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Apple sent me someone else's iPhone 5

W

WinstonFl

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 21, 2012
8
0
Hey all. Long time reader first time poster but I wanted to share my experience today and see if anyone else has ever had this happen.

We received our new iPhone 5 today and it ended up being someone else's. Everything seem to be going well with the setup until we got to the phone number part and then realized it wasn't the correct number. Upon closer inspection we realized that the packing slip wasn't ours. According to the Packing slip and phone number this phone was supposed to go to another customer.

We immediately called Apple support. The first person I spoke with seemed genuinely surprised and immediately transferred me to sales customer support. From here the conversation took a turn for the worst. It took me quite a few minutes to get this person to understand the situation. At first she tried blaming the shipper. I informed her I don't think that it was their fault as the box had our address and was shipped to us in Florida, and the Packing slip had the name and address of a customer in South Carolina. This wasn't just delivering it to the wrong house, the contents of the package were not placed in the right box to begin with.

After getting through this I now ended up waiting 30-40 minutes on and off of hold as she described this situation to 'the supervisor'. After this long time on hold she finally came back with the resolution of being sent a return label, having to go bring the phone back to the UPS store, and then wait for Apple to contact me about receiving a replacement. I wasn't happy with this as I felt that now I am being inconvenienced for their mistake, and now I had to have faith that someone would actually call me back. I requested a supervisor at this point because I was pretty upset at the resolution. After a brief struggle I was transferred to a supervisor. He basically gave me the same answer, but told me he would send me his contact information and phone number and that as soon as I sent back the phone to let him know and he would be sure to follow up immediately.

I am not happy with Apples lack of support and responsibility on their screw up. I spent 1 hour and 22 minutes on the phone and ended up having to go out of my way to return a phone they sent wrong, and now I have to sit and wait for a replacement with no ETA even though I had preordered within the first 20 minutes. This is really the first time I have had to deal with their phone support and I thought the whole situation was handled poorly.
 
Not the resolution I would have expected. I'm sorry to hear that happened. I wonder what the eta is on a replacement phone?
 
Same thing happened to me

Hey I am in the same boat as you. It is so frustrating. I received an iphone 5 in the mail but when i try to activate it, the phone shows a 814-937-3*** number. I have been on the phone with both apple, and verizon..and yet to have a resolution. Anyhow both support has since closed and said they will call me back in the AM. I hope they are able to resolve the issue or find me a store with the phone in stock..i do not want to wait 2-3 weeks for a replacement.
 
i talked to the AT&T representative and they just said to go into the store and get a sim card replacement. it is an inconvenience, but AT&T did give me a $29.99 credit to my account. so i will just stroll into the store tomorrow and switch SIM cards... =)
 
Yea, i went to the apple store and got a new sim card, but the number still shows up on my phone...still waiting for apple care or verizon to get back to me.
 
I'm in the same boat. Called AppleCare for about an hour, they couldn't help. Went to AT&T and after changing the SIM card 3 times they couldn't help. I'm going to go to the apple store and expect a swap. I'm not going through the hassle of senting my unit back.
 
I also have this problem. I have called online supports, spoken to the manager of local apple store. No one can correct the problem. Its not as simple as replacing the sim. I just sent an email to Tim Cook (not that I actually expect to hear back) as I am extremely dissapointed in customer service. Everyone is apologetic but nobody can correct the problem. Unbelievable.

Edit: on a side note, do any of you have a wrong iPhone that came with a 516 area code? If so, its probably mine.
 
Oh god, not another slew of problems SMH

This is going to be my first iPhone, are the launches always like this :,)?
 
TheDLade said:
Oh god, not another slew of problems SMH

This is going to be my first iPhone, are the launches always like this :,)?
Click to expand...

There are always some glitches, but by and large this one went off pretty well. This could have been an error on the shipper's part. In any case, Apple CS should have handled it better. Obviously someone is out there with the OP's phone. What Apple could have done, if the phone were the same carrier, is re-register the phone and tell that person to get a new SIM from AT&T. If it were a different carrier, then it's a bit more difficult and the only choice may be to send it back and get a new one.
 
We should try and keep this thread on the front page. Make sure you update if you have made any progress or if Apple found a solution for you.
 
When my Aunt ordered her new MacBook Pro last year, she received it, set it up, thought it was great, and then about a week later received another brand new MacBook Pro. After calling Apple support they informed her that the first MBP was actually supposed to go to somebody in SWEDEN (which makes no sense because it had an American charger) and she had to transfer all of her stuff to the new MBP and send back the old one.

Really really strange.
 
TheDLade said:
Oh god, not another slew of problems SMH

This is going to be my first iPhone, are the launches always like this :,)?
Click to expand...

You have to figure there will be a few glitches when a multi-million number of devices get shipped.......you just hope you are not one of the glitches.

Stay with Apple Support until you are satisfied....and if you're not, get to a manager right away and demand satisfaction! Apple will make it right!
 
Not sure what the ETA is on a new phone. I was told hopefully next week. I guess the smart thing I should have done was go down to the Apple store and deal with someone face to face, as they may have been able to either reprogram or swap the phone out right away if they had them in stock.

Too late now. But I was really unhappy with the way it was handled. I thought they could have at least tried to offer that solution or at least overnight a new phone... If I don't get confirmation one is on the way by Monday, I might call and ask for that to be handled.
 
try to call the phone number of the right owner (the one you'll get when you try to activate the phone), they might have your phone, and you can simply swap (hope they are in the same area as you are)
 
I did send this person a message via Facebook. Unfortunately he lives in South Carolina and we live in Florida so short of having to mail each other phones, didn't really seem like a good solution. Plus he never got back to me!

I have already sent the phone back so now it is in Apples hands to make the situation right!
 
jmeneghini1433 said:
I just don't know what to do at this point.
Click to expand...

Go to the Apple store. Tell them the SIM card wont activate. They'll activate a new one (they have lots of spares) and you'll be good to go.

My new Verizon iP5 had a bad SIM card from the factory. My local Apple store had a ton of replacements.
 
xraydoc said:
Go to the Apple store. Tell them the SIM card wont activate. They'll activate a new one (they have lots of spares) and you'll be good to go.

My new Verizon iP5 had a bad SIM card from the factory. My local Apple store had a ton of replacements.
Click to expand...

You are wrong, the phone is LOCKED to the number that was used to order it. You cannot put another sim card in until it is activated. You cant activate it without the last 4 of the social and billing zip.
 
Mine is fixed. We were able to locate the person who got my phone, and it turns out I had his. We exchanged the last 4 of our social and out billing zip, and activated our phones. Then we went to ATT and had them change the number to our own.
 
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