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I'm sure your lawyer from Lawyers-R-Us can go toe to toe with Apple team of lawyers. Give it a shot.

These guys might be good.

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As to the location of the water damage sticker, looks like on the 6, that is the location, and none of them are spot-on re: placement. For example, iFixit's teardown of a new 6. And uFixit's example.

https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/F5NPpFSfDkF5NfPW.huge
https://i0.wp.com/d3gqcw3zb9f3ml.cloudfront.net/uploads/2010/04/IMG_5978.png?ssl=1
 
wouldn't bother with a private attorney but if you've got evidence (reputable sources) it's refurbished and was sold to you as new call the FTC and you states attorney general.
 
wouldn't bother with a private attorney but if you've got evidence (reputable sources) it's refurbished and was sold to you as new call the FTC and you states attorney general.
3 years after purchase? Well outside of the product warranty period? Won't get past the first clerk to read it.

The opinion of the tech is dubious and here-say.

OP, if you want to do anything, you could try writing Apple a letter...maybe you'll get a T-shirt for your troubles.
 
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wouldn't bother with a private attorney but if you've got evidence (reputable sources) it's refurbished and was sold to you as new call the FTC and you states attorney general.

"Hi, this is the FTC, what is your evidence that they sold you a refurb as new?"

"This guy at this repair store next to that liquor store and cash advance place said so."
 
1. The OP says he bought it new full price, but was the phone in question the actual phone he bought sealed in a retail box? Plenty of people get a white box replacement phone if their first phone has issues, and 2 months after launch, a replacement could in fact be refurbished.

2. The phone repair guy could be trolling the OP. Or misinformed. Or confused. Maybe a different phone he worked on that day was a refurb. Maybe he made the mark by accident and then replaced the water sticker to cover up the fact that he made the mark. Or maybe he damaged the water sticker and made the mark to make it look like a refurb.

3. Unless the your government has some kind of law that says refurbished phones must be marked in a particular way, the only way you could prove it was a refurb would be to have an Apple repair engineer testify that it has the telltale signs of it being a refurb. No Apple employee will testify to that. Every other testimony will be here say and Apple will easily shoot it down.

If you could find an ex Apple employee who has proof that Apple sells refurbished as new retail phones, you’d have a nice class action suit.
 
So your "refurbished phone" that lasted you 3 years with no issues and then finally had a minuscule antenna problem that was fixed cheaply is now not good enough because it might not have been new?

If your iPhone was terrible since you got it then why didn't you have apple replace it under warranty? If you discovered all this in March of this year why are you just now trying to decide what you should do about it in November?

So no, you shouldn't sue.

I wouldn't go so far as to sue, but isn't the point here that he wasn't given the product that he paid for? Sounds like he got a great refurb phone, but then he should have only had to pay the refurb price. Doesn't matter if there's no functional distinction, if you pay the price for a new phone, or new car, or new whatever, you shouldn't be given a used one.
 
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I wouldn't go so far as to sue, but isn't the point here that he wasn't given the product that he paid for? Sounds like he got a great refurb phone, but then he should have only had to pay the refurb price. Doesn't matter if there's no functional distinction, of you pay the price for a new phone, or new car, or new whatever, you shouldn't be given a used one.
The issue is that we have no idea if it actually is a refurb phone or not. He bought the phone a month after its release so there was no such thing as a refurb price because they didn't sell the phone as a refurb at the time.
 
A guy was recently in the news here when he found out his brand new Mercedes E Class Coupe had had a full frontal respray before he owned it despite having come straight off the production line at Merc. It was sold as new and had apparently suffered damage during manufacture but that’s besides the point. It was sold as new and certain expectations come with that.

The OP shouldn’t sue Apple but it’s worth asking the question as to why a secondhand iPhone was sold as new at the full retail price.
 
phones in the factory have to pass their initial testing otherwise they will be recycled...
could be it initially failed at some point in manufacturing and had to be factory recycled, thus the marks, stickers and such...
so you get a laywer to take the case, he/she will take 50% plus fees, plus filings and other assorted things that eat up your money...get over it get a new phone
 
I would think that you're probably out of luck after 3 years, but your best bet might be to run the serial number for your phone through Apple and find out for sure if it's a refurb-they should list in their system if that's the case. I know that when we had a refurbed iPhone via Asurion (verizon insurance) it had "refurbished by Asurion" etched on the back. There's a paper trail if it was Apple refurbished. If not, then your local repair guy was mistaken.
 
A guy was recently in the news here when he found out his brand new Mercedes E Class Coupe had had a full frontal respray before he owned it despite having come straight off the production line at Merc. It was sold as new and had apparently suffered damage during manufacture but that’s besides the point. It was sold as new and certain expectations come with that.

The OP shouldn’t sue Apple but it’s worth asking the question as to why a secondhand iPhone was sold as new at the full retail price.

In May 1985 I arrived at my local Chevy Dealer to pick up my new Z-28. Papers signed, paid, done. The car had been ordered, so I was seeing it for the first time.

Opened the hood and noticed paint overspray on the front of the radiator. Dealer said it was most likely “a retouch” at the factory. Said it was common. The car was cosmetically perfect so I left it there.

I’m fairly certain the entire front end was repainted. :apple:
 
Check the serial under about in settings, if it starts with 4 or 5, it was refurbished by Apple.
 
lol. Your right, I am so worthless that I am going to sue apple to become famous and people will love me
[doublepost=1511986166][/doublepost]

Thanks - helpful feedback I was looking for.
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To clarify - I bought the phone new in November 2014 about a month after the 6 was released

If you bought it a month after release, I doubt it’s refurbished. They don’t have them that fast.
 
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OP, I would see if you can make a small claim. In the UK it costs about £25 and worth a shot. It would probably be similar in the States. Regardless of time period, if your phone was sold to you ‘as new’ and was in fact refurbished, then it was mis-sold. You just need to be able to prove it with the original receipt etc.

Might be worth abandoning this thread though as some here feel it’s their duty to defend Apple to the death lol. Abandon ship, mate ;)
Agreed--apparently some folks can't just simply say "No it's not worth the time and effort" without also needing to throw in a jab at or otherwise implicitly belittle the OP for even considering such an action.
 
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Agreed--apparently some folks can't just simply say "No it's not worth the time and effort" without also needing to throw in a jab at or otherwise implicitly belittle the OP for even considering such an action.

Yep this is the way of Macrumors. To some people, Apple is right no matter what and if you are going against them then you have to be wrong. I don’t know if the OP has a case or not, but I am not going to bash him/her for questioning this. I have had plenty of bad experiences with one particular Apple store, so I won’t put it past one to sell a refurbished phone as New. All that said, I don’t think there is a case here just because of the lack of evidence. But what do I know lol.
 
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First question. Did you get a launch day phone?

Second question. Is the store you took the phone to authorized by Apple to make repairs?(If that is a requisite)

Apple battles Samsung amongst other companies for BILLIONS of dollars. Their law team is deep. Suing them individually is not such a good idea. If you can somehow get a class action and proof of a conspiracy to sell 'used as new', you still have a YEARS long battle.
 
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