Updated 7/22: Added voicemail fix
Updated 8/9: Final notes on a (supposedly) finalized return

I just returned my iPhone 4 and moved back to my old 3G. The proximity sensor bug made it impossible for me to use the new iPhone for calls [1]. Returning the phone isn’t rocket science, but it required some trial and error. Hopefully I can save other people some time by collecting everything into one place.

It’s based on ship date.
You have 30 days from the date your phone was shipped to return it. My phone was shipped from China, which really means that I had 23 days to decide if I wanted to keep the phone. Here’s Apple’s official return policy for the iphone 4. I’m not clear on what needs to happen before the 30 days run out. Do they need to receive the phone or do you merely need to submit the return request by then?

You need to return it through the channel that you bought it
If you bought it from the store, go back to the Apple store. If you bought it from the ATT store, that’s where you need to go. If you bought it online try to go through their online process or call them.

I ordered online but my order wasn’t tied to my apple id, so I needed to call (you can tell if your email address isn’t properly connected to an apple id if you go through the online forgot password process and it doesn’t send you an email). Supposedly you can schedule the return of a phone you ordered online through the Order Status page. I wasn’t able to get that far, but found the phone process to be easy enough. Get your web order id (top left of your confirmation email), call 1-800-MY-APPLE, say “return iphone 4″ then read your web order id, then talk to a real person. Call between 5am and 8pm PST. The first time I called I made it through the phone tree at 8pm sharp only to find out they were closed, so I think you need to call early enough to actually reach the live person before 8pm.

Sending your iPhone back
If you bought directly from a store, then presumably you don’t have to go through this step. If you bought online then Apple will send you pre-paid return receipts that you can print out to send your phone back. The rep told me that it takes 1-3 business days to send you those return receipts. I got the receipt the next day, but didn’t notice it at first because it’s sent from a Fedex email account.

You have to print out the receipt, put everything back in the box, and take it down to a Fedex dropoff. Here’s a dropoff locator. Shipping is free, no matter where you drop it off.

Privacy reminder
You should wipe your data off your phone but before you do that you should do a backup. As part of returning the iPhone 4, I’m switching back to my old iPhone 3G. I can confirm that iTunes didn’t magically transfer my new photos over to my old 3G, so before you wipe your phone you should definitely make sure your pictures, video, and other important data is backed up. To reset go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase All Content and Settings. I didn’t pay enough attention after this step. The NY Times says that this could take up to two hours because the phone is actually overwriting all of you old data. For me, it immediately rebooted into blank original state with a plug into iTunes message. I hope this means that it’s wiped of my data.

Transferring your service
My plan was to go back to my old AT&T service using my old contract and my old 3G iPhone. There are two things you want to happen, you want your old phone activated and your old contract reinstated. I’m not sure how this works if you came to the iPhone from a different carrier.

Go to an AT&T store to get your service reinstated. I tried to do it over the phone and the first AT&T rep claimed to have put everything in motion. But I didn’t get a confirmation email so I called back. The second ATT rep didn’t see any record of my first call and was very clear that in order to reactivate my old phone I’d need to go to a store to get a new SIM card. So skip the phone and go straight to a store. While they’re doing this make sure to take notes with times and names (since the first AT&T rep didn’t do anything she promised it seems like AT&T is likely to put you in a position where you’re going to have to dispute some of your bill).

If the AT&T store can’t do anything with your service (or you want to double check that the change has gone through), you can call ATT directly: 1-800-331-0500. The phone tree I had to navigate was 1-0-0-2 (for yes, that’s my phone number – speak to operator – speak to operator – no, i don’t want to take a survey). Once you get to an operator, they will tell you something about some federal law to which you should say, “No, I don’t want to hear about any extra products.”

Confirming your return
I tracked my return through Fedex and saw that Apple issued a refund to my credit card on the same day that they received the phone. That was nice. Unfortunately there was no other notifications that everything was settled. I’m particularly concerned about AT&T, as they’ve led me to believe that they can hold me to the iphone 4 contract until they’ve received confirmation from Apple that the phone was returned. However, I’ve called AT&T and they say that my service has completely reverted and that I’m officially out of contract.

Voice mail
Once I was back on my 3G, my visual voicemail was missing. I’d push the voicemail button and it would call into my voicemail. I tried a couple of fixes, including resetting my network settings. Eventually I had to work through the issue with AT&T tech support. The last thing that worked was them calling and leaving a message. After that, my visual voice mail was suddenly back. So, I suggest power cycling your phone and leaving yourself a message before calling tech support. I don’t know if this will work, but the supposed direct line to good tech support is: 877.998.5175.

Also, I lost my phone greeting and I couldn’t get it back through the iPhone. I had to call into my mailbox and go through the phone tree (if you press and hold 1, it’ll ring your mailbox).

[1] I don’t want this post to just be a rant, but I can’t help but note how bad my experience was with this phone. My new iPhone required an upgrade to iTunes. The new iTunes (9.2) wouldn’t start on my laptop (Vista) or my desktop (also Vista) so I had to connect to iTunes on a third computer. When syncing some (free!) apps wouldn’t sync without logging in, but my main account email address (which I have recent itunes store receipts for) wouldn’t log me in and the forgot password feature wouldn’t send me a password. On the new iPhone, one of the apps that I use every day crashes all the time. Almost every call I made included accidentally pressing buttons with my cheek because of the malfunctioning proximity sensor (I was on a conference call where another iPhone 4 owner and I alternated accidentally leaving the call). When I decided to return the phone the documentation told me to do it online. But I wasn’t able to login or retrieve a password with the email address that I used while purchasing the phone. My ATT rep told me that she was activating my old phone but when I called back there was no record of my previous call. I didn’t even get as far as finding out if the antenna issue that’s so prominent in the news is an issue. On my last call to AT&T, the rep let out that the my reason for returning the phone was listed as “Buyer’s Remorse.” I guess I’m just whimsical.

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