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Am I being scammed by the guy who bought my Macbook pro?
- Thread starter abaganov2
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What I don't understand about this thread is how many people are defending the buyer of a used device after he has had sole possession of it.
Once it leaves the hands of the seller and the buyer even was able to check out the functionality of it before hand that is it.
She is not a business. It is a private party sale. Anyone who is old enough to go and meet someone and pay cash for a computer should know enough that if anything goes wrong it is on them. Caveat Emptor.
ca·ve·at emp·tor
/ˌkavēˌät ˈem(p)ˌtôr/
Learn to pronounce
noun
I have ZERO sympathy for the buyer not because I lack empathy but because that is the risk of buying a used item from a private party and it is pretty common knowledge. It is kind of like laws. You may be ignorant of the law but it still applies.
She has no obligation to provide anything beyond some remote software assistance. If that does not resolve the issue she is done. End of story.
Once it leaves the hands of the seller and the buyer even was able to check out the functionality of it before hand that is it.
She is not a business. It is a private party sale. Anyone who is old enough to go and meet someone and pay cash for a computer should know enough that if anything goes wrong it is on them. Caveat Emptor.
ca·ve·at emp·tor
/ˌkavēˌät ˈem(p)ˌtôr/
Learn to pronounce
noun
- the principle that the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made.
"caveat emptor still applies when you are buying your house"
I have ZERO sympathy for the buyer not because I lack empathy but because that is the risk of buying a used item from a private party and it is pretty common knowledge. It is kind of like laws. You may be ignorant of the law but it still applies.
She has no obligation to provide anything beyond some remote software assistance. If that does not resolve the issue she is done. End of story.
Why the **** should she assist ? Are u kiddin, right? Do you go to shop, buy a thing and than come back that you want to return the money too?
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I believe the answers you were looking for from this forum was validation of a potential issue that could occur in that 15 minute window. And not advice for doing the right thing...
I'd hope to think if were me I refund the money and figure out the problem and find another buyer. Even better if there is an Apple store near by take it in (with the buyer) and get it diagnosed...that's fair (IMHO) and then go from there. It's likely a software glitch caused either by you or him.
I'd hope to think if were me I refund the money and figure out the problem and find another buyer. Even better if there is an Apple store near by take it in (with the buyer) and get it diagnosed...that's fair (IMHO) and then go from there. It's likely a software glitch caused either by you or him.
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LOL no way. Do not listen this people giving you “advice” to refund the money. There is big chance about beeing scammed. If you buy macbook directly from local store you can not return it as well if you check it in person. Private secondhand purchases are everytime more risky and buyer should know. And trust me he know..
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"Sorry this is not something I can assist you with. I would recommend you make an appointment with an Apple tech to have it looked at."
It is definitely not too strange to have occurred. All person to person sales of used equipment, especially after a joint inspection, is an excellent policy, but it is improved by having been explicitly stated beforehand.
If I buy an item from an individual at a coffee shop with no implied warranty, then yes I would not assume the seller would refund my money, and I would not even be asking for my money back. Which, is why I do not buy used electronics from individuals. If you do not want to take that risk then buy from a reseller or refurbisher that actually offers a warranty.
My dad used to buy and resell tractors, and got into a lot of trouble giving people implied warranties. He would say, if it breaks just bring it back and I'll fix it. Well, a couple times he couldn't fix it, so they took it somewhere else and then sued him for the bill. Taught me never to imply a warranty. So yeah, the poster should have made it 100% clear, but unless he said something like "let me know if it has any problems", the buyer doesn't have anything to go on.
My rule is never buy without a warranty and never sell without a warranty. I like to make sure that the Macs I sell have at least one month warranty/Apple Care remaining (EDIT: except in the case of older, out-of-warranty machines) so if there’s any problem the buyer knows they have recourse with Apple, and don’t need to be contacting me.
And if I were to buy a MacBook with only month or so warranty remaining, I would use that window to take it to the Apple store and get it fully diagnosed and, if need be, repaired.
And if I were to buy a MacBook with only month or so warranty remaining, I would use that window to take it to the Apple store and get it fully diagnosed and, if need be, repaired.
