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Sold my MBP on eBay. Guy claims the optical drive is broken. NEED ADVICE AND HELP.

angemon89

angemon89

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 5, 2008
1,849
111
Northern CA
Ok, so I sold my MBP on eBay about 2 weeks ago. Everything worked fine. I restored and and sent it on it's way across the country. I took it to the UPS store, had them pack, insure, track and signature confirmation the package.

The guy gets my MBP and claims that the optical drive doesn't work. This is what he wrote me earlier today:

I can't get the CD/DVD rom to work. I took it in to a local mac store for repairs and they said I need a receipt. Can you send me the receipt via us mail. I guess it broke during shipping. If you need money for the stamp and your time I be happy to help you out. Thanks for checking on your item. Mike

Is this true that the Apple store requires receipt? Not once when I had to take my Mac or iPod/iPhone to the genius bar have they ever asked for the receipt. The serial was plenty enough from what I remember.

The MBP is still under warranty for another 7 months. It is the latest model MBP(penryn) which I purchased the day it came out.

I don't know what to do from here. What should I write back to the guy? Who do I contact about this? Can UPS do anything? Do they really need a receipt to fix something like this?

I'm not even sure if he's telling the truth either because it was packed extra careful by me and by UPS. I even paid for the "delicate package" packaging option.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm kind of freaking out over here.
 
I've never heard of post-purchase scamming before. Much less from the buyer.

Tell him to send you a video of it not working. You have his money, he has your computer. The deal is over unless you want to help him out if it is indeed broken. So you get one negative feedback if it isn't. Big deal. Did you specifically state that you'd guarantee against DOA? If not, it's his problem.

Or you're lying and it didn't work when you sold it, but that's an idiotic assumption on my part. You wouldn't have any need to freak out about it if you meant for it to happen! I just thought that I'd shoot down the other side before others assume that you're a liar.
 
If the problem is legitimate then tell him to take it to the Apple store, run the serial # to see it's still under warranty and have them fix it... You did everything on your side of the transaction, including having UPS pack and insure. I don't know what else you could do.
 
Lol, no I'm not lying I used the optical drive to re-install a fresh copy of Leopard right before I sold it to him.


So, the receipt isn't required right?

Also, he said "mac store." Not sure if it's an official Apple retail store either.
 
Why not just photocopy your original receipt, black out your details and accounts etc etc and send him a copy of the receipt??
I don't see the problem with giving him a copy of the receipt at all
 
sbf74 said:
Why not just photocopy your original receipt, black out your details and accounts etc etc and send him a copy of the receipt??
Click to expand...

Yeah, I could do that... however, I don't see why he even needs the receipt. The receipt has no information that you can't find out from System Profiler. And if you type in the serial number on Apples support page it tells you the purchase date.

If he insists on the receipt then I guess I'll do that.
 
but at the sametime you can end this headache by sending a copy f the receipt. I would just do that, and be done with it. Black out any info if need be.
 
Yeah...

Just black out any personal info and send the damn receipt. He purchased it from you, you have no need for the receipt anymore.

Although it is weird that he's requesting it, he doesn't seem to be making a big to do about anything.
 
I sent a copy to him. I also asked if he took it to an official Apple retail store because they usually do not require receipts, only the serial number.
 
The "Mac Store" is not an Apple retail store, its a bunch of brick and mortar Apple resellers in the greater Seattle area.
 
Whoa, some terrible advice being passed around here.

Firstly - I have been scammed post-sale by a buyer on eBay. He received the laptop (a thinkpad) and claimed it was broken. He filed a SNAD claim and ebay held my money. He then told me that I could pay him all the charges (the listing fee I would be losing, shipping etc) or he would return it at my expense. Took me for an extra $200 on a perfectly good computer.

Secondly - since he is not the original owner of the computer, hell yes they will ask for a receipt. Apple doesn't want to be servicing a stolen computer. They do ask sometimes and since he doesn't have it, you should give it to him! Its not about the information on the receipt, its proof that he owns the machine.

Give him the receipt, that's a given. You should have included it with the computer. You are extremely lucky he's being so candid about this, hell he even offered to buy you a stamp. It doesn't sound like you're being scammed here, it sounds like you scammed him (not intentionally, but if I were the buyer I'd be worried right now).
 
well now I'm freaking out because the guy I bought my mbp from on macrumors never gave me a receipt and I have no way of contacting him (him gypped me on a $40 refund, haven't heard from him since)
 
@OP: Even if you black out the retails, the guy will see your information on the repair receipt he gets.

thechidz said:
well now I'm freaking out because the guy I bought my mbp from on macrumors never gave me a receipt and I have no way of contacting him (him gypped me on a $40 refund, haven't heard from him since)
Click to expand...

