Apple decides to keep a poor girl’s stolen iPhone

A woman reported to The Consumerist that Apple refused to give back her stolen iPhone even though she was notified that her iPhone was returned to Apple. A few weeks before Apple’s decision to keep her phone, she lost it on the subway in New York. She claimed it was stolen and decided to called authorities. They said that they did and/or will do their best to find it. Of course they came up with nothing and said there wasn’t really much they could do. She did not file a full police report, thus had no evidence that she contacted authorities. Jump to a few weeks later, now the thief of the phone decided they wanted to replace it with a brand new iPhone and returned it to Apple. The person claimed  the exchange was due to software failure. (Funny how the thief wants Apple to honor the 1 year warranty!) Because of this, the original owner of the phone received email notifcations that the warranty was going to be used. She called Apple and AT&T then told them the situation. She let them know that it was her phone and it was stolen from her a couple weeks before. Apple and AT&T said they cannot do anything about it. According to her iPhone warranty, the stolen phone cannot be replaced or returned to her because the warranty requires there to be a full police report filed. She contacted the police and actually tried to have them communicate to Apple and AT&T the situation and still the answer was NO! Sad yes we know.

So this woman gets her phone stolen and returned but is now being punished for not filing a full police report. Kind of makes you wonder what the point of the email notification is. Also makes you wonder why they have serial numbers on these devices and can keep track of where or when they are used. People please don’t forget to file a full police report if you lose your phone and get a full investigation under way. Otherwise the people who can help you will punish you for not following procedure.

[Via Consumerist]