You know, Apple had a contact link specifically for Apple ID help. Maybe they would just reset the password with some convincing. http://www.apple.com/support/appleid/contact/
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Dear Mr Cook
- Thread starter sistagirl
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I really don't understand why you would send Tim Cook an email about how your brother messed up typing his email in, as it is his fault.
On the other hand, this could be a bug that needs addressed in order to be fixed.
Edit: Some people should just stick to "dumb phones".
- Kyle
On the other hand, this could be a bug that needs addressed in order to be fixed.
Edit: Some people should just stick to "dumb phones".
- Kyle
He can reset his ordinary emailaddress. That is not the issue..
The issue is that as you can see on the photo I attached he has a unregistered and misspelled email address as his apple ID.
He does not know why he has a hotmail.vom adress and not his normal hotmail.com which he still can access on any computer..
Can the Apple ID be accessed and managed at http://appleid.apple.com and what email addresses do you see associated with it there?
Excellent point. This could actually work, if that email was accepted into their system then you should be able to login through the given link, given you know the password to the messed up email that was accepted.
From there, you can change the email address associated with the AppleID.
His hotmail.com address is manageable but not this hotmail.vom address.
and there are no other addresses associated with the hotmail.com, his true iCloud.
And nothing about the ".vom" address appears associated with the the regular Apple ID when you go to manage it and see all the email addresses and other information associated with it?
Would any information at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5622 be of some help? Perhaps there's something there that might help explain what might have happened and/or how things can be changed?
No the .vom is news to him and is not associated with his apple id.
Scrolled through the link you provided but our problem was not listen.
Appreciate the help though...
it's 4 am over here need to get 4 hours sleep before work...
Will catch up with future replies when I get to the office...
Thank you all for the feedback
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If you want to get in contact with him, he has a twitter @tim_cook
well thank you!!
If you have Find my iPhone enabled, and goto wipe your phone the proper way, it disables this feature.
If your phone is wiped before this feature is turned off, then the next time someone sets up your phone, they will need to know your appleid and password, otherwise the phone won't finish the setup process.
After a couple of Chats with Apple support I was reassured that the problem was not anything my brother created but an issue with Ios7. Others have experienced the same problem. a manager is handling now handling the matter. The same matter the genius bar was unable to solve I might add.
To be continued!
To be continued!
A low level retail employee can't just override a security feature....
That would be astronomically stupid.
for some reason same thing has happened to my id on apple.com forum, I registered with 2 different id's and they seemed to have resetted the password for both of them, now when I click reset password they don't send any email or a new password, Apple is really bad when it comes to customer support.
Then I wonder what's the point with the genius bar and their support. They cannot just look at a phone and hand it back without starting an investigation of some sort. at least the phone support connected me to other with more know how--
I really don't think it is a bug! C and V are next to each other on the keyboard, meaning they can easely get mistyped one for the other! Question is, how is that email address activated to be used on iTune account?
Others may have experienced similar situations but I don't think it's on iOS' end.
My guess as to what happened:
In a hurry to use the new iPhone/iOS, your brother mistakenly created a new AppleID (rather than signing in with his existing one) and in the process mistyped it. C is directly next to V on QWERTY keyboards, .com/.vom misspellings are not uncommon. Assuming this is what happened though he would have also setup a password, which may or may not have been misspelled, and I think (haven't setup an AppleID on iOS in a while) security questions. All in all a very easy and innocent mistake, I'm sure Apple gets at least a hundred or so calls about this every day, even before iOS 7 was released.
In regards to the Genius Bar:
The device activation being tied to an AppleID (likely the one your brother accidentally created) is a highly touted new security feature. When a device is setup correctly, using either an existing or new AppleID based on the end users needs, it requires an AppleID in order to activate following a restore. As someone who was a Genius for several years I get the feeling that the majority of Genii will be at least hesitant to replace a device that is asking for an unknown (to the customer) AppleID. It looks a bit shady. In your situation I think working your way up to from the Genius to the Lead Genius (think Genius team manager) and then to the store manager may have been possible since it's an obvious misspelling and I'm assuming you could show some sort of proof of purchase. Then again, it's security feature so your luck would wholly depend on your attitude and how they perceive your situation.
My advice for resolution:
Have your brother try signing into appleid.apple.com with the .VOM email address, using whatever passwords he can think of. It doesn't matter that it's not "his real AppleID", it's still a valid AppleID since he went through the process (intentionally or not) of creating it. The same password that lets him into that site using .VOM info will work for activating the iPhone. Assuming he gets into the site he should then move to activate his iPhone, then immediately change his AppleID from the .VOM one to the .COM one on his iPhone to prevent this from happening again.
