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or do nothing of the sort, take your money and buy some beers or whatever. you did nothing wrong, or dishonest, and if the buyer tries to tarnish your ebay feedback, go after him. it's not worth the effort to correct someone's buyers remorse. he knew what he was buying and bought it. you sold it. you're done.

+1

Inform inform him very plainly that he received the phone as it was advertised and that if he wants the phone unlocked he needs to PayPal you $75 for that privilege.

These are two separate transactions; the first was for a locked AT&T phone, the second is an unlock process. He is not asking you to do something unreasonable, however he is not offering to pay you for it and perhaps he does not realize that an unlocked phone is worth more than he paid. Give him that option and put the ball back in his court.

BJ
 
eBay doesn't give options here, he has way more options (read: recourses) than you. Pretend this was a legal battle, would you pay $150 to get away unscathed? Cause if you fight for more money from this buyer, it will cost more than you are hoping to win.

You've got two effective options:

Plead ignorance and accept a return for a 'non functioning' item and resell, hoping you get the fees back (other than shipping) and try again

Grant the unlock request at no cost


The choice comes down to the value of your time
 
eBay doesn't give options here, he has way more options (read: recourses) than you. Pretend this was a legal battle, would you pay $150 to get away unscathed? Cause if you fight for more money from this buyer, it will cost more than you are hoping to win.

You've got two effective options:

Plead ignorance and accept a return for a 'non functioning' item and resell, hoping you get the fees back (other than shipping) and try again

Grant the unlock request at no cost


The choice comes down to the value of your time

The item was as described. The buyer has no argument whatsoever.
 
eBay doesn't give options here, he has way more options (read: recourses) than you. Pretend this was a legal battle, would you pay $150 to get away unscathed? Cause if you fight for more money from this buyer, it will cost more than you are hoping to win.

You've got two effective options:

Plead ignorance and accept a return for a 'non functioning' item and resell, hoping you get the fees back (other than shipping) and try again

Grant the unlock request at no cost


The choice comes down to the value of your time

I agree. I wouldn't try to get the buyer to pay more to get it unlocked because he could easily dispute that after the fact. Personally, I'd ask for it back, get it unlocked, and re-sell at the 8-9 weeks mark, when prices of the 5s will peak before dropping again.
 
It would take less than 1 minute to submit an unlock request. Do it. Send any email results to the buyer. End of story.
 
Stand your ground. You have the factual history of the transaction on your side.
 
Unless you need all 5 unlocks per year, just unlock it. One less locked iPhone out there. By leaving it locked you are only doing AT&T a favor here. Trying to get more money out of this is not going to be worth the hassle.

I know people here will disagree with me but I hate the entire idea of having phones locked to carriers so I think it should be unlocked on principle (the principle being: if a phone can be unlocked, it should be unlocked, especially if it's free and easy to do so).
 
Looks like OP was trying to pull a fast one on the buyer

Did you even read the original post?

Long story short, I did not ask AT&T to unlock it when I decided to sell it and the eBay listing did not indicate the phone was unlocked. It was listed as being on AT&T.

It was listed as being on AT&T. Default expectation should be that the phone is locked.

OP, you don't owe the buyer anything. I wouldn't do it unless they pay you and I would contest if they leave you negative feedback.
 
This is why I use Craigslist with local cash purchase only and a throwaway phone number. Once the transaction is done, I "burn" the phone number so there is no chance of the buyer ever finding me again.

Go ahead and unlock the phone but consider this a lesson learned and move on.

Can you explain how to do this with the phone number?
 
So I sold my 5S when I purchased my 6+. This phone was on AT&Ts Next Plan and I originally didn't know if I'd turn it in or sell it on my own. Long story short, I did not ask AT&T to unlock it when I decided to sell it and the eBay listing did not indicate the phone was unlocked. It was listed as being on AT&T. HUGE shame on me for not taking a few minutes to submit an unlock request and list it as unlocked. Anyway, fast forward a few weeks later and now the buyer is asking I unlock the phone. I went on eBay and saw how dumb I was and see that devices listed as unlocked sell for $75-$100 more.



So should I ask (or even can I ask) the buyer to compensate me for unlocking the phone? Also, the buyer has not given any feedback to me for this transaction (or any eBay purchases he's made in the past). Should I ask that he provide positive feedback as well? I don't know if he'd complain to eBay about me asking for more money or not. I like to consider myself a nice guy but don't want to give that away for free, especially to this buyer.



Any advice would be appreciated.


No ignore they buyer. If he files a item not as described dispute he will loose. Don't even respond to him.
 
So I sold my 5S when I purchased my 6+. This phone was on AT&Ts Next Plan and I originally didn't know if I'd turn it in or sell it on my own. Long story short, I did not ask AT&T to unlock it when I decided to sell it and the eBay listing did not indicate the phone was unlocked. It was listed as being on AT&T. HUGE shame on me for not taking a few minutes to submit an unlock request and list it as unlocked. Anyway, fast forward a few weeks later and now the buyer is asking I unlock the phone. I went on eBay and saw how dumb I was and see that devices listed as unlocked sell for $75-$100 more.

