Apple Store Returns

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
160,205
Hi all,

What is the Apple Store returns policy? The website leads me to think you can return unopened products within 14 days but the store has denied this.

I've been trying to get the girlfriend an iPhone SE for about a month now and we finally have stock available, but it's not a local store so I can't just pop down.

She wants to trade in and the store said they were unable to hold stock back for tradeins as 'Putting an item back requires payment in full, meaning you can't trade in'.

I said no problems - I'll pay for it now and then 'return' it before leaving the store (ie without even opening the box!) then we can do the transaction again with the tradein. Apparently not. Can't do this.

I'm not sure I understand why. Anyone else have experience of returning stuff?

I can't possibly understand why they can't refund an unopened iPhone and then resell exactly that unopened iphone again in the next transaction :confused:

Could I get round this by paying online for store pickup and getting a refund through that channel?

This entire iPhone SE stock situation is ridiculous, it should not be this difficult to purchase a phone from a retailer months after it was first released.
 
Providing it's a genuine Apple store and not a franchise like the iStore, you can return products within 14 days for a full refund.

The item doesn't even need to be unopened. I bought an Apple Watch when first released, used it for a week and then returned it for a full refund.

Recently I bought another Apple Watch which I've now kept but I also had an accessory with it which I decided I wasn't going to use so I returned it for a full refund.
 
[TW]Fox;29456836 said:
Hi all,

What is the Apple Store returns policy? The website leads me to think you can return unopened products within 14 days but the store has denied this.

I've been trying to get the girlfriend an iPhone SE for about a month now and we finally have stock available, but it's not a local store so I can't just pop down.

She wants to trade in and the store said they were unable to hold stock back for tradeins as 'Putting an item back requires payment in full, meaning you can't trade in'.

I said no problems - I'll pay for it now and then 'return' it before leaving the store (ie without even opening the box!) then we can do the transaction again with the tradein. Apparently not. Can't do this.

I'm not sure I understand why. Anyone else have experience of returning stuff?

I can't possibly understand why they can't refund an unopened iPhone and then resell exactly that unopened iphone again in the next transaction :confused:

Could I get round this by paying online for store pickup and getting a refund through that channel?

This entire iPhone SE stock situation is ridiculous, it should not be this difficult to purchase a phone from a retailer months after it was first released.
Click to expand...

The only way this can be done is to do an online order with store pickup. Collect the phone - return it , buy it again instantly from the specialist and do the trade in at the same time. You'll be out of pocket the original cash for a few days however.
Afaik, they are telling the truth - it's just Apple policy not to sell store stock over the phone
 
[TW]Fox;29456836 said:
I said no problems - I'll pay for it now and then 'return' it before leaving the store (ie without even opening the box!) then we can do the transaction again with the tradein. Apparently not. Can't do this.
Click to expand...

I know nothing about how Apple operate however it could be that a normal member of staff might not be authorised to ok this and too lazy maybe to go to the effort of sorting it out through their manager unless you ask to escalate it to the manager.

Returns can be a bit tricky I've run into all kinds of situations when working in retail i.e. if you return it and they book it back into stock it might fulfil to another order before they can sell it to you again which might mean they are reluctant to deal with that.
 
[TW]Fox;29456836 said:
This entire iPhone SE stock situation is ridiculous, it should not be this difficult to purchase a phone from a retailer months after it was first released.
Click to expand...

Why? They under estimated the demand for a smaller phone. They got it wrong but you can hardly blame them the amount of crying people have done for more screen size over the years.

Suck it up or buy something else?
 
Purchase from the Apple Online store can't be returned to Retail store... They have to be returned back to online return.

If you buy from Retail store then yes you can take it back there..
 
[TW]Fox;29456836 said:
I said no problems - I'll pay for it now and then 'return' it before leaving the store (ie without even opening the box!) then we can do the transaction again with the tradein. Apparently not. Can't do this.
Click to expand...
If they have stock for pickup, does that not mean they have stock to sell as well?

I wouldn't assume that you can re-buy the phone you just returned. The phone that has been returned may have to go through a refurbishment process that cannot be bypassed by the store employee, even if in this case the refurbishment process consists of ticking a box that says "unopened box" and returned to the inventory.

And what is this trade-in you speak of? I didn't know this was available in the UK. Going off to check now...
 
I had exactly the same issue and conversations with my local Apple store - I wanted to trade in an older phone and couldn't reserve one without paying full price.

In the end I just had to chance that they would still be in stock by the time I got to the store.
 
In my experience, O2 Recycle has consistently given better trade-in value, why don't you try them? Buy the new phone from Apple (via the website), and simultaneously trade in the old phone to O2 Recycle. No?
 
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