A colleague over at TUAW took advantage of AT&T's recent aggressive pricing on
refurb iPhones, but got a whole heck of a lot more than he bargained for. First, he was shipped two identical units, which would've been cool and all if he'd been charged for only one -- but he wasn't. The next day, he got a third box from AT&T; this is about the time that we'd start freaking out that some weird glitch had caused them to send us and charge us for every refurb iPhone currently in their inventory, but it turns out this magical third parcel contained nothing more than a bag and a packing slip that read "75011 MISC iPhone PPA BAG ... $0.00". This brings a smile to our faces for several reasons: one, this means that somewhere in a dark, tall, windowless AT&T building, a mainframe computer contains an inventory code for a freakin' plastic bag. Two, that same mainframe allowed one of these bags to be shipped out with nothing in it. Three, a human being at AT&T very likely had to pack and ship this bundle of joy by hand. Good stuff, and a killer value at just $0.00. Where do we sign up?
posted May 29th 2008 12:02AM
Its a teaser...
It's a standard procedure. Believe me, I think it's silly, but the order comes from Apple. 'Every iPhone sold should be sent out with that bag'
If you don't add it as you're placing the order (just like you'd do if the customer also ordered accessories) the system ordering system wont let you continue...
As to what happened to this guy. I think that the refurb iPhone came from one warehouse and the bag from another. This happens with especial order accessories that the normal warehouse doesn't have. This guy will probably get another bag in the mail soon LOL!
I'll tell you how you can get yours. Order a refurb iPhone from AT&T's website when they're really back ordered and that's ALL they'll send you...for $2-350 with no option to cancel the order!
http://howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1370192&page=19&pp=30
at least guy got the box, box can be usefull for something.
We got just DHL envelope.
http://www.ismashphone.com/2008/05/ismashlabs-orde.html
the age we live in
This is similar to a large national distributer here in Sweden. Their smallest packaging material appear to be a cardboard box approximately 1x1x0.5 feet in size. They don't use envelopes. So when you order software licenses you will get that half-cu.ft. box with only a slip of paper inside it..
I remember these bags. I worked fot AT&T for the launch of the iPhone. These bags were an inventory item (and the ones that the counts were always wrong on). It was an Apple thing. Also the rule is, if the plastic wrap on the iPhone was torn at all, there was a restocking fee (i think like 15%) so this bag was here to protect the employees. Once we sold an iPhone, we showed the box to the customer to let them verify that there were no tears in the plastic, then placed it in this bag. And at the top of the bag there was an adhesive seal that we would use to seal the bag. The customer would not be allowed to open the bag until they left the store. Also the customer signed a paper acknowledging the retun policy and restocking fee.
Did it come with FREE shipping?
was the bag sent so he could return the unwanted iPhone?
The guy should return it to see if there's a re-stocking fee.
Look out for the next couple of days, you'll be getting a second bag for that second iPhone. Grats!
Haha. That's pretty funny.
Mystery solved: And there are officially no more until the new ones arrive.
http://wheresmyiphone.blogspot.com/2008/05/response-from-office-of-president.html