Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

So I have 2 iPhone X, 1 is the original purchase and 1 is a replacement due to the first one being damaged out of the box. Problem is, I have tried calling, emailing to named Apple senior advisors a number of times and they have been saying they will arrange to collect the damaged unit from me. Now it's been over 2 weeks since I have received the replacement and I still have the damaged unit that I really just want to give back to Apple. I cannot just drop it off to a Apple Store nearby and I cannot download a return label on the website because the replacement I have is a replacement in advance so it requires a senior Apple person to initiate the return that they keep saying they will do but nada...

I am worried that the automatic system will eventually kick in and I'd be charged again because they have my card details.

Where do I stand?

I have so far spoken to a half a dozen of advisors on the phone and have had 4 named senior advisors 'in charge' of the case that they keep disappearing... I have emails with dates of mostly 1 directional contact from me...

If you bought with a visa MasterCard or Amex you can have them reverse that charge and any interest/fees that go with it using your above explanation, Amex in my experience then take the admin on for you if necessary

Not with a Amex but with a Mastercard with a bank that I do pay for banking, I guess if I am paying for banking then they really should take on any admin for me if worst case happens? On 2nd thought I should have bought with Amex to get another 1000 air miles... oh well...

But what do I do with the phone? I don't want it. Shall I give it another week and if nothing just bring all the emails to an Apple store and force the store manager to take it back and get his or her details?

MasterCard should behave just like Amex, its in their interest to provide as good a service as they do. But yeah thats why I typically use the amex for larger purchases like that.

Just keep it until the whole thing is sorted out and for a reasonable time afterwards. if they abandon it you might get a few quid on eBay etc.

Funny you should say that, a colleague has already offered £30 to buy it... hahaha... ain't happening.

I’ll offer you £50 ;-)

Nice try but no.

where can you get a replacement ssd drive for the early 2015 macbooks from?
i got 128gb wanna upgrade to 512gb or 1tb

cheers

I'd have thought they would be welded in, in 2015 ? Specifically what model are you talking about?
Crucial.com provide a compatible upgrades search form which may help you. If they don't have one, then I doubt anyone does.

OWC do one but it's slower, doesn't support TRIM and doesn't support Boot Camp.

Used ones from eBay are an option.

So UPS magically turned up to collect the iPhone today, obviosuly I wasn't here. However, Apple has now agreed to pay for my time spent on the phone with them.

Really? What kind of compensation will you get?

Ok, I need help. Not sure where else to post this.
Looks like someone hacked into my Gmail account and bought something on my eBay at 2pm.
Only found out now and scared shitless.

It has started with eBay message from seller saying something about "3 days return policy....." and didn't pay much attention to it as I've requested refund for some item I bought few days bag and thought this was a reply to it.

Then I got another message from same seller 30 minutes ago that got my attention. Long message with word usage like "cryptocurrency, refund, on hold" etc.

That looked strange to me, went to my "eBay Purchases" and to my surprise, there's a "1x Litecoin sent to your wallet" at "£189.99" marked PAID!

Now when looking through things, noticed that my Gmail is warning me about suspicious movement around my account with "Recently used devices" and there's a Windows/Google Chrome log in from 6 hours ago! (I don't own Windows and don't use Google Chrome).

The item is marked PAID, but can't see money taken or on hold anywhere (checked my PayPal and bank accounts).
Also never received a confirmation email about the purchase, neither can't find it anywhere.

Just changed my Gmail password and eBay password, but have no idea what to do next.

If you check included screenshots, you can see the first short message from the seller and below is "my" initial "question" (which is basically long string of letters and numbers to which I got a "normal" answer). Probably same person...?

Excuse my English and hope this is at least a bit understandable.
Hope I can get some advice about where else to change password and who to contact about the money paid for the item (even though not knowing, from where did the money went away).

Thank you.

LINK FOR THE ACUTION: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-x-Litecoin-sent-to-your-wallet/222749157233?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2648

TLDR: My Gmail got hacked, somebody paid £189.99 on my eBay account for cryptocurrency without me noticing, me scared and asking for help.

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Looking for some data recovery advice please...

Water damaged MacBook Air 13" mid-2013. It's dead and an identical replacement has been ordered and received.
I'm looking to restore the data from the dead machine on to the new one (assuming the SSD isn't fried).

The dead machine won't turn on so cloning the drive in-situ isn't an option.
Those OWC caddies are prohibitively expensive for the 2013+ MBA SSDs (since apple changed the connector).

If I were to put the old SSD in the new machine and it's damaged, what are the chances of it killing the new machine?

Are data recovery services worth the money? Are they trust-worthy? Any recommendations from the forum?

Thanks in advance!

Have you contacted Ebay to let them know your account has been hacked and a purchase was made? I would also contact the seller to let them know.

You say no payment was taken from your paypal? If you look at the order details on eBay it should tell you how payment was made.

A little update.

It’s possible money weren’t actually taken out. Even though item is marked as PAID, it’s doesn’t mean I’ve paid for it. Possible the seller marked it as paid.

Also got a message from eBay informing me about possible fraud activity on my account.

Will contact the seller now and see what he says...

Sorry to hear this - sounds like a huge pain in the arse but it’ll be fine, basically.

Time to enable 2FA on your gmail. Use an authenticator app such as Authy, not sms messages.

You can also use 2FA on PayPal but that’s all sms based.

You can also sign out of all devices from the google settings page.

I’d be curious to try and find out how it happened. Do you use public WiFi networks?

Just did all you've said. Thanks so much. A bit of extra piece of mind...

I have used some public WiFi networks, but not so often anymore as there's no need to with my data plan.

It's a little more than just time actually. I think I must be one of the most unlucky and critical Apple customers out there. Even with the 2nd phone, there are a couple of surface scratches on the top left corner, near and on the antenna plastic black band. Could post a pic if anyone is interested. But no glue, no rusty metal like the 1st one, Thank God for that. So they have now offered £120 for me to keep the slightly scratched unit and time spent trying to sort it out with them.

I think the lady I spoke to today, yet another senior person, was genuinely a bit embarrassed how many times I have tried to get a flipping return label issued and how I was passed from 1 person to the next, and did I mention they also got my delivery address wrong when sending out the replacement? So she is going to speak to her boss and see if they could top the £120 to reflect more of the inconvenience so far.

I am guessing they will come back with £150 and I will say £170 and we will shake on that.

Apple can be extremely good or absolutely rude and terrible with things like this, it really depends on who you speak to. I have had far worst treatment that got the attention of Tim Cook's office and much higher amount of good will in the past, so we will see.

Agree with @mdle, don't think you can upgrade the SSD. I remember a few years ago (things will have moved on obviosuly except for Apple welded everything to the motherboard) my boss wanted to upgrade his MBP and the only company that could do it for a reasonable price and by that he meant half the cost of a new machine, was in Canada...

It's advance feed fraud. They probably got your google credentials by getting you to click a fake google drive link or similar some time ago. Their message even says they will only take bank transfer. Just change all your passwords and set up Last Pass, keep an eye on any bank accounts, PayPal etc and you'll be OK. Report any odd behaviour.

Did you have the same login details for Google and EBay?

Do you use the same for anything else?

That sounds pretty scary.

I had same login and pass.
Just like on 99% of other sites...

Lesson learned...

Thank you for the advice and explanation.

Oh, and received a message from eBay that the purchase was canceled.

It’s not in my purchases anymore.