However as an Admin on one of the largest satellite tv forums and Mod on 2 others, I see your kind all day long
My kind? Just another example of you failing to stay on topic and wanting to engage in personal attacks.
Then you put another poster here, a TMO csr as gospel as they in your words are "Respected here" vs. not 1 but 3 managers and a tier 2 supervisor of the exact dept that handles this.
Let's review your posts if the 3 managers and tier 2 supervisor agreed on the same thing:
I called Tmobile and was completely honest with them. I also walked into the tmobile corp store as well today. I got the same exact answer from both.
I told them I am buying 2 phones that have a balance. I asked them if it was true I need only purchase an Activation kit with Sim card from them to activate these phones for me.
There exact quote was," We do not EVER turn a phone off based on the phone. We turn off the Sim card only sir"
That's two that says No IMEI block occur, EVER.
She said in 8 years she only sees this on stolen phones on a handful of occasions. Of course she tried to sell me phones by telling me I will get no warrenty yada yada. I told her as a 9 year Tmobile customer I am holding her (got her id) to her statement that used phones are safe in regards to activation. She said FINE SIR you will have no issue on phone use as long as you are current on your bill.
She admits blocking occurs.
Now the score is 2-1 (in favor of No Blocking)
Your next source said:
1. It is true that in very rare cases they block IMEI numbers.
Score tied 2-2.
The point is T-Mobile own employees are confused on the subject. They're giving you different answers as you have proven.
The other point is, multiple people have had blocked devices. If they bought them second hand they only know for sure that T-Mobile won't let it be used on their network. The only thing they have to go on is what they're told by T-Mobile when they call in to see what the problem is. Why is that? Because T-Mobile won't be upfront with their customers, they won't properly inform their employees so that their employees can give straight answers, they won't document this policy on their website and warn their customers how to protect themselves from buying devices that don't work.
That's the bottom line. Whatever reason they're blocking, they are blocking. In my opinion, it's a stupid policy and T-Mobile should stop. If they're going to continue doing it, they need to properly inform everyone concerned.
If your going to know it all...
More off topic personal jabs.
As for Tmobile policy. It is written. It clearly protects them as it says they have a right to disable any phone for any reason.
I've not seen any written policy that says what would cause a device to be blocked. If you have it, post it.
What is appears from all of this is we all agree that STOLEN phones are most likely going to be blocked.
The likelihood of a stolen phone being blocked is just pure speculation on your part.
In fact in this quote from you, it would appear that most stolen phones are not likely to be blocked by T-Mobile at all:
2. You can not call and have IMEI blocked as an end user with TMO here in USA. However TMO may block at there choice when you call in to report but do not as a rule.
Well I will bow to Jet and say if its a game. He wins. OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tmobile is one messed up running company! I mean all retail companys have there issues. In fact my company has lots of them too. However after the last 3 hours I am with Jet and the others that say you will NEVER get a straight answer from them. No way you can have trust with Tmobile.
Okay not like I have anything other to do on my day off today. I first after the spirited debate here wanted to get some kind of email to share to stop the bickering. I emailed MR. Dotson at Bellevue office in WA and called them. I got no response and they would not connect me with any depts at Corp. They are a joke, said I may send an email again but have no corporate ladder to climb with consumer complaints. Just there normal number. Okay done here.
Now I talked to 5 people Here is the results, All vary. Some from tryed hard to help or understand, to some just lets say very inept.
1. Called largest Tmobile corp store in Seattle WA. Talked to Brent Store manager. He was very smart. Been with company for 8 years. Is his dist trainer and is close with LP manager who has office in his store.
Brent said he knows there SOP has 3 ways listed that they may block IMEI. However he said they only are corp blocking for stolen phones from company. I.E. Employee theft too sell or internal Fraud. Said his LP manager was just at training where they will be shortly starting a new test system nationwide where customers may report stolen or lost phones and IMEI will be turned off ONLY at customer request and only customer can remove. He said other then this he has in his years at TMO only seen a handful of IMEI blocked phones and all for corp fraud turnoff. He has seen none for non payment of accounts or for Payment plan defualts.. He in fact said many kids use insurance to report lost phone and then sell it. He said company SOP (standard operations procedures) call for all reported IMEI phone to be blocked but they to this point are not doing this. Not to say they wont start. Great guy.
2. Called 611, Billing and accounts. Forced the Asian sounding woman to get me a sup. The sup Michelle. was somewhat helpful but could not understand what Ebay, CL ect was. Sounded like foriegn country at 2pm PST. She looked up BLOCKED IMEI in her system and came back with these 3 reasons they will or can block IMEI
1. Phone on PAYMENT PLAN and not paid as per agreement. Also all new contracts even non payment plans that are defaulted with no 1st month payment ever made. Will be or can be blocked.
2. Phones reported to be used in an unlawful manner like in drug dealing, crimes ect can be blocked.
3. Phones that are involved in fraud like store employees stealing and selling ect. Not end user fraud. Internal fraud. She said these are the only 3 reasons and then tried to sell me a phone. Uggg
3. Called back and asked for USA> Was connected again to asian sounding male in Tech support. He was the worst yet. He said he had never heard of used phones being allowed to be activated and only tmobile store or online stores and retailers are phones that can be activated. When I pressed he asked a sup and came back and told me that IMEI are blocked for all deliquent accounts of all kinds even not on payment plans. Plus for stolen phones. THink they both pulled this answer out of there rear ends. He then tried to sell me insurance when I already have it on my phones. Useless.
