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iphone 4 (International problems)

C

chris217

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 17, 2010
11
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

So i was in the US for a few weeks and i was thinking about buying an iphone 4 and bringing it back to the UK to use. i had doubts abouy whether it would work so i phoned apple care phone line and the guy said he thought it would work but wasnt sure so he phoned AT&T and got back to me and said that they ha confirmed it with him.

He said because i was buying it outright i wouldn't be committed to any network!

I got home and realised my sim was too big and freaked out, brought it down to my local apple store and the guy said it wouldstill work i just needed to swap my sim over for a micro sim... Did that and still no service.

Went for genius appointment AND...phone won't work and never will and apple won't do anything to refund, swap or unlock the phone!!!

I paid $754 for it and it is 100% their fault, surely this can't be the end!

I'll be happy enough to get my phone unlocked if any of you can confirm that everything will work when converting from AT&T to O2!

I know some networks iuse different frequencies for their data usage... Does anyone know for sure that the 3g/4g and calls will all work and up to the speed that iPhone 4 is supposed to provide?

All comments about the situation i'm in are welcome too!!!

Christopher
 
You should never have bought an iphone4 from the united states. Ya should have bought an officially unlocked one from the UK.

All iphones in the US are locked to AT&T, and will never be officially unlocked.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Someone will probably beat me to the punch but any iPhone sold in the USA is locked to AT&T, forever.
 
Your best bet is to sell it to someone that may be travelling or moving to the US. Then use that money to buy one in the UK.
 
If you don't sell it, depending on thee OS version and baseband, you could always jailbreak it and unlock it

EDIT: Oops, I assumed it was activated. never mind, try to sell it
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Because 3 of apple's representatives blatently told me i would be able to put my uk sim into it!

One would assume that if it was common knowledge, at least one of the apple representative would have known the answer!

Don't be so cheeky, the reason why i phoned was to confirm what i had originally thought!

It's a scandal because i've wasted 754 dollars and it's completely apple's fault...how can you not see that?

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

So because it was never activated on at&t i won't be able to get it unlocked?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
chris217 said:
It's a scandal because i've wasted 754 dollars and it's completely apple's fault...how can you not see that?
Click to expand...

Actually it's AT&T's fault.

It's their policy that causes this, and when the Apple guy (who didn't know) called them, AT&T lied to him.

And, ok, the UK Apple guys didn't know either, but I can understand why they're not really knowledgeable about AT&T policy. I find it odd that you can't return it to Apple in the US, though. What have you tried? They have a 30-day return policy, I thought.
 
chris217 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Because 3 of apple's representatives blatently told me i would be able to put my uk sim into it!

One would assume that if it was common knowledge, at least one of the apple representative would have known the answer!

Don't be so cheeky, the reason why i phoned was to confirm what i had originally thought!

It's a scandal because i've wasted 754 dollars and it's completely apple's fault...how can you not see that?
Click to expand...

If you read Apple's US iPhone page...

Which U.S. mobile phone carrier provides iPhone service?
AT&T is the exclusive carrier for iPhone in the U.S. This means that iPhone is configured to work only with wireless service provided by AT&T.
Click to expand...

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone?mco=OTY2ODA2OQ

If you feel you have been sold something under false pretences, you'll need to contact Apple in the USA and make a complaint to them.
 
Why did you not tried it at the store / in the US?

I think someone brought the packaged home hoping to resell it without trying it out.

vachargerfan said:
If you don't sell it, depending on thee OS version and baseband, you could always jailbreak it and unlock it

EDIT: Oops, I assumed it was activated. never mind, try to sell it
Click to expand...

Latest iPhone 4 cannot be carrier unlocked right now.


OllyW said:
If you read Apple's US iPhone page...

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone?mco=OTY2ODA2OQ

If you feel you have been sold something under false pretences, you'll need to contact Apple in the USA and make a complaint to them.
Click to expand...

Yup. Some people don't do research, or "forget" to mention some other facts.
 
