Bouygues (in France) has bought its phones on the grey market?, 16/01/2010 - Your reactions

[crispin]

We start by telling you the experience of one of our readers:



I want to inform you of my recent experience with the after-sales service of Apple and of the impossibility of getting my iPhone (less than one month old) repaired by Apple because Bouygues obtained iPhones in Italy for its French market…. Without wanting to generalize this practice, I am in a complete dead end (details put on the macbidouille iPhone forum…):



This report is the only one at this moment, so we cannot be certain, maybe an error with the serial number may have taken place, but if this information is true, it would seem that Bouygues decided to make its purchase of iPhones in Italy, and this practice is called the grey market. From a practical point of view, this should not affect the customers, and should only cause tensions between Apple and the operator. But as one can see with this report, all this falls apart with the after-sales support.
Apple seems to want to punish the customers of the operators, who are here innocent victims of this legal detail. This is even more true as the guarantee of the iPhone, since the 3G, are international, but does not seem to have any effect.
We remind this reader, and those who may have a similar problem that the law is clear on the subject. The salesman, in this case Bouygues, is the only person in charge of the execution of the legal guarantee. If all the operators have a contract with Apple which would engage them to provide the after sales service without having to pass through them, then all their work would be to sell the device and provide and an invoice.  
Of course, we wish that Apple would accept to service these customers, and then regulate its accounts with the operators who do not play the game.

By crispin, original by Lionel