Still SOL here on my return... Newgistics was a complete dead end. Actually, they have a really good scam going as far is shirking any responsibility for the items they handle for their clients. I contacted the person within their company whom they suggested. I was told that they basically have some guy who goes to the post office once or twice a week to pick up any returns that they processing for thier clients. Once this happens, it's out of the USPS's hands and out of their tracking system. USPS is no longer involved here and cannot help. Basically the Newgistics person who picks up the returns from the Post Office is suppose to get them logged in and sent off to an AT&T warehouse, or whatever destination they are headed towards. The iPhone 4 returns never go to any Newgistics facility at all, but rather get sent to an AT&T warehouse. I'm guessing the "value-added" by Newgistics is their awesome tracking and management system? Since the USPS tracking website and records show the package as having been picked up, I was told that the reason it wasn't in Newgistic's online tracking system is that the label or bar code must have been damaged in handling or entered improperly into the system. My box was most likely along with all the others, probably sitting in one of AT&T's warehouses. Or it could be posted on eBay by the idiot Newgistics employee who does Minneapolis pickups and never logged my package. The next opportunity to find it would be whenever AT&T stumbles upon my box, opens it and reads in the EMI number or serial number. That could be today or next year. The Newgistics website at this point will reflect only the date the label was printed since genius never logged it in or notated a "damaged package" was picked up. See, since it was hot-potato handed off to AT&T, it's not Newgistic's problem anymore. It's on AT&T's side of the fence.
Newgistics considers their job to be complete at this point and is out of the loop. They do not seem to have any follow up on who may have picked up your shipment from the Post Office or any information on whether the shipment pick up that they arranged for AT&T ever arrived at AT&T, or what items were contained in that shipment when it arrived. No notes exist regarding, for example: "One box from Minneapolis addressed to Newgistics with damaged label and partial RMA number". And this begs the question, if the label were damaged, how would USPS have known it goes to the Newgistics guy to pick up anyhow? Assuming the label was damaged and just said "Newgistics" and nothing else, why didn't the pick up person contact the Newgistics mothership and ask how to log the package as received. Did he mail it off to some other company that Newgistics works for? There is apparently no system in place to verify that the person who picked up the packages actually mailed all of the items he picked up. Basically, whoever picked up the box could have left it in the trunk after signing it out from USPS.
So, now officially we have the label printed on the 7th or July, and picked up by Newgistics personnel from the USPS on the 14th of July. The folks you talk to on the phone at AT&T have no way to contact their own warehouse to have someone go routing around for my phone, and no way to contact Newgistics (who don't know where the packages they forward go anyhow). Apparently, my next step is to wait until after August 14th to have a lost/stolen report filed. Once that happens, it's another 30 days to investigate for fraud. Yes, I'll be forwarding AT&T's fraud inquiries to the USPS and Newgistics. After that, if AT&T decides I actually mailed the phone back, they can refund money I'm out, and cancel my service if I desire. The caveat being I have to keep paying them during the whole process. What a joke. Done for now. Contacting the BBB and the Postmaster on both of these joker companies.
