Terrible Apple/VZW experience

[ktufares2]

Hello,

I purchased my first iPhone 4, 8 months ago from a VZW store. To my understanding this was a brand new phone. Three weeks later, my iPhone froze and the button stopped working. VZW replaced it with a refurb, which lasted a little over 6 months. The middle key and external speaker then broke down and VZW sent me yet a new one, which stopped working a month after.
The next refurb worked two days and my current one just one day.The last phone that worked for just one day was allegedly a new phone supplied by the Apple store in Towson, MD. I have also purchased the 7.99 insurance from VZW as well as AppleCare for $50/year.

VZW is offering an iPhone 5, if and only if, I leave my unlimited plan which I do not want to do. They said that the iPhone won't work on my unlimited data plan and that I have to switch. When I told them it was the same OS they told me that it has some tweaks that prevent unlimited data. This sounds like hogwash.

Any advice?

 

[boshii]

Nobody on Verizon who bought a subsidized iPhone 5 has unlimited data.

There are no tweaks, it's just a Verizon policy.

 

[ktufares2]

Nobody on Verizon who bought a subsidized iPhone 5 has unlimited data.

There are no tweaks, it's just a Verizon policy.

Thanks, for your advice. As a note I wanted to say that I'm not necessarily looking to get an iPhone 5. I'd be happy with a new iPhone 4 or 4S as long as it works.

There must be something I can do after paying all this money.

 

[swingerofbirch]

Hello,

I purchased my first iPhone 4, 8 months ago from a VZW store. To my understanding this was a brand new phone. Three weeks later, my iPhone froze and the button stopped working. VZW replaced it with a refurb, which lasted a little over 6 months. The middle key and external speaker then broke down and VZW sent me yet a new one, which stopped working a month after.
The next refurb worked two days and my current one just one day.The last phone that worked for just one day was allegedly a new phone supplied by the Apple store in Towson, MD. I have also purchased the 7.99 insurance from VZW as well as AppleCare for $50/year.

VZW is offering an iPhone 5, if and only if, I leave my unlimited plan which I do not want to do. They said that the iPhone won't work on my unlimited data plan and that I have to switch. When I told them it was the same OS they told me that it has some tweaks that prevent unlimited data. This sounds like hogwash.

Any advice?

I used to work for Apple doing iPhone technical support and saw so many stories like this. Each time I saw that a customer had either purchased or received a refurbished phone from Verizon, there were problems with that phone. You should be dealing with Apple directly. Even if you bought your phone from Verizon, Apple will replace it under warranty if it fails. The phones Apple sends out as replacements are also refurbished (I believe so . . . technically Apple says new or refurbished), but either way in my experience customers never had any issues with those replacements. Always call Apple for service. The only time you wouldn't is if you accidentally damaged your phone and have insurance through the carrier, but I would personally not recommend carrier insurance. Even if you break a phone, Apple's paid replacements are not that expensive. And to be clear there is no charge for a replacement phone from Apple if your phone is still in warranty or under AppleCare and you have a valid claim of it not working correctly (they will of course have you go through software troubleshooting first to verify it's a hardware issue).

As for the upgrade issue, sorry I can't help with that. You could try calling Apple and explaining the bad experience and make it clear that you were not aware of your options under the warranty and now have a phone you don't feel works as well as a new one would have. 408 996 1010 and ask for customer relations.

And if your phone is actually having hardware issues right now, it very well could be eligible for repair (which means replacement) under the 1 year warranty through Apple. That was always a dicey issue when I worked at Apple, so I'm not quite sure. It gets confusing when Verizon replaces the original phone with used ones that are old and show up in Apple's system as out of warranty but are new for the customer. Can't remember how that worked--but it's worth a shot. You wouldn't get an iPhone 5, but you would get one that actually works, and which you could sell if you wanted to.