3gs disabled by Apple Store upgrading another unrelated persons account

Question

The title pretty much says it. I went to sleep on 10/30 and woke to my 3gs phone with no service. After connecting with AT&T by landline today, 11/2 (thank goodness I had one), it turns out that according to their records, an Apple store employee upgraded my account to iPhone4 on 10/30 at 6pm. Nice, except I don't have a iPhone4 and I was no where near an Apple store on 10/30 at 6pm. Even better, in order to restore my phone service on my 3Gs I had to physically go to an AT&T store, present ID, account info and get a new SIM. Oh and best yet... my service account with AT&T now shows a new 2 year contract agreement. I am now bound to a contract that an Apple employee made by mistake. Even better yet, I have no idea where to lodge a complaint against this mysterious Apple employee. AT&T tells me this isn't supposed to happen because the Apple employee is supposed to verify the account name by valid identificationand this was obviously not done. So, anyone have an idea how I can lodge a complaint?

Answer 1

I did call the Manhattan Beach Apple store after my last post. I figured I had nothing to lose. I asked for a manager and explained my issue. He told me that since I say I was NOT in their store and had no paper contract or receipt there was no way he could help me. He referred me to 1-800-APL-Care iPhone technical support. After two service reps, I was referred to Alissa @ Apple (edited to add SHE IS FABULOUS). I repeated the problem again and after she conferred with her manager, she said she would call the Manhattan Beach Apple store, then AT&T and get back to me. She called me back about 30 minutes later and confirmed I had a case # with AT&T. She confirmed the point of sale was at that store and that an electronic service contract was signed there. Luckily I was texting my daughter so my AT&T account shows use in my city at the time the transaction was occurring in Manhattan Beach and I was @ work. She also spoke with a manager in their fraud department and requested my case be escalated because the problem orginated in an Apple store. She recommended I file a police report as well, telling me it would be needed so that Apple could look into potential fraud. Randy from AT&T also called me back and I asked if there were any calls/messages while my AT&T account was hijacked. He said no, which really made no sense to me because what good is an iPhone4 without service? So I wait until Randy from AT&T calls me next Wednesday with news about restoring my original AT&T service contract date. I'll probably never know but my best conspiracy theory guess is that someone wanted an subsidized iPhone4 they could jail break and the Apple employee just attached my account info randomly. I really hope this doesn't happen to someone else. Having to get cases/problem tickets with both sides has taken a bit over 7 hours of my time. That's 7 hours I could have used elsewhere. Thanks for the tips/concern from you all.
Message was edited by: SandieK
Message was edited by: SandieK