(Image courtesy of Boy Genius Report)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs may have suggested that iPhone 4 reception problems could be solved by using a case, but he wasn’t indicating that the company was willing to give them out for free, according to a rumored internal memo leaked on Tuesday.

AppleInsider is reporting that an internal memo supposedly for use by AppleCare representatives details how Apple reps should handle callers complaining about iPhone 4 reception issues, according to Boy Genius Report. Among the suggestions are what appears to now be the company line to “avoid grasping the lower left corner of the handset” as well as a directive not to hand out free bumpers as a solution.

For the most part, the memo leaked to BGR covers the same ground as Apple’s public statements on what CEO Steve Jobs has called a “non-issue” in the first place. "Gripping almost any mobile phone in certain areas will reduce its reception," the document reads. "This is true of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and many other phones we have tested. It is a fact of life in the wireless world."

However, the leaked document is quite stern on the issue of AppleCare representatives handing out free “bumpers” to those afflicted by iPhone 4 reception problems. “Bumpers” are Apple’s version of a case, which covers only the edges of the device rather than offering any protection for the glass front or back.

"We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers -- DON'T promise a free bumper to customers," the memo reads.

There were some early Twitter reports of AppleCare shipping out free bumpers to those who called in to complain about reception problems, and there was some speculation when the story first broke that Apple would opt to give the protective bumpers to everyone free in an effort to quell the complaints, which has not come to pass.

The leaked memo also boasts that “the wireless performance of the iPhone 4 is the best of any handset Apple has ever shipped,” a claim that our own experience can thus far confirm. But that hasn’t stopped the story from picking up steam in the last week, including at least one law firm in search of afflicted clients for a possible class action lawsuit against Apple.

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