Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Cheated by seller - activated blocked by Itunes. what to do?

D

dyurlova

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 30, 2011
41
0
Moscow
Hi everyone,
I purchased iphone 4 on ebay. Seller claimed the item is brand new, never unused. But he lied! :( Someone was trying to activate the iphone but entered wrong details and apparently itunes blocked activation!
So now i can't activate whatsoever. I purcahsed activation sim but it didnt work :(
what to do now?
Any hacktivation tools? :eek:
thank you
 
dyurlova said:
Hi everyone,
I purchased iphone 4 on ebay. Seller claimed the item is brand new, never unused. But he lied! :( Someone was trying to activate the iphone but entered wrong details and apparently itunes blocked activation!
So now i can't activate whatsoever. I purcahsed activation sim but it didnt work :(
what to do now?
Any hacktivation tools? :eek:
thank you
Click to expand...

Go to a phone store selling iPhones. If you can't activate the phone, they won't get money off you, so they will be glad to help you. There is of course the risk that the phone you bought was stolen and they find out, in which case that's it.
 
Why don't you just return the phone and buy a new one from a more reputable seller, go through paypal disputes and explain in detail what happened. They are each handled by an actual person, and the chances of getting your money back are really high.
 
Dhelsdon said:
Why don't you just return the phone and buy a new one from a more reputable seller, go through paypal disputes and explain in detail what happened. They are each handled by an actual person, and the chances of getting your money back are really high.
Click to expand...

the thing is the seller is in USA and i am in Russia so i cant really go to the store...
I opened a case in ebay ... but second after seller sent them something they closed it with zero refund ... is there another way through paypal?
 
- Sign into eBay
- Go to Won/Purchased
- Find your iPhone purchase, press 'Resolve a problem'
- Select 'My item doesn't match the seller's description'

It will redirect you to the PayPal site after selecting the item number.

Then just follow those steps to complete a PayPal dispute which will take about 2 weeks but it will be worth it.
 
Dhelsdon said:
- Sign into eBay
- Go to Won/Purchased
- Find your iPhone purchase, press 'Resolve a problem'
- Select 'My item doesn't match the seller's description'

It will redirect you to the PayPal site after selecting the item number.

Then just follow those steps to complete a PayPal dispute which will take about 2 weeks but it will be worth it.
Click to expand...

Just opened a case. Is paypal more impartial organization while deciding about the dispute than ebay?
 
dyurlova said:
Just opened a case. Is paypal more impartial organization while deciding about the dispute than ebay?
Click to expand...

They're actually the same company. But PayPal ALWAYS sides with the buyer, even if they're lying (not saying you are, just that they don't care).
 
Actually I've won a few times against buyers who were scammers. If you have all the facts straight you should be ok.

Moral of the story: avoid ebay for high tech purchases (at least iphones). What a surprise: a seller who lied.
 
hackthatphone said:
Moral of the story: avoid ebay for high tech purchases (at least iphones). What a surprise: a seller who lied.
Click to expand...

Meh. I would argue that this is the exception rather than the rule, though any transaction between Russia and the USA deserves more scrutiny.

I have sold a dozen phones on eBay, several of them iPhones, without any hitch whatsoever...
 
ClutchThese said:
I stand corrected. I'll piggy back on what others said and file dispute. Provide pictures and all the info.
Click to expand...

Sorry, thought you were countering that price here is 1300USD.

Hmm about pictures ... what exactly could i picture as proof? The phone indeed came with no single scratch and with scratch proof transparent stickers etc. But there was sim card inside ....

Could anyone tell me how does it work there? When you buy in apple strore USA sim card is already inserted or you get sealed phone and sim-card comes separately?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I wonder if calling Apple Support in the USA would help? It's a long shot, but maybe they'd be able to assist you. Or even by email?
 
Xenc said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I wonder if somehow calling Apple Support would help? It's a long shot, but maybe they'd be able to assist you. Or even by email?
Click to expand...

how would i do this .. i tried to find some emails of customer support but before you get that you must create account in apple.com, which requires you to be american citizen and provide all the relevant information ... I was trying that way but ended up nowhere :(
 
arkitect said:
If you are in Russia then why not try registering here?
http://www.apple.com/ru/
Click to expand...
think i saw this page ... but thought they would provide technical support for products purchased directly from their resellers .... bang they say if you need technical support call your operator (provider of wireless services) .... obviously not applicable

MattZani said:
Don't AT&T iPhones come with a SIM pre-installed?
Click to expand...
I don't know .... It came to me like this ... I don't know if it's standard there
 
Last edited by a moderator:
SuperCachetes said:
Meh. I would argue that this is the exception rather than the rule, though any transaction between Russia and the USA deserves more scrutiny.

I have sold a dozen phones on eBay, several of them iPhones, without any hitch whatsoever...
Click to expand...

I gotta agree here, I've also bought several high tech phones and other devices on eBay, the thing is to buy from sellers with good reputation and that's it :D
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F5153d Safari/6533.18.5)

Are you activating it with a US iTunes account? You can only activate an AT&T iPhone with a US iTunes account, unless you unlock it. It won't activate with a Russian account. That night be what the error you're getting is.
 
dyurlova said:
this seller have 205 feedbacks and 99.1% rating
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...aute_couture_connection&ftab=FeedbackAsSeller
u will see even my feedback there as positive ... before i figured out what's going on
Click to expand...
Personally I do not think the seller tried to cheat you.
They sold you a locked AT&T iPhone.
You should have made sure it was in fact unlocked before you bought it.
The seller said on the listing:
IT WAS GIVEN TO ME FROM MY PARENTS AND I AM ON THEIR AT&T PLAN, SO I AM UNSURE IF IT IS UNLOCKED.
Click to expand...

A hard lesson to have learnt. :(

Edit:
It seems the seller was as naive as you in this. They sold a USD690+ item to a buyer overseas with no previous eBay history… yikes!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back