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

moldingsunbeams. Normally if you buy a second hand iphone from an honest seller they will have reset the iphone by doing a FACTORY RESET. This will erase all. The old sellers info and will return the iphone to its factory settings.

The reset function is on all versions of iOS not just iOS7. It is also on iPods and iPads.

You can activate the factory reset either directly from the devise in question or from iTunes.

You can indeed unlock a dead person's iphone. You need a copy of the death cetificate or obituary and your own id. Make an appointment at the genius bar, discuss it with them and follow up with the phone provider.
It can be done.

ive just sold my ipad2 through facebook. I reset it to factory settings which erased all my data etc. it was updated to ios7 and was fully working when I sold it and I havent had any complaints from the buyer. so it must be possible to log in via a new apple id.

That's the point, armani, you erased the phone before it changed hands. It's when people don't that the trouble starts, and the usual reason for that (assuming most people don't intend to hand a phone over with their contacts, email settings and so on pre-configured) is that it's been stolen.

It's also the case that fewer people set up "Find my iPhone" on their iPad than do on their iPhone.

Not that this helps with getting the phone sorted but shouldn't Gumtree be able to pass you on or contact the seller on your behalf? I think as you have had support from the police that they should take some responsibility in contacting someone who has sold an item via their site knowing that it isn't fit for purpose.

I have just done a factory reset on an iphone 4 which is going back to ex employer. I had to update the software to IOS 7 in order to do the factory restore.

Dull question - should I do anything else to the phone?

As long as you have taken out the sim you will be ok

ive just sold my ipad2 through facebook. I reset it to factory settings which erased all my data etc. it was updated to ios7 and was fully working when I sold it and I havent had any complaints from the buyer. so it must be possible to log in via a new apple id.
My husband sold an iPad last week, iOS7 and FindMyiPad app active. He was worried about this, so went through the process yesterday (to arm himself against a disgruntled buyer).

When you try a factory reset now, it prompts you, via a pop up dialogue, to disable the FindMyiPad app - to do this, you input your password. It was just one of the several password prompts necessary to restore, so he thinks he probably disabled the FindMyiPad/activation lock without really noticing. Is it possible you did the same?

This makes it all the more likely that the OP received her phone from a malicious seller, as it would be impossible for him to factory reset without the original password. You cannot get around this pop up dialogue to input password into FindMyiDevice.

Ummmm I have to give the sim back too. Is that going to make a difference?

There are some truly kind, generous and lovely people on this thread.
OP I hope it all ends well and your DS is happy with his present.

I really have learned a thing or two from this thread.

OP did you manage to find a solution or another phone?