Was I scammed or did I not read the fine print? You be the judge!!!

I was in the process of buying a Mac Mini online. Wait I did buy a Mac Mini online from Amazon and I got screwed. People did tell me it was a trusted seller and I just went along and believed them. Everything went fine until I went and updated meaning I did system updates. Yes that went well until um I go to turn my Mac Mini on and I go to start it up and the computer goes to a grey screen with an Apple logo. Ok so I call Apple to see what this problem was because this was my first Mac and I thought I did something wrong. They tell me the steps of doing this and after a while I come to find out that I can not do anything that they say to do over the phone. I go to the Apple Store in my local mall and they come to find out that the hard drive was cut off meaning if I go to install or update anything on the computer the entire Mac Mini would crash and the hard drive would go. Was I ripped off and scammed? NOTHING was talked about the hard drive being bad. I trusted this site and so did many other people did. People put there reviews on the page saying how well trusted he is and how he should be recommended by everyone. I go to believe I was screwed over not knowing that this computer had a bad hard drive. Do you think the person knew that the drive was bad and didn't tell me? Should I file a report on this person? How will I get my money back? I paid this person on a credit card and I have no way of contacting him and trying to get the money I have give him back. The computer cost about $455 and that is including shipping. The ad looked legit meaning it didn't say a word about the computer having a bad drive. The ad did state that it was like brand new. Nothing was wrong with the product but when I go to update the computer the drive went. I just want my money back and him to know that he screwed me over. He cut the drive off so when you go to update the computer and or install a new OS on it the computer crashes and the hard drive fails. What a rip off I got. Do you think this person knew it was going to happen? You be the judge!!!

This is the page that I got the Mac Mini from. I am letting you be the judge and to be honest about the person and what you think!! WAS I SCREWED or was it just an error that he had no clue what was going to happen? You judge

----- click here ----- to see the Amazon ad and see if it was a scam!!

osx scam apple lion macmini harddrive amazon drive mac scammer amazon.com ripoff

asked Jul 26 '12 at 22:31

Studio66Designs
320●179●195●204

6 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

Well you can call Amazon and make a complaint, and they'll go from there. They're pretty good on customer service.

answered Jul 26 '12 at 22:36

DJ Scooby Doo
9.5k●232●279●379

Except it wasn't from Amazon it was from another seller, just through Amazon.

(Jul 27 '12 at 00:34) hansring

amazon still guarantees all sales made though amazon, look at the A-Z claims process. If I remember, you must first contact the seller, he gets 3 days to respond, but you must do so within the window allowed. If the seller fails to respond or refuses to work with you you can then file an A-Z claim.

(Jul 27 '12 at 07:20) trueb

I agree with @trueb, right now I'm doing a claim against a seller who is also not being cooperative, and the representative from Amazon is making things so easy to do. http://i.imgur.com/dcipd.png

(Jul 27 '12 at 12:23) DJ Scooby Doo

Just to make this easy for you, here is a link to the page that talks about it

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=537868

(Jul 28 '12 at 08:27) trueb

Well hang on a minute. Everything was fine until you tried the update? So how could the seller have known otherwise. It seems extremely unlikely that he is responsible for anything that happened subsequently. What's in it for him to do anything like what you're accusing him of?

I don't understand why you haven't done the most obvious thing and contacted the seller directly. In the unlikely event that he tells you he was aware of the problem and doesn't give a hoot then you'll have reason to complain.

Nothing said at the Apple store seems to make any sense so I suspect that they are fobbing you off knowing that it's not their responsibility. The only possibility I can see is that the drive was infected with a boot sector destroying virus or was simply on the point of failing physically. Again, if everything was normal initially, I just don't see how anyone could have been expected to have a prescient vision of the failure.

Is the hard drive replaceable or is this another piece of masterly self-defeating engineering ingenuity by Apple? If so, get it replaced and argue the toss about who pays for it later. Life is way too short!

answered Jul 27 '12 at 09:12

dunfiddlin
1.2k●4●18

Just as a question, how does one make it so that a hard drive is cut off? I have never heard of this. And I just asked a few other people and they haven't heard of it either. Likewise, what would happen if you used DBAN on the hard drive and started over installing Mac OSX? Becuase as far as I know the modification was to the hard drive via some software and so using DBAN to clear the drive would kill whatever is on it. Also, how does a program break a hard drive. Breaking a hard drive should require a physical attack.... I could be wrong but I have never heard of this before...

answered Jul 27 '12 at 00:11

TheTechDude
16.8k●40●94●298

edited Jul 27 '12 at 00:11

I think he means removed.

(Jul 27 '12 at 07:21) trueb

I've heard of cases where CCleaner's wipe free space has caused drives to fail, off-topic, nut still

(Jul 27 '12 at 10:33) pjob797

DBAN did that to me.