Guess you learned the hard way. Next time do some research and never take an Apples or AT&T's Reps word cause some are misinformed and most times will just take a guess. Now try to sell it on eBay or something.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Yeah but all the stores i went to had a "no commitment" option... So i decided to check that out and they actually told me reasoning... "because you're buying it outright, there is no commitment to any network and therefore any sim will work in it"... I'm just a simple lay persob who's never bought anything from apple before and not from america. I thought i was doing the sensible thing by contacting them directly... People can be so rude when they're behind a computer! It's a long story why i can't return, it was bought from a best buy and i've been in russia from 3 days after i bought it for the last 3 weeks and i'm here for another week! DISASTER!!
 
I'm missing the scandal part. At worst you were (unfortunately) given incorrect information. If that's the case - then you need to call the store you bought it from. No doubt your receipt has or can be referenced back to the salesrep. And if that's the case you can simply request a refund and they can explain the best way to return the phone.

Dramaqueen antics....
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Yeah but all the stores i went to had a "no commitment" option... So i decided to check that out and they actually told me reasoning... "because you're buying it outright, there is no commitment to any network and therefore any sim will work in it"... I'm just a simple lay persob who's never bought anything from apple before and not from america. I thought i was doing the sensible thing by contacting them directly... People can be so rude when they're behind a computer! It's a long story why i can't return, it was bought from a best buy and i've been in russia from 3 days after i bought it for the last 3 weeks and i'm here for another week! DISASTER!!
 
If it's been less than 30 days, I'm sure you can take it back to the Apple store in UK and see if they will exchange it for you. (I presume you still have the receipt or at least an emailed copy of it.)

If not, then I would email Apple quoting there 30 day return policy.

I don't think it says anything about not being able to return it in another country.





EDIT, i'm sure there is an Apple store in Russia too.
 
TheNewDude said:
If it's been less than 30 days, I'm sure you can take it back to the Apple store in UK and see if they will exchange it for you. (I presume you still have the receipt or at least an emailed copy of it.)

If not, then I would email Apple quoting there 30 day return policy.

I don't think it says anything about not being able to return it in another country.
Click to expand...

Apple UK is not the same company as Apple USA so they won't be able to offer a refund (as they didn't sell it in the first place).

The only option is to contact Apple in the US and try and arrange it's return.
 
chris217 said:
It's a long story why i can't return, it was bought from a best buy and i've been in russia from 3 days after i bought it for the last 3 weeks and i'm here for another week! DISASTER!!
Click to expand...


If you have access to email or a phone you can solve this.

Disaster? Again - you're being a drama queen. Take a breath and man up. Instead of spending time posting on here you could be resolving your issue with a few phone calls to make the proper arrangements.

Either you have the phone with you and it can be sent back. Or you can have someone back home do it for you.

And even if you have to pay a premium to send it back in a timely manner (why you waited 3 weeks is beyond me) you'll still be better off than if you just take the loss.

Or as someone else said - sell it to someone coming over here or sell it on ebay.

No disaster or scandal.
 
chris217 said:
It's a long story why i can't return, it was bought from a best buy and i've been in russia from 3 days after i bought it for the last 3 weeks and i'm here for another week! DISASTER!!
Click to expand...

How did you take it to for a Genius appointment at the Apple Store to try and set it up on O2 if you've been in Russia since you bought it? :confused:
 
chris217 said:
Yeah but all the stores i went to had a "no commitment" option... So i decided to check that out and they actually told me reasoning... "because you're buying it outright, there is no commitment to any network and therefore any sim will work in it"
Click to expand...

This is bad. I (like others in this thread) can rationalize a single phone-employee not knowing something and finding bad info and passing it along.

But to have store employees in charge of selling phones outright lie to you...well that's a whole other thing.
 
Small White Car said:
This is bad. I (like others in this thread) can rationalize a single phone-employee not knowing something and finding bad info and passing it along.

But to have store employees in charge of selling phones outright lie to you...well that's a whole other thing.
Click to expand...

It's just as likely (if not way more so) that those are not the exact words the employee used, rather what the poster thinks he remembers they said. I very much doubt any Apple Store employee in the US is not aware of the AT&T lock.
 
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