Don't buy AppleCare on Ebay

[ethical]

I'm sure this has already been asked a million times, but I dont want to read through the many many pages of this thread....

How come the eBay sellers can sell AppleCare for so cheap?

 

[ichiban06]

I'm sure this has already been asked a million times, but I dont want to read through the many many pages of this thread....

How come the eBay sellers can sell AppleCare for so cheap?

They supposedly receive a discount when buying in bulk and pass the saving to us.

I emailed a seller saying that I would pay $10 - $15 more if he would send me the box but he never replied back to me, they must love to recycle

 

[IronMac]

Hrmm...after reading through all of the posts here, it seems that the best option is simply to buy it from an Apple Store or authorized retailer, i.e. bricks & mortar. It seems that even the boxes on eBay might be suspect.

 

[Fishrrman]

RE: Don't buy AppleCare on Ebay

Source:
http://reviews.ebay.com/FAKE-APPLECARE-APPLE-CARE-A-warning-to-buyers_W0QQugidZ10000000011731235
----------
Similar to the iTunes codes scam, crafty sellers have been reselling fraudulent Apple Care codes online. These codes are obtained by either:

1. Key generators which generate codes or
2. Purchased via fraudulent credit cards

The best part is, Apple accepts the codes when you enter them online. You, the buyer are happy, and leave the seller a positive feedback. All good, right? Wrong.
After 1-2 months, Apple discovers that the code is invalid, and they revoke the registration - so your warranty is invalid. Additionally, you lose the ability to file a claim with PayPal since it's well beyond the 45 day claim period. So you've just lost hundreds of dollars for nothing.

Unscrupulous sellers are going one step ahead - they are printing authentic apple care boxes with the bogus code # in the package. These custom printed boxes do not have a serial # for the purchase (authentic boxes have the serial # outside) To complicate matters more, these sellers are powersellers - some with 10,000+ positive feedbacks! So what do you do to protect yourself?

Here's how to stay smart:
1. As soon as you receive your applecare code, call Apple customer service and verify that everything is ok. NEVER buy a code online if the seller will not give you the serial # of the box it came in - VERY IMPORTANT!
2. If you do receive a boxed package - check to see if the serial # is located outside. Call AppleCare and let them know the serial # and if it is valid.

Everyone loves to save money - when we were selling AppleCare for 5% below Apple's prices.. we always received questions like 'Why the hell is your applecare so expensive? I can buy it for $100 cheaper!' - well now you know why.

UPDATE:

Here is another method that sellers are taking advantage of customers. There are sellers who are buying real Applecare packages, opening the box - and then selling the codes to customers for half off. All good, right?

Not really, once the customer buys the product, receives the code and activates it - after a few months the seller applies for a refund on the AppleCare! (for the remaining months of warranty) The seller will get his/her money back, while the customer will lose any remaining warranty and will have no ability to get his/her money back from the seller.

If the customer contacts Apple, apple will ask to see a receipt and the serial # of the packaged box - obviously the customer has no such thing as the package was purchased under the seller's name - so only the seller will get his/her refund.

Guide ID: 10000000011731235Guide created: 04/25/09 (updated 07/14/09)

 

[ethical]

SNIP

Great post! I was going to buy my Apple Care on eBay but really dont think I will now. Damn, better start saving then..... I've got a year.lol

 

[nizmoz]

Well, you would think MacMan's warranty would be good enough right? NOPE!

I am now in dispute with him, as to get my money back. Per Apple the one he sold me was a Bootleg copy as they had to replace my laptop. They told me they would swap my AppleCare for me over, but then saw it was a Bootlegged copy of Applecare and wanted me to provide the box, etc. No wonder why this guy couldn't provide the box.

I hope Paypal comes through for me as this is ridiculous.

 

[GeekGirl*]

I recently bought AC from macman812, registered it and received a certificate from Apple within 30 minutes. My serial number is "covered" according to Apple's inquiry page. Because I was under the gun -- forgot my warranty was due to expire -- I made the purchase before discovering this topic.

With no prior knowledge of these scams, I chose macman from amongst the other sellers based on feedback from others who had purchased from him, and no reported problems from them. His response here gives me a little comfort, but I'm conscious that I still have the full protection afforded by PayPal (well, perhaps not) and my credit card company. We'll see how it shakes out.

Under the law, one has no recourse for having purchased stolen or counterfeit goods, so I don't expect anything to be forthcoming if problems do arise down the line.


However, as borne out by my own experience, and others here, Apple's administration of their purchase/warranty database is deficient.