Alternately, if he absolutely cannot get into the .VOM account on appleid.apple.com then your best bet is creating a strong case with AppleCare. Provide whatever proof of purchase you have, explain that the two email addresses are obviously very similar and obviously a misspelling, offer to take it into an Apple store where you can log into the proper (.COM) AppleID to verify you're the owner, etc. Push the issue that you understand the security side of this but that you're clearly the owner and shouldn't be punished by an irreversible lockout based on a spelling error by your teenage brother.
Apple will help. No need to email Tim Cook, it's not a "bug" with iOS, just an unfortunate mistake by your brother.
My guess as to what happened:
In a hurry to use the new iPhone/iOS, your brother mistakenly created a new AppleID (rather than signing in with his existing one) and in the process mistyped it. C is directly next to V on QWERTY keyboards, .com/.vom misspellings are not uncommon. Assuming this is what happened though he would have also setup a password, which may or may not have been misspelled, and I think (haven't setup an AppleID on iOS in a while) security questions. All in all a very easy and innocent mistake, I'm sure Apple gets at least a hundred or so calls about this every day, even before iOS 7 was released.
In regards to the Genius Bar:
The device activation being tied to an AppleID (likely the one your brother accidentally created) is a highly touted new security feature. When a device is setup correctly, using either an existing or new AppleID based on the end users needs, it requires an AppleID in order to activate following a restore. As someone who was a Genius for several years I get the feeling that the majority of Genii will be at least hesitant to replace a device that is asking for an unknown (to the customer) AppleID. It looks a bit shady. In your situation I think working your way up to from the Genius to the Lead Genius (think Genius team manager) and then to the store manager may have been possible since it's an obvious misspelling and I'm assuming you could show some sort of proof of purchase. Then again, it's security feature so your luck would wholly depend on your attitude and how they perceive your situation.
My advice for resolution:
Have your brother try signing into appleid.apple.com with the .VOM email address, using whatever passwords he can think of. It doesn't matter that it's not "his real AppleID", it's still a valid AppleID since he went through the process (intentionally or not) of creating it. The same password that lets him into that site using .VOM info will work for activating the iPhone. Assuming he gets into the site he should then move to activate his iPhone, then immediately change his AppleID from the .VOM one to the .COM one on his iPhone to prevent this from happening again.
Alternately, if he absolutely cannot get into the .VOM account on appleid.apple.com then your best bet is creating a strong case with AppleCare. Provide whatever proof of purchase you have, explain that the two email addresses are obviously very similar and obviously a misspelling, offer to take it into an Apple store where you can log into the proper (.COM) AppleID to verify you're the owner, etc. Push the issue that you understand the security side of this but that you're clearly the owner and shouldn't be punished by an irreversible lockout based on a spelling error by your teenage brother.
Apple will help. No need to email Tim Cook, it's not a "bug" with iOS, just an unfortunate mistake by your brother.
Even if he somehow managed to mistype his email and it set up he should know the password he put in there, the security questions he set up etc.
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No it isn't. There is absolutely about this that is hardware. Battery didn't die and cause this. It isn't the result of a dead logic board etc.
It is 100% software. And an issue that was discussed as far back as WWDC and mentioned in tons of blogs. Including the detail that it works after wiping the phone so there's no way around it.
So there is nothing to justify a store or Apple Care having to swap the phone over this. And in terms of tech support they can't. Their systems are blocked so you can't even save a battery replacement repair without the customer removing that lock. If you can't remove it, sorry out of luck. I got to hear a cx cuss out a manager because there is no way for her to override it just two days ago. So a store would have to swap it retail and take a hit for any policy issues. Especially since they don't carry the 5 anymore so they would have to bump this kid up to a 5c or a 5s (you can bet it would be the C. No store would eat the more popular model over this)
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The point of the Genius Bar is to deal with accidental damage, defective hardware and usage questions. Not to help folks bypass security features that are working the way they were designed.
And as Apple is the king of the page hit, if this really was a known issue with iOS 7 beyond folks having just forgotten their password (ie more folks somehow have an illegit username they can't get around) we would know about it. I suspect this manager is referring to the more general password issue or blowing smoke up your butt in some attempt to calm you down. Good luck with them being able to do something.
