While e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart have become preferred destinations for a majority of tech buyers in India, there are several others who prefer buying gadgets from brick-and-mortar stores due to the lack of guarantee of the authenticity of the product when purchased online. A Reddit user named Akshaythunga who ordered an iPhone 14 Pro Max from Amazon India received a counterfeit iPhone that looked identical to the original iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The buyer narrated his ordeal on Reddit and wrote: “When I opened it to my surprise it did not ask for a setup. Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp was pre-installed. There was some anomaly observed in the font and there was no portrait mode available in the selfie cam. Checked checkcoverage.apple.com and everything was alright upon entering the Serial Number.”
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When Akshaythunga went to Apptronix, a licensed Apple retailer, he was informed that the iPhone he had received was in fact fake. The phone was not original, but the serial number was accurate; the difference between the serial numbers may have resulted from the fact that the phone was manufactured in the US and not in India.
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“The representative at Apple service centre was telling me that it was a US piece while I ordered an Indian one. They made some checks and arrived at the conclusion made in the job sheet. I’m not sure about the intricacies of cloning. The device came along with a USB to lightning instead of USB to Type-C. It was startling,” he added.
He purchased the phone through Appario, one of Amazon's reputable merchants and is currently coordinating with Apple to raise the issue and obtain a replacement. This incident serves as a lesson to always exercise caution when ordering pricey products or gadgets online.