Moving from US to London (iPhone advice needed)

[Godzirra]

One thing to take note of is that the warranty for the iPhone is based in the original country of purchase. If you purchase them in the US then if you have any warranty related issues you will need to ship the phone(s) back to the US to someone you know to take into Apple for replacement. With shipping and insurance this could end up costing you more. An Apple store in the UK will help you up to the point where the phone needs to be replaced. They MAY help but are not required to.
One thing to keep in mind.
Good luck.

I think you'll find that Apples warranty conditions are worldwide. We've had iPads, the occasional iPhone and plenty of MacBooks come through our repair centre, from all over the world, and Apple has honoured all the warranty claims.
So far, we've never had to turn anyone away.

 

[jonnyb]

O2 is only 'more compatible' with the iPhone in regard to Visual Voicemail. I'm on Three and I use On Voicefeed to replace VV. It works great and, even better than VV, you get email notifications containing the audio file of a message. And you can set different greeting for different callers.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/on-voicefeed-smarter-voicemail/id402167427?mt=8

Edit: iPhone Warrior is wrong about warranties. I had a US MacBook Air and a US iPod mini repaired in London.

 

[Certinfy]

Another vote for Giffgaff here. Bought an iPhone 4S outright and have been using them for a few months and they've been absolutely great. Unlimited data so good and fast as well.

 

[dread]

Just remember GiffGaff is not an offical carrier and you have to manually edit or the APN settings and voicemail won't work.

voicemail won't be a big deal to me. I rarely use it in the US so I won't miss it. Thanks for reminding me about the APN. The setting can be found at the below link for anyone who sees this thread in the futurehttp://support.giffgaff.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/628/~/guide-to-using-an-iphone-on-giffgaff?#Internet_Settings

 

[iPhone Warrior]

Here is a link to the iPhone warranty.
http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/iphone/

On page 2 it states:

IMPORTANT RESTRICTION
Apple may restrict warranty service to the country where Apple or its
Authorized Distributors originally sold the Apple Product.

The iPad is like the iPods and do have an int'l warranty. The iPhone does not.
Even not with Apple Care. Search the Apple iPhone forums and you will see.
As for your "sexy American accent"... Haven't heard it so I can't say....
Good Luck.

 

[nebo1ss]

Just to update a few things:

The Warranty is an international warranty and you will have no trouble replacing your phone in the UK if you have a problem.

I would highly recommend O2 since they were the original carrier and is still the only one supporting visual voice mail.

I am constantly reading about how 3 is the best carrier in the UK. My experience is exactly the opposite. While the pricing is attractive with unlimited data my experience is that their data network suck. In the London E1W area which is Tower Hamlet the best data download speed I got was 300K from 3 while with O2 I am getting 2.5 Meg on the 4S. I have also had very similar experience in the Guildford area.

The resellers like GIFFGAFF and Tesco use O2 for a reason. I am using an unlocked 4S purchased in Toronto with O2 and for 300 minutes, unlimited WIFI and 500Meg of data I am paying Sterling 15.50. The plan I have is not available any more with the free data thrown in, but you can get a 1 year sim only plan that has everything except the data for the same price and add either 500Meg of data for Sterling 6 or 1 Gig of data for Sterling 10.

When the one year contract is finished you stay on the same tariff on a month to month.

I had heard so many bad things about 3 that I got them to agree in writing that if I was dissatisfied within the first week I could return the SIM and end the one year contract immediately. I took it all back to them after three days.

 

[macbookman83]

Best advice would be to say mate and cheerio often........

I kid. I belive London has serveral options for GSM carriers so you shouldn't have much of a transitional issue.

 

[Daveoc64]

Apple may restrict warranty service to the country where Apple or its
Authorized Distributors originally sold the Apple Product.

Key word in bold.

Many people have got Apple to replace their iPhone when in a different country (including going from the US to the UK).

They could refuse warranty service, but I haven't seen any reports of that on these forums.

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Just to update a few things:

The Warranty is an international warranty and you will have no trouble replacing your phone in the UK if you have a problem.

I would highly recommend O2 since they were the original carrier and is still the only one supporting visual voice mail.

I am constantly reading about how 3 is the best carrier in the UK. My experience is exactly the opposite. While the pricing is attractive with unlimited data my experience is that their data network suck. In the London E1W area which is Tower Hamlet the best data download speed I got was 300K from 3 while with O2 I am getting 2.5 Meg on the 4S. I have also had very similar experience in the Guildford area.