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This is the risk buyers take buying used or non-certified refurbished. And where do you draw the line (assuming this is indeed not a scam and simply an amazing coincidence that the laptop suddenly has an issue within 15 minutes of leaving the seller's possession)? 1 day later? 1 week later? 1 month later? Private sellers usually don't have the financial resources to easily eat losses like this. In fact, they often need the money from the sale immediately for something else and very likely already spent it. The fact remains that at the time of sale, the buyer received a working laptop just as advertised. I doubt the seller put a "self destruct timer" in it. Again, assuming there's no scam on either end here, it sounds like a really unfortunate incident that someone is going to come away from out of pocket. There's no ideal ending here.
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Well, that's great if you're selling a newer computer that you bought AppleCare for, but obviously not doable with one you didn't or an older Mac.
Actually, no they don't, unless they were with the buyer watching them for those 15 minutes.
Yes, I was talking about newer Macs. For older devices this doesn’t apply of course. In that case the buyer is spending way less money and should understand there is always risk when buying old, used and out of warranty devices.
The OP said she sold an M1 Pro MacBook Pro. Those were available starting on October 25, 2021, so the 1-year warranty is not yet expired.
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Or newer devices without AppleCare and outside the standard warranty period. I'm not going to not sell a newer device (if the need arises) simply because the buyer won't have AppleCare. They go into the transaction knowing that, so it's on them. No one forced them to buy from me vs. someone offering a device with AppleCare still remaining.
The OP said she sold an M1 Pro MacBook Pro. That machine (along with the M1 Max) became available starting on October 25, 2021, so the 1-year warranty is not yet expired. Tell the buyer to take it to the Apple Store while he still has time left on the warranty. (If there is no Apple Store in the area, Best Buy also does in-warranty repair on Apple devices.)
If the buyer refuses this, then you know he’s a scammer.
If the buyer refuses this, then you know he’s a scammer.
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prospervic wrote:
"The OP said she sold an M1 Pro MacBook Pro. Those were available starting on October 25, 2021, so the 1-year warranty is not yet expired."
And therein is the solution.
It's still under factory warranty.
The seller should tell the buyer to take it to an Apple Store genius bar.
(This assumes there is an Apple Store in reasonable distance).
They should fix it under warranty.
We haven't heard from the OP in a while, would like to hear how this panned out.
"The OP said she sold an M1 Pro MacBook Pro. Those were available starting on October 25, 2021, so the 1-year warranty is not yet expired."
And therein is the solution.
It's still under factory warranty.
The seller should tell the buyer to take it to an Apple Store genius bar.
(This assumes there is an Apple Store in reasonable distance).
They should fix it under warranty.
We haven't heard from the OP in a while, would like to hear how this panned out.
Quick update:
Thanks for all for your help guys, much appreciated. I wrote the buyer a msg explaining to him all the things you guys told me here, basically that all sales are final, once the machine leaves my hand there is no way I can know what happens to it so I can not take any responsibility to any problem that may occur. All I know is that I sold him a machine that never had any single issue, and he had to chance to examine the laptop at the coffee shop when we met and he made the decision to buy it. If there were any hardware issue he would have seen it then.
Told him that I am hoping he can fix it easily, that I can no longer discuss this matter as it stressed me out and blocked him.
I don't think there was any big elaborate scam here, the thing that make the most sense for me is that he had dropped the laptop from his motorcycle while transferring it home and somewhat damage the screen or some cable got loose, that's is the main thing that make sense to me, another option that is more "scammy" which is not very likely that he quickly swapped some part on the Mac with a faulty part from another mac, he didn't seem like that kind of guy, but you can never know I guess.
And another tiny tiny chance that he is the most unlucky person in the universe and the Macbook that was working for me flawlessly non stop for a year suddenly had an issue 15 min after he bought it.
Lesson learned from this: mention to the person buying anything from me in the future that he better check the device very well because after he buys it, there are no returns.
Thanks for all for your help guys, much appreciated. I wrote the buyer a msg explaining to him all the things you guys told me here, basically that all sales are final, once the machine leaves my hand there is no way I can know what happens to it so I can not take any responsibility to any problem that may occur. All I know is that I sold him a machine that never had any single issue, and he had to chance to examine the laptop at the coffee shop when we met and he made the decision to buy it. If there were any hardware issue he would have seen it then.
