Replace iPhone 4

[kennyleow]

I had read some forums regarding this refurbished set. A refurbished set will have a "K" in the serial no. My ip4 doesn't have this "K". Does it mean it is brand new? There is one thing I have noticed about this new ip4. It is giving me a bit of headache if I used it on my ear. My previous one didn't have this problem. This one like more powerful.

[pegasi]

I had read some forums regarding this refurbished set. A refurbished set will have a "K" in the serial no. My ip4 doesn't have this "K". Does it mean it is brand new? There is one thing I have noticed about this new ip4. It is giving me a bit of headache if I used it on my ear. My previous one didn't have this problem. This one like more powerful.

I don't read those forums. There is not a logistics/customer service solution that can manage market returns (i.e. faulty units returned by consumers) with only refurbished phones. In most cases there are a mix of brand new and refurbished phones at the service centres. In any case the refurbished phones should have the same quality as the new phone as I mentioned.

The other question about headache I have no clue.

[exxondus]

I don think any sane and profit maximinsing company is gg to have brand new factory pieces placed as exchange sets. Its just not good for their activity and profit ratios.

Unless its at the initial stage or close to the launch, else its unlikely u will find brand new sets as standby exchange units. But judging fr how apple products sell during launch, I don think u will see it anyway.

With time, they will just repair spoilt sets and mark them as exchange units. Reason being that they will b in trouble if they were caught selling such refurbished sets as retail brand new units.

Its just business. Nothing wrong to recycle. Just that we as customers don like such arrangements. Me included.

[pegasi]

I don think any sane and profit maximinsing company is gg to have brand new factory pieces placed as exchange sets. Its just not good for their activity and profit ratios.

Unless its at the initial stage or close to the launch, else its unlikely u will find brand new sets as standby exchange units. But judging fr how apple products sell during launch, I don think u will see it anyway.

With time, they will just repair spoilt sets and mark them as exchange units. Reason being that they will b in trouble if they were caught selling such refurbished sets as retail brand new units.

Its just business. Nothing wrong to recycle. Just that we as customers don like such arrangements. Me included.

First of all, "refurbish" is an incorrect word to use in this case. A faulty mobile phone is repaired, not refurbished.

Every manufactuer of consumer products will set asides certain % of their cost as warranty cost, and warranty cost take into consideration the estimated repair cost as well as cost of spare parts and swap units. Before a phone manufacturer launch a new product in the market, the service centres need to be stocked up with swap units (which are of course brand new phones). Even subsequently, it would be a logistics nightmare to only rely on repaired sets to manage the consumer returns. Different manufacturer has different policy on whether a phone (or any product) will be replaced if it is faulty or "died" within the warranty period. Most manufacturer will only repair and return the same phone and not swap a new phone unless the fault is beyond repair or the fault is something the local service centre is not qualified to repair.

And if a phone cannot be repaired locally like in the case of Apple, the cost of shipping the phones back for repair and then back to the service centre (not necessary the same sc), may not be very much cheaper then producing a new phone.

If we ever have a chance to meet up, I will explain to you how a typical supply chian and distribution/repair network of a consumer prduct such as mobile phone, work.

What I can tell you now is, when there is quality issue out there in the market for a product like mobile phone, the manufacturer would want to fix the problem ASAP and keep the consumers happy, or the damage on the brand and future sale is far more expensive than the cost difference between a new and repaired phone.

[exxondus]

First of all, "refurbish" is an incorrect word to use in this case. A faulty mobile phone is repaired, not refurbished.

Every manufactuer of consumer products will set asides certain % of their cost as warranty cost, and warranty cost take into consideration the estimated repair cost as well as cost of spare parts and swap units. Before a phone manufacturer launch a new product in the market, the service centres need to be stocked up with swap units (which are of course brand new phones). Even subsequently, it would be a logistics nightmare to only rely on repaired sets to manage the consumer returns. Different manufacturer has different policy on whether a phone (or any product) will be replaced if it is faulty or "died" within the warranty period. Most manufacturer will only repair and return the same phone and not swap a new phone unless the fault is beyond repair or the fault is something the local service centre is not qualified to repair.

And if a phone cannot be repaired locally like in the case of Apple, the cost of shipping the phones back for repair and then back to the service centre (not necessary the same sc), may not be very much cheaper then producing a new phone.

If we ever have a chance to meet up, I will explain to you how a typical supply chian and distribution/repair network of a consumer prduct such as mobile phone, work.

What I can tell you now is, when there is quality issue out there in the market for a product like mobile phone, the manufacturer would want to fix the problem ASAP and keep the consumers happy, or the damage on the brand and future sale is far more expensive than the cost difference between a new and repaired phone.

Correct me if I am wrong, but If you reread my post, I mentioned that you will probably only get a so called brand new set near the initial stages where the company sets aside some sets for exchange purposes during the launch. I kinda think that tallies with your post and expert views on supply chain?

