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Used iPhone sold with out the sim?

lokerd

lokerd

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 2, 2010
595
4
Beaumont
I bought a used iPhone 4 on Ebay. Generally, I am VERY pleased with the purchase. Reasonable price, quick shipping from the person selling it, great condition of the phone. However, it was missing the sim.

I contact the person about it, and they said that Apple recommended NOT including the Sim because it would include personal information.

I thought this was strange...just curious if this is normal. I feel a LITTLE slighted that the sim was not included because it was not mentioned in the auction listing. I have bought two other iPhones, one with the sim and one with out, but the one with out mentioned that they didn't have a sim.

Should I have expected the sim? Probably no big deal...more just curious I suppose.

Ironically, the phone included the original owners phone number and recent contact list...as if not all of the personal data was delete.

Thanks!
 
The sim card is tied to your carrier's account. So sellers should not be including them when selling their phones at all. Unless the sim card was not associated with the account of the seller and therefore does not contain any personal information at all then there is no harm in someone selling it.

So no don't expect to get a sim card... They are pretty cheap anyways to get from your local cell phone shop if you really need one.
 
I understand why he didn't give you a sim card with the phone, from what I understand about them is that they are registered to a certain person and that number. So if it did include a sim then I am pretty sure it'd have been useless to you anyway.

Not a big deal though, sim cards are only about 10$ from your provider.
 
the sim card is tied to the owners account and cannot be "transfered", so to speak, to another account.

so no, you should not have expected a sim card
 
acfusion29 said:
the sim card is tied to the owners account and cannot be "transfered", so to speak, to another account.

so no, you should not have expected a sim card
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks for the quick feedback everybody!! I have left the seller positive feedback!
 
No one sells their phones with the sim card. The sim card contains your phone number and operator. Without a sim card your phone is useless. And the sim card monitors you phone bill. I.e if you swap sim cards with a friend and make a phone call your friend has to pay for the call and vice versa.
 
Bring your phone with you to an AT&T store and show it to them and they will give you the SIM card for free. I've done this multiple times. If you don't show them the phone they may charge you $25.
 
Yeah, when it comes to buying used iPhones (or phones in general), you should not expect to receive a SIM card because it contains personal information relative to the owner. And since they're non-transferable, you'd really have no use for it other than to activate the phone through iTunes to get it off the emergency call screen.
 
blackberrypilot said:
Bring your phone with you to an AT&T store and show it to them and they will give you the SIM card for free. I've done this multiple times. If you don't show them the phone they may charge you $25.
Click to expand...

What do I tell them? Bought is used and need a sim?
 
When I sold my iPhone 3GS, I just took the SIM card out. I didn't tell the buyer about it, I just assumed he would know. He gave me a positive review, and never mentioned it once.

I was told not to include a SIM card when selling on ebay.

The first iPhone I sold on ebay I included the SIM card. I had restored the phone, and didn't realize people could still get anything from it. I guess I was just lucky because I have not had any problems or anything.
 
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