So should I ask (or even can I ask) the buyer to compensate me for unlocking the phone? Also, the buyer has not given any feedback to me for this transaction (or any eBay purchases he's made in the past). Should I ask that he provide positive feedback as well? I don't know if he'd complain to eBay about me asking for more money or not. I like to consider myself a nice guy but don't want to give that away for free, especially to this buyer.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Your mistake, his gain. But you should unlock it and forget how it was listed. It was lack of communication on both your part. He assumed unlocked, now you want to gain more money from it after it was sold. Do the right thing and make the call to ATT and suck up the difference.
 
Take the high road and do the right thing...Just unlock it for him and move on. There is no "this is the problem with eBay" BS....there is nothing wrong with eBay, if you pay attention and expectations are set going into a sale (or buy). I've sold over 10k items on eBay and have NEVER had an encounter that couldnt be resolved with simple communication, either with ebay or the buyer/seller.
 
Your mistake, his gain. But you should unlock it and forget how it was listed. It was lack of communication on both your part. He assumed unlocked, now you want to gain more money from it after it was sold. Do the right thing and make the call to ATT and suck up the difference.

How is it a mistake? OP listed it as AT&T, ergo it's locked to AT&T.

As far as I can tell now the buyer wants to have his cake and eat it too.
 
Take the high road and do the right thing...Just unlock it for him and move on. There is no "this is the problem with eBay" BS....there is nothing wrong with eBay, if you pay attention and expectations are set going into a sale (or buy). I've sold over 10k items on eBay and have NEVER had an encounter that couldnt be resolved with simple communication, either with ebay or the buyer/seller.

The buyer's scheme to try to get the OP to unlock it without paying more for it (by bidding on an unlocked iPhone) does not require the OP to "do the right thing."
 
Take the high road and do the right thing...Just unlock it for him and move on. There is no "this is the problem with eBay" BS....there is nothing wrong with eBay, if you pay attention and expectations are set going into a sale (or buy). I've sold over 10k items on eBay and have NEVER had an encounter that couldnt be resolved with simple communication, either with ebay or the buyer/seller.

Exactly, thank you! This is what I would do.

----------

How is it a mistake? OP listed it as AT&T, ergo it's locked to AT&T.

As far as I can tell now the buyer wants to have his cake and eat it too.

I can understand your vantage point, you must also be a seller?
 
what you, and apparently a LOT of people also are not understanding, is that there was nothing unclear or miscommunicated. he sold a locked AT&T phone on ebay, he described it as such. he's not doing the wrong thing by telling him to go jump in a lake either. It's not OPs responsibility at this point. he described, and sold his iPhone completely correctly, buyer either didn't read, or is trying to take advantage, and that is not OPs responsibility. there was nothing misrepresented here.

Take the high road and do the right thing...Just unlock it for him and move on. There is no "this is the problem with eBay" BS....there is nothing wrong with eBay, if you pay attention and expectations are set going into a sale (or buy). I've sold over 10k items on eBay and have NEVER had an encounter that couldnt be resolved with simple communication, either with ebay or the buyer/seller.
 
I would say in this situation, you have to give the benefit of the doubt to the buyer, and go ahead and unlock. Just remember this experience for next time. The time you would spend trying to get another $75 out of it (or less because of all the fees if you try to resell it) and possibility of negative feedback just isn't worth it. Just go ahead and unlock it and move on (and politely ask for a positive feedback since you went above and beyond).
 
how is explicitly stating in an ebay ad that it is locked to AT&T a lack of communication?????????? he ****ASSUMED**** it was unlocked, the ad said it was locked to AT&T. that is Buyers fault. period. OP is not trying to "gain more money after it was sold" -- if anything OP should direct buyer to AT&Ts website, and wash his hands of this nonsense. if you can't ****ing read well enough to know what you're buying on the internet, get off the internet. jesus.

suck up the difference. wow. don't ever go in to business for yourself my man.

Your mistake, his gain. But you should unlock it and forget how it was listed. It was lack of communication on both your part. He assumed unlocked, now you want to gain more money from it after it was sold. Do the right thing and make the call to ATT and suck up the difference.
 
Well after sending a few emails back and forth with the buyer I think a contributing factor was his lack of understanding of the English language.

I explained to him earlier that asking for a device to be unlocked that wasn't sold as unlocked and not having provided feedback was asking a lot. He has since provided positive feedback and I've submitted a request to AT&T to have it unlocked.

I definitely learned a lesson for next time.
 
that should be the absolute extent of your involvement after the sale of a clearly represented auction.

I've submitted a request to AT&T to have it unlocked.

I definitely learned a lesson for next time.
 
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