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UPDATE: iPhone 4 from Best Buy? "Worst Buy"

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psherman42walla

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 30, 2010
33
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My local Best Buy here has a few iPhones in stock. I want to buy one for my mom's birthday this weekend, has anyone have any luck in asking them not to open it? I do not want to give a new phone that's opened. All they do is connect it to iTunes anyway, my mom can do that at home.

If anyone has already bought one un-open from a Best Buy store, please let me know what store and when did you buy it? Thanks
 
I believe what you want shouldn't be a problem as long as you make it clear to them what you want. I preordered a white iPhone from them and recently picked up a black one instead after Apple announced the delay. I asked her not to activate it because I was trying to do a sim swap with AT&T, and she let me have it without activating it. She had already opened it, but if you ask them before not to then they won't.
 
Update: so they won't sell it without opening it. Neither does AT&T.

But I had no problems at the Apple store with asking them not to open it. :)
 
From my experience in the past they always open the phone and activate it. I believe it is their policy
 
I bought my iP4 from Best Buy on launch day. They did not open it per my request. In and out in about 4 minutes. I also bought one from AT&T on their launch day. Again, they did not open it per my request. Both phones were opened and activated at home.
 
MCRunning said:
From my experience in the past they always open the phone and activate it. I believe it is their policy
Click to expand...

Policy or not, maybe it's because they want people to pay the restocking fee for the open item.

Well the only reason I didn't want it open is because if she did not want it. She wouldn't have a problem exchanging/returning it.
 
the main problem is that if you buy it through her account then she will be without a phone until they open it, but I had no problems leaving Best Buy with mine still wrapped.
 
You sound like a fantastic son. I doubt your mom will be that picky about the plastic being off the box.
 
Knowimagination said:
the main problem is that if you buy it through her account then she will be without a phone until they open it, but I had no problems leaving Best Buy with mine still wrapped.
Click to expand...

Not true. Until the iPhone4 is activated your old phone stays on.

We had no problem migrating to the phones that were shipped to us. Our phones worked until we activated the new ones.

Cheers,
 
psherman42walla said:
Policy or not, maybe it's because they want people to pay the restocking fee for the open item.

Well the only reason I didn't want it open is because if she did not want it. She wouldn't have a problem exchanging/returning it.
Click to expand...

Restocking fee is exactly why. Thats why the 'Free PC setups' are done, so that if you decide to return it you get hit with 15%.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

psherman42walla said:
Update: so they won't sell it without opening it. Neither does AT&T.

But I had no problems at the Apple store with asking them not to open it. :)
Click to expand...

False, I purchased mine from AT&T, and they did NOT open the box. ;)
 
panzer06 said:
Not true. Until the iPhone4 is activated your old phone stays on.

We had no problem migrating to the phones that were shipped to us. Our phones worked until we activated the new ones.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

It is apparently true if you buy it from Best Buy. I had no phone service for the 45 minute drive home.
 
panzer06 said:
Not true. Until the iPhone4 is activated your old phone stays on.

We had no problem migrating to the phones that were shipped to us. Our phones worked until we activated the new ones.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

Not for me. I bought mine today and my service went out on my old one right away. I got home opened up the new one, plugged it into iTunes and it immediately said activated.
 
Well the "Best Buy mobile" Manager basically told me that it's because they have a lot of people who buy the phone and then return it crack or broken an says it was due to shipping. And the guy also noted that I looked like that type. Lol way to treat a customer.

Well I also asked him if I buy it outright without the 2year agreement if still had to be opened.

He said yes, even if I paid for it without the contract price he would still open it. What a jerk, right?

Oh and to top it off the sales rep next to him told me if I went to another "Worst Buy" she would call them all ahead of time to let them know I was coming and not to sell me one unopened.

She then drops the iPhone box on the ground.

I said, "well if it's not broke, it's broken now by Julie."

Thanks to everyone who shared your experience. I officially dislike this store even more.

My mother (56 years young) received her new iPhone this afternoon and is very happy with it, no thanks to "Worst Buy".
 
psherman42walla said:
Well the "Best Buy mobile" Manager basically told me that it's because they have a lot of people who buy the phone and then return it crack or broken an says it was due to shipping. And the guy also noted that I looked like that type. Lol way to treat a customer.

Well I also asked him if I buy it outright without the 2year agreement if still had to be opened.

He said yes, even if I paid for it without the contract price he would still open it. What a jerk, right?

Oh and to top it off the sales rep next to him told me if I went to another "Worst Buy" she would call them all ahead of time to let them know I was coming and not to sell me one unopened.

She then drops the iPhone box on the ground.

I said, "well if it's not broke, it's broken now by Julie."

Thanks to everyone who shared your experience. I officially dislike this store even more.

My mother (56 years young) received her new iPhone this afternoon and is very happy with it, no thanks to "Worst Buy".
Click to expand...

Honestly, does not surprise me how they treated you. That's been my experience with Best Buy is they treat the customer like the customer is tryign to rip them off and will go through all sorts of hoops to try to avoid helping the customer in the off chance the customer is just scamming them (they are the opposite of hte place I work that works on teh we would rather get scammed rather than on the off chance piss off a real customer). To the point they would lie to me about stuff.

