If a phone has been reported stolen, a sim put inside the phone wouldn't initialize on the network pretty much making a check like that useless.
Which carrier are you talking about?
According to most, that's not true on Tmobile. Sprint and verizon don't use Sim cards, so the check is absolutely necessary with them. Sprint and Verizon activate phones according to the ESN, so I can't just pick up someone's phone, throw my sim into it, and start using it. That's why they are able to effectively blacklist ESN's, and it's also why they DON'T blacklist inactive ESN's. They know which phones are being used on their network, and they don't care if your inactive device gets stolen.
Jet, I have a rigtht to as another consumer and expert in the field I am in to research to the full extent and post my findings to help others. You seem to think with a high post count you are more important then others here. I come to that conclusion by reading other post from you. In fact you yourself on on of the other post you include were defending that TMO did NOT block IMEI!
Now, you may want to go back and read those 3. Again 2 of those post are directly same poor gentleman with the Galaxy he got scammed off CL. In fact I have found his post on 5 forums including the Tmobile forum. Read his post. He was told they phone was blacklisted and it sounds like it was stolen. They have said they will block some stolen phones. Or the owner called in and reported it stolen. I forgot to include another thing the leval 2 sup told us was a common scam on CL is that the person will sell there phones on a bad account and then report them stolen to get out of part of the agreement. I can cut and paste that portioin of TMO agreement if you would like. He said this is getting very common as TMO has been more aggresive with collections and the word on the street has spread to report stolen. The issue is then it may get blacklisted and not useable. Not saying this is what happened. However its an educated guess now from my investigations.
The other 2009 post is the other person I told you about the only other I have found reporting this. If you read he too is saying this phone may bave been stolen. Again we know stolen phones may be the only way blacklisted.
Now for the Tmobile csr response. Again, this was supported by the level 2 sup in activations. He said they did block some EIP. Now he says for fraud not for non payment.
I also did not mention, the sup also said the reason TMO will never block the IMEI of a phone on a default balance owed non fraud account is that the phone belongs to the customer. He said no matter the price. When the customer pays either from FREE to the moon for new phone and or upgrades or added lines. The only thing they are liable for is the early term fees and balance on account. In EVERY case the phone belongs to the customer and TMO has no legal right to block IMEI. I found this on TMO forum as well.
So the ONLY way we know know that an IMEI can possibly be blocked is from a phone stolen and blocked at TMO discretion and or POSSIBLY a phone on old EIP or now value payment plan. I think the only thing we can do now is to wait for some more reports other them mine or the one paragraph from the TMO csr here (not dispresecting them) and or some more valid cases posted here or other forums. I know your trying to drive home your point. However your 3 links above do nothing to do that. I can post hundreds saying they dont EVER block IMEI.
In fact here is the article stating none of the USA carriers of this type do.
Dispute this if you may Mr. Jet in all fairness.
again, I have resect for this very nice forum. You have great information. However as every forum some people think post count reflects the bottom line in discussions. I polietly have furnished what very good FACTS I could gather. Could it be all wrong. Yes we could all be wrong. However I have produced more facts.
As for the Fraud dept. We too have a major Fraud dept at our company. A major Satellite company. One thing that would not be hidden is procedure for potential customers to lose money and be angry with our company for buying on blackmarket. WE have a full disclosure letting our customers know the factual risk involved.
TMobile would do the same. They on there PREPAiD page have a 3inch icon pushing bring your own phone and buy and activation kit. They would have a disclosure warning about buying used phones that maybe not usuable. The only disclosure is that other carriers phones may not work on there system. They may be a consfused company in some areas like at the stores. However there legal team I am sure is not confused and would not risk the embarrasment of forum posts and time to deal with this if a simple disclosure would protect them from any retro effect.
So I will say I am confident the information I provided is closest to the truth.
The easy thing I guess it to call if buying a phone and ask if its on a payment plan. THey will tell you this. If its not you have nothing to worry about. If it is I still think you dont but proceed with caution till more is known.
THanks all for your time. I will monitor and add if I find out more. No need to argue. Its not in good forum rule or context.
I have the same problem as a bunch of you have had with this situation. Heres what i would like to see from tmobile a little understanding in the mater and not try to tell me there is nothing I can do. How about buy the phone back from me if you want to collect. Dont leave me with a paper weight I have been with you for 6 years and have 4 lines never missed a payment look at my records. Valued customer blahhh
I have the same problem as a bunch of you have had with this situation. Heres what i would like to see from tmobile a little understanding in the mater and not try to tell me there is nothing I can do. How about buy the phone back from me if you want to collect. Dont leave me with a paper weight I have been with you for 6 years and have 4 lines never missed a payment look at my records. Valued customer blahhh
This is a ridiculous policy by T-Mobile. It doesn't help them collect debts and it just angers longtime customers who buy one of these blocked IMEI devies and try to use it on their valid account.
