3GS - Does Your Serial Number Match The Box?

[CD3660]

I bought 2 black 32GB 3GS iPhones from the Apple Store in the Trafford Centre (Manchester, England) last night and I am a little baffled to find that the serial numbers of the iPhones do not match the serial numbers on their boxes.

It's very strange. There was obviously a hiccup at the factory during week 22 and at first I was concerned that there might be warranty problems arising from the mismatch. However I've checked online and confirmed that the warranty for each iPhone was activated yesterday so all is well.

https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do

 

[Jeremy81]

Yes, mine is the same.

 

[dave006]

Mismatches do happen, again because there are humans in the supply chain. It could have happened in the Factory or at the store it they were not handed to you in shrinkwrap. The Factory has a merge process and they do sometimes put the wrong device in the wrong box.

The activation / registration process through iTunes is what triggers the start of the warranty date in the Apple systems. So you are good to go as far as Apple warranty.

I guess you could return them to the store and ask them to explain / correct the problem. If it really important to you but I don't think most will really care or even look at the box.

Dave

 

[hkip37]

mine match

 

[CD3660]

Mismatches do happen, again because there are humans in the supply chain. It could have happened in the Factory or at the store it they were not handed to you in shrinkwrap. The Factory has a merge process and they do sometimes put the wrong device in the wrong box.

The activation / registration process through iTunes is what triggers the start of the warranty date in the Apple systems. So you are good to go as far as Apple warranty.

I guess you could return them to the store and ask them to explain / correct the problem. If it really important to you but I don't think most will really care or even look at the box.

Dave

It was definitely a factory mismatch as I opened the boxes personally at home.

My only worry was the warranty but that's ok. I did suspect that it was activation via iTunes that triggered the warranty but I wasn't sure so it's good to hear confirmation from you. In my mind there was also a possibility that it was the scanning of the serial numbers on the boxes at the point of sale that triggered the warranty in which case I may have had a problem.

I just wonder how many others are mismatched. At least 2, possibly hundreds!

 

[dave006]

Well at least you got what you wanted, last year and I will bet that again this year there will be cases where the phone in the box is the wrong color or even the wrong storage size.

The compressed mass ship always seem to bring out all the worst possible issues. There are a couple of threads that discuss the wrong phone numbers being assigned or the wrong IMEI / SIM ICCID being parked on customers lines. AT&T blames Apple and Apple blaims AT&T.

Dave