Woman claims Dallas Apple store sold her non-genuine iPhone

A North Texas woman says she was sold a non-genuine Apple iPhone directly from an Apple retail store in Dallas. She’s worried she may not be the only one who had been sold a non-genuine iPhone.

April Kyle is a lone-time iPhone fan. Like many iPhone fans, she's had to face what's probably the most common iPhone fix – a cracked screen.

“I've always been happy with my iPhones,” she said. “I bought the phone on a Monday. Then I cracked the screen the following Monday. Then that Tuesday, I brought it in to have the screen replaced.”

Kyle returned to the Apple store on Knox Street in Dallas, where she originally bought the phone. She went in to fix the cracked screen but was told she had a bad apple.

Kyle says the Apple store employee that sold her the phone assured her it was brand new, despite the scaled down packaging.

“I asked the man, ‘This isn't a refurbished phone right?’ He said, ‘No ma'am. We're not even allowed to sell refurbished phones,’” Kyle recalled.

She was told the screen replacement would cost about $100 and take about an hour. But when Kyle returned to pick up the repair, she says the store employee insisted she did not return the same phone or that it had been altered.

“He comes out with the same phone with the screen still shattered and he said, ‘We took your phone apart and there are third party parts on this phone,’” recalled Kyle.

Kyle says the salesperson said they were third party parts that voided the warranty.

Kyle says the store employees suggested she bought had already cracked the phone before and had it fixed at a third party store and then cracked the phone again and brought it to them.

April outlined her in-store experience in a message exchange with Apple Support. She says the sales team was insistent that her phone was not the same one she purchased from them.

“I said, ‘Yes it is,’ and he said, ‘No it's not. You've taken that phone and altered it,’” recalled Kyle. The exchange continued for three hours.

Ultimately, Apple gave April a new replacement phone and waived the cost of the repair.

So what's the problem?

“I have a problem now because that means I bought a non-genuine Apple phone from the Apple store.” Kyle said.

A spokesperson for Apple said based on the phone’s serial number, they were able to identify the exact moment it was manufactured and they are sure only genuine parts were factory installed. They say it's possible the store staff overreacted and the parts maybe were incorrectly identified.

“I asked them if there was a way to open the phone and show me what was not real and they said, ‘No we have a special set up in the back,’” said Kyle.

FOX 4 also asked Apple about the years of complaints from consumers on line that told a story similar to Kyle. Many consumers said they had also been told their new iPhone had non-genuine parts. Each person posts they didn't alter anything.