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Refurbished iPhones from AT&T?

I bought one from ATT yesterday in NY. It seems like most of the stores here in the city carry them.

The only trick is that you can't buy and walk out of them with it. You must open an account with ATT on the spot and they will give you a PIN code to enter when you register with iTunes. If you are an existing customer with ATT, they won't let you get one (at least that's what the guy told me).

As for the phone, its perfect. It comes all pre-packed and all the accessories looks brand new. The phone is covered by warranty - by Apple. Also, the refurb was done by Apple so there is a warranty of 1 year just like any iPhones.

Finally, if your ATT doesn't carry it, at current 9:35am est, there is an Apple iPhone on the Apple website - refurb for $349.
 
Refurb iPhone Poor battery life

Ok, I didn't buy one of these refurb kits, but my iPhone had the little bubbles in it so I went to have it replaced and the apple store gave me a refurb from a little white box. It looked brand new, not a scratch on it, plastic on the screen. I though wow this is great, just like getting a new phone, seeing as my original phone was from the launch day I thought that was great.

Not so much. The battery life on this refurb is WAY worse than my old phone. I must assume they don't swap the batteries in a refurb but still, my phone was as old as they come and its battery life was still great... granted I am not the heaviest user, I don't really listen to music or watch videos etc... but who ever had this thing before me really wore out the battery.

I'm not sure what to do about it now... thinking about calling apple again, but I'd probably just get another refurb with questionable battery life...
 
All of the corporate stores I've called said they never carry refurbished phones, are people getting these at authorized dealers? also, anyone know of people who have gotten them in western new york or pittsburgh?
 
I'd really like to know about stores in Florida doing this. I have contacted Cybergypsy, waiting to hear back from him today.

Every store I have called thus far has no clue what I'm talking about. I even called AT&T directly off their website number and even they had no idea.
 
Friend tried to pick on up in NH, but wouldn't let him without signing two year contract.
 
Refub'd iPhone on Long Island

I went to an AT&T store outside the Smithaven mall and the woman told me "That's not our market. We don't do refurbished." Obviously she's an idiot cause if you got ATT.com/wireless they have a whole page of refubished phones.

So then I went to the store inside the Smithaven mall (suffolk county), where I asked the guy "Do you have refurbished iPhones?" and he said to me with a smile, "Yep, you want a 4 gig or 8 gig?"

I bought (2) 4 gigs, one for me and one for my dad. The space isn't an issue as I have a 16GB iPod Touch. I got AppleCare on both.

Edit: They were $199 each and I didn't have to sign any contract whatsoever.
 
brody1223 said:
Friend tried to pick on up in NH, but wouldn't let him without signing two year contract.
Click to expand...

Are you a current ATT customer? Did they just ask for ID or they want your SSN number.

I've brought 5 refurbished iPhones this week (from 4 different att corp. stores) and just gave them my att cell phone number along with my Driver's License and they never made me sign up for any contract.

All they did was ask me if I wanted any instructions on the phone or if I knew how to activate the phone via iTunes.

It was a very simple transaction (took less than minutes)

I live in the Northern Virginia area.
 
I live in the Midwest, so my friend in NH was trying to pick one up for me. Trying to find out if the store will just ship one to me. Why is it some stores don't care who buys them and other stores make such a big deal about it. Don't the stores want the volume of business in the stores?
 
Refurb in Long Island

I called the AT&T store in Roosevelt Field Mall.....they had 4 and 8 gigs available......I have one and my wife does not.....both on AT&T Family plan.......walked in and bought the phone no problem.....it took less than 5 minutes......just ported my wife's number thru Itunes when I was activating at home......extra $20 a month for the iPhone plan and she was up and running.....paid $249 for the 8gig.
 
OC513 said:
I called the AT&T store in Roosevelt Field Mall.....they had 4 and 8 gigs available......I have one and my wife does not.....both on AT&T Family plan.......walked in and bought the phone no problem.....it took less than 5 minutes......just ported my wife's number thru Itunes when I was activating at home......extra $20 a month for the iPhone plan and she was up and running.....paid $249 for the 8gig.
Click to expand...

