While iPhone 4 buyers in most of the world can participate in Apple’s free case program, it seems Taiwan has been left out in the cold, and customers aren’t happy about that. One local politician, Kao Chia-yu, went to far as to launch a letter writing campaign in hopes of pushing Apple into honoring the free case program, according to Asia News Network.
Apple launched the free case program in response to complaints that holding the iPhone 4 so the lower left corner was blocked would case signal strength to drop. The cases put enough space between user’s hand and the iPhone’s antenna to reduce the attenuation issues that led to the signal problems.
iPhone 4 in Taiwan? Yep. Free cases? Nope.
iPhone 4 buyers were told to download a free app from the App Store to complete the order process, but customers in Taiwan claim their addresses are being rejected. “All the Taiwanese users cannot access the application program, because the Apple system rejects any e-mails sent from or addressed to Taiwan,” Mr. Kao said.
He added that Apple is discriminating against Taiwan iPhone buyers by not accepting their free case orders.
Apple’s free case program is open to customers that purchase an iPhone 4 before October, and they have 30 days to complete the order process.
Apple has not yet said whether the issue with Taiwan iPhone 4 buyers is intentional or a technical problem.