Alright, trying to see if anyone has done this. When I bought my iPhone a year and a half ago, it came with a 1 year warranty. ATT offered an additional year warranty for a small price. When I was buying it, the guy pretty much told me that after about 1.5-1.75 years to bring it in and say it's not holding much of a charge anymore, and I'll get a new one for free. Has anyone ever done this? If I bring it in a couple months after iphone 4 is released, will I be able to get that one, or am I stuck getting the same one I have right now (2nd gen)?
More than likely that wouldn't work. Wouldn't they test it to ensure you are not lying? And, I am almost sure they would give you the same one instead of giving you one as in high demand as the iPhone 4 is. Also, you could have probably put this in here: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=184503
You will get a Refurb of what you have now. They may allow you to upgrade at a slightly discounted price.
I did this exact same thing with a radar detector years back. When I bought it, the guys said to get the extended warranty (2 yrs) because the detector wares down over time and isnt as sensitive. So, after about 20 months I brought it in and said that it isnt working well, and I got a new one equal to the price of the one I purchased. I doubt if I bring in an iphone that has 0 battery life they are going to sit around and charge it for a few hours, then play with it for another hour to see if the battery drains quickly.
OK, it might work but I don't think you'll be getting an iPhone 4 and I am pretty sure you didn't purchase the radar detector at AT&T or Apple so there's that as well.
When I was in there last week there was a genius bar guy talking to a girl who had a broken 3Gs and he was telling her too bad it didn't break a couple months from now or we would have given you a iPhone 4. I know that they probably would charge an upgrade fee but my friends have had warranty issues and they were given the option to upgrade to a newer version of the iPhone for like 50 - 100 bucks if I am not mistaken. They won't replace it outright with the new iPhone but for a fee they will bump you up.
I think you better come up with a better 'problem' than that. I would find a way to 'brick' your phone to make sure it doens't work (just make sure you back up your info). They will probably tell you that it just needs a new battery and that you can send it to Apple and have them switch it out. You can just re-up your contract and pay the $200 if you want a new phone.
For what it's worth, in the 3 years I've had iPhones, I've had mine replaced nearly a dozen times. Each time for very little nitpicky things, including "it's not holding a charge". You can absolutely do this.
I don't think theres anyway where you'll be able to get the new modeled iPhone 4 without buying it. They keep refurb ones all the time. I'm just curious though, was this AT&T that offered you a warranty or Apple? Because AT&T doesn't officially keep a warranty for the iPhone at all (for any of the models), it all goes through Apple and the Apple Care plan. It might be something off the books?
You have to pay extra for the 4g also, I think it's like an additional $10 on top of the iphone regular fees. Only thing I've ever sent in for warranty work and been upgraded were Seagate HDD's. Now I hope they all die right before their 5th yr. I've sent in an 80gb...got back a 120....sent in a 120....got back a 320gb. Basically, they don't hold on to that old hard ware.
