what to do with a stolen iphone 4s

schiele · Apr 12, 2012

Hi,

We repairs iphones at our shop and we had a girl bring in an iphone 4s with a cracked LCD(black) it wouldn't turn on in the first place but once we changed out the LCD assembly, front and back. The phone started up fine along with a battery replacement(battery is still not holding a charge, thats another thread i guess) the phone is coming up with a lock code which was expected and the girl didn't know the code when we asked her over the phone, as well the name does not match her's...after a few questions she hung up and that was a week ago...the rest is history! now we are left with this iphone 4s, great condition now, but we are not sure what to do with it...we left it on to see if someone would call it to claim the phone but that has not happened yet. I would like some advice on what to do with this iphone now, I was thinking of calling the locked cell provider(rogers) and see what they suggest. however I have a little bit of money into this phone with the LCD fix..etc. I also thought of just going through warranty with Apple on this phone if possible and get them to warranty it based on the battery not taking a charge(new battery) What a cluster ^%#$....anyways...

Any advice is appreciated, i would like to be as legit as possible on this matter...ethics are important to us.

Cheers,

Schiele

:Blushing:

McBie · Apr 12, 2012

I would hand it over to the authorities.
Then you still need to find a way to recover your investment for the repair.

Cheers ... McBie

louishen · Apr 12, 2012

Put a notice in the window that the person with the passcode can get their phone back, and maybe contribute to the reapir?

ycl1688 · Apr 12, 2012

next time should have the customer put in some deposit, to recover your cost.

indychris · Apr 12, 2012

ycl1688 said:
next time should have the customer put in some deposit, to recover your cost.

Typically, the item itself would serve as such collateral. With the number of thefts of electronics these days, such a paradigm shift may indeed be necessary.

TabletRevlution · Apr 12, 2012

Really I guess you should give it to authorities, but the person most likely just cancelled the phone and already have a new one on the way. My brother's girlfriend's high school had quite the organized crime girls who would steal phones and turn around and sell them to other students. Not sure exactly how it worked but they figured it out.

Doug b · Apr 13, 2012

If the person reported the phone stolen to the authorities, then it wouldn't be hard for the police to contact the proper owner so long as they also gave the police the serial number. One option would be to restore the phone to factory settings in order to get said serial number.

Doing such a thing without asking for reciprocation might go a long way towards building even more relationships and a bigger business for yourself. That's at least one way to go about doing things.

Doug

schiele · Apr 13, 2012

the plot thickens....first off thanks people on this thread for leaving your advice...every bit is taken into consideration...and i appreciate your time on this...

talked with the cellular provider of the phone(remember sim card was still in it) and i was pretty surprised that they were not too sure how to handle this case...i told them the story behind this phone and after talking with tech support and customer care they both told me that i should get in touch with the owner of the phone and arrange to return the phone....there was a minute on the phone with them where i thought they were just joking with me...know what i mean...how do i call the owner when they wont give me his or hers info....and i said i didn't even want to call them direct and that i would rather the phone company call them somehow on maybe an alternate number to explain that i have the phone and i have replaced the LCD and if they want it come and get it kinda deal....crazy advice i was getting from the phone company...sheesh. anyways in the end the one guy from the phone company told me to warranty the phone with apple store as it should be under warranty still being a 4s iphone. not sure if this is true but i thought that this might be an option with the phone havng some sort of battery charging issue....if i were to do this what would be the best steps to take on warranty as we are based in Canada, should i go through the apple website for this, we have never had to do this but it shouldnt be a problem....i guess apple doesnt really care who the phone is coming from as long as its still under warranty, is that correct of me saying? anyways im just trying to sort this all out and more feedback from you experts is always handy....i will be sure to respond as quick as i can rest assure.

thanks again folks...

cheers!

theOneKrishna · Apr 18, 2012

schiele said:
the plot thickens....first off thanks people on this thread for leaving your advice...every bit is taken into consideration...and i appreciate your time on this...