Not the "v" being in place of the "c", but rather the system accepting the invalid email address (with a .vom rather than a .com)
Your question is the bug that I was referring too. Read before you post
Way back in the day, when hotmail was more popular you could have basically anything as an Apple ID. I've heard stories of folks giving themselves ID names that had @apple.com in them thinking that would be cool. What they didn't realize is that if your id was an email address it would send your receipts etc to that addy as well as the one you put in as your email. And John Smith who works over at the Dallas Apple store was getting your private info since johnsmith@apple.com is his work issues email address. Since he could prove it was his email your id would be frozen until you changed the user name as it's a huge privacy issue. Eventually they barred any Apple ID from having that suffix
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But not a current one. So it's safe to say while you mean well you may know as much about current policy as those stock analysts
I was in a store not two days ago. Overheard a cx in this same boat yelling at the head manager of the whole store who said very plainly that unless the customer can turn off that feature by putting in the correct password etc there is nothing they can do. They can't swap it, return it or even trade it in. Guy even said he was going to go outside and ***** smash it, soak it in water etc so they can't turn it on and the manager said that their systems know the device is signed in so that would be no good and you can't return damaged goods or recycle a device that doesn't power on etc.
He was told to call Apple Care to see if they can assist him with a password reset but if they can't there is still nothing they can do.
And the current genius I am dating confirmed this is correct it is blocked in their systems with zero overrides and talk is that a store manager that retail swaps without corporate telling him/her to do it just fired themselves. That's how serious they are about this
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We don't know how long this id has existed to really know if it's a bug or just that's the way it could be done at the time it was set up
Your brother needs to attempt to sign into the .vom account with the password he used during registration. If that does not work, he needs to attempt to login using misspelled passwords. If that fails, he might need to try to recover his passcode.
Patience serves as a protection against wrongs
-Leonardo da Vinci
Patience serves as a protection against wrongs
-Leonardo da Vinci
Bad suggestion. About four or so of those and the system will disable the account thinking someone is trying to hack it
You don't have many alternatives if AppleCare and the Genius Bar say they can't help.
I heard a bricked iPhone is a good paper weight.
False, after three attempts it moves to the "reset your password" process. If you click back to the AppleID.Apple.com start page you can restart the process. Just tested with 12 incorrect passwords, no ill effects.
True, but as someone with dozens of contacts still behind the bar, multiple tiers of AppleCare and at corporate I can assure you I still have a higher knowledge of policy than stock analysts.
Apple has always pushed AppleCare (your Genius partner technically works for AppleCare) to make customers happy, either by doing the "right" thing or going above and beyond the expected outcome. What this person is requesting (a way to bypass the misspelled activation lock since they have clear ownership of the device) isn't outside reason, and Apple will acknowledge this. Does Apple HAVE to appease them? Of course not, but Apple will try to find a solution. There ARE policies in place to prevent replacement based solely on this situation but any Genius or manager with even a shred of creativity could bypass those policies. Will there be repercussions? Possibly but extremely doubtful unless dozens of these phones (in a span of a few days/weeks) make it back to processing under the same employees name.
And lest we forget, every store is different. Policies go corporate wide, but do you really think every single one is adhered to by every single employee?
edit:
Heck, think back to the days of the original iPhone and how liquid damage policies were in place. You couldn't even buy a service replacement, you were forced to buy a new (unsubsidized) iPhone. If you spilled water on that one you literally couldn't buy another one until your contract with AT&T was up. Sounds a bit unfair right? See how long it lasted? Moving forward several months you could now buy a service replacement through the Genius Bar for $199. This was a lot more fair but the public still insisted that the price was crazy since new iPhones cost the same, keeping in mind the public is typically ignorant of subsidization. Then came the outcry that "humidity" could cause the LSI (Liquid Submersion Indicators) to falsely trip. I tested this personally, it took water sitting directly on top of an indicator about 10 minutes to work its way through the membrane and change to red. But good ol' Apple bargained by changing policy yet again, changing the term to LCI (Liquid Contact Indicator) and agreeing that the exterior indicators weren't enough to void warranty replacement, an internal one had to be tripped as well.
My point with that is don't be so quick to assume "If someone swaps one of these locked phones" that they'll be fired within minutes. At worst they will be questioned by their direct management (very doubtful corporate would get involved unless it was a LOT of phones) as to why they did so. If management is decent (again, store to store) and the Genius has a good reason (saw proof of purchase, clearly spelling mistake) then it's very doubtful they would get in any sort of trouble. This is what happened a lot before those liquid damage policies changed, by Genii and management alike, and now you see the much more lax policies of today. This is simply a growing pain for change.
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