NC_Girl

Purchased a 32G wifi iPad last April. Loved it but almost out of warranty and well.... in anticipation of the new iPad2 I sold mine on CL (for $500) a couple of weeks ago. iPad2 came out and I was NOT IMPRESSED, ok it's a bit thinner, but the touted camera is a JOKE! so decided to just buy another 1st Gen iPad. Went to Best Buy last night and saw that they had an open box one exactly like my previous on sale for $449 and came with a 1 year apple warranty. Sounds good I think so snap it up. Get it home, and low and behold, the dag-gone thing still had all the previous owners stuff on there!!! It had never been factory restored. As iPad owners know, once you enter your passwords on the apps, they are there for anyone to see. I could access hundreds of her emails, CC and banking info, FF info, etc etc


I could email the person, I have their email address of course, and notify them, or just take it back to Best buy and let them deal with it. or just restore it myself and forget about it. But, who else perhaps could have accessed it at Best Buy? What if they _____ with the girls info?? The iPad is now in my hands. I know that it is unlikely, and I am reaching, but wonder what the best course of action is? hmmm......

manneca

I would email the former owner and let her know so she can at least be aware of the possibility of id theft. I would also return to BB and let them fix it.

cordelli

Any time you buy open box or refrub it whatever there is a very good chance they did not do a restore to wipe out the previous person's stuff.

There have been so many cases of people buying laptops, desktops, pda's, phones, etc (some marketed as new shrink wrapped) that have had previous owners stuff on them.

While the store, merchant, manfg or whatever should restore it, the person sending it back has to take some responsibility too. They should have cleared it off before bringing it back.

I would not contact the previous owner. If they are having problems, you will always be a suspect to them as having something to do with it. I would either let Best Buy take care of it or just do it yourself. Two or three years from now should somebody get around to using her information they picked up in the store, the last thing you want is her saying, hey, what was that person's name who contacted me, they said they had my passwords.

ScottC

This is why the Best Buy "buy back program" is such a bad idea too - they claim they'll always erase everything, but they are clearly too incompetent to actually do this.

gfunkdave

Which is why I always clear electronics myself before getting rid of them.

I agree that you shouldn't contact the original owner. Just delete all his/her info, restore the iPad to factory settings, and enjoy your new iPad.

pittpanther

Hang on for just a moment...

Before I wiped everything, I think I would spend a few minutes/hours trying to figure out WHY she returned the iPad in the first place. I would check her emails, especially her Sent emails, to see if she mentioned any problems she was having with the device, or to see if she engaged Best Buy or Apple in any repair attempts.

If that comes up clear, then do the following - write down her email address.

Now you have a dilemma. Do you contact her? Consider playing dumb and saying something like "I bought your returned iPad and wanted to know why you returned it." If she challenges you as to how you got her email address, invent a story about "an old website history was left," or something innocuous like that.

If there is some performance issue as to why she returned it, you can figure out how you want to deal with that NOW, instead of finding out later, after you have it loaded up with all your goodies.

Say absolutely nothing about having her passwords, etc.

srirams

I wouldn't email her... she might blame you for any id theft or whatnot. No good deed seems to go unpunished these days.

Definitely Best Buy's fault. They should be resetting these devices to factory before reselling them.

Coolers

And you would be barking up the wrong tree. Someone with any common sense would erase all their personal information before returning it, even if Best Buy claims to perform that service for you.

Restoring any iDevice is so simple a monkey could do it. Don't waste your time contacting the person; just do the restore at home and save yourself the trip to Best Buy.

aster

Yeah, but would a simple "restore" actually wipe all your data so that the subsequent owner would not be able to retrieve it in any way?

bbkenney

This seems ...er....odd

Takire

I'd say test the device and see if its working normally, if yes then wipe the info yourself. Don't contact her as she might blame you for ID theft in the future.

9Benua

Yes, Her incompetence is not your problem.

docbert

There's nothing to even think about here - just return it.

You purchased a refurb. You got second-hand. Who knows what else is wrong with it, or whether they are going to honor the warranty if/when it breaks in 10 months.

AT&T are selling the 64GB iPad Wifi + 3G for $529, which makes the price you paid not even particularly good. If you really want 32GB and no 3G, the refurbs direct from Apple are only $429 - with a much better chance it'll actually be a refurb!

pittpanther

Did you even read the OP? He didn't purchase a refurb, he purchased an Open Box. The box could be "opened" for any number of reasons, including a return because it didn't work, or it was a display unit, or who knows what. One thing that is not assumed is that the device was repaired or refurbed. It was not.