Apple IPhone Not Reset

[jz-5682]

I sold an Apple IPhone 5 for an 80 year old friend. She said Verizon "wiped all her information off of it." Now the buyer is stating in a message to me, "The phone was not reset. All original content is still active. Need apple ID password to reset". Then they added in another message, "Can you also remove the device from your apple id?". 

To top it off Paypal has informed me that the buyer put in a claim that this was an unauthorized charge on their credit card - before it was even delivered to them. I responded to the dispute by providing a copy of the USPS delivery receipt. But now that it has been delivered I'm getting the messages about wanting a password and apple ID? 

Any suggestions?

[jz-5682]

Is this fraud? Now customer says, " You have to unlink the phone from the iTunes account.

[shipscript]

@jz-5682

There is some possibility that claiming the phone is still linked is a ploy to return an unwanted phone.  On the other hand, linked phones are a common problem with sellers who do not understand that they need to unlink from iCloud before selling. 

Only the original owner can unlink the iCloud-protected phone, so rather than providing any passwords, I would suggest you offer a return through eBay and retrieve the phone. Then try it yourself. 

If it was a ploy, report the buyer to eBay using the report option on your selling page. If it was not a ploy and the phone is still attached to the original account, you may want to take your friend to a Verizon or Apple store to see if the store employee can help unlink the phone from iCloud and iTunes and wipe the contents.

[jz-5682 · Accepted solution]

Thank you.

[jz-5682]

Can my friend call Verizon and do it over the phone?

[repairelectronics]

---

@jz-5682 wrote:
Can my friend call Verizon and do it over the phone?

---

If your friend has enough information to prove the account is theirs, then they can wipe it himself. best to call Verizon and ask what your options are explaining the situation.

[jz-5682]

I've been reading that the phone can be removed (unlinked) from the iTunes account on the computer. The original owner can just remove it from the account. Hopefully they will do this for us. Hopefully they don't need the phone in their presence to do it.

[jz-5682]

Can the original owner just unlink their old phone from their iTunes account on their home computer without actually having the phone in their presence? 

[friskya]

I'm late to the party, but for whatever it's worth, Apple provides instructions on how to handle this sort of situation. If you are still having difficulties, I would recommend following their directions under "If you no longer have your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch" (take screen shots to document that it's been done). 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201351