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Apple Shortens iPhone Return Window to 14 Calendar Days

Samunlocks.net said:
At the same time apple doesn't charge you anything even when you return it on the 28th, 29th or 30th day....No one is going to lend anyone anything without collateral...thats a given fact....and your argument would be valid if Apple took even a penny after the 14days from you....because you couldn't make up your mind.

Be glad they let you have 14 days which is plenty, think about this when you buy a car...you won't even get 14 days...just an hour [if lucky] test drive and thats it.

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30 day policy definitely was abused all due to people's mind taking too long to get convinced regarding color....majority of the cases were returning due to color rather than capacity.
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no they dont charge you on the spot. rather its built into the price.

im not advocating abusers. personally i think 30 days is fair (sometimes it takes me a while to start trying/using a new purchase). will cutting the time in half curtail abusers or simply change their workflow? of course its different for different product types. as you mention the car one is rather extreme and thats not taking the depreciation into account.

but as far as i see you are being charged for the item. just because your cc bill isnt due dosent negate that. which is what i was responding to.
 
dannyyankou said:
2 weeks is more than enough time. Don't really see why people would even return it if they made that expensive investment in the first place.
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dannyyankou said:
Yep, every iPhone comes with a one year warranty and you could exchange it if it doesn't work. A bit different than spending $800 on a phone and deciding two weeks later "eh, I don't want this."
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Is this guy for real??????

Wow, some people are just nuts.
 
KALLT said:
He still has a point though. Suppose your iPhone is not working properly and you are trying to get it solved. It is not unlikely that you may think at some point: this is going nowhere, I've had it, I want my money back. Two weeks can be very short. A warranty does not necessarily entitle you to a refund.
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No it does get you a properly working phone.
 
numlock said:
no they dont charge you on the spot. rather its built into the price.

im not advocating abusers. personally i think 30 days is fair (sometimes it takes me a while to start trying/using a new purchase). will cutting the time in half curtail abusers or simply change their workflow? of course its different for different product types. as you mention the car one is rather extreme and thats not taking the depreciation into account.

but as far as i see you are being charged for the item. just because your cc bill isnt due dosent negate that. which is what i was responding to.
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In your case if it takes you longer to device, well return it on 14th day and get another one for another 14days. I know this is going to hurt all of us due to abusers who abuse the policy and at first its going to sting a little and sooner than later it'll just be something we don't even think about anymore....also may even aid in faster decision making :)
 
Sensamic said:
Is this guy for real??????

Wow, some people are just nuts.
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Don't see what's so outrageous about what I said. People are confusing the return period with the warranty. You have 14 days to decide if you want to keep it, which is more than enough time, and every iPhone comes with a FREE one year warranty.
 
ssl0408 said:
Well, now there's no incentive for me to purchase iPhones directly from Apple. I preferred their return policy, but now that it's the same, I won't mind buying from the carrier or big box store.
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Agreed. There's no incentive whatsoever. And I'm due for a new phone soon.
 
We use our phones what, 10-16 hours a day? There is no single item that gets used more than a smartphone. If you can't make up your mind in 14 days, well that is more your problem than apple's.
 
It is amazing to see some people are happily accepting a worse return policy.

:rolleyes:
 
aerok said:
It is amazing to see some people are happily accepting a worse return policy.

:rolleyes:
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Bingo. Stores seem to be increasing their policies to like 90 days mainly because of competition while other places go shorter just because they can and not because it's good for the consumer.

What if all stores that we are used to having at least 30 days if not 90 days of return period suddenly went to 7 days, are people also going to be defending that it's a good thing because some few bad apples (no pun intended) abused the policies and we should all suffer in the process? Silly, isn't it.

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DonutHands said:
14 day return window on all products now? Gotta say, thats pretty lame. Reputable retailers almost always offer 30 days.
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Yup, there really should have been more push/shaming for the carriers to go back to 30 day return policies that most had before, rather than the other way of Apple succumbing to crappier carrier policies.