I purchased a brand new Mac from a major authorized reseller, registered it, and received confirmation back. On a whim, I checked the Online Service Assistant to find that a few months had already ticked off the one year warranty? No worries, I have the paper receipt, but I still want to correct the record, and not have to purchase AC until closer to the one year mark.

Evidently, errors like this occur frequently enough that they already provide instructions on the site on how to correct a purchase date by submitting a proof of purchase. I don't like sending documents into a void, so I call to speak to a human, who can find no record of my registration(?!), but is happy to help. I later receive an email confirmation of the corrected date....but the OSA now shows that it is for the day prior, so they were apparently not content to short me at least one day of coverage.

So, record keeping is obviously not Apple's forte. It's no surprise that they can't keep track of an extended warranty when they have problems getting the basic warranty down in the first place, never mind with fraudulent extended warranties in the mix. A simple 15 digit numerical code is probably not too difficult to crack; I was surprised that that is all is required to register a plan. There is $10 shareware with tougher codes.

I wonder what the next inquiry will return? Not confidence inspiring.

I just bought a rev A ssd NEW from macmall when i checked the serial on line it said the warranty was good till Dec 23 2009, sent my receipt to them and now have the full year .

 

[Detektiv-Pinky]

Well, you would think MacMan's warranty would be good enough right? NOPE!

I am now in dispute with him, as to get my money back. Per Apple the one he sold me was a Bootleg copy as they had to replace my laptop. They told me they would swap my AppleCare for me over, but then saw it was a Bootlegged copy of Applecare and wanted me to provide the box, etc. No wonder why this guy couldn't provide the box.

I hope Paypal comes through for me as this is ridiculous.

Man, I still remember how MacMan argued that he is the trustworthy guy, without ever providing some convincing proof for his claims.

I really hope you get your money back. Paypal is very difficult to deal with!

The longer this goes on the more I think about sending some email to sjobs@apple.com...

 

[nizmoz]

Man, I still remember how MacMan argued that he is the trustworthy guy, without ever providing some convincing proof for his claims.

I really hope you get your money back. Paypal is very difficult to deal with!

The longer this goes on the more I think about sending some email to sjobs@apple.com...

I bet if you asked him to take a picture of all his AppleCare boxes stacked up he wouldn't do it.

 

[jpyc7]

Man, I still remember how MacMan argued that he is the trustworthy guy, without ever providing some convincing proof for his claims.

I really hope you get your money back. Paypal is very difficult to deal with!

The longer this goes on the more I think about sending some email to sjobs@apple.com...

Yeah, sounds like MacMan812 needs to go back on the bad seller list. Even if he refunds money, nizmoz might be out of the period of time for getting a replacement Applecare.

 

[nizmoz]

Yeah, sounds like MacMan812 needs to go back on the bad seller list. Even if he refunds money, nizmoz might be out of the period of time for getting a replacement Applecare.

Luckly my lappy is very new. But the fact remains that they wouldn't transfer it without proof. So I got screwed. Now MacMan is no where to be found and paypal is waiting on him.

 

[eddiehaskell]

I was going to buy AC on Ebay in a few weeks....glad I saw this thread first. I'll just pay with my credit card because they extend the manufacturer warranty an extra year for FREE.

 

[Macman812]

Yeah, sounds like MacMan812 needs to go back on the bad seller list. Even if he refunds money, nizmoz might be out of the period of time for getting a replacement Applecare.

Wow, how the tides turn. I am being blacklisted and I didn't even know I did anything wrong. I have had to refund a few people because Apple has changed how they enroll plans. Their change appears to be random, but they do occasionally ask for a serial # from the box. I am not sure who NIZMOZ is, but if you are due a refund, or you would like me to help fix an issue, I will be happy to do whatever necessary to make things right.

I am still selling many applecares and most are going through fine, if there is an issue with enrolling a plan, I either fix it with apple for my customer or I issue a full refund.

I am sorry if I have caused any of my customers any problems, but if a customer let me know of an issue, I always answered immediately, so maybe NIZMOZ is having an email problem or something of the sort, but I have no record of an unresolved issue. Please send me a private message and let me know what is going on.

 

[Music_Producer]

I do need to ask you to stop saying "no offense" when your throwing me under the bus. As to the last line of your quote above, should I not take offense to that?

You refer to people on this forum as ignorant fools and you expect them to listen to you and believe all you say? I think many people out here might be getting a bit tired of your condescending "sour grapes" attitude.

