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I recently bought a MacBook Pro from a third party brand new in the box. I go to set it up and I get to a screen that says "Remote Management"

It says Verizon can remotely install apps and erase my MacBook Pro... WTF?

Why am I seeing this message? Does this mean the MacBook is not new?

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  • So... Did you call the number?
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Jul 17, 2020 at 9:49
  • @bmike No I didn’t, I called the seller. The rep said the MacBook was indeed refurbished so I retuned it, he also said he had no idea how I got a refurb. This is a company that overcharges for electronics and takes installments from employee paychecks. He said they’ll send a new one but I might just cancel the order.
    – brewpixels
    Commented Jul 18, 2020 at 3:00
  • Wow, mistakes can happen even with the best, but some times it’s just obvious when things go wrong... I hope you end up ok.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Jul 18, 2020 at 3:02

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Very large organizations like Verizon likely have their devices enrolled from the factory, it could be new but it's likely stolen, innocently mixed up as a retail product for sale or liquidated to a 3rd party as "new old stock" (unlikely IMO). However, generally speaking, when you see this screen, it's usually not “brand new in the box” as you describe. The fact that it had MDM installed/enabled (manual process) means at a minimum, it was configured for use. The moment that happens, it’s no longer "new" but "used" (pre-owned) or at the very least it's considered "Open Box."

The problem here is that you could have something that is legitimately sold from Verizon to the third party via liquidation and the MDM was innocently overlooked to it being a stolen device in which case, if you are in possession of it, you could have it confiscated by authorities without compensation back to you.

In this particular case, Verizon being a large company with a large bureaucracy, it will be a Herculean effort to validate its legitimacy and to get MDM removed. I would return this to the person you purchased this from for a full refund as it’s not as described - brand new. Let the vendor deal with removing the MDM - this is the "value add" he's supposed to provide.

This is not to say that buying from 3rd parties is to be discouraged; you just have to be more diligent. Here are some tips for dealing with 3rd parties:

  • Use a service that offers purchase protection like PayPal or eBay

  • Test it out; boot it up and test before closing the deal. If you run into this type of error, walk away.

  • Boot it from a completely off state. If the machine is running and “waiting” for you, it could be a sign of trying to obfuscate issues. Shut it down completely and boot from off. For instance, they may have booted into Safe Mode, obscuring any issue that might occur during a normal boot

  • Test everything while on battery.

    • There are keyboard test sites (https://www.keyboardtester.com/) or you can use Karabiner Elements (it has an event viewer) this will help you ensure the keyboard is good (You can also try xev but it requires XQuartz to be installed (both are free)
    • Memtest86 is free and you can boot it off a USB drive
    • DriveDx is free for diagnostics (pay for data recovery) and is an excellent tool to test out the storage

  • Check the battery stats. You can do this from Terminal without extra software. Issue the command:

system_profiler SPPowerDataType | grep -i "charge information" -A 10

See the link for sample output. If it's brand new it won't have a bunch of cycles (should be in the single digits) and the "max charge" and "charge remaining" shouldn't have much of a delta if the battery's fully charged.

  • (I can't stress this enough) If this is an in-person transaction, do this at a police station. Some even offer a well lit, camera monitored space in the the front parking lot to do the exchange. If your seller balks at this, you'll know something's not right and should walk from the deal.

Conclusion

Most of all, live by the philosophy caveat emptor or buyer beware. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you not "strong" in tech, do what you'd do if buying a used car from a 3rd party - bring along a tech to give you the thumbs up/down on the purchase.

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  • See my answer - your statement that it’s not new isn’t universally correct - the rest of the answer is so awesome. It’s very likely stolen or at best an honest mistake on the seller’s part as mistakes in DEP are extremely rare. I almost edited out your entire first paragraph, but will defer to you on refining the answer. Take anything from my answer if you like.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Jul 17, 2020 at 9:42
  • @bmike - device enrollment were on devices that came direct from Apple - we didn't go through a middle man and were in bulk boxes, not retail so the fact that 3rd party seller has it got the spidey sense going. I'll see how I can tweak the answer
    – Allan
    Commented Jul 17, 2020 at 15:50
  • This answer is superb. Thanks for the edits and the original post. +1
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Jul 17, 2020 at 19:54
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Apple has device enrollment so you can get this with a brand new - out of the box Mac or iPhone or iPad. It could be a simple mistake where the person selling a Mac accidentally listed your serial number instead of the correct one, or they pulled the wrong mac from stock for you. It could also be deliberate bait and switch or worse.

Actual mistakes where Apple or their agents mess up serials and DEP is super rare, and most of the time, this indicates a company purchased this through educational / enterprise / business team and your seller is the one that messed up intentionally or unintentionally.

I would get them to retrieve the original purchase and contact Apple to validate the serial number and double check they didn’t accidentally register your new Mac to the wrong account.

Since this is third party - have them release the DEP lock in less than a week or return it. You can’t escape this and without the original invoice - not your third party invoice, Apple will decline to unlock that Mac and release it in my experience. You might also consult a local lawyer to learn what your obligations are with respect to suspected stolen goods, you may have purchased an experience here and not a product you can use.

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