Sold iPhone on eBay, buyer can't activate in iTunes

[felt.]

Hi!

I sold an unlocked canadian iphone on ebay to an american and now he's messaging me saying iTunes is telling him it can't activate the phone.

the phone was unopened when I mailed it and I didn't send the microsim it came with since its for canada. What exactly will this person be required to do to get the phone in working order, assuming he doesn't currently have any contract with at&t and presumably doesn't want one, but just wants to be able to use it abroad with whatever local provider?

Looking around seems one of the solutions would be to find someone with a currently activated phone, pop in that persons sim, activate it, then give it back to them, is there any other way to go about this? thanks!

 

[r6girl]

He definitely needs a micro SIM, of course.

Ask if he's an existing AT&T customer or is using T-Mobile. If he's an existing AT&T customer, he can cut his current SIM to fit or he can go to AT&T and ask them for a micro SIM (they shouldn't charge him for one). If he cuts up a current active SIM, he needs to put that in the iPhone and then connect it to his computer and iTunes should recognize that it has an active SIM in it already. If he gets a new micro SIM, he can then go to this site to activate it under his current account (his old SIM will deactivate once this process is complete): https://www.wireless.att.com/activations/

I don't know what he needs to do to activate it with T-Mobile so hopefully someone else can chime in here if he's using T-Mobile.

 

[Resist]

Almost sounds like the buyer is trying to activate the iPhone without a sim card in it.

 

[hcho3]

Go figure... get a sim card.

 

[Applejuiced]

Tell him any sim will activate it.
He has to cut his from full size to microsim.
How much did you get for it if you dont mind me asking.

 

[sandylp]

My AT&T iPhone 5 doesn't have a sim card at all, although all of my prior iPhones had sim cards, and I've always used AT&T. UPDATE: I opened it again, and there IS a very tiny sim card in there!