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Iphone Warranty out of Att

S

stupendusboi

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 8, 2007
70
1
Hello. I plan on purchasing an iphone to use for tmobile. Ive had att service and personally i think tmobile is 100x better.

Now, i realize that if something were to go wrong with my iphone, i would not be able to get it serviced under warranty.
But if i were to get a friend to take it in (she has att and an iphone) and put her sim card in and say it is hers, would they take it back? or does the Sim card have to match the serial number of the iphone?
 
From what I understand, you need to have active service with the iPhone sim card for them to exchange it. If your friend dosent have an iPhone Sim Card, I dont think it will work. Also, they might try to match the serial number...
 
Yeah she has an iphone, i was saying if she put her iphone sim in mine and took mine back, would she be able to exchange it.

and does anyone know for sure if they match the serials?
 
does anyone have experience with this type of situation before that could better answer the questions? thanks for those who did though :)
 
when apple repairs or provides support for any phones they go by the serial number only. If you have to send it in for repair they can tell by the serial and imei in their systems if you have an ATT account. Before you mail it in for repair they tell you to remove the SIM from the phone it does them no good. ATT does not provide any insurance or waranty for the iphone
 
Ok.. I read on some other threads that people have bought Go Phone plans before they go into the store and use that as an account. Would that work, because on one of them it said that it worked for him, and on the other, he was declined.
 
no.
when you activate the phone with at&t the serial number along with your name and information goes into a huge database.

the apple store will check your serial to confirm it's been activated. even if theres a valid at&t sim card, they will not service it without being activated.
 
when a phone is hacked i believe it also changes the imei that you see under settings in the phone. Apple and ATT both have a log of the original imei and serial number associated with the phone. If the imei inside the phone does not match the imei in database the phone is considered hacked and out of wararnty
 
jeffmc said:
no.
when you activate the phone with at&t the serial number along with your name and information goes into a huge database.
the apple store will check your serial to confirm it's been activated. even if theres a valid at&t sim card, they will not service it without being activated.
Click to expand...

I don't believe that is true, but for the sake of argument lets say it is...why then do we never read stories of Apple refusing to repair an iphone because it has not been activated?
With ~1 million unactivated iphones at say a 5% hardware failure rate thats a lot of unrepairable broken iphones that no one is moaning about
 
jolukk said:
when a phone is hacked i believe it also changes the imei that you see under settings in the phone. Apple and ATT both have a log of the original imei and serial number associated with the phone. If the imei inside the phone does not match the imei in database the phone is considered hacked and out of wararnty
Click to expand...

Sorry but that is not true either...although there were cases of "when hacking goes bad!" in the early days when the IMEI got borked but that no longer happens with the current unlocking methods.
 
I agree with senorFunkyPants. There are dozens of stories I've seen of iPhones being repaired after unlocking & jailbreaking compared to the one I've seen where Apple did not. They seem to acknowledging that if you can get it back in it's original state, and it's still broken, hence a true defect, then it's their responsibility to repair it. After all, at that point, it's no longer modified, is it?

Furthermore, it's just not good customer service for Apple to be refusing repair on (~1 million @ x% failure rate) iPhones. It would be very negative press.
 
senorFunkyPants said:
I don't believe that is true, but for the sake of argument lets say it is...why then do we never read stories of Apple refusing to repair an iphone because it has not been activated?
With ~1 million unactivated iphones at say a 5% hardware failure rate thats a lot of unrepairable broken iphones that no one is moaning about
Click to expand...

are you serious? people complain about it on this forum constantly and it's clearly post in numerous locations at EVERY apple store

and "hacking" does not change your imei number unless you go out of your way to do it, and apple care doesn't go by imei anyway they go by the serial number of the phone which is written on the back, so it'd be hard to change.
 
jeffmc said:
are you serious? people complain about it on this forum constantly and it's clearly post in numerous locations at EVERY apple store
Click to expand...

"Am I serious"? I think so..admittedly I've only been following macrumors since Jan this year but I've rarely seen posters stating that Apple catagorically refused to repair a hardware fault on their unlocked/jailbroken iphone. If Apple followed their declared policy there would be hundreds of threads from peeps bitching about Apple not repairing their iphone.
ISTM that Apple post notices to discourage jailbreaking/unlocking and they are certainly within their rights to refuse to repair software problems caused by unlocking/jailbreaking however they have no legal right to refuse to repair hardware faults simply because the iphone has not been activated.
If you can restore the software to standard then Apple are obliged to repair any hardware fault within the terms of their hardware warranty.
 
