If you are the owner of the Apple iPhone4, you may have had problems with dropped calls. The fix is now available. Apple will be giving all owners either a bumper or a case to be bought from a third party vendor for iPhones purchased prior to July 23, 2010.  The case is only available in black, which matches the iPhone 4.

If you have already bought your bumper, Apple will be refunding your costs. There are several ways that is going to happen. If you bought your bumper from Apple online with a credit card, your refund is probably already being processed and will be applied to your credit card.  If you bought your bumper from Apple online with a gift card, a new gift card will be sent to you.

Bumpers that were bought from retail stores are a bit more problematic. You will need to take your receipt to the store for a full refund. Do not delay, as this offer expires September 30, 2010. If you bought a bumper from AT&T there is a form to fill out. Here is the link to find forms and a more in-depth explanation of the process. http://www.apple.com/iphone/case-program/

The launch of the iPhone 4 in white has been delayed to let the company get this fix completed, I suspect. My guess is that when the iPhone 4 in white is released, the bumper will be part of the package or some other fix will already be in place. So have a bit of patience, it will be coming. Hopefully, it will operate better than the original.

If you just want your money back for the iPhone 4, Apple will refund your money. Just take your undamaged iPhone 4 to your Apple retail or ship it to the Apple online store within 30 days of purchase and they will take care of the refund.

The first product of any new technology usually has a bug or two to work out. Some bugs are bigger than others. That is just part of the game if you are going to have the newest technology. That is not to say that Apple doesn’t have a responsibility to fix the problem. Hopefully, the bumper takes care of the problem and then we can all wait with breathless anticipation of the next new technological breakthrough.

So if you don’t yet have your free bumper or case, now is the time to make that happen. If you need to get a refund, get that done this week. If you are like me, you will put it off until the last possible day or forget about it. Click the link above and get the process started now.