If you return an unopened iPhone to the Apple Store, the seller will soon be able to tell you’re not a thief without making a fuss, all thanks to some pretty amazing new technology.
For years, if you return an unopened iPhone to an Apple Store, the store’s policy has been to tear the packaging, often right in front of the customer, and possibly turn it on, before issuing a refund. This caused confusion, with one Redditor four years ago posting: “I thought they weren’t going to refund me after it opened. »
But most people get the point: Apple has reason to believe its customers might be scammers. For all the company knows, you could remove components (or the entire iPhone), then reseal the package and get your money back.
But asking a store employee to open the box you’ve been careful to keep sealed feels a bit like an implied accusation, and the practice has also had a downside for Apple: the need to send the iPhone back to the mothership to have it inspected and resealed, instead of just restocking it directly in the store.
But all that will soon be over, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Gurman’s anonymous sources say Apple’s Presto system, a retail technology designed to update and personalize your gadget while it’s sealed in its box, has given way to new, related security technology.
These new devices, which arrived in Apple Stores in October and are now “becoming operational,” according to Gurman, perform diagnostic scans of iPhones inside their boxes, allowing them to be restocked and making it easier for the customer to get their refund.
If the device works as advertised and doesn’t, for example, falsely determine that you damaged the device you’re returning, that’s good news, especially for the many people who will soon receive unwanted Apple products as Christmas gifts. On the other hand, it’s disappointing if you’re an Apple scammer, but maybe you’ll stop doing this?
Gn tech