Warranty is an expense and only incurred when it happens. But that would mean eventually its probably under assets/inventory. Having a large amount of inventory for such future purposes will greatly reduce the activity ratio (accounting purposes). Hence, not many company does that in terms of accounting.

Finally, in this case, iphone 4 has probably been in the mkt for how long? close to a year? which is why I said its unlikely that its a brand new set fresh from the factory that you will be getting now when you do 1-1 exchanges, unless the exchange rate had been really that that that low. Chances are that its probably repaired/refurbished. More so in Kenny's case when the packaging is not retail type

Finally, does Apple really care that much abt their reputation? the antenna issue with the iphon4 to me is an engineering, design issue. Why do i have to use a bumper in order to use my phone? Why is it that when I fedback to Apple, they tell me that the way I hold my phone is incorrect?

Finaly, I have absolutely no doubt that you def know more about supply chain then me bro, which means I better keep quiet even tho most of my posts are based on experience and a bit of common sense

Anyway, peace out

[pegasi]

I realise I commented too much in this topic. My intention is to share knowledge and not to challenge ours' view points or to show that I know better.

I think we need not go into more details or this thread will become boring

[triton]

i am just curious. why is it that apple does not want to setup a service centre like nokia, HTC, samsung, etc. is it due to the operation cost? is it due to afraid of their proprietary parts being replicated?

if it is afraid of the latter, i can't see where the concern is now considering that there are shops around replacing cracked screens, replacement of phone back plate which in this way, means the phone can be opened up already.

if it is operation cost, then it means either more or less profit.

for someone else who pointed out that going back to telco to replace phone. do they have a specific place to go to or any telco (not authorized dealer) branch? unless a telco setup a specific counter to handle such return, else it will just add on to the long waiting queue time to do telco transactions.

it is unfortunate that a consumer has to go back to exchange several time. this would mean that time wasted to go back. i am looking from the perspective that if i know my set only has 1 problem, i go to service centre, get that problem fixed, then is ok. but if i do 1-to-1 exchange, then another issue pop up, would a consumer natural reaction/thinking that the set is more of a repaired/refurbished set rather than a new set.

if it is repaired and the set is returned to the same consumer, then another issue arises, the consumer can say yeah, it is this set problem. however, if the consumer after doing 1-to-1 exchange more than once, the consumer will be annoyed.

so i prefer to have a set repaired and return to me rather than another set exchange not knowing if another issue will surface.

[seiko.citizen]

places where there is an apple store already so some minor inhouse repairs. such as replace back glass, realign home button, etc.

i suspect it is pure profit, not to mention, it wont be profitable for the "authorised repairers" to start handling iphone repairs, as there is supposedly very little money.

[pegasi]

Bro triton, let's park your question for our next kopi session?

[kennyleow]

if phone got it from telco, you have to go back to telco unless it is a cracked screen or something else, then you have to go to some "shops" to get it repaired. There is a shop at Suntec that will repair or replace a cracked screen.

[triton]

there is at least 3-4 shops in sim lim square that deals replacement of cracked screen also.

[z27ag]

i once did a 1-1 exchange at singtel and was told it new..
now that i check,my serial number is 5Kxxxxx
i saw them open from a box which is not the same as retail so i asked them if i can keep the box,but he said no..
i was kinda puzzle how come i can't even keep the box?and thought to myself if it was refurbished,but then the outlook and everything tells otherwise so i didn't think too much further..
now that i believe it was refurbished...

[FullHouse]

BTW, lots of shops in HDB town central able to repairs or replace LCD for All models for IPhone ! Next, I personal think that Apple had their own intention & marketing strategies which they don't want to repair instead of 1 to 1 ad replacement for most genuine cases, IMHO!
Nonetheless, we do share certain disagreement for not repairing the faulty sets' but let's hope Apple can hear our feedbacks and change their strategy soon, fyi
No offend to anyone but my own perception, Thks u

[seiko.citizen]

according to the genius bar in perth, you cant have the box because the replacement phone has to be sent back to apple in the brown box. this is so that they will update the old IMEI with the one from the box.

having said that, i have personally seen the boxes from time to time come thru my office.

[Oceanklassik]

... datang ...

That's what I have also experienced very recently. The moment I saw the "coffin packaging" and asked if she (the staff) was replacing my weeks-old iPhone with a BRAND NEW one, she replied 'yes' unconvincingly. When I probed further as to why a replacement set has to be in a different packaging, she shrugged her shoulders and quickly said that it has been in this manner all this while. I made further checks and found out that ... (to be continued soon)

Just to share what a friend told me lately of her experience with a 'refurbished' iPhone. Similar to what many have gone through, her iPhone was faulty and she got a 'new' replacement. Shortly later, while she was selling away the (replaced) iPhone to a shop, she was told that since her set was a 'replaced' one, they would take in the iPhone at a lesser value. I think it was between $80-$100, can't remember.

So do you still think the 'replacement' set is 'BNIB'?