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Returning iPhone 4 and buying again verses Genius Bar

Macman756

Macman756

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 24, 2008
544
0
Atlanta, GA
I have two problems on my iPhone 4, proximity sensor is completely flawed, every call the screen comes on and I hit either end call or mute, second is the home button needs to be hit 3-4 times to recognize one hit. So I would just go to the Genius Bar and get it swapped, but since I'm still under the 30 days, why not just return and buy a new one, that way I get new accessories, and the serial numbers match. If the Apple store has one in stock, any reason why this shouldn't work? Will AT&T get involved at all? Thanks
 
Macman756 said:
I have two problems on my iPhone 4, proximity sensor is completely flawed, every call the screen comes on and I hit either end call or mute, second is the home button needs to be hit 3-4 times to recognize one hit. So I would just go to the Genius Bar and get it swapped, but since I'm still under the 30 days, why not just return and buy a new one, that way I get new accessories, and the serial numbers match. If the Apple store has one in stock, any reason why this shouldn't work? Will AT&T get involved at all? Thanks
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Unlikely they'll allow you to return and rebuy in the same store. It might also take some time for your upgrade to come back. And lastly, if you activate a non-iphone during the process, you'll lose your unlimited data.
 
What accessories need a matching serial number? IMHO you have nothing to gain by doing all that other than frustration.
 
Macman756 said:
You misread my post. The phone and box serial numbers.
Click to expand...

Getting a new phone does not guarantee that it will not require replacement at some time or another. I exchanged my 3G twice; once for losing sound in the earpiece (2 months after purchase); and once for wifi malfunction (13 months later). My iP4 has already been replaced due to spontaneous reboots.

That's why I don't think it's worth the return and repurchasing.
 
When you get it swapped out at the genius bar they actually give you a sticker with the new serial number to place over the old one. I did this a couple of weeks ago. If they dont hand it to you right away ask for it.
 
I did this a week ago, very quick and they can do it all at the same time, no need to wait or head to a different apple store.
 
I want to do this but I have a cheap gophone that I want to use until my get my upgrade back. How do I get a regular sim card for the gophone ?
 
Iphone4Mac said:
I want to do this but I have a cheap gophone that I want to use until my get my upgrade back. How do I get a regular sim card for the gophone ?
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You may be able to get one from an ATT corporate store. If you haven't returned your iphone yet, know that it must be received by the 30 day limit. You can call Apple to check that exactly for your case.
 
AppleFreak89 said:
When you get it swapped out at the genius bar they actually give you a sticker with the new serial number to place over the old one. I did this a couple of weeks ago. If they dont hand it to you right away ask for it.
Click to expand...

They didn't give me a sticker with a serial number (which is available on the phone), but I did get a phone that does NOT have the proximity sensor problem.
 
beamer8912 said:
Only if the other device is a smartphone.
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I gave my iphone to a friend in mexico, and switched over to a lg flip phone for over a month. I received my i4 today, activated it and still had the $30 iphone unlimited data even though the phone shown on my account was an lg cu575.
 
I essentially did a return and rebuy yesterday at the same time. I had made an appt with the Genius bar for my phone rattling more than is normal and for the yellow picture issue (my case seemed to be extreme).

The Genius was a nice younger girl and I told her my two issues. She took my phone in back and listened to the rattle and checked out the camera. She did come back and said that the rattle is normal for the phone (camera shutter?) and I would probably experience it on a replacement and the same thing with the camera. I politely explained my rattle was worse than what is normal for iPhone as it would rattle when I got a call and it was sitting on an uneven surface. I also pulled up two pics I found on Apple support forums that showed one with good pic quality and one with yellow quality that were taken of the same girl with two iP4's.

She said Oh thats not normal and agreed to exchange mine. I explained that I don't want a refurb or anything less than a retail one because its only 3 weeks old. She said no problem she would have to go check. After a few minutes she came back with a retail sealed 16GB iPhone 4 box. She said she will do an exchange at no cost to me rather than a warranty replacement, the only caveat is that my 2 year contract would start over from yesterday. I said no problem and she activated the new phone/sim and I was on my way.

As I stated in another thread, my new iphone 4 83027 shows the proximity sensor in regular room lighting in the same place that my previous one did not. I could not see the prox sensor on the old one for the life of me, unless I stepped out into direct sunlight. The black is not as deep on this new unit. I really dont care as Im not that picky.

Also for what its worth I could not tell any antenna quality difference. No proximity issues, and I could drop 1-2 bars in marginal signal area but I put on my soon to be free white bumper and have ZERO issues.

So I'm not sure my situation is typical of Apple stores but I can say that I am TOTALLY satisfied in the way I was treated and I've never had a problem with the Apple store any time I've had to make an appt. Would they have guaranteed me that a warranty replacement was a new unit set aside for warranty work I would have been fine but I asked and she said at this point they can't guarantee it's not a refurb unit.
 
leftcoast said:
I gave my iphone to a friend in mexico, and switched over to a lg flip phone for over a month. I received my i4 today, activated it and still had the $30 iphone unlimited data even though the phone shown on my account was an lg cu575.
Click to expand...

Interesting. My sister switched from her 3GS to a dumbphone for a short time, and she lost her data plan. Not sure how you managed to keep a smartphone data plan on a phone that wasn't a smartphone.
 
JoJoCal19 said:
Also for what its worth I could not tell any antenna quality difference. No proximity issues, and I could drop 1-2 bars in marginal signal area but I put on my soon to be free white bumper and have ZERO issues.
Click to expand...

Hmm .. so it still has antenna issue for dropping 1-2 bars .. i guess we have to deal with antenna issue. Anyone have problem with antenna signal in chicago?
 
I had some issues with the speakerphone of my iPhone 4 and I really felt like I was forced to return or exchange because the proximity sensor didn't work so I'd resorted to the speakerphone, and when I used the speakerphone, people couldn't hear me very well. I got an appointment at the genius bar but I got a guy who was pretty stringent and flat out refused to do anything for me because to him the speakerphone seemed to work fine. Anyway I basically complained to no ends about how awful this speakerphone was and how no one could hear me even though I was in the car alone and it was silent inside so he reluctantly gave me an exchange but I saw on the computer when he was activating it that it was "Sarah ____'s iPhone" before. Sure enough, he'd given me a refurb and that was okay except the battery was awful compared to the one I'd had before (I'd had it for a few days and calibrated the battery too). I didn't want to take my chances with another refurb so I got the phone returned today but that was difficult as well. I went to a different apple store to return and they wouldn't let me because the serial number of the refurb didn't match the receipt, even though I had the paper from the genius bar appointment explaining the exchange and the stickers with the new serial numbers. So I had to go to the apple store that I got the exchange from to get a return. I wasn't aware of this and was thoroughly annoyed, but at least I did get it returned.
 
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