Got burned on CL buying macbook air?

[rm303]

Hey guys,

I bought a sealed macbook on craigslist and I met the guy in person. He seemed genuine and told me he bought it 6 months ago and didn't open it. It was sealed. The price was $100 lower than what apple was selling. I went home and decided to check the serial number and found out the warranty was expired.

I don't know what to do at this point. I asked him before i bought it about the warranty and he told me the warranty starts from when you register it. Regardless, warranty for a mid-2012 should not be ending now if he did buy it 6 months ago.

Is it a possibility he stole it? I took his name and phone number down and grabbed his license plate#. Should I call the police? Is it possible he stole it or something?

I just really am kicking myself for being so oblivious and trusting him.

 

[harryb2448]

Complain long and loudly to Craigslist. if you paid by credit card, hopefully, cancel the transaction today. It is very possible it is stolen, but I think he has just scammed you. Why save $100 and have this grief rather than simply buy new from Apple with the full year warranty one wonders.

 

[pigoo3]

To be honest. Saving $100 would not have been enough for me. But regardless…the deal is done. And if you paid with cash…again…the deal is done (you won't see the seller again). Unless you know where they live or know his phone number.

To be honest #2. Yes…it would be nice to still have 6 months remaining on the warranty (according to the sellers story)…but really at this point…just be happy that the computer is working fine 100%. How would you like to have paid all that money…and have the computer be a brick??? Not having the warranty is a very small issue compared to what could have been if the computer did not work.

You learned a lesson that I'm sure you won't do again.

- Nick

 

[rm303]

thanks for the responses all. it could have been worse for sure. i think it came up to like $140 with taxes that i saved, but whats done is done.

moving forward, i have noticed that it won't let me install any updates? its from mid-2012. whenever, i let it install it just says updates could not be installed and then when i click restart nothing happens.

any tips?

 

[chas_m]

Without any details on what OS version is installed and so forth, it's quite difficult to blindly stab at a guess. Perhaps you could supply machine details like RAM, OS version and other specs?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Grab some screenshots of the About this Mac dialog and let's see whats going on..

 

[rm303]

thanks guys, here are the messages i get. and here's about this mac screenshot.

 

[TattooedMac]

I would be clean installing the OS, because it could well be still with someone else Apple ID associated with it, and/ or still signed in. Open System Preferences and see if iCloud has been activated.
Still and machine from someone else, I still do a clean install of the OS . .

 

[rm303]

it says none of the selected updates could be installed.

 

[TattooedMac]

If none of your stuff is on it right now, I would be going into the Mac App Store signed in with your Apple ID, downloading the new OS Yosemite, putting it on a thumb drive by following these instructions after downloading DiskMaker X, then :

1. Restart the Mac holding down Option as you start up.
2. Select the Recovery Partition
3. Go to the Menu Bar and select Disk Utility
4. Select Macintosh HD in the left column and the select Erase and make sure you have Mac OS Extended (Journaled) selected in the Dropdown.
5. Click Erase
6. Close out of Disk Utility and make sure the thumb drive is inserted into the USB port.
7. Choose restart and select the Thumb Drive with the new OS on it, and follow the prompts and install Yosemite onto your new MBA and then you should be right to go.

 

[Lightcraftsman]

I went home and decided to check the serial number and found out the warranty was expired.

I don't know what to do at this point. I asked him before i bought it about the warranty and he told me the warranty starts from when you register it.

The warranty starts when the equipment is purchased. Apple's policy is no different than any other manufacturer.

 

[harryb2448]

The 1.7Ghz shows us it is a mid-2011 MacBook Air, so you can see no warranty.

Suggest downloading Yosemite, burn to a USB thumb drive using LionDiskMaker, boot from the thumb drive and leave Installer, go to utilties > Disk Utility and erase and format the hard drive Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). This will erase everything on the hard drive.

Similar yo Tattooed's instructions.

Then go back to the Installer and install Yosemite and set it up as your own. Here is the download for DiskMaker which you will need to install prior to doing this:-


http://liondiskmaker.com