help. buyer expects free lifetime technical support after buying phone !!??

shaggy

Not for the first time, I have sold an item to someone who clearly has no idea what they've bought and now they expect free lifetime support for it?

Long story short:
I sell unlocked Iphone
Buyer with 1000+ feedback buys it.
Collects from my house and pays cash.
Tests phone before they leave. I test it with their vodafone sim. Everything OK.

Later that night, i get a message saying 'nothing on vodafone works with this phone'. I explain they have to manually add SMS / voicemail settings etc for this phone to work on anything but O2 and I will send them some instructions on how to do so later that day.

I get home to find a panicky email saying 'please tell me what to do !!'
I replied with some links to web pages explaining clearly what they have to do to get it to work on Vodafone.

Cue to today ... 'oh i couldnt get the iphone to work on Vodafone so I went into an O2 store and they told me you have to sign to an O2 contract to get anything to work on an Iphone...and I did sign up to an 18 months contract, but still i cant get anything to work'...

Now, a part of me wants to leave this well alone, as I really dont know how naive people can be. And do they expect free technical support after they buy something from Ebay? Part of me wants to help this person, because they've been duped into paying for an 18 month contract when clearly a lot of people have got iphones working on Orange, Voda, T Mobile etc.

So, what options do I have: Should I leave this well alone? Do I worry about this totally untech savvy person bricking the phone 3 months down the line when version 2 of the firmware is out? Is it my problem? Do I offer them a refund? I really dont want to go down the refund route if at all possible.

I'm getting so many of these types of buyers recently I think i've had enough of ebay now and will only sell small value items from now on.

Jakg

shaggy wrote: »

Later that night, i get a message saying 'nothing on vodafone works with this phone'. I explain they have to manually add SMS / voicemail settings etc for this phone to work on anything but O2 and I will send them some instructions on how to do so later that day.

And this, my friends, is the reason why you should never sell a patch unlocked phone on eBay...

EDIT - it's an iPhone - oops nvm!

Have they left you positive feedback? If yes i'd explain that you are only a seller, not tech support...

pinkgem

i sold an unlocked iphone via freeads/adtrader. let the person put his sim in and try it to prove it worked. everything fine. he pays cash.

next day he phones to say ipod function not working and iphone keeps freezing and wants to know who unlocked it, how it was unlocked etc. boyfriend said he would talk to me then phone him back.

we were both annoyed at him wanting technical support and asking loads of questions after buying, paying cash and sold as seen etc. he could have done anything to the iphone since buying it.

before we had even had chance to discuss what to do about it, the buyer continues to phone mine and my boyfriends mobiles all afternoon. boyfriend decided enough was enough and answered the buyers call only to be told everything now fine and its working properly.

as for your buyer, well if they collected and paid cash they don't really have much comeback. if they have already signed up to an 18 month contract then more fool them. not much you can do to help them really.

shaggy

pinkgem wrote: »

as for your buyer, well if they collected and paid cash they don't really have much comeback. if they have already signed up to an 18 month contract then more fool them. not much you can do to help them really.

thats exactly what they have done. But they have not left me any feedback. I have been as helpful as I can, what more can I do? They tested the phone before they took it and were happy. The same buyer had also bought another iphone from ebay in the previous week, so I assumed naturally they knew what they were buying

Should I keep contact with the buyer and tell them to go and cancel the contract and follow one of the loads of guides on the net on how to configure the iphone for vodafone? If someone could post a link to such a guide it would be very very helpful.

The buyer is fairly local to here so the last thing I want is knocking on my door asking for a refund ??

pinkgem

shaggy wrote: »

thats exactly what they have done. But they have not left me any feedback. I have been as helpful as I can, what more can I do? They tested the phone before they took it and were happy. The same buyer had also bought another iphone from ebay in the previous week, so I assumed naturally they knew what they were buying

Should I keep contact with the buyer and tell them to go and cancel the contract and follow one of the loads of guides on the net on how to configure the iphone for vodafone? If someone could post a link to such a guide it would be very very helpful.

The buyer is fairly local to here so the last thing I want is knocking on my door asking for a refund ??

i think you should just leave them to it. they got the iphone as described and you have tried to help them

my concern was also having our buyer knocking at the door as he was local too. thankfully he figured out what he was doing wrong or whatever.

superskilly

I'd just send last email saying, hope everything sorted out now, say if you were them you'd consider cnacelling the contract as they really have no need for it (couldnt they get it free on contract ) (no idea with phones anymore :-) say your working away, busy with the kids, taking a holkiday and if they need to know anything else link them to a web site or give them a telephone number, saying you know nothing else about it, lol

shaggy

superskilly wrote: »

I'd just send last email saying, hope everything sorted out now, say if you were them you'd consider cnacelling the contract as they really have no need for it (couldnt they get it free on contract ) (no idea with phones anymore :-) say your working away, busy with the kids, taking a holkiday and if they need to know anything else link them to a web site or give them a telephone number, saying you know nothing else about it, lol

lol


:rotfl:

EXPAT_2

More buyers taking the p*ss. It seems noone is immune.:mad: