I have an appointment tomorrow as wanted to find out from everyone here who has gone to get their phone replaced already how the stock was looking there for the replacement phones. I am hoping they have one for me instead of having to get a repair order.
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Genius Bar Inventory?
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I'm going on Saturday, and I was wondering this, too. Will they have stock on hand to swap my malfunctioning phone out? Or will they send it away for repairs? (This is assuming they can't fix my problem there, which I doubt ...)
Wanted to exchange mine.
Stood in line to buy husband's phone.
Bought husband's phone, asked to exchange mine.
Told I needed to make a genious appt 2 hours out but I was on standby. They held a phone in reserve for the swap.
1.5 hours the swap is done, activate.
Find swapped phone's back case has a bubble in center back of case. Bad.
Said not acceptable. Ran out of stock.
Said they try to reserve some for returns but they run out. They have none to handle the returns. Another store said the same thing.
Unless it's non-functional, I'd wait a week or 2. Handling the return situation is tricky. But the stores around me had no stock on hand for exchanges.
Stood in line to buy husband's phone.
Bought husband's phone, asked to exchange mine.
Told I needed to make a genious appt 2 hours out but I was on standby. They held a phone in reserve for the swap.
1.5 hours the swap is done, activate.
Find swapped phone's back case has a bubble in center back of case. Bad.
Said not acceptable. Ran out of stock.
Said they try to reserve some for returns but they run out. They have none to handle the returns. Another store said the same thing.
Unless it's non-functional, I'd wait a week or 2. Handling the return situation is tricky. But the stores around me had no stock on hand for exchanges.
I had my phone replaced yesterday for a pretty minor reason, but it was bugging me none the the less.
The seam where the chrome meets the black on my IPhone was uneven. It didn't affect the phone usage really, but it was very annoying to me when I picked up the phone, it was also starting to collect crud in the seam since it was uneven.
I made an appointment at the Genius Bar in the Louisville Apple store yesterday and went there after work. I spoke with Rick who was very helpful, he looked at my phone, acknowledged the issue and then said he'd just replace it.
I asked him about stock as I had heard they were out of 16gig which is what mine is. He said he'd just replace it with a service model, and informed me that since the 3G phone is so new, all the service models are brand new phones.
10 minutes later I walked out with a new activated phone.
Overall great experience, Apple's support is great. If you're in the Louisville store and have an Iphone/Ipod issue, I recommend you ask for Rick.
The seam where the chrome meets the black on my IPhone was uneven. It didn't affect the phone usage really, but it was very annoying to me when I picked up the phone, it was also starting to collect crud in the seam since it was uneven.
I made an appointment at the Genius Bar in the Louisville Apple store yesterday and went there after work. I spoke with Rick who was very helpful, he looked at my phone, acknowledged the issue and then said he'd just replace it.
I asked him about stock as I had heard they were out of 16gig which is what mine is. He said he'd just replace it with a service model, and informed me that since the 3G phone is so new, all the service models are brand new phones.
10 minutes later I walked out with a new activated phone.
Overall great experience, Apple's support is great. If you're in the Louisville store and have an Iphone/Ipod issue, I recommend you ask for Rick.
I had one replaced at the Genius Bar on Tuesday this week.
They come in little white boxes are are phone-only: no other accessories at all. The iPhones are in a bubble wrap sleeve inside the box and right now they are new- not refurbished units. The Genius simply swapped the SIM card and activated it on iTunes and I made a test call 10 seconds after it booted up.
When I made an appointment they told me not to worry about an exchange because they were sure they had stock to handle the swap-- and that was the day before when I talked to them.
They come in little white boxes are are phone-only: no other accessories at all. The iPhones are in a bubble wrap sleeve inside the box and right now they are new- not refurbished units. The Genius simply swapped the SIM card and activated it on iTunes and I made a test call 10 seconds after it booted up.
When I made an appointment they told me not to worry about an exchange because they were sure they had stock to handle the swap-- and that was the day before when I talked to them.
My replacement came in a brown cardboard box too and is a service exchange, I too was told it was brand new and can tell its brand new. It seems to be of a far better quality than my first unit. The iphone hasn't been on sale long enough to be able to get refurbs. 
How long do you think they'll have new models to swap out rather than refurbed models? I hate to wait too long to get my phone looked at in case I get a refurbished phone. But I'd hate to make the trip to the Apple store too soon and find that they have no phone in stock at all to make the swap.
