I have contacted Walter, and he has apologised and will give me a full refund on Monday.

I was as mad as a hatter when I realised that I had a R10 000 cell phone in a counterfeit case and was going to crucify him and his company on the internet, but I don't believe it would be fair, the reason I say this, because I have had other people look at the case, and if you don't know about the circled R next to the name and didn't actually check the serial number it is extremely difficult to determine it is a fake, none of the people who have looked at the case believe it could be a fake, Everything else about the case looks real, it even passed the 1 hour water test. The spelling on the packaging is correct, there is no fading of colours, The only thing which got me started with the research was the fact that people where complaining that I was breaking up while talking on the phone, if it wasn't for that and the video I attached I would still believe it was an original.

The second 2 nd reason why I don't want to judge Walter unfairly is because I went to Gateway yesterday and visited a reputable company which sells and repairs Apple products and yes you guessed right, the lifeproof cases they are selling don't have the circle R next to the name in the top right cover or at the back bottom flap, so without even opening the packaging to have the serial number checked, maybe Walter is not to blame. If nobody who has purchased one of these covers for their ipad have not picked up that they a fakes, how could Walter?

A lesson I have learnt from this, don't put a R10 000 device into a cover which might even be an original because even if the case fails due to factory defect you have no claim for the device against lifeproof, they will replace the cover at no charge but you will have to pay for the repair or a new device.

I have decided to purchase a griffin survivor case for my iphone 5 instead, if I plan on taking it for a swim I will use one of the cases designed to go 60 metres under the water, but rather just use my go pro camera which is designed for underwater filming.

Just something else I have been thinking about, when I contacted lifelproof they indicated that they where aware of the problem with the lifeproof cases and had since redesigned the case and there is a new generation cover, what happened to all the generation 1 lifeproof cases and do they have the circled R...mmm just something to think about. They have a 3 day response time due to high call volumes, also makes you think, another reason I have decided to go with the griffin survivor case.

Lifeproof have a reseller in SA ( http://www.lifeproofsa.co.za/) but they don't stock iphone 5 cases nor the ipad mini case, just too many things about lifeproof which make me nervous to buy any of their products.