senorFunkyPants said:
"Am I serious"? I think so..admittedly I've only been following macrumors since Jan this year but I've rarely seen posters stating that Apple catagorically refused to repair a hardware fault on their unlocked/jailbroken iphone. If Apple followed their declared policy there would be hundreds of threads from peeps bitching about Apple not repairing their iphone.
ISTM that Apple post notices to discourage jailbreaking/unlocking and they are certainly within their rights to refuse to repair software problems caused by unlocking/jailbreaking however they have no legal right to refuse to repair hardware faults simply because the iphone has not been activated.
If you can restore the software to standard then Apple are obliged to repair any hardware fault within the terms of their hardware warranty.
Click to expand...
read your warranty card again: (taken from http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/iphone.pdf)

This warranty does not apply:
(a) to damage caused by use with non-Apple products;
(b) to damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, flood, fire,
earthquake or other external causes;
(c) to damage caused by operating the product outside the permitted or intended uses described by Apple;
(d) to damage caused by service (including upgrades and expansions) performed by anyone who is not a representative of Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (“AASP”);
(e) to a product or part that has been modified to alter functionality or capability without the written permission of Apple
 
jeffmc said:
read your warranty card again: (taken from http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/iphone.pdf)

This warranty does not apply:
...
(e) to a product or part that has been modified to alter functionality or capability without the written permission of Apple
Click to expand...

senorFunkyPants rather convincingly argues that this only applies to hardware modifications.

Furthermore, Apple are clearly letting a large number of people get their iPhones repaired despite not being activated. These stories are all over the forums.

What they will do or won't do in the future is a matter of speculation, and what they are legal bound to do or not is a matter for the courts to decide, not us.

It reasonable to conclude that they will continue their current behaviour - which is to fix the great majority of phones with defects despite their activation status - so long as they're returned in their virgin state, whether they'd been previously jailbroken, unlocked, or not.
 
munroe said:
senorFunkyPants rather convincingly argues that this only applies to hardware modifications.
Furthermore, Apple are clearly letting a large number of people get their iPhones repaired despite not being activated. These stories are all over the forums.
Click to expand...

the warranty says "modifications" no specifics hardware vs software.

you unlock the phone, you modify it against the warranty, if it breaks, deal with it you knew what you were doing

i'm not saying getting an unlocked phone replaced will never happened.

i'm running t-mobile and mines been replaced twice, but it is against apple's policy so it might happen, but don't count on it
 
So the REAL question is....

When buying a refurbed iPhone from AT&T, should I buy Applecare if I plan to unlock/activate/jailbreak and use for TMobile???? Or is it a waste of money?!
 
chadamorrill said:
When buying a refurbed iPhone from AT&T, should I buy Applecare if I plan to unlock/activate/jailbreak and use for TMobile???? Or is it a waste of money?!
Click to expand...

unlock it and the applecare goes out the window anyway, i wouldn't waste the dough
 
jeffmc said:
the warranty says "modifications" no specifics hardware vs software.
Click to expand...
These are the relevant parts of the warranty:
"Apple’s warranty obligations for this hardware product are limited to the terms set forth below:
Apple Inc. (“Apple”) warrants this Apple-branded hardware product against defects in materials and workmanship under normal use for a period of ONE
(1) YEAR from the date of retail purchase by the original end-user purchaser (“Warranty Period”). If a hardware defect arises and a valid claim is received
within the Warranty Period, at its option and to the extent permitted by law, Apple will either" [....]
And:
"Software [....] is not covered under this Limited Warranty"

Hardware is specifically stated as the warranted item.
Software is specifically excluded from the warranty.
Any reference to modifications are only to the hardware.

ie You can not be excluded from the benefits of the warranty if you make software modifications as the software is not covered under the warranty in the first place.
 
senorFunkyPants said:
These are the relevant parts of the warranty:
"Apple’s warranty obligations for this hardware product are limited to the terms set forth below:
Apple Inc. (“Apple”) warrants this Apple-branded hardware product against defects in materials and workmanship under normal use for a period of ONE
(1) YEAR from the date of retail purchase by the original end-user purchaser (“Warranty Period”). If a hardware defect arises and a valid claim is received
within the Warranty Period, at its option and to the extent permitted by law, Apple will either" [....]
And:
"Software [....] is not covered under this Limited Warranty"

Hardware is specifically stated as the warranted item.
Software is specifically excluded from the warranty.
Any reference to modifications are only to the hardware.

ie You can not be excluded from the benefits of the warranty if you make software modifications as the software is not covered under the warranty in the first place.
Click to expand...

that means that they won't replace a phone due to software damage, apple software is still licensed and supported.

trust me dude, i deal with this every day
 
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