4 Called back trying to get USA rep. This time sounded like INDIA. Asked activation csr for her SUP. She hung up and refused to get sup. I called back and got Asian sounding nice lady. She also looked up IMEI. (Most had no idea what I was talking about with IMEI) She gave me these reasons.
1. Account was setup fraud there risk team can order block to IMEI
2. First payment not made on all new accounts.
3. Phone reported as stolen.
She was nice and tried hard. Just wierd she reads something different in ways from first guy.
5. Last try is a charm. Called billing and got an Asian woman. She had no idea what IMEI policy was so she transfered me to unknown person. This person was American sounding and appeared to be USA. Finally! She also knew exactly what I was asking.
She basicly agreed with first guy. She read the policy as follows and her SUP also went over it with us.
1. Phones on payment plan are subject to blocked IMEI for non payment. Up to the Risk dept to block IMEI based on balance owed on payment plan. Phones on any plan that do not make the 1st month payment may be blocked as well. Seems this is consistent on forums and here so I would say this is a risk. She did say you may walk into a tmo store and they can scan phone and tell you if its on payment plan if the person selling it is with you and would be the smart thing to do. Advised meeting a CL seller at a TMO store if they have nothing to hide. She did confirm regular after 1st month accounts that default or have balance do not have to worry about blocked IMEI..
2. Stolen phones or Internal company fraud sold phones may have IMEI blocked.
This also seems consistent so I would bet is fact.
3. Finally Phones used in criminal activity or suspected manner against the law can be blocked.
So again this one seems to be consistent.
So it would appear the CSR here is correct in part. And it also appears you are safe on most phones unless no payment was ever made or its on a payment plan defaulted.
Now with that, This woman has been at TMO for 4 years. Her sup said twice as long so I think that means 8 if I can count. Both said they have only actually seen or heard of a handful of IMEI blocked by unpaid 1st month or defaulted payment plans. In fact the SUP said she may have seen 3 total IMEI blocks people complained about in her 8 years. And she says as SUP of activation and billing she would have seen this alot if actually used. So they both feel while its in policy. Its to this point not being used or used much.
Two more points she brought up.
1. There SOP says phones having blocked IMEI that were bought at 3rd party I.e CL, EBAY, AMAZON will NOT have the IMEI unblocked for any reason and are no longer usable for anyone except original owner if payment balance paid in full or report of stolen phone removed by owner.
Last she also said that they only block the listed matching IMEI and SIM of the Phone listed on TMOBILE system and website under MY ACCOUNT for the lines in use. So if someone had lets say 3 Sensations and knew they were not going to pay account. IF they put those SIM cards in lets say the 3 old HD2 or G1s in there closet for at least a few days. The phones that would be blocked would be those old phones not the ones removed as there system only shows the phones currently used. Dont know why she told me this trick but she did.
So Jet, sounds like we are both right. They can block. Now it sounds like they are not doing it blanket per there policys as written currently. However that makes it even worst as you never know as its the luck of the draw.
Well I must commend your patience is talking to that many people to get that much information.
I think the bottom line is a pre-purchase IMEI check will catch most items. I called in without letting them know I was a T-mobile customer and asked them to check an IMEI number of an old device I had laying around to see if it was blacklisted and they did so fairly simply.
The main risk may still be in what several of your sources mentioned which is when the first payment is not made. In theory, a seller could try to flip one of those devices before T-Mobile blacklists the device. So a pre-sale IMEI check might not catch that.
Perhaps just asking for the IMEI number from an unscrupulous seller might be enough to scare them away. But the bottom line is, that it would be good practice to check the IMEI number before buying.
Thanks for contributing the results of your many conversations.
Well I must commend your patience is talking to that many people to get that much information.
I think the bottom line is a pre-purchase IMEI check will catch most items. I called in without letting them know I was a T-mobile customer and asked them to check an IMEI number of an old device I had laying around to see if it was blacklisted and they did so fairly simply.
The main risk may still be in what several of your sources mentioned which is when the first payment is not made. In theory, a seller could try to flip one of those devices before T-Mobile blacklists the device. So a pre-sale IMEI check might not catch that.
Perhaps just asking for the IMEI number from an unscrupulous seller might be enough to scare them away. But the bottom line is, that it would be good practice to check the IMEI number before buying.
Thanks for contributing the results of your many conversations.
Thank you as well. I am sorry I was rude to you I was just getting very frustrated trying to make sure my kid would not be ripped off. You were a gentlmen. I am amazed about how right you and everyone was about TMO. One hand has no idea what the other is doing.
Sounds like you and the CSR there are right about the only way to maybe save your phone if you are in financial trouble is to work it out with them or put old phone into service first to mask away the one you want to not have issues with till you either get back on your payments, sell or get a prepaid TMO.
Will post any other updates if I actually hear back on email from corp.
Originally Posted by iceshark
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks