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Being Held Hostage, What to do?

V

vexious

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 16, 2008
87
1
Ok so heres the deal. I bought applecare off ebay in good faith the other month. I got the key and registered it, but requested the actual box be shipped. He said ok, but a month later says he lost the package. I left him negative feedback and requested a refund, denied. Paypal refunded my money.

Ok heres the problem, I have his serial on my Macbook Pro, which warranty expires in a week. He has said that in 2 months hes going to process a refund to nullify my warranty.

So I contact apple to remove it from my computer and allow me to purchase it from them. They deny saying it cannot be removed from MY computer without the Proof of Purchase. This is ridiculous. Why the heck not? So I guess I'm going to have my 3,000 Macbook Pro with only 2 months warranty left. Shrug.

Any Ideas?
 
What's so important about the box? The keys the important part.

There really isn't much inside the box.
 
Scams are going on right now with eBay sellers doing exactly that.

It's possible that they somehow have broken the code and are selling codes without every buying AppleCare. Same thing happened with iTunes. There is a thread where someone reported this happening.

Does your AppleCare show through Apple.com as being registered on your Mac?

I would very carefully consider how to proceed. Would suck to not have coverage.

Good luck.
 
If he "lost the box" how is he going to prove he's the owner to Applecare anyhow, and get it removed from your account?

I think he's going to be the one hosed, unless he's a liar, and so forth.
 
digitard said:
If he "lost the box" how is he going to prove he's the owner to Applecare anyhow, and get it removed from your account?

I think he's going to be the one hosed, unless he's a liar, and so forth.
Click to expand...

Told me he lost the box hoping I'm guessing I would give up and just say ok and wait till the paypal claim window closed.
 
vexious said:
Told me he lost the box hoping I'm guessing I would give up and just say ok and wait till the paypal claim window closed.
Click to expand...

I've still got an AppleCare box after refunding my MBA at Apple Store: I was told it means absolutely nothing - it's just got some almost-useless software on a CD inside and little bit of documentation.
 
Have him send you documentation showing that he sold you the applecare with the serial number on a certain date, and certifying that he has lost the box, etc.

If he hasn't lost the box, and tries to get a refund, show the email to apple, and threaten to prosecute him for fraud.
 
The fact that you registered the code and then requested a refund is the part that doesn't sit right with me. You should have either accepted the fact that you couldn't get the box and perhaps requested a discount, or not have used the key in the first place. Since you can't remove the warranty from your computer your only option is to tell the seller to not process the refund, or to live without AppleCare on your computer.

clyde2801 said:
Have him send you documentation showing that he sold you the applecare with the serial number on a certain date, and certifying that he has lost the box, etc.

If he hasn't lost the box, and tries to get a refund, show the email to apple, and threaten to prosecute him for fraud.
Click to expand...
It's highly unlikely that the seller will bother, since the sale is already completed. What is the seller's obligation to the buyer after the point-of-sale unless he promised the buyer the box at the time at which the transaction occurred. Even still, the fact that the buyer used the code means that he effectively used the product, with the box only being the medium to get it. Also, what do you mean "threaten to prosecute him for fraud?" What grounds would the OP have to threaten the seller with or what evidence is there that anything criminal occurred? That would be an empty threat the would only be met with a stonewalling seller. Frankly I don't think there is anything that the OP can do that he hasn't already done, and in fact he might be best-served by backtracking on his request. This is just another case of buyer-beware.
 
vexious said:
Ok so heres the deal. I bought applecare off ebay in good faith the other month. I got the key and registered it, but requested the actual box be shipped. He said ok, but a month later says he lost the package. I left him negative feedback and requested a refund, denied. Paypal refunded my money.

Ok heres the problem, I have his serial on my Macbook Pro, which warranty expires in a week. He has said that in 2 months hes going to process a refund to nullify my warranty.

So I contact apple to remove it from my computer and allow me to purchase it from them. They deny saying it cannot be removed from MY computer without the Proof of Purchase. This is ridiculous. Why the heck not? So I guess I'm going to have my 3,000 Macbook Pro with only 2 months warranty left. Shrug.

Any Ideas?
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, did the original description promise a box?

It sounds like you want Apple to help you disentangle a mess that they had nothing to do with. You're exactly right, it's your computer but you have done several things to complicate the normal registration process. If you want to save a few bucks and go through a private sale, that's fine, but understand that you assume some risk for things not going as smoothly as they otherwise might. If you can't live those consequences, I'd suggest not going through that route in the future. Making a purchase on eBay and then expecting any kind of follow up service from the seller or Apple is risky.

I agree with the poster who said to contact the original seller, apologize for your hastiness, and ask him to leave things as-is.

Best of luck.
 
goMac said:
Why would you need proof of purchase?

Once AppleCare is added to the machine it doesn't matter who purchased the AppleCare, it's done.
Click to expand...
It's not necessarily done.

If you bought an activation code that some eBay seller hacked up, the code will work to register your AppleCare, but if someone in a store comes along and buys an AppleCare box that has the same activation code, there's a problem.

AppleCare will ask you to prove that your activation code is legit by making you show them proof-of-purchase from an authorized Apple reseller.

If you can't do that, they remove AppleCare from your Mac.
 
ebay is so lame. i used to sell stuff on it and some guy paid for my goods with a stolen credit card. it went through paypal. when they discovered it was a stolen credit card, they pulled the money out of my (the seller's) account! I was just fulfilling my end of the contract throgh ebay! It's ridiculous. The product was shipped to some guy in Lithuania by the time this all happened...
 
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