Told him that I am hoping he can fix it easily, that I can no longer discuss this matter as it stressed me out and blocked him.
I don't think there was any big elaborate scam here, the thing that make the most sense for me is that he had dropped the laptop from his motorcycle while transferring it home and somewhat damage the screen or some cable got loose, that's is the main thing that make sense to me, another option that is more "scammy" which is not very likely that he quickly swapped some part on the Mac with a faulty part from another mac, he didn't seem like that kind of guy, but you can never know I guess.
And another tiny tiny chance that he is the most unlucky person in the universe and the Macbook that was working for me flawlessly non stop for a year suddenly had an issue 15 min after he bought it.
Lesson learned from this: mention to the person buying anything from me in the future that he better check the device very well because after he buys it, there are no returns.
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I think this was the right thing to do. No need to stress any further over it. Update here though if anything else develops, as I've been kind of enjoying figuring out what's going on.
Good for you! I’ve seen people who think because they are “experts” in Windows PCs, they should be the same Macs (but are actually clueless) totally ruin one within 15 minutes.
and when you become that buyer that has exactly the same done to you there is no way you are going to take your own advice is there? the first thing you are going to do is try and get a refund from the seller.
I see that you decided what to do, and I wouldn't have told you what I think you should do regardless. But the two posts I've quoted here made me think of something.
Years ago, I bought a MBP as a Best Buy open box deal. I had it for just a few weeks when the screen started to randomly go black. I took it in to Apple, and they said that there was water damage so no help via warranty. Since I hadn't had any liquid ANYWHERE near it, I realised that Best Buy's so-called "comprehensive check" of the machine was anything but. (I gave it to my brother, who baked it on low heat in the oven and it worked for him like a charm for years, but that's beside the point. Apple gave me a quote for a very expensive repair, nearly what I paid for the thing to begin with.)
It's possible that the user or someone else spilled something on it by accident in that first 15 mins (you were in a coffee shop, after all).
Glad you reached a decision on what to do.
I buy, upgrade and sell Macbook Pros and have done for 9 years (infamously told the board members here about my idea to take an older machine and upgrade with more RAM/SSHD or SSD and was told nobody would buy them if they can just do it themselves... 2100 sales later ).
In all of my time - there's only been one person who's delibretely tried to scam me by switching parts and that was another MacBook seller based in Italy. He bought a broke 2012 retina model sold as broken/parts via ebay and after I shipped it, he claimed it wasn't what he bought. He returned it and the battery had been swapped, so had a bunch of the cables and he'd even replaced the SSD with a cardboard cut out of an SSD Unbelievably eBay sided him until I elevated it to a manager who saw the photos and recognised they'd messed up with their original decision.
Anyway, my point is - I think it's incredibly unlikely that somebody would have tried to scam you, especially in that time period. And from the perspective of a seller... random, unfortunate things can occasionally happen in the brief time window after selling a machine. It seems to bad to be true sometimes. I always take full responsibility (as I should, as it's my side business) and pride myself on repairing, replacing or refunding if anybody has any problems which are not brought on by themselves. So for example if he had dropped your machine, you would have noticed physical damage to the machine. If he had replaced a part - he would have needed more than 15 minutes to do so. These machines are terribly difficult to open and replace parts, so you're looking a lot longer of a turnaround to change the screen or screen cable etc.
I also don't know why the guy would take the 'risk' of assuming you would return the money once he raised the problem. If he was going to scam somebody by swapping a part, he would have bought via eBay which provide a 30 day guarantee. That way he can replace the part and eBay would side with him if he said something was broken. He would get his money back with zero fuss. This is why some sellers on eBay put little stickets on the screws, stating that any return is void if these are removed.
Anyway, just wanted to add some other perspectives to this. Because there is another side. A few years back an American guy was touring in France and he wanted a MacBook but couldn't speak French. So he flew all the way to London to buy a MacBook from me. A day later, the dreaded question mark error appeared on his 13" 2012 model I'd just sold him. Meaning he had to fly all the way back to me, for me to replace his cable because once again.
My point is, sometimes people are just unlucky.
