How to get your $200 credit for your iPhone

With all the buzz surrounding the $200 price drop and existing iPhone owners (include me in that list), feeling they deserved some sort of compensation, I decided to try a couple of different avenues that I’ve heard were successful for others.

First, I called AT&T customer care and was kindly told that they would only issue credit for purchases between August 23 – September 5.  Unfortunately I purchased my 8GB iPhone on July 5.  Strike 1.

Then I visited the local Apple Store that I purchased it at.  A manager who has obviously had this conversation hundreds of times already told me that he could not do returns or credits outside of Apple’s normal return/price matching policies.  Strike 2.

Then I read this post on Apple’s Discussion Forums:

If you bought your iPhone on an American Express Card call 1-800-297-8019 (this is the return protection program) and they will credit your card with $200 for each phone you purchased. (I bought 2) The lady said it takes about 2 weeks and all of the reps that you talk to know about the price drop and they have set up a special program to return card members their money. I hope this is helpful.

I decided to give it a try and HOME RUN!  Here is a summary of the phone call with my credit card company, American Express:

I called American Express and they transfered me to the Return Protection Program.  The customer service representative said that yes, they are crediting cardholders the $200.00.  According to her, Apple told them to refund the American Express holders $200.00 for each phone.  I was informed that this is not one of the norms, but they credited my account $214.00 which includes local sales tax.

So there is hope.  And if what the customer service rep says is true, than Apple, in a roundabout way, agrees that iPhone early adopters deserve their $200.