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Activation Lock Nightmare

If I buy a car legitimately from a used car dealership I do not have to go hunting down the original owner to ask for a secret password. This activation lock thing is horrible. It is basically turning plenty of good phones into pretty paper weights.

I rebuilt a 4s from parts for my daughter's 9th birthday. Once I finally finish this project, low and behold, the logic board is activation locked. I call customer support and Apple guy says find the original owner. In fact, he lies to me and tells me he can not even see original owner's email. He could at least give me the means to contact the owner and see if its stolen or lost. Right? What?

Back to the car analogy. I build a car, as a project, from parts, I do not have to say "open sesame" or something to get it started.

So, after spending money and time on the literal "labor of love" for my little girl and after getting lied to by Apple I begin to search online for a solution. What I find is a whole load of stupidity. Everyone is applauding Apple for this ingenious solution to iphone theft. I couldn't believe what I was reading. People are OK with this. It is truly amazing what a multi-billion dollar company can get away with and people say its a great idea. Amazing!! Now if the phone is reported lost or stolen, sure Apple go ahead and lock the thing, trace it and arrest the thief. All cool with that. Now if your senile grandma starts fiddling with the icloud and gives her phone away, it is useless or someone upgrades to a 5 and recycles there old 3 without removing it from icloud it becomes useless. And guess what?? Apple gets to sell more brand new phones by crippling the second hand market. It truly is genius, if you think about it. And the public smiles and applauds Apple's crime fighting stance. ????

So my question is... How do I unlock this stupid phone???

Posted on Oct 27, 2014 3:16 PM

18 replies

Oct 28, 2014 10:16 AM in response to chipperjoneshof

The point to what I stated the user can do ... is simply that it is solely up to the user as to what he does, and not up to Apple. Apple provides the mechanism, the user can choose to actually use it or not. Apple is "done with the issue" once their mechanism is there that provides the choice to the user and meets the requirements of the laws which mandate the lockout process.

Oct 28, 2014 10:23 AM in response to Star Traveler

Notice the wording user. Why isn't the term owner used ?

Sent from my iPhone

Oct 28, 2014 11:07 AM in response to chipperjoneshof

This is a forum for "users" and not necessarily owners. To say "owner" neither "necessarily" fits this forum nor does it fit necessarily any kind of situation that we may describe in the use of various features. Many times one person is the owner while with the very same device, another person is the user.

It's the user who comes here to the forum, it's the user who may put in his Apple ID (and not the owner) and it's the user who may get Apple Support and not the owner. You can go to the Apple Genius Bar and talk to an "Apple Genius" ... entirely on the basis of being the user and not at all being the owner.

Activation Lock Nightmare