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Sold iPhone - Buyer Says iCloud needs removing?

L

logicpro7

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 25, 2006
726
2
London UK
Sold my old iPhone about a month ago and the buyer is saying it still has my old iCloud email on it and they can not set iCloud up without me removing it from my iCloud?

When i sold the phone, i did a total reset of all data and settings, how are my iCloud settings still on there?

This is the message they sent...




Hi there seems to be a problem I have is I have enabled find my iphone on the device and some how it seems to of locked its self it should be easily unlocked by entering your apple ID but it just doesn’t seem to work after trying everything I gave apple a ring and the problem is that because it’s a second hand phone this phone is still on your icloud on find my iphone app.

Could you kindly remove it for me? here’s how – go to www.icloud.com sign into your account then clock find my iphone, Then click on devices and click the iphone you have sold me, then click on devices again and next to the iphone you previously clicked on it should have a gray cross and by clicking this it will remove my iphone from your icloud.

Without you doing this I can not get into this phone please could you do this for me ASAP and email me back so I know it’s done? Thanks for your time. Apart from these small issues the phone is perfectly mint.

I have checked my iCloud and the old phone is not on there, just my new phone.


Can the buyer just restore the iPhone back to factory settings?

Thanks.
 
The buyer is correct. If you did not turn off Find my Phone before you wiped the phone. it will still be active and he cannot activate the phone.

But, like Apple said, you can still remove it from Find my Phone at icloud.com.

Login to your account at iCloud.com and go to the Find my iPhone section then click all devices at the top. The old phone should be there and you can remove it.

Could it be you had Find my Phone under a different iCloud account. Some of us have separate AppleIDs for iCloud and iTunes/App Store and it gets confusing.
 
Weaselboy said:
The buyer is correct. If you did not turn off Find my Phone before you wiped the phone. it will still be active and he cannot activate the phone.

But, like Apple said, you can still remove it from Find my Phone at icloud.com.

Login to your account at iCloud.com and go to the Find my iPhone section then click all devices at the top. The old phone should be there and you can remove it.

Could it be you had Find my Phone under a different iCloud account. Some of us have separate AppleIDs for iCloud and iTunes/App Store and it gets confusing.
Click to expand...

Thanks, my phone wasnt listed in findmyiphone and i never had it activated.

I have looked in all my possible icloud accounts and there is no device there to remove.
Here is the buyers next message which seems very strange...


Hi the phone will not let me restore or do anything to it, When I connect it to iTunes it says HP's iphone and when I click on restore it says there was a problem the software for the iphone HP's iphone The resourse was not found.

I have tried everything and I just don't no what to do now its becoming very stressfull. When turning the phone on it's like its a brand new phone and you connect to wifi then it says it may take a few mins to activate your iphone then it says- your iphone coud not be activated due to server being unavailable. apple say that its the find the iphone app making the phone go into safe mode?

I dont know who HP's iPhone is... Could the
Buyer have messed up syncing and done something with another account?

Has someone switched the phone? And its not mine?

Now i bought the phone from new from the apple store and has only been synced with my account.

Its still under warranty by the way.
 
The buyer has tried to use find my iphone with their icloud account that was used on an iphone they had lost.

Could that be the cause of the problem?
 
logicpro7 said:
The buyer has tried to use find my iphone with their icloud account that was used on an iphone they had lost.

Could that be the cause of the problem?
Click to expand...

No... it goes by device and that would not cause a problem.

If you never had Find my iPhone even turned on and wiped the phone before you sent it, this is starting to sound suspicious.

The buyer won't be able to just plug in to iTunes and activate, they will need to call their phone provider to have the phone activated.
 
Please help me. Did everything. Tried to use itunes in different pc, put phone in DFU mode, tried to ga back to 6.1.3. But no luck.

How can i solve this error 29?
 
Weaselboy said:
No... it goes by device and that would not cause a problem.

If you never had Find my iPhone even turned on and wiped the phone before you sent it, this is starting to sound suspicious.

The buyer won't be able to just plug in to iTunes and activate, they will need to call their phone provider to have the phone activated.
Click to expand...

Thanks,
Here are all the messages received and sent... I just think the buyer wants a refund after a month of using it to buy a new iPhone. Its all too suspicious...




