Sold iPhone 4 on eBay, buyer unhappy, can't activate

[Sergeiko]

My parents don't need fancy phone and are happy with the phones they already have. So I sold upgrade iPhone 4 on eBay.
In the listing I indicated that the phone was contract free but AT&T locked. When the buyer got the unopened iPhone he was anticipating that the phone (being contract free) will be already activated. In other words the phone will not be stuck at "Emergency Dial Screen".
When he inserted SIM that came with the phone, he naturally saw my parent's phone number in iTunes activation window. At that point he was convinced that the phone itself is somehow locked to my account and there was no way for him to activate and use it.
Now, here's the thing, I know that if he had active AT&T account SIM, he should have no problem activating his phone. I doubt that he has AT&T account. Otherwise, why whould he buy this phone for more than it costs to buy contract-free iPhone at AT&T store? His intention was to jailbreak and unlock the phone and use it overseas.
Anyway, my question is: are contract free iPhones any different than regular upgrade iPhones? Is there such thing as account locked iPhone?

 

[TMar]

The initiale activation of the iphone 4's is tied to the account it is bought under. You never should have sold it in such a state.

 

[esadb]

Send him a AT&T simcard to activate it.

 

[iPhone-power]

It requires the last 4 of SSN and zip code of whomever bought it or the primary account holder of the account it was purchased under.

So you sold a phone that the buyer cannot use until you supply that info.

Most buyers have just been getting a refund via PayPal. Perhaps the buyer will do that to you (if he reads the Internet blogs at all)

 

[spblat]

"contract free but AT&T locked" is clear enough. You should not have included a SIM, and perhaps you should have said that they would need to provide a SIM, but the bottom line is you sold what you advertised. There's no such thing as a contract locked iPhone. Without a valid SIM (or jailbreaking) they're bricks, but that's not exactly your problem.

What does your customer want you to do?

 

[iPhone-power]

If you read the OP post, he did get the sim, but that is not enough to activate the phone since it is tied to an AT&T account the buyer cannot use.

 

[Sergeiko]

"contract free but AT&T locked" is clear enough. You should not have included a SIM, and perhaps you should have said that they would need to provide a SIM, but the bottom line is you sold what you advertised. There's no such thing as a contract locked iPhone. Without a valid SIM (or jailbreaking) they're bricks, but that's not exactly your problem.

What does your customer want you to do?

The customer wants me to enter my zip and last 4 # or my SSN. Naturally I don't feel very good about providing such info.
One more twist to this is that he's currently overseas. Not sure if you can activate SIM being overseas.

 

[terraphantm]

yea, you should've done the initial activation , and then gotten a new sim for your parents' phone (or use a microsim to sim adapter). the phone will refuse to activate the first time on any number except the account it was intended for.

 

[TMar]

"contract free but AT&T locked" is clear enough. You should not have included a SIM, and perhaps you should have said that they would need to provide a SIM, but the bottom line is you sold what you advertised. There's no such thing as a contract locked iPhone. Without a valid SIM (or jailbreaking) they're bricks, but that's not exactly your problem.

What does your customer want you to do?

It doesn't matter if it's 'contract free' the initial activation is still tied to the account the phone was purchased under.

 

[iPhone-power]

The customer wants me to enter my zip and last 4 # or my SSN. Naturally I don't feel very good about providing such info.
One more twist to this is that he's currently overseas. Not sure if you can activate SIM being overseas.

Read my post # 4 and yes, the sim you sent will work anywhere after the SSN and zip is entered.

This issue is something you should have realized you would have to provide before you made the decision to sell the phone locked to an AT&T account.
Even if the buyer had his own AT&T account, he cannot unlock any phone tied to someone else's account.

 

[TMar]

The customer wants me to enter my zip and last 4 # or my SSN. Naturally I don't feel very good about providing such info.
One more twist to this is that he's currently overseas. Not sure if you can activate SIM being overseas.

He's not going to get far trying to steal your identity with just your last four and zip code. The SIM doesn't care where the phone is and the phone doesn't care where it is as long as there is a sim in it from the provider it's locked to.

 

[Sergeiko]

The initiale activation of the iphone 4's is tied to the account it is bought under. You never should have sold it in such a state.

Wouldn't it be also true if he would've bought the phone at AT&T contract-free? Isn't it true for all new iPhones? In other words, did I misrepresent the product I was selling?
If all new iPhones come like that, I don't think it was my responsibility to tell him about that, was it?

 

[GoCubsGo]

Why was the sim sent at all? Isn't it the sim that drives this train and in that case wouldn't the buyer just want to use their own sim?

ID Theft risk or not, no weirdo from eBay is getting the last 4 of my SSN. That gives them access to any possible account info ... yeah no.

I would have him return the phone, use insured trackable carriers, and then refund his money. Next time sell the phone without the SIM and say it's not under any AT&T contract but it is locked to AT&T's service.