(Jul 27 '12 at 12:59) DJ Scooby Doo

No I brought it to Apple and they said the partition was damaged and he cut one of the partiton's off

(Jul 27 '12 at 13:31) Studio66Designs

I would check your buyers rights. As he said it was like new then maybe you might have a claim. Also look this guy up on google to see if there is anyone else has had the same problem with this guy. Hope you get this sorted :)

answered Jul 27 '12 at 10:24

Daniel Colthart
431●64●83●89

looks like new and like new 2 different things :)

(Jul 27 '12 at 12:40) jadtechnic

this was my thought here how could anyone know the hard drive was going if it ran fine for them seeing as they were selling it it is possible they never really used it just boot made sure everything booted fine ..

my thought was just this 2 things why didnt the apple store give a price to replace the drive , my other thought is that the mac mini though this one was advertized as like new mac mini is far from new it is 7 to 8 year old technology it is possible this machine couldn't handle the up date and trying to install it put the drive out ...

this is one thing I don't care for when people push how well mac holds it value no matter how it holds its value its still aged technology if you want bleeding edge then apple hold no value after its aged a few months ..

we have an old apple notebook here from like 2000 it is maxed out with as much as it will handle looks like new you can still find these in the apple store for $2000 anyone want to offer me $2000 for the one we have , looks excellent like new Promise has a factory 10gb HDD i dont think it even hasa GB of ram my wiofe is laughing at this post and is attempting to boot it up now 10:45 am from our past XP it should be fully booted by about 1:30 this afternoon .. will give you other details then ..

osx 10.4.11 Tiger it is the last OS this Ibook will handle I promise I have indeed see these selling at several apple stores in the US and Canada here from $2000 to $2500 not in as good a condition as the one here how ever if you tried to put mountian lion on this it would die too or at the very least laugh at you ..

just a side note the offer to sell not really this Ibook belong to my wife and she is keeping it it is a memory of a time long ago and far away :)

answered Jul 27 '12 at 10:30

jadtechnic
2.0k●5●18

edited Jul 27 '12 at 10:57

for years I sold on ebay yahoo auctions , amazon just a few places the list goes in including several small auction networks I ran myself on my servers ..

I didn't own ever Item I sold not even close , i acquired my items in many ways used and new, from flea markets antique store, storage locker auctions , estate sales walmart and toys are us and several other large stores have policies that state they can not resell anything returned even if it was returned unopened unused they store this stuff on pallets and in time they do for sure sell these pallets of random stacked items for the best offer site unseen..

I would inspect Items quickly for issue and flaws I didnt own them long or use them tested you could say got them listed as quickly as possible no one wants to spend $1000 or $10,000 on a bunch of stuff meant to sell they have no other use for and just hold it for the fun of it ..

(Jul 27 '12 at 11:46) jadtechnic

point is if I am selling say 8 track tapes some of these are very valuable and collectible and you win the high bid no matter what the price and it arrives at your door as advertised in one piece I have been fair done my part the tape may or may not have been tested it is a collectible if you get it put it in your player and the player eats the tape , is this my fault ?? were you ripped off or did I sell you a great collectible you could most likely have sold again in a short time and got more then what you paid back ..

do you agree the computer arrived to you in as advertised condition was it working before you tryed to change (update) with something that was not used or tested on it ??? was it the sellers fault no the mac mini worked as it was sold you bought as is it was as advertised ..

i can tell you as a seller for year I ate a lot of loss over such things , buyers not willing to admit in some cases they could be in the wrong and what was worse is that 99% of them wanted the refund while keeping the Item not returning it whats with that ?? you want the Item you want to claim it was not as advertized me pay your money back pluss you keep the item who is being riped off I would say the seller not to mention credit card companys there re fund polcies changed now but ebay buyer would bitcvh get me to refund them then turn around and get a reversed payment on the CC as well ..

(Jul 27 '12 at 12:06) jadtechnic

Ok rereading this I think this is just a faulty product (hard drive) . You were not scammed as it could of happened to anyone and from any seller (Including Apple!!!) Being new it should be guaranteed (by law i think but not sure) But I would contact the seller and if he does not respond then file a claim like most people on this post say.

answered Jul 27 '12 at 12:53

Daniel Colthart
431●64●83●89

when you buy like that its a privite deal unless stated by the seller you by as is this would be second hand or third fourth what ever the law is always buyer beware ..

most of the personal listing on amazon dont give enough info to even know how old it could be and these have been around since 2005 not new by far though there are generation of them I supose which gen is it :)

buyer or sell not give these details if you bought a 7 or 8 year old looks like new computer have to ask what was expected ..

(Jul 27 '12 at 13:26) jadtechnic

defiantly I think amazons ads are to low detail.

(Jul 27 '12 at 13:31) Daniel Colthart

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Asked: Jul 26 '12 at 22:31

Seen: 854 times

Last updated: Jul 28 '12 at 08:27

Was I scammed or did I not read the fine print? You be the judge!!!

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