Yesterday when the 16GB iPhone and 32GB iPod Touch were announce and made available there were many questions and the most common question asked was, “Can I exchange my 8GB iPhone for the 16GB iPhone?”. The initial information that hit the Internet was confusing and very misleading when not provided in context to the owner’s situation so I think we should clear up some of this confusion. We called the 5 closest Apple Stores in hopes of getting a solid answer on what exactly will happen if we want to exchange our 8GB iPhone for a 16GB iPhone and we were very shocked by the answers we received.
All 5 Apple stores said that according to the Apple return policy we had 14 days to exchange or return our iPhone, but we would be charged the 10% restocking fee even if we simply wanted to exchange the 8GB iPhone for the 16GB iPhone. We also had each store check with the manager to find out if the return/exchange policy on 8GB iPhones had been extended to 30 days after reports on the Internet made this claim, but not a single manager confirmed this statement and stuck by the 14 day policy until the end of the conversations.
We decided to take a look on the Apple discussion forums to see if this question had been answered and we found no additional information other than other 8GB iPhone owners wondering whether or not the 30 day return policy was being enforced and whether a restocking fee would be charged. So presently until we are proven otherwise, the policy remains the same for iPhone returns: 14 days and 10% restocking fee for returning the 8GB iPhone for the 16GB iPhone.
If anyone can find any solid information issued by Apple regarding the exchange of the 8GB iPhone for the 16GB iPhone or has been able to successfully complete this exchange without any out of pocket expense, please feel free to drop a comment so we can spread the word.