By the way, I will be listing sealed, boxed applecare on ebay and the cost will be only $25 more then my auctions for codes.

I'm still waiting for this deal. Any idea on when you will be posting this?

 

[GeekGirl*]

A boxed version is 113.00 shipped to your home on ebay I also used Macman in the past and never had any problems with his Applecare.

 

[DewGuy1999]

Wow, how the tides turn. I am being blacklisted and I didn't even know I did anything wrong. I have had to refund a few people because Apple has changed how they enroll plans. Their change appears to be random, but they do occasionally ask for a serial # from the box. I am not sure who NIZMOZ is, but if you are due a refund, or you would like me to help fix an issue, I will be happy to do whatever necessary to make things right.

I am still selling many applecares and most are going through fine, if there is an issue with enrolling a plan, I either fix it with apple for my customer or I issue a full refund.

I am sorry if I have caused any of my customers any problems, but if a customer let me know of an issue, I always answered immediately, so maybe NIZMOZ is having an email problem or something of the sort, but I have no record of an unresolved issue. Please send me a private message and let me know what is going on.

If you and the AppleCare you sell are legit then why don't you set a good example for the eBay community and provide the buyer with the boxed AppleCare w/serial number?

 

[Music_Producer]

If you and the AppleCare you sell are legit then why don't you set a good example for the eBay community and provide the buyer with the boxed AppleCare w/serial number?

Because he buys them from a 'distributor' who sells codes only. Read earlier posts - I'm a Apple reseller and I've confirmed that legitimate dealers and distributors do not have 'codes only' apple care - they have never even heard of it.

I've reminded people on this board that this is all a scam but not one person has paid attention - as long as they're saving $$, they'll buy anything.

 

[DewGuy1999]

Because he buys them from a 'distributor' who sells codes only. Read earlier posts - I'm a Apple reseller and I've confirmed that legitimate dealers and distributors do not have 'codes only' apple care - they have never even heard of it.

I've reminded people on this board that this is all a scam but not one person has paid attention - as long as they're saving $$, they'll buy anything.

Yeah, I've read this entire thread, thanks for contributing to it, but ultimately if this guy is for real maybe he'll put up or shut up. Irregardless of what takes place in this thread, I'll be buying my next AppleCare from a legitimate Reseller not eBay. As far as I'm concerned eBay can't be trusted for this kind of thing any longer. Back in '03 I bought AppleCare for my iMac from a seller on eBay. It was new in the box and I got everything mailed to me. The seller only had one copy, not hundreds and I believe it was legit. I saved a few bucks from full retail but nothing like what's going on now on eBay with the codes selling for less than approximately half the MSRP. At this point in time I say "Buyer Beware".

 

[Macman812]

I'm still waiting for this deal. Any idea on when you will be posting this?

I did post boxed applecare for a few weeks for $25 more then the codes, I sold 4 total, so whats the point. You are right that people want to save money, thats why the boxed version didn't sell.

Now when I get the boxed versions, i sell in bulk to one or 2 people, I don't need to list them as very few people bought them, Mostly I received people telling me I was too expensive, pretty similar as to what happened to you when you were selling them boxed.

If you and the AppleCare you sell are legit then why don't you set a good example for the eBay community and provide the buyer with the boxed AppleCare w/serial number?

I agree that buyer should beware, and now with apple occasionally requiring more info at enrollment, things may have to change. For now it still works well and offers a great savings. I have used my applecare codes on many different computers that had warranty issues and never had a problem (Music_Producer there is no reason to reply to this and tell me I am lying, we all expect that from you and its not necessary).

As far as selling boxed applecares with serial #s and all, if you read the above post, you will see that I did that and very few people were interested at $25 more then the codes, so i sold them directly to a vendor that I deal with.

I hope this clears a few things

 

[AdamLikesMusic]

I did post boxed applecare for a few weeks for $25 more then the codes, I sold 4 total, so whats the point. You are right that people want to save money, thats why the boxed version didn't sell.

Now when I get the boxed versions, i sell in bulk to one or 2 people, I don't need to list them as very few people bought them, Mostly I received people telling me I was too expensive, pretty similar as to what happened to you when you were selling them boxed.

Why were they $25 more expensive? There's no way to legitimately get a list of codes, so you, being a legitimate reseller, are surely already buying them boxed, yeah? Why does it cost $25 more to mail someone a box?

I wish Apple would take action in regards to this. It isn't right.