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gnasher729 said:
Don't you think feeling entitled to rent a phone for two weeks without payment is greedy?
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Even for day is greedy then--clearly no return policies at all for anything is the way to go and we'll all be much better and happier for it too!
 
unplugme71 said:
The 30 day was because carriers offered 30 days (ie AT&T). Now they offer 14 days so Apple no longer needs to have a 30 day return policy anymore.
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Apple's return policy used to be fourteen days until the whole antenna gate issue took place. Steve Jobs told everybody the issue was overblown and was so confident in the iPhone 4 that he was going to give costumers thirty days to try it out. The thirty day policy continued for subsequent iPhone models to this day.
 
I know it sounds like a major injustice (some of you sound like you're going to leave Apple over this) but once the carriers switched to a 14 day return policy and Apple held on to 30 days it caused a lot of problems. For example if someone returned their phone in say 21 days they got hit with an early termination fee from the carriers after 14 days. I have a friend who went through this and threw a big enough fit that she got the ETF waived, but still.

I'm probably in the minority but I'd say Apple did the right thing in this case to avoid a lot of frustration on people's behalf.
 
For a company that supposedly prides itself on the quality of its design/engineering and levels of customer satisfaction, you could say that Apple's 1 year standard warranty and 14 day return period doesn't actually demonstrate much confidence in their own products.
 
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No return policy

I think Apple shouldn't stop there. They should do a no return policy. We can all agree all apple products are perfect, so why would anyone want to return iphones?
 
siurpeeman said:
Apple's return policy used to be fourteen days until the whole antenna gate issue took place. Steve Jobs told everybody the issue was overblown and was so confident in the iPhone 4 that he was going to give costumers thirty days to try it out. The thirty day policy continued for subsequent iPhone models to this day.
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false, it was to align with carrier return policies.
 
14 days is plenty. Something goes wrong after that and you have a warranty.

This should also stop people who try to de facto reserve spots for certain colors and sizes that are in short supply by buying a model they don't want with the intent to exchange within 30 days.

In fact it will stop a lot of shenanigans related to returns. This forum has no shortage of braggarts every release that pride their ability to work the system and do numerous returns within the 30 day window.

This should help people that really want a phone from getting hosed and having to wait an extra month because stock has been depleted by phone renters.
 
typical...

Post mentions something that Apple does to benefit bottom line to the detriment of the consumer.

Immediately what follows are posts: 'Bravo, good move Apple.' 'Smart, its about time' and 'Way to get those loser consumers back Apple!'

Who are these people, shills at Apple who post simply to support the pro-Apple position? Smh
 
gauchotee said:
I think Apple shouldn't stop there. They should do a no return policy. We can all agree all apple products are perfect, so why would anyone want to return iphones?
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And why stop there, they shouldn't have any warranty either since most people would be more than happy just to buy another phone, right?

:rolleyes:
 
Too bad Costco doesn't sell iPhones. They have a 90 day return policy on their mobile phones. :cool:
 
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foodog said:
No it does get you a properly working phone.
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Eventually, but you have to undertake additional steps, even with Apple Care. Apple Stores are not everywhere and premium resellers are a lot less forthcoming to substitute devices on the spot. A grace period makes this a lot easier for consumers, because they can simply rescind the contract.

I had similar issues when I bought my first MacBook online. Apple immediately provided a replacement twice when I contacted them about hardware issues. I was not able to do that a third time, even though I intended, because then I would have had to send it to them by courier (and I would have had to wait a couple of weeks to get it back). Two weeks are short and warranty is not the best solution to get a properly-working product right away.

Apple used to offer 30 days, now it's 14. That's a step back for us consumers.
 
Makes sense, all the carriers have a 14-day policy, so even if you were to return between the 14-day policy and the 30-day policy that Apple offered, you'd still be hit with an ETC fee and potential other fees from your carrier. Less misleading and confusing this way.

At least Apple hasn't instituted restocking fees, unlike AT&T and Verizon. Learned this the hard way, I was hit with a $35 restocking fee for a simple exchange at AT&T. If I had purchased the iPhone at Apple, I wouldn't have to pay the restocking fee; only the difference (if applicable).
 
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