Restoring Apple Watch Help?

[Odysee]

Hey guys,

Bought a Series 3 on eBay, came already reset, but it seems its still tied to the original owners Apple I.D.

I have contacted the owner and he says he is unsure what to do, and the Apple Watch is not tied to his account (He even provided me screenshots of his FindMy all without this being listed in there.

Is there anyway that I can use this? Please see the attached.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Looks like he sold you a stolen watch. It is useless as is. Get your money back.

 

[Odysee]

Ah gee - I knew it was going to be something like this.

Is there no way at all that I can restore this or have Apple remove it? If not, the Apple Watch is pretty much useless, I may aswell just throw it away (if I can't get my money back).

 

[Duncan68]

Ah gee - I knew it was going to be something like this.

Is there no way at all that I can restore this or have Apple remove it? If not, the Apple Watch is pretty much useless, I may aswell just throw it away (if I can't get my money back).

eBay has very good buyer protection-- I'm pretty sure you can get your money back.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Ah gee - I knew it was going to be something like this.

Is there no way at all that I can restore this or have Apple remove it? If not, the Apple Watch is pretty much useless, I may aswell just throw it away (if I can't get my money back).

Only way Apple will help is if you have the original proof of purchase, which you don’t.

 

[nickdalzell1]

This is why I prefer Amazon. I don't want to be caught with receiving stolen property or being screwed by folks on eBay.

 

[TimothyL]

It was obviously not the personal watch he’s trying to make it sound like it was. Definitely return it as restoring it will not erase the iCloud lock.

 

[PugMaster]

It’s not necessarily stolen. A lot of people sell or return Apple stuff without unlinking them first because they don’t know better. If the person you bought it from isn’t the person that it’s linked to, you are out of luck and have bought a paperweight, unfortunately. You can resell it for parts if you can’t return it.
If the watch is in lost mode, the activation lock screen looks different. This one is not in lost mode.

 

[Odysee]

It’s not necessarily stolen. A lot of people sell or return Apple stuff without unlinking them first because they don’t know better.

That's what happened here! All sorted now.