White Box Genius Bar Phones ARE REFURBS

[179202]

Sounds like you work for Apple. IANAL, but if this is the case and you were actually told this, I would check with someone at Apple Corporate as I believe telling someone that what you are giving them is new when it is a refurb would be a big no no. Telling them that it is not possible to know as units that are boxed and used as replacements could be new and could be refurbished would be fine. But actually telling them that it is new is deceptive and could get you and Apple into legal troubles.

Check your PM.

 

[iiqwertyii]

I spoke with a manager as well regarding the white box and he told me that they were "re-manufactured" in United States to keep up with customer demand and placed in white boxes to use as replacements. He said that they are "technically" not refurbished phone. I then went on to explain to him what refurbished meant and he agreed that the phones in the white boxes were then refurbished according to my definition. I think that Apple realizes that people are returning their phones for stupid reasons and is fixing minor cosmetic issues and resending them out in the white boxes without labeling them as refurbished.

 

[mmoran27]

My point of posting was that you can tell the difference.

Like I said:

Here are the defects I got.

1) Razor sharp edge on one side of unit (even genius said it was unsafe).
2) 5 units with dust under screen.
3) 1 unit with dead pixels.

So much for you cant tell the difference. If you can live with these defects go for it.

I was just pointing out that the repair process is obviously not done in ISO clean room like the factory.

These units clearly are not the same quality.

 

[Mikey B]

I can tell you for cetain that they are refurbs. If you get one you can most certainly tell. The SN are changed to start with 5k I think. Also everone I inspected had some kind of defect. The genius opened 5 boxes in front of me and they all either had dead pixels or dust under the screen. I am guessing the repair process is not clean room like factory.

the whole "5K" in the serial number indicating a refurb came from a post from a power seller on eBay, and quickly spread across the interwebz so should probably be taken with a grain of salt. it also was in reference to the 1st gen iPhone. And, on Apple's own discussion board, the 5K question was posed and an Apple employee (Nathan C.) posted that 5K does not mean refurb. Link: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7916855&#7916855

 

[kittenbutt]

Does it matter? Either a fellow Apple fanboy has used it, or a young, under paid, oriental girl has.

Oriental is a carpet.

 

[Next Tuesday]

Oriental is a carpet.

refurbs are usually better than new ones. They have been inspected and tested and usually all the little things(light leaks,uneven glasss,etc..) have been fixed.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

I don't really care because my old one was scratched on the back and that really bothered me so I went to Apple and got a "white box" special yesterday. Looks like NEW so who cares if it is a refurb or not. They didn't even question and just took care of me. I was out in 10 min., I like that.

 

[CocoaPuffs]

I don't really care because my old one was scratched on the back and that really bothered me so I went to Apple and got a "white box" special yesterday. Looks like NEW so who cares if it is a refurb or not. They didn't even question and just took care of me. I was out in 10 min., I like that.

Ya, I made the mistake of not buying 10000000 refurb iphones when they were being sold at $249.