Yeah, I don't shop there anymore. Last time I bought anything from them was 8 or so years ago (maybe less, I had a friend who kept giving me Best Buy gift certificates which I would use cause, well, no point in giving them free money since the gift certificate was already paid for).
 
Actually, my best buy sold me three phones- and they were like, do you want it opened or would you like me to keep it sealed for a gift? I guess it depends on the people and the store, this was a new location with friendly folks.
 
I asked a couple of friends who work at BB about the restocking fee. I was told that when I return the iPhone to say that something is wrong with it to avoid getting charged th fee.
 
tigress666 said:
Honestly, does not surprise me how they treated you. That's been my experience with Best Buy is they treat the customer like the customer is tryign to rip them off and will go through all sorts of hoops to try to avoid helping the customer in the off chance the customer is just scamming them (they are the opposite of hte place I work that works on teh we would rather get scammed rather than on the off chance piss off a real customer). To the point they would lie to me about stuff.
Click to expand...

Guy I know said he once bought a shrinkwrapped game at best buy with burned (copied) discs in it. Apparently someone returned the game with them and not only did they not check inside, they re-wrapped it.

Might of disbelieved him, but that was the same time the MMO City of Heroes had it's release, and that game had massive issues with duplicated account keys - but only with ones from Best Buy.
 
Best Buy has gotten even worst and greedy ever since Circuit City went out of business. I have a feeling they will go under soon if they continue to treat customers with no respect. There is no compeition, so people will have deal with the end results. Some of their policies are really poor, but at least you didn't get the sales person that was telling people that apple is giving out cases with antenna boosters in them. Most of the employees don't know what they are selling, they make it up as they go along. The managers are the same, if not worst. They get paid only a little more than everyone else, but have bigger responsibilities and more work.

I am sorry to hear that happen to you, but I am not surprise.
 
Ive gotten 3 iphone4's from best buy, all without hassle... Mine on launch day, my wife's which I got unopened by request, and one replacement for mine which had some defective pixels, no restocking fee, nothing..

I guess it all comes down to the staff, Luckily my local Best Buy Mobile staff is really respectful.
 
RC83 said:
Ive gotten 3 iphone4's from best buy, all without hassle... Mine on launch day, my wife's which I got unopened by request, and one replacement for mine which had some defective pixels, no restocking fee, nothing..

I guess it all comes down to the staff, Luckily my local Best Buy Mobile staff is really respectful.
Click to expand...

In general I agree with the OP about best buy. Last night though, I bought a phone for my son (not an iPhone) a d it was prolly the best customer service experience I've had in years. Who'd a thunk it?
 
Update:

Today I received an email from Best Buy relations after I had email them a week ago about this situation. They offered a $25 gift card for my troubles. However, I don't think that I am going to accept it. I did not email them expecting compensation or anything like that. I just wanted to point out an issue with their employees that they might not been aware of. I know they are a successful company, but just think how even more successful they could be if they did not hire those types of sales reps.

An apology from the sales rep and the rude manager would have been better than a gift card.

So what do you think? What would your reply to Best Buy if this happened to you and they offer you this? Any advice would be great.
 
psherman42walla said:
Update:

Today I received an email from Best Buy relations after I had email them a week ago about this situation. They offered a $25 gift card for my troubles. However, I don't think that I am going to accept it. I did not email them expecting compensation or anything like that. I just wanted to point out an issue with their employees that they might not been aware of. I know they are a successful company, but just think how even more successful they could be if they did not hire those types of sales reps.

An apology from the sales rep and the rude manager would have been better than a gift card.

So what do you think? What would your reply to Best Buy if this happened to you and they offer you this? Any advice would be great.
Click to expand...

Take the Gift Card and buy a $25 iTunes gift card for your mom! Get her some fun apps so she can enjoy her new iPhone.

Best Buy ruined your buying experience, take it!
 
I bought one ip4 from AT&T premier online and one at an Apple brick and mortar store. When I got the ip4 from AT&T it shipped with instructions on how to activate it, which was basically a two part process. The first involved calling AT&T and giving them the sim card number of the micro sim that came with the phone, so that they could map that to my account and associate my number with that card.

The second step was plugging the phone into iTunes to functionally activate it.

When I bought the ip4 from Apple, I asked for them not to open it or activate it in-store because I was giving it as a gift, same as OP. He said he couldn't sell it to me without activating it, but he would go ahead and not open the box. I was confused. He then explained that their sales interface with AT&T auto activated the associated ip4 microsim on my account as soon as the sale was finished. I can verify this because the phone that was on the line used for upgrade immediately lost service as soon as I completed the sale. It was a week before we activated the iPhone being given as a gift (the recipient has two cell lines, so it wasn't a problem).

Bottom line, you should be able to take it home to do the iTunes activation yourself without the packaging being removed, but if you're upgrading a phone line, that phone won't be available as soon as you make the purchase.

P.S. When I bought my 3g at AT&T store, they actually let me take my old Pantech Duo sim card and put it in the iPhone 3g, and in that case I was able to walk out with an unopened box. Since the ip4 is the only phone at&t has right now that uses micro sims, I'm guessing that's why the sim activates on your account as soon as you buy it.
 
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