[ausimian]

Yep, exactly the same thing happened to my wife's iMac two weeks ago. Bought it in the US 4 years ago, private sale, reputable owner (senior MS exec if I remember, bought it for his wife, she didn't like it).

Back in Sydney now some two years. I don't have the receipt or any record of the purchase. When i phoned Apple, they wouldn't help, said I wasn't the registered owner.

But what really pissed me off was that they wouldn't even reach out to that owner. So I'm stuck.

As a family, we've purchased our fair share of Apple hardware over the past 7 years or so, you name it, we probably have at least one.

Not any more.