Ugh..

A colleague of mine tried to buy an iPhone about a month ago (we do applications for mobile phones and needed one for the company). At the AT&T store they didn't have any but said they would fedex him one, which would take about three weeks. He signed the contract and got the sim card.
Later that day he went to an Apple store and bought another iPhone complete with contract and sim card since they had them at the store. This phone he took with him to another branch of our company, intending to return the first iPhone upon returning three weeks later, which should be fine since it was supposed to take three weeks to arrive.
Somehow it only took them two days to mail it and thus when he got back it was too late for the 14 days return period.
He still uses the sim card that came with it, but we don't need two iPhones. So I spent today trying to return it - the first AT&T store would have accepted it, but he (or at least his CC) would have needed to be physically present - impossible at the moment. The Apple store couldn't do anything and the second AT&T store didn't see any chance either.
Of course, they aren't really to blame. Maybe the shipping estimation could have been more accurate, but other than that they didn't do anything wrong - except maybe let Apple talk them into very strict refund rules..

Now we'll be trying to talk to AT&T WHQ, after all this still makes him a loyal customer with two high profile contracts and one iPhone.
The other way would be selling the phone at ebay or where ever - anyone want a never used, not activated iPhone?