Please can you help? Been ripped off with DS Christmas Gift.

[Gossipmonster]

Last resort is to ask here dear Mumsnetters.

Can anyone offer me some advice please?

OH bought DS an iphone 4S from Gumtree yesterday for £140 for Christmas. We could not afford to buy him a brand new one.

It has been updated to ios 7 and restored to factory settings. Problem is that it is already linked to an apple account. Person we bought it from is refusing to communicate with us and seems unable to remove the device from the iTunes account. Meaning it is useless and the money I had put by for DS present has gone :( We have 5 other kids to buy for.

I have contacted the police who were really helpful and say it is not registered as stolen but was checked a few months ago at a cash converters suggesting the person we bought it from has experienced the same issues and just passed it on to us.

Police have suggested contacting Apple (which we did yesterday and then can't help) or taking it to a phone unlocking shop. We have reported the seller to Gumtree but that is not going to get us a refund.

Does anyone have any experience of this and know of any solutions?

TIA

[edamsavestheday]

No idea, sorry, but bags of sympathy, what a shit that seller is.

[Gossipmonster]

I know :( We are not prepared to do the same.

[MrsSpencerReid]

Sorry if this is a bit dense but can't you just log out of that apple account and sign in with your own? Have I misunderstood!

[picnicbasketcase]

If you know it's not stolen, could you contact apple with the serial number and ask if they can deactivate the account on it?

[Chopsypie]

Have you tried signing it out of the iTunes account?

It's in settings, iTunes and App Store. Or restoring to factory whilst plugged into a computer?

[ChameleonCircuit]

Do you have the seller's email address? If so, send them this:


Find My iPhone Activation Lock: Removing a device from a previous owner’s account
Symptoms

Learn how to remove a device from a previous owner's Apple ID so that you can activate and use it.

Resolution

If the device has already been erased
If the device has already been erased, but is still linked to the previous owner’s account, you will be prompted for the previous owner’s Apple ID and password during the device setup and activation process (shown below).



If the previous owner is with you and can access the device
Ask them to enter their Apple ID and password on the Activate iPhone screen (shown above) to remove the device from their account. You can then proceed through the rest of the device setup process.

If the previous owner is not present
Contact them and ask them to follow these steps to remove the device from their account:

Sign in to their iCloud account at www.icloud.com/find.
Choose the device from their Find My iPhone device list by clicking All Devices and selecting the correct device.
Click "Remove from Account" to remove the device from the account.
After the device has been removed from the previous owner’s account, turn it off by pressing and holding the Sleep/Wake button located on the top right side of the device. Then restart your device and proceed with device setup as you would normally.

[funkybuddah]

Oh no.

Alas if they wont unlink it from icloud/find my iphone as well then there is nothing that can be done.

I work in mobile phones and we are warned weekly to remove the accounts as returned ones/traded in handsets are worthless while linked.

I dont know how Gumtree works but is there an Admin that could maybe get involved?

[ChameleonCircuit]

Forgot to say - hope you get it sorted.

[FortyDoorsToNowhere]

Try signing out of the iTunes account and plugging into your computer and set up a new iTunes account.

Hope ds loves his Christmas present, he is lucky to have such an expensive phone

[LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob]

Would jailbreaking the device help? Then you won't be totally reliant on the apple store for apps.

You get the apps via Cydia instead.

[Gossipmonster]

Can't get through the setup process to do that Chopsypie :(

[SquirtedPerfumeUpNoseInBoots]

I agree, signing out of the apple ID account, and factory restore should do it.
Click on the ID name, and you'll get the option to sign it out.

[CoffeeTea103]

If you create a new iTunes account it will definitely work. I am using DH old iPhone and all I did was sign out and sign in with my own new account.

[Gossipmonster]

We thought about jail breaking it but there isn't one for iOS 7 yet ....

[ICameOnTheJitney]

OP there will be SOME techno whizz who can get this sorted....there just will. It will take someone with hacking skills....I will google.

[SquirtedPerfumeUpNoseInBoots]

Oh sorry.
Of course, this was the security feature in ios7. I don't think there is a way round it.
Keep pestering the seller is my only advice.
Sorry.

[Caitlin17]

Oh dear. This is a simple process with Android and marginally more complicated with Windows phones. You could try taking it to an unlocking shop.
What do you get if you go to settings/ accounts on the phone?
I don't know what that looks like on an iPhone but on Android it's very easy to sign out of/remove accounts/add accounts.

[SquirtedPerfumeUpNoseInBoots]

here's the jail breaker if you're happy to do that

[ICameOnTheJitney]

HAve you contacted iTunes about it? I've had a look on various forums and it seems that there is no way round this...

[Gossipmonster]

Wow - definite learning curve for anyone buying a 2nd hand iPhone now :(

Thanks for the jail beaker we might have to give that a go.

Thank you everyone who Googled for me.

[TeresaGreene]

I have an iPhone 4 (the oldest one) which you would be welcome to have - it's got a cracked screen and back (thanks to my DH!) but if you can get that fixed (and I think you can) it would work perfectly. PM me you like

[TeresaGreene]

• if (duh, bloomin phone)!

[Gossipmonster]

Really?! That's incredibly kind of you

[ICameOnTheJitney]

Oh happy ending!

[RubberBullets]

Could you go to an Apple Store and pretend that you forgot the log in details and ask them to send them to the phone? If you had the phone then hopefully they will believe you