There is nothing to worry about; Apple will support you; they have no reason not to.
 
taylorwilsdon said:
Whoa, some terrible advice being passed around here.

Firstly - I have been scammed post-sale by a buyer on eBay. He received the laptop (a thinkpad) and claimed it was broken. He filed a SNAD claim and ebay held my money. He then told me that I could pay him all the charges (the listing fee I would be losing, shipping etc) or he would return it at my expense. Took me for an extra $200 on a perfectly good computer.

Secondly - since he is not the original owner of the computer, hell yes they will ask for a receipt. Apple doesn't want to be servicing a stolen computer. They do ask sometimes and since he doesn't have it, you should give it to him! Its not about the information on the receipt, its proof that he owns the machine.

Give him the receipt, that's a given. You should have included it with the computer. You are extremely lucky he's being so candid about this, hell he even offered to buy you a stamp. It doesn't sound like you're being scammed here, it sounds like you scammed him (not intentionally, but if I were the buyer I'd be worried right now).
Click to expand...



I agree with this guy. When I sold my mac-mini, I put the receipt in the box, along with the applecare enrollment certificate. If I bought a computer and the seller had those items, I'd expect them to do the same.

Really, there's not much he could do with the information on the receipt - he should have most all of it already, and what he didn't have he could have got from ebay. It's not like the last 4 digits of your credit card number aren't also present on those Starbucks receipts you throw in the trash on the street corner. What were you so worried about?
 
I sold a macbook to a friend. I called apple and asked how to transfer the applecare. They asked for his name and email and said, "that's it, we got it".

My point is, somehow the warranty has to be transfered.
 
I've been an eBay member for 7 years, in my opinion, it's legitimate. Even if the drive isn't broken, he might just want the receipt. Send it!

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. Just to be sure in my reply I would put "Hi, sorry to hear - it was definitely working when I shipped it to you because that's how I did a clean install." etc.

AppleMatt
 
okay, I am an applecare agent and this is how you want to go about doing it.

If you cannot send a receipt tell him just to call 1-800-APL-CARE, we have no need for a receipt unless there is a purchase date dispute. We can also arrange for a repair on said item.
 
angemon89 said:
Lol, no I'm not lying I used the optical drive to re-install a fresh copy of Leopard right before I sold it to him.


So, the receipt isn't required right?

Also, he said "mac store." Not sure if it's an official Apple retail store either.
Click to expand...

That's the issue. He's not scamming you (how could he?). He just went to some store who told him without a receipt we can't do anything. Tell him to go to call Apple, they'll tell him where to go.
 
You are dramatically overeacting. You transferred ownership so transfer the receipt. Thank god you aren't being asked for a refund!
 
I got a response back from him, this is what he said.

That picture looked great but the salesman laughed at me when I printed it out and showed it to him. Please send receipt Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please. The laptop is broke and I can't fix it myself.

I urged him to go to an official Apple store but he just ignored that. Now I'm thinking nothing is even wrong with the MacBook Pro, he just wants the receipt for some reason.

Yeah, you're right mrwizard, there's nothing that personal on the receipt, just my name, email and last 4 of my credit card.

Do you guys think I should just send it without blacking out anything? Any consequences that we haven't thought of if I send him the receipt?

Thanks guys for all your help. I don't think he's going to leave me alone until he gets the receipt and I really want this problem dealt with.
 
Tell him to go to an official Apple Store not the"Mac Store"
Also transfer the AppleCare warranty to his name so no more issues will arrive, and no dont send him the original receipt, you already sent him a copy with your info blacked out for your protection. Just tell him to go to an Apple store, or call 1-800-275-2273 to have AppleCare look at it and not a 3rd party reseller..
 
angemon89 said:
I got a response back from him, this is what he said.

That picture looked great but the salesman laughed at me when I printed it out and showed it to him. Please send receipt Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please. The laptop is broke and I can't fix it myself.

I urged him to go to an official Apple store but he just ignored that. Now I'm thinking nothing is even wrong with the MacBook Pro, he just wants the receipt for some reason.

Yeah, you're right mrwizard, there's nothing that personal on the receipt, just my name, email and last 4 of my credit card.

Do you guys think I should just send it without blacking out anything? Any consequences that we haven't thought of if I send him the receipt?

Thanks guys for all your help. I don't think he's going to leave me alone until he gets the receipt and I really want this problem dealt with.
Click to expand...

You should not worry. I also sold my iMac over eBay, and made sure that he got my receipt and invoice. There is absolutely nothing bad he can do with it. Maybe you want to photocopy the receipt and invoice (to have some-kind of backup and proof if something turns bad), and send him the originals.
 
Has no one mentioned insurance fraud?

He gets the receipt, he claims that it was stolen, he shows them the receipt, he gets paid what you paid for it and gets a MacBook Pro scot free.

Unless you need more for an insurance claim.
 
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