 

[TMar]

Wouldn't it be also true if he would've bought the phone at AT&T contract-free? Isn't it true for all new iPhones? In other words, did I misrepresent the product I was selling?
If all new iPhones come like that, I don't think it was my responsibility to tell him about that, was it?

You sold something in a state where it can't be used. You both should have done more research. It's not like you can put all the blame on him, you're equally at fault.

 

[Sergeiko]

Why was the sim sent at all? Isn't it the sim that drives this train and in that case wouldn't the buyer just want to use their own sim?

ID Theft risk or not, no weirdo from eBay is getting the last 4 of my SSN. That gives them access to any possible account info ... yeah no.

I would have him return the phone, use insured trackable carriers, and then refund his money. Next time sell the phone without the SIM and say it's not under any AT&T contract but it is locked to AT&T's service.

New iPhones come with SIM cards already in them. I didn't want to open the box. Now that it is opened, who knows what condition it is in.

 

[TMar]

Why was the sim sent at all? Isn't it the sim that drives this train and in that case wouldn't the buyer just want to use their own sim?

ID Theft risk or not, no weirdo from eBay is getting the last 4 of my SSN. That gives them access to any possible account info ... yeah no.

I would have him return the phone, use insured trackable carriers, and then refund his money. Next time sell the phone without the SIM and say it's not under any AT&T contract but it is locked to AT&T's service.

That's still not going to work. It doesn't matter what sim is in the phone. The IMEI is tied to the account the phone was bought under for initial activation. The first time the phone is activated it has to be under that account.

 

[labman]

^ math tells us there will be about 10 million numbers to guess the rest of your social...

 

[Sergeiko]

You sold something in a state where it can't be used. You both should have done more research. It's not like you can put all the blame on him, you're equally at fault.

I kind of feel bad. I was hoping the buyer would be savvy enough to hactivate the phone.
One thing I did mention on my eBay listing was that I was willing to jailbreak and unlock the phone upon request. The buyer preferred the phone to be unopened.

 

[Sergeiko]

^ math tells us there will be about 10 million numbers to guess the rest of your social...

Problem is, most bank/phone/utility/etc accounts that we have are accessible just having 4 digits

 

[Doc750]

take the money out of your paypal account. The guy knew what he was getting into. If he didn't, he just learned a lesson.

Let him open his paypal claim, just make sure there is no money in the account. Worst case scenario, you'll just end up opening a new paypal account.

buyer beware .....

 

[TMar]

I kind of feel bad. I was hoping the buyer would be savvy enough to hactivate the phone.
One thing I did mention on my eBay listing was that I was willing to jailbreak and unlock the phone upon request. The buyer preferred the phone to be unopened.

No bootrom exploit so the iphone 4 can't be hacktivated. He should have done research and not bought an unopened phone knowing that it couldn't have been activated. You as well should have done some to know that it had to be before anyone else could use it.

If your unwilling to give him the information to activate it then the two of you need to come to an agreement on getting the phone back to you so it can be activated. Then send it back to him. A lot of hassle when a little foreknowledge was needed.

 

[Myzhi]

I kind of feel bad. I was hoping the buyer would be savvy enough to hactivate the phone.
One thing I did mention on my eBay listing was that I was willing to jailbreak and unlock the phone upon request. The buyer preferred the phone to be unopened.

You can't hactivate IP4. At least, not yet.

 

[Sergeiko]

take the money out of your paypal account. The guy knew what he was getting into. If he didn't, he just learned a lesson.

Let him open his paypal claim, just make sure there is no money in the account. Worst case scenario, you'll just end up opening a new paypal account.

buyer beware .....

Too late. I wasn't anticipating any problems. My funds are suspended for the duration of the claim resolution.

 

[TMar]

take the money out of your paypal account. The guy knew what he was getting into. If he didn't, he just learned a lesson.

Let him open his paypal claim, just make sure there is no money in the account. Worst case scenario, you'll just end up opening a new paypal account.

buyer beware .....

Why because the OP shipped him a brick? I'll sell ya a car, you just can't have the keys.

 

[ericlin0122]

take the money out of your paypal account. The guy knew what he was getting into. If he didn't, he just learned a lesson.

Let him open his paypal claim, just make sure there is no money in the account. Worst case scenario, you'll just end up opening a new paypal account.

buyer beware .....

so you are saying don't bother the buyer... you do know paypal has your bank info, and you do know they can take money out of your bank. If you have no money in your bank, they do have your info to leave u bad credit and you will have problem getting any thing done in your real life.

Back to the topic, if you do say you can take refund in your listing, the buyer then can request it. (minus the shipping cost)

If not, it's not your responsibility to get the phone work for him since he is not living in US, and he do know it's locked to AT&T. I don't see any point of fixing this for him.