talked with the cellular provider of the phone(remember sim card was still in it) and i was pretty surprised that they were not too sure how to handle this case...i told them the story behind this phone and after talking with tech support and customer care they both told me that i should get in touch with the owner of the phone and arrange to return the phone....there was a minute on the phone with them where i thought they were just joking with me...know what i mean...how do i call the owner when they wont give me his or hers info....and i said i didn't even want to call them direct and that i would rather the phone company call them somehow on maybe an alternate number to explain that i have the phone and i have replaced the LCD and if they want it come and get it kinda deal....crazy advice i was getting from the phone company...sheesh. anyways in the end the one guy from the phone company told me to warranty the phone with apple store as it should be under warranty still being a 4s iphone. not sure if this is true but i thought that this might be an option with the phone havng some sort of battery charging issue....if i were to do this what would be the best steps to take on warranty as we are based in Canada, should i go through the apple website for this, we have never had to do this but it shouldnt be a problem....i guess apple doesnt really care who the phone is coming from as long as its still under warranty, is that correct of me saying? anyways im just trying to sort this all out and more feedback from you experts is always handy....i will be sure to respond as quick as i can rest assure.

thanks again folks...

cheers!

I have been given a Verizon network unactivated phone.(an iPhone 4s)..and I want to find out if they have any information regarding the serial number of said phone that I happen to own at this moment. Is it a wise decision calling them directly? I do not want legal trouble over saving money on a phone that I should have obtained from Apple directly.

robduckyworth · Apr 18, 2012

Give the authorities the IMEI number (located either in Settings > About, or on the SIM tray).

If it was originally on a contract, the network provider will be able to identify the owner. If they bought it off Apple, same thing. Id be surprised if the phone wasnt blocked by now.

Either way, i think the money you invested is gone. If you are a company, they will just seize it from you in the condition it is in.

Oh, and if you hand that phone into warranty, and its not your phone, and they replace it, that's fraud. And theft.

Brunhild · Apr 19, 2012

why not just get what rogers can give you and hope for a reward from the owner? If someone found my phone I would gladly pay them $100 for the info on it and such.

How much could you possibly have into it for parts? Those parts on ebay are like $30 maybe $40 at best... seems like a pretty minimal loss to me... If you do these repairs often that task took you what 15-20 minutes.

Losing money isnt ideal but we arent exactly talking about any substantial amount of money. I feel like if you were going to do the right thing you wouldn't be inquiring about the battery warranty replacement because it would be irrelevant.

Stretch · Apr 20, 2012

Brunhild said:
why not just get what rogers can give you and hope for a reward from the owner? If someone found my phone I would gladly pay them $100 for the info on it and such.

How much could you possibly have into it for parts? Those parts on ebay are like $30 maybe $40 at best... seems like a pretty minimal loss to me... If you do these repairs often that task took you what 15-20 minutes.

Losing money isnt ideal but we arent exactly talking about any substantial amount of money. I feel like if you were going to do the right thing you wouldn't be inquiring about the battery warranty replacement because it would be irrelevant.

Nice try. The front LCD assembly is around $120, plus another $80 for the rear panel. Unfortunately most replacement parts for high end, tiny electronics aren't cheap.

Brunhild · Apr 20, 2012

Stretch said:
Nice try. The front LCD assembly is around $120, plus another $80 for the rear panel. Unfortunately most replacement parts for high end, tiny electronics aren't cheap.

I have fixed about 15 iphones for friends and purchased the parts on ebay. You cant tell the difference at all from the components Ive used.

Additionally when Ive sold phones Ive repaired no one has ever noticed. Ive even fixed a cracked screen and the person I fixed it for took it to Apple and the Apple store couldnt tell the difference and took care of the other problem.

If you are surfing the net for websites that sell parts youre wasting a lot of money if you do this or have done it.

search ebay, the rear panel is $10 at best...