Imgur Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/YwMa3hU
On saturday I took delivery of this package - the order was done directly through Apple’s UK website and the tracking was all legit. I got confirmation emails from apple and tracking details through DPD, everything as you would expect.
Once my package arrived, as you can see in my Imgur Gallery, I immediately knew it wasn’t right.
I opened the box and the first thing I notice is the screen protector, first thoughts were, had I been sent a return?
The next thing I notice when I turn it on, the screen isnt right, it lights up the black area in a way that is clearly not OLED and the bottom has a ‘Chin’ which suggests this is not correct for the phone.
Once I turned it on I was greeted with a very poor setup process and I immediately clocked that it was an android device in a skin. It may have convinced my Grandad but I could tell very quickly (especially when I saw actual android toasts popping up in some cases)
I managed to skip all the setup screens and get into the phone. It has facebook, youtube and tiktok installed already, the OS is glitchy and horrible, the camera is like a slideshow and crashes if you try to use any UI element on screen.
My main worry with this is that there are many people out there getting these phones and some may think it’s legit and then login to them using their apple IDs, facebook accounts, google etc etc. The phone is a match to the spec I ordered, Pro Max in natural titanium. Why go to the effort of matching my order is my question. Are they hoping to get on my wifi network or get login details for things? What if I tried to setup apple wallet? The app is there on the home screen when I open it.
Before anyone asks, yes I have a ticket open with Apple support and they will be getting back to me soon. I can update in comments if anyone is interested in the resolution to this issue.
Mainly I wanted to try and get this out there as a warning. If you do recieve anything like this, dont let it on your wifi network and dont login to it on anything, god knows what it could be hooked up to do.
Anyone got any ideas as to how this was achieved? I’ve been speculating with friends already. At first I thought DPD did the switch but they assure me that the box was sealed properly and so it was never opened or tampered with so couldnt of been them… Then I thought it might be at the supplier end? What’s crazy to me is that the whole delivery was trackable through the apple website and the tracking number on the box and everything matched so the process wasn’t broken at all from apple’s side either. Very interesting.
Anyways TLDR: I got an Android phone dressed as an iPhone that I ordered brand new direct from apple. It could be a scam to get my data - beware with your new phone purchases!
Did you notice any delays from DPD’s tracking number or Apple’s notification until the item arrived at your doorstep? The swap must’ve happened very quickly…
Cool lesson to always always record deliveries like that in one shot from it arriving to totally unboxed and verified. Otherwise nobody is going to believe it wasn’t you that swapped the phone.
This is why you record your unboxing.
UPDATE: Apple phoned me up and took all the details of the incident and photos that I had supplied to them of the packaging. They have now just issued a new order for a replacement device which I should be getting in about a week.
the person who was shipping it might have done a sneaky switch
I’m curious to see how Apple handles the situation.
In the tracking info, was it shipped from their warehouse overseas in China/India or from somewhere closer? I remember the iPhone 12 I bought came directly from China.
I’m guessing it had to have been switched at the delivery level, maybe at the shipping warehouse or by a courier. The cardboard boxes Apple uses to ship their products are pretty standardized and obvious to people who’ve seen them before.
What did Apple say? Did Apple have you bring the fake phone to the Apple Store or ship it back to them for investigation? Did they give you a time frame on when they’ll get back to you?