BUYER -
Hi there seems to be a problem I have is I have enabled find my iphone on the device and some how it seems to of locked its self  it should be easily unlocked by entering your apple ID but it just doesn’t seem to work after trying everything I gave apple a ring and the problem is that because it’s a second hand phone this phone is still on your icloud on find my iphone app. Could you kindly remove it for me?

here’s how – go to www.icloud.com sign into your account then clock find my iphone, Then click on devices and click the iphone you have sold me, then click on devices again and next to the iphone you previously clicked on it should have a gray cross and by clicking this it will remove my iphone from your icloud. Without you doing this I can not get into this phone please could you do this for me ASAP and email me back so I know it’s done? Thanks for your time. Apart from these small issues the phone is perfectly mint.


MYSELF -
Hi, try it now.

I couldnt find my old phone on the list but i have erased and removed my new iphone that was a back up of the old phone.

Please activate and set up as a new phone.

Can you let me know if it works or what email is it saying on the iphone screen.


BUYER -
Hi the phone will not let me restore or do anything to it, When I connect it to iTunes it says HP's iphone and when I click on restore it says there was a problem the software for the iphone HP's iphone The resourse was not found. I have tried everything and I just don't no what to do now its becoming very stressfull. When turning the phone on it's like its a brand new phone and you connect to wifi then it says it may take a few mins to activate your iphone then it says- your iphone coud not be activated due to server being unavailable. apple say that its the find the iphone app making the phone go into safe mode?


MYSELF -
Hi,
I have never heard of HP's iPhone. It has onlt ever been syncd with my itunes and i bought the phone from new at the apple store.

The computer you are syncing with... Is it a work, friends, family computer that has had someone sync their phone? HP's iPhone? It looks like the phone has been syncd, backed up or set up with an itunes account on the computers you have used as i have never heard of HP's iPhone.

Does the initials H P ring a bell?

How did the phone get to the way it is?

The phone is still under warranty until the 28th october.

I will have a search and try and work out what could be the problem.


BUYER -
The laptop I'm using is under a year old and only ever been backed up on iTunes with my old phone, Hp is random to me I just thought it was you, guess not.
The problem started when I linked my phone to find my iphone as I lost my last phone and never activated this. I have just been on the phone to apple and they said if this phone is not on your iclouds find my iphone and its not working now then it is faulty and they have just advised me to seek getting a refund.. The phone is useful to me at the min and I really don't no what to do. I'm working in Spain at the moment and have no time to take it to apple, May be if I could send it back to you and have a refund and if you can have the phone fixed or replaced by apple I would be happy to take it back off you?



Now the buyer has opened a ebay case as ' item doesnt match description'

Messages from the case...

BUYER -
"This phone from day one has seem to have a number of problems, The main problem is that its locked its self and it is unavailable to do anything with at this time. I have asked for a refund as the phone is faulty and the seller states its not his fault and its been a month since I’ve had the item. I have never contact the seller intil the phone locked its self a few days ago. I have spoke with apple and they have game me a few things to do and the phone does not seem to work so they advice me to get a refund as its faulty. I have tried everything with this phone and all though the seller has tried to help me I feel I cannot do anything more. Could I please have a full refund. The phone is in mint condition and has a technical fault that I cannot deal with. "


MYSELF -
Your message to the buyer:
"The buyer has used the phone without any reported faults for over a month. The phone was originally purchased by myself from new from Apple and sold with the remaining Apple warranty (october 28th) and i have sent the seller the receipt as seen in the auction pictures. I have advised then to go to an Apple store as it is under warranty with receipt. I have helped the buyer as much as possible, but the buyer has tried to use their find my iphone icloud account of their perviously lost iphone which has caused this issue as mentioned that you can read in the ebay messages sent between us. The phone has been working fine for over 30 days with no reports to me or ebay of any of these, so i can not accept any returns as this will be the buyers user error for locking the phone with the icloud of their lost iphone. If an item was faulty from day one, the buyer would have escalated this asap. My auction was listed with a no returns policy to which they accepted by clicking buy it now."


BUYER -
Buyer's message:
"The has been problems with the phone but I did not message you as I though the problems could be easily fixed. Like I have stated in my messages I have spoke with apple and the phone is faulty I cannot go to an apple store as the nearest one if 3 hours drive and I do not have the time or money to deal with a faulty phone what I have received from the seller, this is not the only problem with the phone here more its slow some times it just goes on a frozen screen when unlocking it and the battery only lasts about 5 hours. The phone is clearly faulty and if you don't wish to give me a refund then I will have to ask ebay too. "