The resellers like GIFFGAFF and Tesco use O2 for a reason. I am using an unlocked 4S purchased in Toronto with O2 and for 300 minutes, unlimited WIFI and 500Meg of data I am paying Sterling 15.50. The plan I have is not available any more with the free data thrown in, but you can get a 1 year sim only plan that has everything except the data for the same price and add either 500Meg of data for Sterling 6 or 1 Gig of data for Sterling 10.

When the one year contract is finished you stay on the same tariff on a month to month.

I had heard so many bad things about 3 that I got them to agree in writing that if I was dissatisfied within the first week I could return the SIM and end the one year contract immediately. I took it all back to them after three days.

I would recommend that the OP try the different carriers. Porting numbers is very easy and doesn't cost anything. It's very easy for people to recommend a carrier based on their experiences, but that wont guarantee that someone else will get on ok with a specific carrier.

The major obstacle I foresee is that it will be very difficult for someone with no credit history in the UK to get a Pay Monthly plan - even a 30 day SIM only one.

Giffgaff's PAYG nature would avoid that.

 

[dread]

thanks again for all the comments. I can't imagine Apple rejecting a warranty claim while I am in the UK. After all they are selling me an unlocked phone. I am obviously going to use it abroad.

 

[Liam08]

I'd like to add, 3's internet is superb. I have their One Plan sim in a Mi-Fi (naughty I know) and I'm regularly getting download speeds of 5MB/s. It's completely unlimited to boot. I can't say much on their signal anywhere other than where I live, because my 4S is on Orange, but in London, you shouldn't have a problem with any network. 3 used to have a terrible reputation, but it's vastly improved. The only problem is their call centre is in India. This may sound horrible, but I can't understand them, and it irritates me to the point of me screaming at them. That said, I've not had many problems. I can't see me moving from Orange for my phone though, I've never had an issue with them. They're brilliant in my opinion, but obviously, different people have their own opinions. The fact I can use T-mobiles 3G data signal too, is a bonus. I've got 3G pretty much every where. Although, average speed is about 1.5mb. Doesn't bother me too much, since it's fine for web browsing. There are plenty of hotspots about these days.

 

[reclusive46]

I'd like to add, 3's internet is superb. I have their One Plan sim in a Mi-Fi (naughty I know) and I'm regularly getting download speeds of 5MB/s. It's completely unlimited to boot. I can't say much on their signal anywhere other than where I live, because my 4S is on Orange, but in London, you shouldn't have a problem with any network. 3 used to have a terrible reputation, but it's vastly improved. The only problem is their call centre is in India. This may sound horrible, but I can't understand them, and it irritates me to the point of me screaming at them. That said, I've not had many problems. I can't see me moving from Orange for my phone though, I've never had an issue with them. They're brilliant in my opinion, but obviously, different people have their own opinions. The fact I can use T-mobiles 3G data signal too, is a bonus. I've got 3G pretty much every where. Although, average speed is about 1.5mb. Doesn't bother me too much, since it's fine for web browsing. There are plenty of hotspots about these days.

How long have you been doing the mifi thing? I'm surprised they haven't caught you out yet.

 

[SDAVE]

I just came back from London after staying there for 6 months.

I used the carrier 3. It's very cheap for their "All you can eat" plan. It's £15 for 300 minutes/3000 texts/Unlimited 3G data. One thing to notice is that their service isn't the best. But I really had no issues that made me hate it. O2, Vodafone, TMobile are more expensive than 3, but should have better service. I think unlimited data for that cheap is amazing. It was really fast too and I was tethering all the time from East London all the way to Scotland. Also it's so easy to pay for service in the UK. You just topup from any Licensed or Unlicensed store.

I was also using a Gevey Ultra, but was forced to use 4.3.2...I think you can now use 5.0.1 if you keep your baseband intact with PwnageTool.

Also if you are staying there for that long, I highly recommend that you sell your iPhone here (don't update the baseband! Lower baseband=more resale value) and get an unlocked iPhone.

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thanks again for all the comments. I can't imagine Apple rejecting a warranty claim while I am in the UK. After all they are selling me an unlocked phone. I am obviously going to use it abroad.

AppleCare is worldwide. I had to go in and replace my USB dock cable for my iPhone in the Covent Garden store and they gave me no trouble.

 

[blehpunk]

i'm using a jailbroken 3GS (locked to blooody AT&T) on giff gaff with no problems, love giff gaff. also i've had my US MacBook Air replaced and upgraded in the UK so no problems there.

 

[Liam08]

How long have you been doing the mifi thing? I'm surprised they haven't caught you out yet.

I can't recall from the top of my head, but the 3 Store guys said they were surprised too. If it stops, I'll stick the SIM in a phone and tether it. They allow that.