Official Apple Unlocked iPhone, not supported by Apple
Whilst I was travelling in South East Asia, I needed to purchase a new phone.
I found a supplier of iPhones in Thailand that sold me an Official Apple Unlocked iPhone, it turned out to be an Italian iPhone, again an official Apple one.
I needed an unlocked phone that I could use in many different countries, using local SIM cards.
I have been very happy with the phone, it needed updating to v2 and this did not cause any problems.
I was just speaking with AppleCare about an unrelated issue. at the end of the conversation I mentioned that the only thing about the iPhone that was disappointing about the iPhone was the volume of the speaker phone. The agent took the serial number of the iPhone and put me through to iPhone support.
The iPhone agent then took the serial number again and told me that I had an Italian iPhone, because it was bought in Thailand, support was only available through Thailand, she also told me that using a SIM card other than that of an official carrier voided the warranty.
All this seems a bit restrictive, for people in my position, to buy an Official Apple product and then be denied support defeats the object of sourcing an unlocked product in the first place. I can understand why Apple refuse to support iPhones that are unofficially unlocked, but to deny support for an official product seems grossly unfair.
Anyone else had problems getting Apple to support their own products, any ideas how this situation can be resolved?
Jeremy
Apple clearly states that an iPhone is supported only in the country in which is was officially distributed. If you purchased an Italian-distributed iPhone in Thailand, it was imported and sold against Apple's terms and contracts and so you may indeed have problems getting it serviced since it will not show as being sold in the correct country. Using a SIM from another carrier is also unsupported. The only places in Thailand where can purchase an iPhone that will be supported by Apple in that country are True Move stores or Apple Premium Resellers. See:
http://www.apple.com/asia/iphone/buy/#th
for links to approved locations. Any such iPhone sold will be supported only in Thailand.
At this point you're probably stuck since you have an unofficially-sold iPhone. Your best route will be to sell your current iPhone and purchase one from an official dealer in your country of residence. Do not buy one in any other country (unless you'll be in that country for months or years), whether it's unlocked or carrier-locked, or you'll have the same problem.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer
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