HT201441: Turn off Find My iPhone Activation Lock
Learn about Turn off Find My iPhone Activation Lock
Q: How do I return a device to it's owner?
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Feb 18, 2016 5:28 PMby kevinds-apple,Why extremely unlikely to get it back?? Curious about this statement.
Anyways, I popped the SIM card out, read the MyNumber off of it, and used that to contact the device's owner... Who never considered going to the police..
Had I taken it to the police, she never would have gotten it back.
Both the cellular carrier and Apple told her to buy a new phone.
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Feb 18, 2016 5:39 PMby kevinds-apple,I never said, hinted at, or suggested someone's contact information be given out.
And really, a stuffed toy electronic device, just consumer goods.
Regardless of the personal information stored on the device (or not, could be erased), it is about getting a consumers lost item back to them. It can be easily done for a $30 toy, but not for a $600+ product?
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Feb 18, 2016 5:55 PMby Michael Black,kevinds-apple wrote:
I never said, hinted at, or suggested someone's contact information be given out.
And really, a stuffed toy electronic device, just consumer goods.
Regardless of the personal information stored on the device (or not, could be erased), it is about getting a consumers lost item back to them. It can be easily done for a $30 toy, but not for a $600+ product?
Well if you think a stuffed toy and a computer are just similar "consumer goods", then we're already on different planets. And it is about how much information a company is tracking about me, using actively interventionally. It is also about what a company should be held responsible for. Apple sells hundreds of millions of devices world wide! Are they now supposed to become the global lost and found for all those? Many stolen or lost iphones and iPads end up in different countries from where they were purchased (black market, or lost while traveling). That's not a trivial expense or effort involved in such a thing, not to mention the legalities of dealing with devices crossing international borders and boundaries of consumer and civil law. Why should they be expected to do that? Are you willing to pay an XX% price hike to cover those expenses, assuming pragmatically such an effort could even be competed?
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Feb 18, 2016 6:53 PMby kevinds-apple,Sorry, not good with the quotes here
https://discussions.apple.com/people/Meg%20St._Clair said "extremely small chance of every getting back something like an iPhone"
Are you willing to pay an XX% price hike to cover those expenses
Apple already has preferred rates for shipping needs, I wanted to check shipping rates for new devices, but the apple.com site won't take my postal code. Says free next day shipping to US addresses. And I was a little low on my $600+ device.. Sorry.
Perhaps a processing fee billed to the iTunes account if the owner does want to get their device back?
not to mention the legalities of dealing with devices crossing international borders and boundaries of consumer and civil law
I am not sure how this applies to sending a product back to it's owner. Apple already does business in most countries, so the devices won't be barred for import back to the owner. Owner already owns it, so no import taxes either.
Are you willing to pay an XX% price hike to cover those expenses, assuming pragmatically such an effort could even be competed?
Why does it need a price hike..
The way I see this, a message gets sent to the Apple account the device is registered on, either from a pop-up from the Activation screen that a person enters contact details for themselves, "Hey, I found your iPhone, call me at xxxxxxxxx or email me at blah@example.com" However the person wants to be contacted. This gets emailed to the Apple account from Apple, "Someone is contacting you about your device, here is what they said....." You can contact them to get your device, or click here to remove it from your Apple account so they can use it, or ignore this and leave it locked"
If the device is turned into Apple, then a similar contact is made, except maybe, "We have your device, we can ship it to you for a charge of $19.99 billed to your iTunes account", we just need your shipping address.. Do you want to reward the person who turned it in?" - Probably phrased differently, but that idea.. Also not sure how much information is already needed for having a billing account.
Why should they be expected to do that?
Obviously it isn't expected, otherwise it would be done already.. It would be another value-add for being an Apple customer? Help people not need to buy another very expensive device to replace one that got lost.
It was a lot of work on my part to just find a way to message the owner of the phone I found, so I could return it.