MYSELF -
"The iphone was in perfect working and physical order when sold. If the item was slow/freezing/low battery then you would have contacted myself and ebay as soon as you received it. You did not mention those faults in your messages. You have used the phone for over a month without fault or contacting myself or ebay. That proves that the phone was in perfect working order when delivered and inspected. I listed the phone with an Apple warranty and original purchase receipt, so suggest the buyer goes to their nearest Apple store for repair. I am not responsible for them syncing the phone with their lost iphone account, so it is the buyers user error that has caused this or that i suspect that they are just wanting to return the item for no other reason than because they do not want it any more. As you stated in your messages it worked perfectly fine until you synced it with your icloud findmyiphone account of your previously lost iphone which has locked it. "

BUYER -
"The phone was sent to my place of work then sent over to spain to me this so I did not get the phone till way over a week after you sent it to me, I only had the phone up and running this time last week and it has now locked it self apple say its because of your icloud account still having that phone on your find my iphone app you say its not on there so apple say then the phones faulty as they and my self have tried everything!! I am not sending it back because I don't want it im sending it back because it does not work and its faulty. Your clearly saying its my fault when the iphone should unlock its self when I use my apple account to sign in but it doesn't again this is because you have sold me a iphone that does not work properly. lets let ebay money back team sort this as we are not getting no where like this."


MYSELF -
"It has nothing to do with my icloud account. You have caused it to become locked as you have tried to link it to your previously lost iphone icloud account, this would cause it to be locked or you have synced it with someones itunes that has a phone called HP's iPhone. It has been with you for over a month now. If i received an item that was faulty from day one, i would of contacted on day one, not after it has been locked by your user error by linking it to a previously lost locked iphone account. it was auctioned with an apple warranty, where it can be taken to any EU country apple store for replacement. The auction was a UK only auction for UK only buyers, not to be shipped out to Spain."


BUYER -
"I have not caused anything my previously lost phone has nothing to do with it, This is just nonsense!! it has been with me for just over a week now not a month I have post recipts to prove this. Yes it was a uk only does this mean that after having sent it to a uk address it can not be forwarded on? no it does not. I think you clearly new the iphone was faulty and I hope ebay see this too. "

MYSELF -
"You have caused it by locking it to your previously lost iphone account. not my fault, you caused it. Your times do not add up, you said it was forwarded from your company to you in spain and received it a week after and now you say you have only had it a week? Where are the other tho and a half weeks? It was sold on 10th September and it is now the 11th october. the iphone was in perfect working condition cosmetically and physically and i hope by ebay checking all your previous messages they can see that your comments do not add up."


END -


This is a nightmare... The phone was mint and worked perfectly and sold with apple warranty. The buyer has had it for a month!
 
The thing that folks are forgetting is Apple introduction of further security protection.

In order to sell and safely erase your phone now, it's essential to delete the icloud account BEFORE you hit erase all content and settings. Done that way, there is no problem.

If you simply erase all content and settings, the cloud account will remain, and the phone will not activate if another sim or carrier is used.

I sold my 5 prior to getting the new 5S and did exactly as above. No problems or comebacks at all.

I guess the buyer kind of has a point, but it seems a little harsh that he's raised a ticket against you for a problem that could be resolved easily between the two parties.
 
Macman45 said:
The thing that folks are forgetting is Apple introduction of further security protection.

In order to sell and safely erase your phone now, it's essential to delete the icloud account BEFORE you hit erase all content and settings. Done that way, there is no problem.

If you simply erase all content and settings, the cloud account will remain, and the phone will not activate if another sim or carrier is used.

I sold my 5 prior to getting the new 5S and did exactly as above. No problems or comebacks at all.

I guess the buyer kind of has a point, but it seems a little harsh that he's raised a ticket against you for a problem that could be resolved easily between the two parties.
Click to expand...
What i dont understand is that the buyer says the phone is saying (HP's iPhone)

Which make things suspicious as it would say what my phone was listed as.
 
I suspect this, seeing as the buyer said the iphone was forwarded to them in spain...


Apple today announced plans for its next two rounds of launches for the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, with the devices coming to 35 new countries including Italy, Russia, and SPAIN on Friday, October 25.



Used my phone for a month then get a full refund to buy a new one in spain?
 
Weaselboy said:
The buyer sounds like a scammer to me.
Click to expand...

I sold it to them the day before the new iPhones were announced and i suspect they have buyers remorse and want a full refund a month after using my iPhone.

Ive told them to send it back for inspection before i refund.

If it is found to be a different phone, damaged, water damaged, or no fault is there anything i can do?