 

[DewGuy1999]

As far as selling boxed applecares with serial #s and all, if you read the above post, you will see that I did that and very few people were interested at $25 more then the codes, so i sold them directly to a vendor that I deal with.

I hope this clears a few things

Why $25 more? Why not a reasonable amount, say $3-5?

 

[Music_Producer]

I did post boxed applecare for a few weeks for $25 more then the codes, I sold 4 total, so whats the point. You are right that people want to save money, thats why the boxed version didn't sell.

Now when I get the boxed versions, i sell in bulk to one or 2 people, I don't need to list them as very few people bought them, Mostly I received people telling me I was too expensive, pretty similar as to what happened to you when you were selling them boxed.

Well I'm interested in buying a boxed version of AppleCare for the MacBook Pro .. since you're selling the code only version for $166 with free shipping - the boxed version would be $191 (adding $25)

How about you put it up on ebay? I'll buy it promptly.. in fact maybe other members out here would buy it as well. If you have a better price for the boxed version then I'm getting from Apple and their distributors, then I'd be a fool not to buy it from you!

Edit - PS. Can you post the item #s for the boxed AppleCares which sold?

Why $25 more? Why not a reasonable amount, say $3-5?

Maybe he is getting the codes from one distributor and the boxed ones from another distributor - and so the profit margin will vary accordingly. Also take into account ebay fees, listing fees, paypal fees blah blah blah..

 

[ethical]

Mac_Man, why cant you sell the codes like normal, but also include the serial# also when you send the buyer the usual code? That way you dont need to send any boxes so dont need to increase your prices by $25.

 

[DewGuy1999]

Maybe he is getting the codes from one distributor and the boxed ones from another distributor - and so the profit margin will vary accordingly. Also take into account ebay fees, listing fees, paypal fees blah blah blah..

That could be the case, but this was posted earlier in the thread:

I heard back from Macman and he said that he doesn't save the boxes and they are tossed once the code is used.

Curiouser and curiouser....

 

[Macman812]

Well I'm interested in buying a boxed version of AppleCare for the MacBook Pro .. since you're selling the code only version for $166 with free shipping - the boxed version would be $191 (adding $25)

How about you put it up on ebay? I'll buy it promptly.. in fact maybe other members out here would buy it as well. If you have a better price for the boxed version then I'm getting from Apple and their distributors, then I'd be a fool not to buy it from you!

Edit - PS. Can you post the item #s for the boxed AppleCares which sold?

Correct, I buy the codes from one source and the boxed version elsewhere, my costs are different. For now I am getting boxed applecare for macbook pro which I can sell for $210, I usually get between 5 and 20 a week.
As far as the auction for boxed applecare that I listed, the ebay auction # was 120428886694, as you can see, only 2 sold at $199 so it didn't really work out so well.

I am not sure how long that auction will be viewable on ebay so please check it right away as ebay gets rid of them after 2 or 3 months and you'll see this auction ran just a few days after i posted on the forum that I would be listing them.

That could be the case, but this was posted earlier in the thread:



Curiouser and curiouser....

As far as the boxes go, there have been times when I had boxes and sold just the codes from the box and honestly had only the enrollment code paper on hand just for the sake of ease of storage and filing (Try putting 20 applecare boxes in a desk drawer, just doesn't fit) then there have also been times that I have bought just the codes, about 1 to 2 hundred at a time. So boxes were not always available. As I posted pages and weeks and months ago, I have been selling these codes and/or boxes for years and up until recently when apple changed some policies, I have not had any problem at all.

I don't want people to think I am hiding something and feel the need to be upfront and honest with my customers.

Luckly my lappy is very new. But the fact remains that they wouldn't transfer it without proof. So I got screwed. Now MacMan is no where to be found and paypal is waiting on him.

I am not sure how I am no where to be found, up until this morning I didn't receive any information on this, Nizmoz emailed me last night finally in response to my email to him. As far as a bootleg applecare goes, that's ridiculous, Apple will not swap an applecare from one computer to the next without an invoice, it doesn't matter if you buy it from me or from an authorized reseller. His situation would have been easy to fix by me if given the opportunity and actually still can be fixed if he communicated with me.

The applecare I sold him worked perfectly on his computer, he was covered, then he had a problem with that computer and apple swapped it out, how is it my fault or the applecares fault that he had an issue with a lemon computer. Apples policy to not swap applecare without an invoice is what created his problem, I am sure that he told apple he bought it on ebay and the "bootleg" thing was the "genius's" response.

Even after all that, I have no idea why this guy thinks I am going to leave him hanging out to dry. It is beyond me.