The 18 months replacement policy to prevent jailbroken iPhones

Poor Roney, for the next 18 months he can't buy another new iPhone because Apple and AT&T suspect him of being a jailbreaker.

It all started when Roney lost his iPhone, and when he wish to get a new one, he got rejected at every Apple Stores he came to because there's a new policy of one iPhone replacement in 18 months went into effect few weeks ago in order to prevent the spreading of jailbroken iPhones.

Here's the complete sad story of Roney as reported at ModMyPhone:

Originally Posted by Roney
I unfortunately left my iPhone unattended for a brief period over the weekend and when I came back it was gone. On Monday, I went to visit my local ATT store and they were unable to sell me a new iPhone, even at the $499 price. Apparently I have had too many iPhones on my line. I then called customer care and was then bounced to an Apple store to see if they could sell me the phone. The same error occured on their system and the Apple employee advised that two weeks ago a new policy went into effect preventing them from selling too many phones on a line because people are jailbreaking them.

I originally bought an 8gb and returned it for a 16gb within the first 30 days of service. Now I lost my 16gb and they won't sell me another for 18 months! After using my lunch break I went back to work and decided I would try again at another ATT store. The next store said they had to deal with the same problem and asked me if I was attached to my phone number. They offered to cancel my line and start another, or add a line so that I could purchase an iPhone. I told them this was not an option because I had to pay an ETF through Verizon to keep this number and I would not part with it. I also did not need another line and would not pay more for monthly service, especially if I was about to pay $500 for a replacement iPhone. I then asked to speak to the manager who said that he would emails his ops team, whatever that means.

So here I am waiting to hear from the manager and feeling like I am being punished for upgrading my phone early on. Also, why do they care how many phones I buy at full price? Any suggestions or help would be appreciated. Has anyone else had this trouble?

And as I read the users feedback of the post, one reader from U.K. says that the 18 months policy also have taken effect in there. Where now every iPhone in the U.K. must be bought using a credit/debit card - linking the buyers name/address with the relevant companies system, preventing multiple unit purchases. But then here comes the funny part, I'll quote directly from the post:

"The O2 employee informed me that a man in the UK went to EVERY O2 store with a different name/address buying 1-3 iPhones at each store and selling them on. He got caught, has to pay X amount of money back to O2 and now the rules are changing and are being strictly enforced. I got this same info from multiple O2 stores as i was trying to buy another iPhone for a relative but couldnt because of the new rules and kept getting the same excuses - eventually i got a nice manager who agreed to the sale (and with cash)."

The reason why people buy iPhones and sell them again at higher price is pretty clear for everyone, it's because the iPhone is so darn popular. But the reason on why Apple and AT&T to use that 18 months policy is kinda ridiculous, and childish. Hey, accident happens and do they expect the owners to chain their iPhone? ;-p