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More news on the Verizon iPad 2 recall (Apple giving $50 credits)

Seth Weintraub | Jun 10 2011 - 7:26 am PT

The latest news: We’ve heard Apple has beggun giving customers a $50 credit. May want to get Apple on the horn.

I was offered a $50 credit or iPad accessory and told that my iPad would be rerouted back to me.

We’ve been getting a steady stream of news since we broke the Verizon iPad 2 recall news late last night. We initially postulated that the recall may have been due to FedEx glitches or issues with engraving since most of the people in the discussions had both of those in common. However, we’re now hearing that Apple Store employees are also being told to scan iPad 2s and if they are a certain serial number allotment, to send them back to Apple.

Apple has given all the stores a list of serial numbers to scan, if it’s a match we were told to set aside and ship back to Apple, these are only for Verizon ipads. This was to be done on Monday and continue to scan all shipments thru June 11. I had over one hundred to send back.

Why is Apple pulling these? We aren’t sure but we’re hearing this:

Verizon iPad 2s aren\’t being sent back due to engraving. If someone activates a cellular connection on the device, then wants to view or edit account information, they can’t. They receive a message that it is activated, and that\’s it. I saw someone open at least 6 looking for one that didn\’t do it. It\’s device specific, not software.

Update: The problem appears to be with Verizon duplicating MEIDs. We just got this tip:

I bought an iPad2 on Wednesday (6/8) from the Apple Store in Louisville, KY. It is a 16GB black Verizon 3G edition. Have been using it for past couple days on wi-fi and went to activate the 3G service on it today. Had trouble doing it on the iPad, so I called Verizon for assistance. They told me that there is a batch of iPad2’s with duplicate MEID’s (which I believe are hardcoded into the device) out there and apparently I have one of them. Only way to fix is to bring my iPad2 back to the store for exchange to new iPad. I’m betting that is why people’s iPads are getting flagged for return before they even hit their doorstep. If you get more info on this, would love to hear back from you – wondering if other people are getting told the same thing I was. Thanks!

Again, please send any further information on this to tips@9to5mac.com – especially specific serial numbers of affected iPad 2s.