T-Mobile is expected to have lost 600,000 postpaid customers in the first quarter and they're busy blocking devices of the customers that still have service. Bad for business.
This is a ridiculous policy by T-Mobile. It doesn't help them collect debts and it just angers longtime customers who buy one of these blocked IMEI devies and try to use it on their valid account.
T-Mobile is expected to have lost 600,000 postpaid customers in the first quarter and they're busy blocking devices of the customers that still have service. Bad for business.
I wonder if T-Mobile will put those phones on the new national lost and stolen phone list.
I wonder if T-Mobile will put those phones on the new national lost and stolen phone list.
No they wont! I was the one that did all the intense research. Bottom line is if the phone was not on a payment plan, stolen, reported to Asurion as lost or stolen or on a regular contract account and FIRST bill never paid or fraud account. THEY DONT BL regular customers phones even if they go delinquent on account or cancel. So only a small portion are blacklisted. But it still stinks.
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Unfortunately, my bro-in-law's Sensation got hit with same problem and T-Mobile TS told me the phone is blacklisted too.
He bought it in a store in Chinatown and the price was too good to be true.
Well, he lost his money and he uses my G2x now and I bought Galaxy Nexus.
This is a ridiculous policy by T-Mobile. It doesn't help them collect debts and it just angers longtime customers who buy one of these blocked IMEI devies and try to use it on their valid account.
T-Mobile is expected to have lost 600,000 postpaid customers in the first quarter and they're busy blocking devices of the customers that still have service. Bad for business.
The large amount of money they save from people signing up for 2 yrs of service then ditching will be more than the few customers that leave due to the stolen/blacklisted phones. I don't see anything wrong with this.
This is a ridiculous policy by T-Mobile. It doesn't help them collect debts and it just angers longtime customers who buy one of these blocked IMEI devies and try to use it on their valid account.
T-Mobile is expected to have lost 600,000 postpaid customers in the first quarter and they're busy blocking devices of the customers that still have service. Bad for business.
Originally Posted by danska
The large amount of money they save from people signing up for 2 yrs of service then ditching will be more than the few customers that leave due to the stolen/blacklisted phones. I don't see anything wrong with this.
Indeed. I'm sure the postpaid customer churn has more to do than secondhand devices getting blacklisted. What's next? Are we going to say that anymore losses in Q2 are the result of customers not liking Carly Foulkes' new outfit?
Come on, people. It's common sense. Be a little more careful about stuff you buy on Craigslist, or just stick with eBay.
With Sprint it was always easy to be careful on craigslist because you could call Sprint and check the ESN before buying (or even better activate the phone on your account) but what if someone gets a phone on T-Mobile's value plan, sells it to you (while their account was still in good standing) and then bails? Does that mean your brand new phone you bought is now blocked?
Seems there's no way to control something like that no matter how careful you are buying phones on craigslist.
Late comer to the thread, but stuff like this is why I refuse to buy from Craigslist and EBay. I see stories like this all the time here and on other sights, I know there are many people who never have problems from these places but the frequency of these bad sales seems to be getting worse and worse.
If the OP has not had some kind of resolution through Craigslist yet I hope they do soon. I know EBay and Amazon have a policy where if anything like this were to happen under their watch they will refund the customer once the bad product has been shipped to them and they will go after the seller.
Don't know if Craigslist has such a policy but if they don't they need one or people should reconsider shopping at the sight.
This thread also is making me think twice about buying a new phone on craigslist. Someone could easily start a couple of new lines with T-Mobile, get new phones on the installment plan, sell them on craislist, then bail and those of us who legitimately bought the phones for accounts in good standing are the ones who get the shaft.
This thread also is making me think twice about buying a new phone on craigslist. Someone could easily start a couple of new lines with T-Mobile, get new phones on the installment plan, sell them on craislist, then bail and those of us who legitimately bought the phones for accounts in good standing are the ones who get the shaft.
True, but it's not like they could do this continuously. Once they start this stuff, their SSN is flagged.
It is good to know that there is some kind of safe guard in place. However it does not help those like the OP that got taken.
I guess hind sight is 20-20, we live and learn.
Originally Posted by Kies
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