My iPhone was stolen. How should I replace it?

May 10, 2009 9:30 PM

I had my iPhone stolen a week ago. I still have 18 months on my contract. I don't know what my options are--I'd like to get a Google phone (but I'm not sure which are released yet, and work with AT&T). Or can I just cancel my AT&T contract? Or is there a way to get an inexpensive replacement iPhone? What choices do I have?
posted by catsclaw to Technology (13 answers total)

Do you have renter's or homeowner's insurance? Sometimes these cover incidents of theft, even outside the apartment or home.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:37 PM on May 10, 2009

If you cancel your AT&T contract, you'll pay a penalty. The fact that you lost your phone doesn't affect that.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:43 PM on May 10, 2009

Or is there a way to get an inexpensive replacement iPhone?

you can get refurbished iPhone for $99 to $149, but that will add an extra few months onto your existing contract.
posted by lia at 10:01 PM on May 10, 2009

you can get refurbished iPhone for $99 to $149, but that will add an extra few months onto your existing contract.

That's exactly what I did five months ago. In case you're wondering, your contract will be extended two years from the purchase price of your replacement iPhone, it won't be two years added onto your current contract. Plus, you should still be covered under Apple's one year warranty, so if anything goes wrong (it has happened twice to me), you can go into an Apple store and get a replacement easily.
posted by meowzilla at 10:26 PM on May 10, 2009

If AT&T allows unlocked phones you can get a G1 Developer phone. They're expensive, $399 but they're completely unlocked and you can do whatever you want with them, including replacing the entire OS. Just pop your SIM card in and go. And you can do wifi tethering too.
posted by delmoi at 11:11 PM on May 10, 2009

AT&T should help you out with this as far as the refurbished iPhones listed above. Call them and tell them what you'd like to do. However, if they refuse or tell you that you have to buy a new phone, then you should look up the early termination fee on the contract. Even with the fee, they would really rather you not cancel and they should play ball. If the fee is significantly less than a replacement phone, then you would be out of your contract and free to find the phone and plan you want.
posted by azpenguin at 11:18 PM on May 10, 2009

They're expensive, $399 but they're completely unlocked and you can do whatever you want with them, including replacing the entire OS.

That's a fairly expensive option compared with replacing an iPhone. I wouldn't recommend that unless you had a need to switch to an Android 1.0 phone.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:44 PM on May 10, 2009

Unless AT&T has changed things, or things are different with the iphone, - you might want to look into theft/loss insurance.

Most cell phone companies provide some monthly fee to replace a lost or stolen phone.

This probably can't help you right now - but in the future it might. Especially for expensive cells like iphones.
posted by royalsong at 7:28 AM on May 11, 2009

When my friend's phone got stolen, he called it until the thief's mother answered (he left it in his bedroom). My friend then insinuated that he was a policeman and that her son had stolen a phone and that he was coming to retrieve it. We both went over there (somewhere in Queens) and reclaimed it. I had to borrow my girlfriend's blue Miata, and I'm sure she thought it was strange, but she didn't say anything. She got the phone from inside and we left. The thief did not show himself.
posted by charlesv at 7:43 AM on May 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

I believe if you use an unlocked g1 with at&t, the 3g data connection will not work.
This is based on research, not firsthand...
So basically, i agree with previous poster, don't use g1 phone with at&t.
posted by alkupe at 9:39 AM on May 11, 2009

TMobile uses a different freq range for their 3G service, so 3G will not work if you put your att SIM card into a G1.

I also broke my 1st gen iPhone and I've been using a Google Dev Phone with my att SIM card for the last 3 months. Besides the lack of 3G (which I didn't have with the iPhone anyway) I've had no issues.
posted by sideshow at 1:17 PM on May 11, 2009

Response by poster: To everyone who says I can just pop my SIM card out and pop it into a new phone--my phone was stolen. Whatever solution I come up with, it'll need to provide a new SIM card and register it with whatever provider I find.
posted by catsclaw at 2:20 PM on May 11, 2009

Most cell phone companies provide some monthly fee to replace a lost or stolen phone.

I just bought a Blackberry, and found that AT&T has changed their insurance policies. For expensive phones, like the iPhone, the price is $5 a month and the deductible is $125. To me, it wasn't worth it. I could put the same money in an envelope every month and self-insure.
posted by gjc at 3:39 PM on May 11, 2009