This is the only store that I called that would verify the refurbs even exist. They wouldn't ship them, however (at least not for me). The national AT&T number acknowledged they exist, but said they couldn't be sold over the phone.

I don't get it.
 
Hi there!
I'm from Portugal but I've got a friend staying on Pulaski, near Syracuse, and I wanted him to get me one of those refurbished 4Gb iPhones.
I've been on Google Maps looking for AT+T stores near where he is, but I'm afraid of sending him on a wild goose chase.
Anyway, the point is: Does anyone know a store near Pulaski with the refurbished?
 
Success!

Well, after more than a week of trying to get one of these refurbs, I finally managed to score one. A friend who lives in the DC area just bought 2 in Northern VA today, 8GB models for $250 each.

My friend said the clerk at the store was a bit of a jerk, initially refusing to sell to him as he was not an ATT customer and insisting that he had to activate the phones in the store. So my friend called me and I just gave the clerk my wife's ATT cell number and that seemed to satisfy the clerk.

These were from the second shipment of refurb iPhones that this store had received, so my advice to those still looking is to keep calling every day. Good luck.
 
Ah... Now the thing.. Do you need to have to have a 2 year contract to use it? Because, I want to purchase one, but I want to unlock it to where it goes with tmobile :)


Thanks!
 
LuisT said:
Ah... Now the thing.. Do you need to have to have a 2 year contract to use it? Because, I want to purchase one, but I want to unlock it to where it goes with tmobile :)


Thanks!
Click to expand...

Although I will be using mine on ATT and signing up for a regular contract, my friend has already unlocked his and is using it with T-Mobile.
 
Refurbished Iphone

What part of Virginia? any county or city will be nice. I have a friend who lives in Virginia and DC area? can you specific which store? thanks.

jeffsab said:
Well, after more than a week of trying to get one of these refurbs, I finally managed to score one. A friend who lives in the DC area just bought 2 in Northern VA today, 8GB models for $250 each.

My friend said the clerk at the store was a bit of a jerk, initially refusing to sell to him as he was not an ATT customer and insisting that he had to activate the phones in the store. So my friend called me and I just gave the clerk my wife's ATT cell number and that seemed to satisfy the clerk.

These were from the second shipment of refurb iPhones that this store had received, so my advice to those still looking is to keep calling every day. Good luck.
Click to expand...
 
Interesting

My refurb iPhone arrived in the mail today. Oddly enough, it was working right out of the box without activating. I was able to browse the web, watch YouTube, etc. over my home wifi network. I had thought it would be unable to do anything until activation through iTunes. Oh and it came with 1.13 firmware.

Anyway, currently waiting for service activation to transfer my number from Sprint...
 
I am thinking of getting a refurbished iPhone. I'm hoping for a 3G iPhone to be released later this year, so the lower pricetag for a refurbished phone sounds good to me, especially if I end up replacing the phone in less than a year.

I called my local AT&T store (I'm in the DC area) and asked the salesperson if he knew what they were and if they had any. He said he did and put me on hold for a very long time. He finally came back on and said they didn't have any in stock.

I asked him some details about the deal and asked if I should just call other stores in the area to see if they have them. He said don't bother. He said they probably won't say over the phone if they have them in stock. He told me I should go to the stores in person. Then he said his store might see a shipment of them come in a little later today, which to me felt more like his way of telling me he has them in stock already. Was a bit mysterious. I think I will pop on over to his store now and see if he has an 8 gig iPhone.
 
I just bought an iPhone!!! A refurbished 8g iPhone from my local AT&T store for $249. The salesperson pretty much gave me no choice but to have the account set up there in the store, maybe because I told him that I was not a current AT&T customer. I still ended up with what I wanted, so I saw no harm in letting him do the work for me.

Oh and one interesting thing to note: I told the salesperson that I wanted a refurbished phone because I think the 3G iPhone will be coming out soon and that I'll probably buy one when it does. A little later, I had asked him what the process is if I were to buy a 3G phone in the future. And he explained the steps, but thru in "when you buy the 3G phone in June or July, you'll..." June or July? Is that what the salesperson thinks or what AT&T knows? : )
 
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