwed up. But they will still make good on it. Just like they did with hard drive repairs from the batch that, although way out of warranty, they feit had a few too many failures so they refunded all paid repairs. Or the batteries they are possibly still replacing because of a potentially 'bad batch' and so on

 

[ArcaneDevice]

And, boys and girls, THIS is why SIM cards are a good idea.

Yup.

Verizon might be "America's most reliable network" but it doesn't stop CDMA from being the worst solution for the future of cellular products.

 

[RojoLeo]

I'm curious to know if this is related to an issue I had.

I bought a Verizon iPad about a month ago, had a lot of issues setting it up, but was finally successful. However, I was charged three times on my bill. I called Verizon to correct the issue, but when I was asked to verify the four digit pin code and "name of first school" my info didn't match. I also have two sets of numbers I ever use, and I went through a list of every school I've attended, and there was no match.

It never occurred to me that this duplicate number was a possibility, but I'm beginning to think that's what's going on.

 

[Abaddon75]

I'm one of those customers.

I first received a notice from FedEx on Wednesday, stating that a delivery attempt was made but no one was home and two more attempts would be made in the following days. (There was no attempt to deliver).Then I call and find out the package is marked for return to Apple. I call Apple and they say it was a glitch in the system and that they called FedEx to leave the package for pickup. I call FedEx to confirm and they claimed they never received that request. I then called Apple back and got on a three-way call with them and FedEx. The FedEx representative said they would hold the package at the pickup location and all was resolved. I then call later to confirm again, and FedEx tells me the package is yet again marked for return. I go through the same process for the fourth time and then head over to FedEx to pick it up. When I get there, they tell me the package is on the truck, on the way to the airport. I call Apple again, and this time they tell me it's all due to a technical problem with the iPads.

I spent the day dealing with this back and forth, furiously. They did promise me almost $150 in coupons and refunds, but that's nothing considering my fiancee won't have her 30th birthday gift until God knows when.

 

[rpssfo]

I've had my Verizon iPad 2 for a couple months and I have had no issues at all.

not being able to print is an issue for me

 

[ten-oak-druid]

Are these destined to become "refurbished" wifi ipads now?

 

[YoGramMamma]

Nice

Say what you will... but the Verizon iPad 2 has been nothin but a charm for me.

I will admit I did have a few issues setting up my service (it kept giving me an account registration issue) but eventually it went thru and all is well. The signal is infinitely better than the AT&T iphone sitting next to me and the thing that nobody seems to mention thats the real clincher... latency.

Everyone always obsesses over the different between AT&T's bandwidth and Verizon's... obviously ATT is faster. But what no one mentions or noticies (and neither did I until i conducted several side by side comparisons) was that when you hit GO on a webpage... the VZW one is off to the races instantly and half way done downloading before the ATT one even begins to download. The latency on the ATT 3G connection is sooo slow. Ok so if I was torrenting files or watching large chunks of video over my 3G connection then i'd give att the advantage... but the majority of what I (and what i'd assume, most) of the users do on 3G is load an email here, a webpage there, pull up a map location, play a game... small bits type stuff. This is where the vzw really shines in addition to having much better signal.

I went to buy my iPad on day 1 and they were sold out of ATT models. I was bummed and bought the vzw one planning to return it.. but i am VERY glad I didn't do this. Of course it would be nice to use it worldwide, but c'mon really ... do i need data that much that I would buy a foreign 3G sim, cut it down into a microsim just to use the internet... versus finding wifi somewhere? Nah.

 

[Nermal]

And, boys and girls, THIS is why SIM cards are a good idea.

The MEID is like the IMEI on a SIM-based phone. In both cases they're stored on the device itself, and having duplicate IMEIs would still require device replacement.

 

[AppleScruff1]

I think it's good that they caught the problem and stopped the shipment.

 

[kdarling]

The issue is that a few Verizon iPads have been given the same meim number, so as a preventive measure all iPads are being scanned. It's no big deal so stop stressing.

The issue is that when trying to activate you cant because the number has already been used. And as there is no sim card to switch out only option is new unit.

Another SIM wouldn't help even if it was a GSM model. A SIM contains just network customer info, something that's programmed remotely with CDMA.

The problem is with the mobile identity code burned into the radio chip. Whether it's GSM or CDMA, duplicates will cause trouble.

Edit: oops. I see Nermal already pointed this out.

 

[charlituna]

When AT&T blew out the refurbished 1st gens they set-up the data services as a post pay, which makes the same problem happen. For whatever reason, the only fix is to replace the sim card.

which you can't do with a Verizon device, because they don't have sim cards. Thus the recall. They have to wipe and rebuild the software so they can put in a new ID.

They had to recall out shipments out for delivery because they don't know what serials were shipped to whom so they can't just recall a few of them. But they will ship out clean units as soon as possible and with quicker shipping to get things back on track.


but better getting it 2-3 days later having been cleared of a known issue than get it on time, have a dud and have to go through the dance of making an appointment, going to a genius bar to find out why you can't connect etc.

 

[kdarling]

which you can't do with a Verizon device, because they don't have sim cards. Thus the recall. They have to wipe and rebuild the software so they can put in a new ID..

As noted above, SIMs are not relevant.

The problem is with the unique id burned into the radio board at manufacture time. Apparently Foxconn accidentally reused a sequence of them.

They could just as easily have done the same mistake with the GSM cards and also required a recall.

The duplicate radio boards will probably be removed and disposed of.

 

[cvaldes]

Are these destined to become "refurbished" wifi ipads now?

The units will be disassembled and the radio boards will be scrapped. Without a doubt, Foxconn has processes to reintroduce recovered parts back into manufacturing.

My hunch is that the reworked devices won't end up as retail units again, but will be sent as part of a batch to Apple for internal use (employee freebies, engineering samples, retail display units, etc.)

 

[maclaptop]

It would be very interesting to know the true inside story. This is a very rare issue that may not have been caused by human error, other than not catching it before they were shipped. That's the only part that surprises me. It reflects Apples continuous decline in quality control.

These should have never been shipped. The mistake or whatever you want to call it, is understandable. The fact that they were shipped by Apple is unacceptable, yet sadly, not a surprise.

It took four tries before they were able to ship me a new MacBook Pro that didn't have readily visible, 30mm long, 2mm deep scratches on the case top and palm rests. If I got three that had this exact same problem, but in slightly different areas of the lid and palm rest, why were these shipped?

In the 15 years I've used ThinkPads, upgrading each year to the latest model, not once did one have cosmetic damage. Devoid of Apple Tax, the ThinkPad is a great machine.

The reason I refer to Apples quality control as declining, is that I've used PowerBooks and MacBook Pros in this same period of years, and not once did I ever get a bad PowerBook.

The slow decline came when the MBP was introduced. I believe it was nothing more than demand outstripping Apples willingness to spend the money to hire and maintain enough quality control inspectors, to do the job right.

 

[caspersoong]

No wonder Verizon was late to get the iPhone or anything. Apple can't stand people making foolish mistakes like Verizon.

 

[kdarling]

No wonder Verizon was late to get the iPhone or anything. Apple can't stand people making foolish mistakes like Verizon.

This is not about Verizon.

A clerical mistake was made in China during manufacture:

An already used sequence of IDs was burned into later radio boards.

 

[sorchard]

And, boys and girls, THIS is why SIM cards are a good idea.

Isn't the MEID the direct equivalent of the IMEI in GSM land (a unique identifier of the device)?

If there were GSM/UMTS iPads floating about with duplicate IMEIs, that wouldn't be good either (especially if they end up being used on the same network - e.g. both are sold by AT&T). No amount of changing SIM cards is going to fix that.