I need a new phone because when I call someone, the phone distorts their voice (as well as the ring tone as I'm calling them). It's like there's something loose in the speaker that causes a metallic rattle as they speak or their phone rings. Definitely not something I can live with. My phone is perfect at everything ... except making phone calls.
I need a new phone because when I call someone, the phone distorts their voice (as well as the ring tone as I'm calling them). It's like there's something loose in the speaker that causes a metallic rattle as they speak or their phone rings. Definitely not something I can live with. My phone is perfect at everything ... except making phone calls.
It amazes me the number of poorly manufacturerd iPhones this time around. Well then again China was never really good at quality control in the first place. Maybe we should start manufacturing products in America again....hmm just a thought.
As MegaBit said, its just a white box with the phone in it wrapped in bubble wrap. It also had the same screen protecting film that is on the retail phones.
He swapped my sim card, activated the phone and I was making a call a few seconds later and out the door.
I lucked out, I would not have wanted to switch for a refurb phone, so its great that these are brand new units.
Phone stopped working about 36 hours after purchase. Got error message "Repair needed, unable to make or receive phone calls". Tried all sorts of things to fix it, eject and reinsert SIM card, restore software, reboot... nothing worked. Brought it in to the Apple store the next day and was told I need a genius bar appointment and that they were all booked for the day. They scheduled me for the morning of the next day.
Walk in for my appointment and I was instantly worried when I saw the large sign at the entrance saying "sold out of iphones for today" because I was 99% sure that I needed a replacement. Waited for the guy to look at my phone anyway and he verified that it was totally FUBAR. Asked him if they had any stock in the backroom just for replacements and he said he had to go check. Luckily they had a brand spanking new shrink wrapped 16GB Black iPhone 3G to replace my busted one. Took a little while to get everything transferred to my new iPhone but I was up and running afterwards. They put a giant red label on the box that my replacement came out of and put the defective one in there... said they were shipping it back so engineering could take a look.
Walk in for my appointment and I was instantly worried when I saw the large sign at the entrance saying "sold out of iphones for today" because I was 99% sure that I needed a replacement. Waited for the guy to look at my phone anyway and he verified that it was totally FUBAR. Asked him if they had any stock in the backroom just for replacements and he said he had to go check. Luckily they had a brand spanking new shrink wrapped 16GB Black iPhone 3G to replace my busted one. Took a little while to get everything transferred to my new iPhone but I was up and running afterwards. They put a giant red label on the box that my replacement came out of and put the defective one in there... said they were shipping it back so engineering could take a look.
I STRONGLY disagree. These boards (and others) were threads & threads of complaints one after the other post launch a year ago. If anything, it seems better to me this time around.
took mine in cause the accelerometer was broken, handed me a new one no questions asked. All working 100%
Are you kidding me with this ignorant comment?
What really needs to happen, is people need to stop being so effin' nitpicky and returning ***** for every stupid little reason. It's an american problem, and it's really quite sad.
Now, I'm not saying that if your phone is defective you shouldn't exchange it, but uneven chrome that collects lint, which no one else would notice? Really? Stupid.
Or "My phone screen is off by one pixel". Well, how did you really figure that out? Get a grip people. The quality is outstanding. Nothing is perfect!
FWIW, the white box can contain either a new or refurbed phone.
This early into the launch, it's almost guaranteed to be new.
Even when it's refurbed, the entire outer case is changed, so unless you look at the part number, you visibly shouldn't be able to tell it's been refurbed (i.e. it shouldn't have scratches from the previous owner, etc).
I just got out of the Apple Store (Florida Mall) to see if I could find an opening today instead of my appointment yesterday and of course it was booked out but I asked if they had an replacement ones in-stock and she said no because they swap the entire thing out, not just the phone like last year which I thought was weird. I then asked if they had any at the Mall of Millenia mall. She made the call and the guy wanted to know where I got the phone because they had different inventory piles for people who bought at AT&T (like me) or the Apple store. This seemed very strange to me. I'm about to drive there now and see if I can slip in.
Oh I'm 100% sure that under different circumstances that I would have been given at refurb unit, but I was assured it was a brand new iphone.
Just to inform you if you for any reason want to return for your money back, you are no longer eligible so you are now technically in the repair process. This is what I was told by a Genius.
I went to the millenia mall store to return my phone for a new one because it had defects, The new one came out of a white box with just the phone in it. I was assured it was brand new. So after he is in teh back for like 15 mins, he comes out with my new phone already hooked up and said that was all. I look at the new phone and it is worse off than the one i returned and went back up to him and said this is not acceptable and he ordered me another one that i have to pick up on saturday.