).In all of my time - there's only been one person who's delibretely tried to scam me by switching parts and that was another MacBook seller based in Italy. He bought a broke 2012 retina model sold as broken/parts via ebay and after I shipped it, he claimed it wasn't what he bought. He returned it and the battery had been swapped, so had a bunch of the cables and he'd even replaced the SSD with a cardboard cut out of an SSD
Unbelievably eBay sided him until I elevated it to a manager who saw the photos and recognised they'd messed up with their original decision.Anyway, my point is - I think it's incredibly unlikely that somebody would have tried to scam you, especially in that time period. And from the perspective of a seller... random, unfortunate things can occasionally happen in the brief time window after selling a machine. It seems to bad to be true sometimes. I always take full responsibility (as I should, as it's my side business) and pride myself on repairing, replacing or refunding if anybody has any problems which are not brought on by themselves. So for example if he had dropped your machine, you would have noticed physical damage to the machine. If he had replaced a part - he would have needed more than 15 minutes to do so. These machines are terribly difficult to open and replace parts, so you're looking a lot longer of a turnaround to change the screen or screen cable etc.
I also don't know why the guy would take the 'risk' of assuming you would return the money once he raised the problem. If he was going to scam somebody by swapping a part, he would have bought via eBay which provide a 30 day guarantee. That way he can replace the part and eBay would side with him if he said something was broken. He would get his money back with zero fuss. This is why some sellers on eBay put little stickets on the screws, stating that any return is void if these are removed.
Anyway, just wanted to add some other perspectives to this. Because there is another side. A few years back an American guy was touring in France and he wanted a MacBook but couldn't speak French. So he flew all the way to London to buy a MacBook from me. A day later, the dreaded question mark error appeared on his 13" 2012 model I'd just sold him. Meaning he had to fly all the way back to me, for me to replace his cable because once again.
My point is, sometimes people are just unlucky.
I had someone similar attempt something to me several years ago. I sold a MacBook Pro that had been sitting around for a while as I had a newer one by then. Even supplied the box and made it as "like new" as possible. We meet up somewhere and I open it up, I look it over with him and everything is good. Once he is satisfied, he gives me cash, I give him the laptop and that's it. The next day he messaged me saying the battery does not hold a charge and the webcam does not work. I told him all sales are final, you should have checked those features if you were concerned before buying. Never heard from him again. I would not entertain this person anymore. Tell them sorry all sales are final and block them.
Why is the majority of people in here assuming it is the buyer who is the bad one here accusing the buyer of trying to scam the seller? The OP is not a regular here, they only joined to make this thread and will most probably never be seen again and yet nearly everyone has accepted the OP at their word. How do you lot know the OP is not the bad person here. Just because they made the post and said what they said does not mean it's true.
If what happened to the buyer happened to any one of you, you would be screaming hell and high water that you've been scammed and would demand your money back and that's a fact but yet here you are defending the OP telling them they are possibly being scammed and to ignore the buyer. How would you feel is this was done to you. You buy an item, check it out in the sellers presence, pay for it, take it home and it fails within 15 mins, your not happy and want your money back, the seller tells it was working when you bought it, all sales are final so tough luck your not getting your money back and then the seller ignores you. I know exactly what each and everyone one of you would do in that situation, you would contact the police and tell them you have been scammed and then give them the sellers name and contact number.
Not a single one of you would accept the item broke within 15mins of you buying it and say 'oh well, it's broke, nothing I can do about it now, i'v now lost lots of money, such is life'. Get real!!! so please stop with this 'oh, the OP is right, don't give the money back, ignore the buyer'. Utter rubbish and you know it.
If what happened to the buyer happened to any one of you, you would be screaming hell and high water that you've been scammed and would demand your money back and that's a fact but yet here you are defending the OP telling them they are possibly being scammed and to ignore the buyer. How would you feel is this was done to you. You buy an item, check it out in the sellers presence, pay for it, take it home and it fails within 15 mins, your not happy and want your money back, the seller tells it was working when you bought it, all sales are final so tough luck your not getting your money back and then the seller ignores you. I know exactly what each and everyone one of you would do in that situation, you would contact the police and tell them you have been scammed and then give them the sellers name and contact number.
Not a single one of you would accept the item broke within 15mins of you buying it and say 'oh well, it's broke, nothing I can do about it now, i'v now lost lots of money, such is life'. Get real!!! so please stop with this 'oh, the OP is right, don't give the money back, ignore the buyer'. Utter rubbish and you know it.