AT&T no longer exchanges defective Apple Branded accessories.

[estavon]

AT&T no longer exchanges defective Apple Branded accessories. Could this be a sign of the end of AT&T?s firm lock on the iPhone?

Today I visited my cities official AT&T corporate store where I purchased my iPhone and once had to get a defective iPhone charger cable replaced. I was told by the manager that they received a corporate email to ?No longer exchange any Apple branded products.? They referred me instead to the 45 minute away Apple store in a mall at a larger City.
This is a product AT&T sold me at their store. I called customer service and hit a wall as well. Their system only says to refer me to an Apple store now.

AT&T?s relationship with Apple may indeed be crashing with their talks. Apple has nothing to gain and AT&T has so much to lose now. If you want an iPhone keep your proximity to an Apple store in mind before you get in bed with AT&T.
Today I'm stuck with a not charging USB cable.. I'll just buy one this afternoon so I can at least use my phone. This might be old to you but she said it's a new policy they received by email.

 

[Jeremy]

It's always been this way. Same thing with the iPhone, even if you made the purchase at a AT&T store they will tell you that you must go to your local Apple store. Nothing new.

 

[JohnH59]

This is the one thing that may make me go back to Sprint and another device. My son's iPhone got the "blank white screen" and we have to get a box shipped to us and then send them the iPhone for them to determine to replace or not. Even if I paid the $30 for them to expedite and a $400 deposit for them to go ahead and ship another iPhone, we would still be without for a few days. I have never had to ship off a phone or wait for another one to come in. If this had been my iPhone, I would have really been pissed. Sprint has always had another in the store for me to exchange.

 

[John T]

As Bad Ash infers, there's nothing new here.

AT&T are surely just selling agents for Apple and are in no way responsible for "Apple" products. As with any item not manufactured by the retailer e.g. a washing machine or TV, the retailer (or seller) offers a manufacturers warranty/guarantee.

 

[Ghecko]

The seperation between apple and ATT is very odd and i dont like it.... ATT needs to be trained or something so they can atleast do something close to apple.

 

[JohnH59]

The seperation between apple and ATT is very odd and i dont like it.... ATT needs to be trained or something so they can atleast do something close to apple.

Agree, Sprint does not separate itself from its products. I don't think AT&T does except on the iPhone. Why not get someone at each AT&T store trained or at least allow trading of defective phone in the AT&T store?

 

[Jeremy]

This more than likely due to Apple and I like it that way. The less I have to deal with a cell phone company the better.

 

[sting7k]

I don't think AT&T was ever exchanging Apple products of any kind, if they were it was probably store by store thing. I know my AT&T store has always told me if there is a problem to always call Apple.

Edit - Call Apple's iPhone support number, tell them your USB cable has stopped working. They will over night you a new one, no cost. All you do is mail them back the broken one, they give you a pre-paid package to put it in.

I had the charger with my original iPhone die twice and both times I called in the afternoon and the next morning FedEx was at my door before I went to work with a new one.