Hi, thanks for taking the time to reply.

The theft was immediately reported to the police. The police are aware of the development re the Apple store but unfortunately with this being London this is seen as a low priority case.

I have contacted the Apple Store in question (as has the investigating detective) in order to ascertain more information although the store has been extremely reluctant to provide either myself or him with any further information. He attempting to acquire the CCTV footage at the moment although this is obviously going to be a long and drawn out affair and I am still without phone.

I want Apple to acknowledge their fault asap and rightly replace the phone etc but this seems an impossibility at present.

Surely if your phone was stolen you also reported this to your local Police station ?

If you did so, then surely someone walking into an Apple store to replace the phone pretending to be you, is additional evidence the Police need to know about. If the Police are interested, they can contact the Apple store in question and obtain the CCTV, so they can try to identify the person concerned.

If the Police are then involved, surely the Apple store will then make a note of this and you will then hopefully get a more positive response from Apple.

This is commonsense to me, but often these days people do not report thefts to Police, on the basis that they won't be interested. If you have not reported to Police, perhaps you should do, to find out whether they can help or not.

My iphone 4 was stolen from me on January 20th 2012. After making a claim with my insurance company the claim was eventually declined based on the fact the phone had been 'replaced' by Apple and could therefore be fraudulent. I wasn't sure what this meant and was advised to contact Apple.

On doing so the Apple employee informed me that my stolen phone (which had been barred and reported to the police immediately) had been replaced in an official Apple retail store. This was obviously not done by myself and was done by whoever had stolen the phone. Trying to get through to anyone to explain this point, let alone get a straight answer or have someone act on this has been extremely difficult, nigh on impossible.

On my 1st correspondence with Apple on 19.00 on the 2nd Feb, I called and was informed of situation re stolen phone being replaced at an Apple store (I was not told which one). On asking what Apple was prepared to do I was told I should have a lawyer contact the Apple fraud department. I explained that wasnt really a viable option or suitable outcome and wanted to speak to the fraud department myself. I was subsequently placed on hold and eventually was hung up on / cut off by the adviser. Total call length 30 mins, no solution.

The next day I tried again. My 2nd correspondence with Apple occured at 13.00 on 3rd Feb. I called and re-informed the adviser of the situation. I was placed on hold for at least 15 minutes whilst call adviser spoke to their manager / superior. This time I was told the location where replacement occurred and the date but was offered no more explanation as to why and how this could happen. I explained that this had voided my insurance and I expected Apple to replace my phone as a result of this. I was informed this would not be the case and the adviser had done all she could, even going so far as to say "it was not Apple's fault my phone was stolen in the first place". On asking to speak to a decision maker / supervisor and I was placed on hold for at least 20mins, probably longer. Eventually I hung up as I was quite obviously being ignored by Apple adviser who no longer wanted to deal with issue.

I am a regular user (and strong advocate) of Apple products and have had ipods / iphones and mac computers of the years. I have previously found Apple's service good. However, their inability to accept responsibility for causing an issue which is quite clearly their fault has left me shocked and speechless. I will endeavour to chase this up until some action is taken and I am given an explanation but fear repeats of being ignored and derided

I have had to purchase a new phone as have now been without one for almost 3 weeks. Apple do not seem to have a complaints department and will not take responsibility for their actions. Any advice greatly welcomed.

Many thank