Phone won't activate, page plus customer service unable to help

[RandomUsername]

I'm not sure of all the info needed but I'll do my best, also not sure if I should be posting here or in Samsung.

For a few years we had bought a used Samsung Note 8 off ebay, there was a small crack but it worked fine no issues on Page Plus. Phone was dropped and screen cracked completely along with the lcd so now it needs to be replaced. We liked the note 8 so we went with that again. Also used and bought off of ebay. Phone arrives and as far as I can tell, everything looks fine on it, however it will not activate on Page Plus and we can't figure out why and neither can their techs.

The ESN shows as clean and free as far as both page plus and verizons sites show, we've tried a brand new sim, it looks like it works in that it shows the phone number and sim number if you go into the sim settings but the ESN never updates in Page Plus so it keeps showing the old phones ESN instead. One of the techs claims they tried to manually change the ESN but I have no way to verify if that is true. Neither calls or texts will work and if I try to make a call I get the message "Welcome to Verizon Wireless, we're sorry we are currently unable to authenticate your account"

Entering *#06# seems to show the ESN is correct too but if I try to enter any other codes nothing happens. I'm out of ideas and hoping someone can help or point me in the right direction. I can provide more information if needed. Thank you!

ETA - Weird thing I did notice when messing around with it before is that in the Mobile Networks in Access Points it lists a bunch of Verizon and Xfinity options BUT if I click on search Network Operators manually the only thing that pops up is T Mobile. The phone was marketed and sold as Verizon on the ebay ad but now I'm wondering if this would mean it's a T Mobile phone and someone just added Verizon APNs?

The back of the phone doesn't have a carrier listed either, just Refurbished by Asurion

[Serial Port]

I have to ask, what is the exact model # as reported in the phone settings (Settings>About phone>Model number) ? My question is whether the phone may have been an international model and not accepted by the carrier. I use a Samsung Galaxy S21 (model # SM-G991U for example) on T-Mobile postpaid. I bought my phone directly from Samsung for use with T-Mobile. Some international models may look identical, but are not fully compatible with all networks.

Your thread/post is perfectly fine in this forum from a moderator point of view.

[RandomUsername]

Thank you. The model is listed as SM-N950U which is the same as our last Note 8

[advcomp2019]

Sounds like it could be Samsung firmware bug that some people over at reddit have ran into.

You need to switch the phone to the U1 firmware.

I have not done this, but I know there is other people have done it tho.

[rpz1]

Just for clarification. What APN do you have selected ?

[RandomUsername]

Can you link to it? I'm not finding anything when I search for it. I'm not sure if I'm looking at the right spot on my phone but the UI version says 1.0 on it.

[RandomUsername]

Just for clarification. What APN do you have selected ?

Nothing is selected, the one labeled LTE - Verizon Internet is grayed out and if I select any of the others, nothing happens.

[RandomUsername]

Something new to add. The old Note 8 is now also giving the same "Welcome to VW, cannot authenticate" message when trying to call even though it worked just fine before (aside from the screen). That same sim card works in the backup phone which is a samsung galaxy J2. I'm honestly not sure what is going on since the currently damaged Note 8 had no issues prior to the new Note 8

[RandomUsername]

I'm sorry I keep posting. Hopefully I can keep this from being confusing. The phone we are having issues with is my son's, there is also a back up phone that we are using. I decided to try my sim card in the new note 8 and it works which is great but this is supposed to be his phone. I then put his SIM card in my phone and get the same issue (cannot authenticate) Since this is a brand new sim, just activated today AND we tried 2 other sims on his number with the same issue I feel like this all has to be on Page Plus' end correct?

[Serial Port]

From the network list, try selecting "VZWINTERNET" to see if that works. Could be a Page Plus issue.

[rpz1]

As SerialPort said, the correct APN for PP is VZWINTERNET. Try that APN, restart the Note after selecting it. But if I follow what you said that other active phone sims work in the Note, but the new Note 8 sim doesn't work in other phones. Sounds like a provisioning issue on PP side.

[RandomUsername]

Well I have no idea what they did, but I finally got an agent that didn't give me the basic, take the sim card out restart bs. It is finally working! Thanks for helping, I assume this was on their end and it was a matter of finding an agent that knew the system better. I'm just happy it's finally on!

[rpz1]

Good to hear. Getting the right CSR means tons. Curious, for CS did you use phone or chat?

Is there an APN automatically selected now?

[Relztrah]

Well I have no idea what they did, but I finally got an agent that didn't give me the basic, take the sim card out restart bs. It is finally working! Thanks for helping, I assume this was on their end and it was a matter of finding an agent that knew the system better. I'm just happy it's finally on!

My experience exactly.

[RandomUsername]

Good to hear. Getting the right CSR means tons. Curious, for CS did you use phone or chat?

Is there an APN automatically selected now?

This time I used the chat option even though I tried both chat and phone before. Was disconnected multiple times after their basic suggestions didn't work so I'd have to start all over again with a new agent. I think the APN went with the VWInternet one or something like it. My son stole it back since he's been without it for a week so I can't look at the exact one but I think that's the one it ended up using.


Relztrah, it's amazing isn't it? I assume some of them know their tech and system better than others so it's a matter of luck to get one that is familiar enough with it all to truly troubleshoot.