Does Apple help iPhone thieves?

JAN 27 2012 / BY ALEX ION

Ever heard your friend with an iPhone boasting about the ease with which he gets a replacement from an Apple support outlet? He is not boasting. Apple is very generous in providing easy, on the spot replacements or discount on a new unit, if a broken iPhone under warranty is brought to service.

Well, the twist of the story is that thieves are making a good use of this generosity, since Apple doesn’t care who brings the phone, and only checks if it is still under warranty. Seems the phone is more attached to warranty than the original owner.

The case is making a furor among the iPhone users, as iPhones are a major target of smartphone snatchers in the US. According to NYPD, 70 percent of all phones snatched at subways and streets are iPhones.

Making most of the service policy of Apple, thieves are approaching the stores at least to get a discounted device, which they sell for a better price to someone else, making some quick bucks.

There are instances, where iPhone users, like MIT student Kayla Menard, who found an email from Apple support that her phone was repaired. Though she ran to the support store, she found them helpless.

Menard got the mail some days after her phone was snatched by a thief. She went to the store to claim the phone, but the staff was not able o help her saying that somebody else brought it to the store. Though, she got a sympathetic move from her network carrier Verizon, who blocked the device, she was not able to get it back, due to ‘Apple support’.

It seems, for iPhone users, there is no way in relying Apple, once they lose the device. Anybody else can use it. May be the only solution is to use any tracking app, or apps like iGot Ya, which will send a snap of anybody who is typing the password incorrectly to owner’s email, with the location of the device on a Google map. But if he gets to any Apple support store, before you, you lose the game.

Credit to : http://digg.com