A group of people from China accuses Apple of selling refurbished iPhone 4 terminals like us in the stores on the territory of the gigantic Asian country. It seems that some customers purchased iPhone 4 terminals from Apple stores and when they got home and registered them on the company's website, they found that the device's warranty was less than 1 year, a sign that they were not new. It seems that Apple employees recognized the problem and offered some new terminals instead, while others only offered an extension of the warranty, but the problem of selling a repaired terminal as new remains. The customers who accuse the company of selling old terminals demand the payment of a double amount compared to the one with which they purchased the devices and demand the payment of the legal fees demanded by the lawyers who helped them fight the Apple company.
"It's cheating to sell refurbished products as new ones," Wang said. "It'll be discrimination against Chinese consumers if the case turns out to be true as refurbished cellphones are also sold in other countries, but at a cheaper price."
"It's impossible that we sell refurbished cellphones," said one Chinese Apple Store employee, who refused to give further comments to the reporter. Apple's Chinese public relations office has yet to respond to requests for comment.
The plaintiffs are demanding compensation twice the amount they paid plus legal fees, as well as an apology. The China Consumers Association has said it is paying attention to the cases.
A recent report from southern China discovered that second-hand iPhones were being refurbished and sold in the area's chain stores. Insiders alleged that store employees sometimes repackaged display phones or used devices to sell to customers after "polishing them up."
Of course, the problem is not new because there are enough reports even from Romania of some people who claim to have purchased terminals repaired as new or people who received terminals repaired as new under warranty. The problem has been reported to several operators in Romania, so we are not talking about something singular and we are certainly not talking about a mistake regarding the stocks. If "mistakes" like this are made in Apple stores, it means that somewhere in the distribution chain someone wants to save some money.