I don't think i will be selling anything on ebay anymore after this. I know ebay will probably side with the buyer as they always do. :(

What if the buyer has synced it with someones called HP's iCloud? Will i end up out of £350 and a paper weight, as there would be no way for me to activate either?
 
logicpro7 said:
What i dont understand is that the buyer says the phone is saying (HP's iPhone)

Which make things suspicious as it would say what my phone was listed as.
Click to expand...

it says that probably because someone attempted to sync or restore it from an HP computer, so it automatically named the phone that. sometimes when i nuke my phone and set it up as new, itunes renames it "Steve's Netbook iPhone" since i was syncing it from my computer named "Steve's Netbook". so there is nothing suspicious about this, as that could likely be the reason behind the naming.
 
What ios ver was on sold phone?

Hi logicpro7,

Your first post on this topic was Oct. 10, backtrack a month, bringing us to Sept. 10 at the latest. Now, wasn't iOS7 officially released on Sept. 18?

So your iphone at time of sale should have only had ios6.1.x.
Isn't it also true that the enhanced security features where if a previous owner didn't remove the phone from his icloud account, it can't be activated....was introduced in iOS7?

How then, could a ios6.1.x device have the features that exist only in ios7?

And one of the error message the buyer stated, something about server not available.....wasn't that all over the Apple support forum last week, when the ios 7 beta software expired. People who had loaded the beta of ios7 without a developer account were stuck with a bricked iphone.


My theory is, and this is just a theory, that if the iphone you sold had ios6.1.x on it, then your action of wiping it clean should have been sufficient for him to activate it for himself. Is this not the case?

I've never had to do this myself so I'm not 100% sure. But I've read that the whole reason for getting the requirement of icloud password as an additional security block in iOS7 was all those iphones being stolen or robbed and getting wiped clean.

Continuing on with my theory...the buyer may have decided to install ios7 beta prior to its official release, and was caught by surprise just like a lot of other people the day that it expired. I don't remember the exact date the beta expired, but I was reading the Apple Support community forum throughout last week and there has been a continuous stream of people complaining about "server not available", "activation required" when the ios7 beta expired.


However, if the phone sold to him had ios 7 beta on it, then what he described just might be what folks were seeing on their iphones when the beta expired.

Just my 2 cents. Anyway, the warranty is good until Oct. 28, he can take the phone, the warranty, the sale receipt to an Apple Store and get it straightened out. If there is any removal of account required, I'm sure you will be willing to do it, as long as there's something to remove.

I think the important thing here is proving the version of ios on the phone at the time of sale. If your sale ad shows ios6 and your ad description also says ios6, then you can point this out to Ebay: that the buyer is blocked by a security feature non-existent on the phone at the time of sale.

Cheers!
 
logicpro7 said:
I sold it to them the day before the new iPhones were announced and i suspect they have buyers remorse and want a full refund a month after using my iPhone.

Ive told them to send it back for inspection before i refund.

If it is found to be a different phone, damaged, water damaged, or no fault is there anything i can do?

I don't think i will be selling anything on ebay anymore after this. I know ebay will probably side with the buyer as they always do. :(

What if the buyer has synced it with someones called HP's iCloud? Will i end up out of £350 and a paper weight, as there would be no way for me to activate either?
Click to expand...

dont ask him to send back, once send back , it normally mean refund , even if u not accept, ebay will do it for you............

----------

Ask him to bring it to apple store to help, if it lock coz of iCloud, ask him to call you and you tell your icloud acc and password to the APPLE STAFF ONLY. While it still on warranty, with a sale receipt and your owner account and password , they should be able to give you a new one if nothing can work out.
 
dictoresno said:
it says that probably because someone attempted to sync or restore it from an HP computer, so it automatically named the phone that. sometimes when i nuke my phone and set it up as new, itunes renames it "Steve's Netbook iPhone" since i was syncing it from my computer named "Steve's Netbook". so there is nothing suspicious about this, as that could likely be the reason behind the naming.
Click to expand...

Exactly this. I just had my moms laptop and ipad last night to sync music for her, and her ipad comes up as 'HPiPad'. I believe it is because of the computer he is using to sync it.
 
99% chance that eBay is going to side with the buyer so you may as well start acting agreeable.
Try and get the phone back before eBay forces you to.
Agree to a refund or partial refund because if eBay makes the decision they're just going to refund the person for you and collect from you afterward and the phone you get back, if you get it back, might not even be the same one you sent.
This has nothing to do with your truthfulness -- these are simply the facts of selling on eBay.
Once you get the phone back (hopefully you recorded the serial number and will be able to confirm its the same one you sent) you'll be in a better position to either make things right by the buyer or else just cut your losses, fix the problem yourself, and then try to sell it again.
 
Gjwilly said:
99% chance that eBay is going to side with the buyer so you may as well start acting agreeable.
Try and get the phone back before eBay forces you to.
Agree to a refund or partial refund because if eBay makes the decision they're just going to refund the person for you and collect from you afterward and the phone you get back, if you get it back, might not even be the same one you sent.
This has nothing to do with your truthfulness -- these are simply the facts of selling on eBay.
Once you get the phone back (hopefully you recorded the serial number and will be able to confirm its the same one you sent) you'll be in a better position to either make things right by the buyer or else just cut your losses, fix the problem yourself, and then try to sell it again.
Click to expand...

Exactly what i have done. Once it is back and i have checked its the same phone etc ill refund and book a genius appointment if i cant activate it for replacement.
 
scammers

Bought a iphone 5 I done a factory restore on it to make sure no others info was left on the phone but get this they went back and locked the phone after they sold it to me now the are trying to get more money from me to take it off there icloud sooooo disappointed these people think that its ok to take someone for what ever they can get I guess this just goes to show you that you cant trust anyone the phone is registered to me thru apple but because they went back and locked the icloud there is nothing I can do any suggestions on what I can do to resolve this matter :mad:
 
danniesgurl said:
Bought a iphone 5 I done a factory restore on it to make sure no others info was left on the phone but get this they went back and locked the phone after they sold it to me now the are trying to get more money from me to take it off there icloud sooooo disappointed these people think that its ok to take someone for what ever they can get I guess this just goes to show you that you cant trust anyone the phone is registered to me thru apple but because they went back and locked the icloud there is nothing I can do any suggestions on what I can do to resolve this matter :mad:
Click to expand...

Get onto Apple Support. They were a big help to me, and even though I was prepared to pay the $39 one-off support fee, I was never charged. And report to the police as well, do this first and get an event number or report number, to quote to Apple. This is just extortion.
 
logicpro7 said:
Sold my old iPhone about a month ago and the buyer is saying it still has my old iCloud email on it and they can not set iCloud up without me removing it from my iCloud?

When i sold the phone, i did a total reset of all data and settings, how are my iCloud settings still on there?

This is the message they sent...




Hi there seems to be a problem I have is I have enabled find my iphone on the device and some how it seems to of locked its self it should be easily unlocked by entering your apple ID but it just doesn’t seem to work after trying everything I gave apple a ring and the problem is that because it’s a second hand phone this phone is still on your icloud on find my iphone app.

Could you kindly remove it for me? here’s how – go to www.icloud.com sign into your account then clock find my iphone, Then click on devices and click the iphone you have sold me, then click on devices again and next to the iphone you previously clicked on it should have a gray cross and by clicking this it will remove my iphone from your icloud.

Without you doing this I can not get into this phone please could you do this for me ASAP and email me back so I know it’s done? Thanks for your time. Apart from these small issues the phone is perfectly mint.

I have checked my iCloud and the old phone is not on there, just my new phone.


Can the buyer just restore the iPhone back to factory settings?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

If you followed those instructions and the phone is removed, go into find my iPhone and make sure it is not on that. You may have to have him mail your phone back to fix it.
 
You can log into iCloud on your computer and turn off find my phone on that device from there. Wiping the device without disabling that will cause issues.

----------

Sorry didn't read the most recent replies. You already did that.
 
logicpro7 said:
I sold it to them the day before the new iPhones were announced and i suspect they have buyers remorse and want a full refund a month after using my iPhone.

Ive told them to send it back for inspection before i refund.

If it is found to be a different phone, damaged, water damaged, or no fault is there anything i can do?

I don't think i will be selling anything on ebay anymore after this. I know ebay will probably side with the buyer as they always do. :(

What if the buyer has synced it with someones called HP's iCloud? Will i end up out of £350 and a paper weight, as there would be no way for me to activate either?
Click to expand...


I had this happen to me with a galaxy s4... You're covered under seller protection but it's a headache to deal with. Especially if you have any sort of proof that the phone was in working order before you sold it. My buyer waited till I shipped the phone and then opened a case that someone hacked his account and he didn't purchase the phone. In the end he got his money back, and I did too...
 
Searching the net I found no reliable solution to this.

Login into to your actual Itunes program on your PC.

Go to your account

Then you select "Manage Devices" under the second section in "Itunes in the cloud"

You can then remove the device from the account.

Hope this helps with the endless posts on selling your old Iphone on forums worldwide.
 
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