Question about buying a Captivate from Craigslist

[fabul0uz]

Hello Everyone,

I made an account just to ask this question because I am sure that you guys would be able to help me out. I am not as "tech savvy" as most of you are.

I currently have an iPhone 3G, it's good phone and everything but after almost 2 years of having it, I find it to be an extremely boring phone. You can't customize it or anything, its always the same little squares that you see when you turn it on. But anyway, I played around with the Captivate last week when I went into an ATT store and fell in love with the phone. Its so thin, sexy, and the screen is so vibrant. So my question is the following:

If I buy the phone from Craigslist, will I be able to simply put my iPhone sim card into the Captivate and be able to start using the phone right away? Or will I have to go into an ATT store and have the phone activated.
I am scared of buying the phone from someone without knowing if its been reported lost or stolen and the phone is a brick now and wont work, but If I am able to simply swap sim cards and tested out, I feel much better about it.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Aspenator]

Should be able to pop your sim in. I love my captivate much more then any of the iPhones I have owned. Welcome.

 

[JuneNYC]

Buy mine in 2 weeks after I switch over to verizon and the fascinate.

 

[carmendiva]

I've sold stuff on craigslist(Phones)

Just ask for the ESN and call in to check to see if it has been reported stolen or lost

Idk how At & t works(this is my first time using sims cards)
but with Verizon(and Sprint), I could easily just sell(or trade phones)
dial *228 and program it on my acct....Simple as that...took 3 mins

And of course sell that iphone 3g to recoup the price

 

[Ph8]

You can jsut put you SIM card in there and test the phone. If you buy from Craigslist its buyer beware as you are taking a risk since you dont know where the phone came from. If the phone has been reported stolen its IMEI number will be locked out of the network and you will have no recourse (besides contacting the seller again). IMO check everything out and ask A LOT of questions to the seller, make sure it somes with everything (charger, box, ect) if all they are giving you is the phone with nothing else my alarm bells would go off.

BTW how much are you going to pay the buyer off Craigslist? If its over $372 then you might want to see if you can get it through ATT yourself for that amount ($372 or less is the current as of last check off contract price for the Captivate for Premiere members).

 

[Miss Roxy]

You should be able to pop your sim card in and use it right away...

But...

I wouldn't really suggest buying phones off craigslist. Even if you do check out the phone before buying it - you wouldn't know what problems it may have. A lot of captivate phones are having problems with random shut downs... and you will never be able to tell at first glance - cause it happens randomly. Also, is this person going to transfer the warranty to you? will he /she be giving you the original receipt?

 

[fabul0uz]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply to my question. It is good to know that there is a place I can come to where I can ask questions and people do not hesitate in helping out.

PH8- Looking around on Craigslist in Los Angeles, the Average price I have been seeing is between 350-400 with the sellers claiming their "new, and in the Box with everything:" However after you mentioned that I can get the price of "$372 or less is the current as of last check off contract price for the Captivate for Premiere members)." I went a ahead and called ATT to ask about this. The woman on the phone said that the price was 500-something without the contract. That there was no discounts. Do you have a link or something where I can read about the price you mentioned?

I work for target, so maybe Target workers are not Premier Customers?

 

[Endoran]

You will be able to just put your SIM card in and test it out as I did the same thing when I switched from my iphone 3gs. However, you will have to take it into AT&T and have them switch over your plan etc...I'm not sure if this is necessary, but when I went in to buy some accessories (of which they had none at the time) I asked the guy if I needed to do anything and he said yes and took a moment with my phone). I do believe it would be in your best interest to let AT&T know, as iphone plans are more expensive (correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you pay a premium).

IMPORTANT: IF you take your phone into AT&T and they update your plan make sure you tell them to REACTIVATE your old voicemail!!!!!!! I spent 2 hours on the phone with AT&T because apparently the iphone's visual voicemail stores data differently and your regular voicemail, has most likely, as the customer service person explained "expired". It would be much easier and less time consuming if you had the person in-store do this for you. Also be prepare to lose ALL of your voicemails.

 

[myrv]

iPhone plans are the same cost but what I was told is that if you just swap your sim and do not let them know, that after a while of their system detecting a non-iPhone it will swap you over to a non-iPhone data plan. That is only a problem if you have the unlimited plan as I was told you would lose it and be assigned the 2g plan.

 

[Lowfibass]

MPORTANT: IF you take your phone into AT&T and they update your plan make sure you tell them to REACTIVATE your old voicemail!!!!!!! I spent 2 hours on the phone with AT&T because apparently the iphone's visual voicemail stores data differently and your regular voicemail, has most likely, as the customer service person explained "expired". It would be much easier and less time consuming if you had the person in-store do this for you. Also be prepare to lose ALL of your voicemails.

Just wanted to verify that. Same thing happened to me.

 

[eyedeals]

Buy mine in 2 weeks after I switch over to verizon and the fascinate.

I might be interested

 

[Ph8]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply to my question. It is good to know that there is a place I can come to where I can ask questions and people do not hesitate in helping out.

PH8- Looking around on Craigslist in Los Angeles, the Average price I have been seeing is between 350-400 with the sellers claiming their "new, and in the Box with everything:" However after you mentioned that I can get the price of "$372 or less is the current as of last check off contract price for the Captivate for Premiere members)." I went a ahead and called ATT to ask about this. The woman on the phone said that the price was 500-something without the contract. That there was no discounts. Do you have a link or something where I can read about the price you mentioned?

I work for target, so maybe Target workers are not Premier Customers?

https://www.wireless.att.com/business/authenticate/

Enter your corporate email into the above website and it will tell you if you are eligible for the discount (yourname@target.com). Once you get confirmation (btw I did a test and the @target.com worked as a valid discount). From tehre jsut go to the Premiere Store from the link to get your actual price. The last check I did it was 372 off contract for me.

BTW I agree on the voicemail part, youll need to call to verify that the basic voicemail transferred over to your new accoutn once you got the phone. I spent all of 5 minutes on the phone with Preimre support on the weekend to get it fixed.


I agree with the others you may find a good deal on CL, but you ahve no recourse if something goes wrong. Personally I would rather go through a place that I had some recourse in case something was wrong with the phone.

 

[Endoran]

BTW I agree on the voicemail part, youll need to call to verify that the basic voicemail transferred over to your new accoutn once you got the phone. I spent all of 5 minutes on the phone with Preimre support on the weekend to get it fixed.

It took my lady an hour to confirm that my voicemail did indeed have a problem. Apparently her computer was convinced all was well. VIP premiere service reps must be the cream of the crop.

I agree with the others you may find a good deal on CL, but you ahve no recourse if something goes wrong. Personally I would rather go through a place that I had some recourse in case something was wrong with the phone.

I agree. Ebay is a better option, they have a buyer protection that I'm sure would protect you if your goods turn out to be stolen because, unless they advertised that it was stolen, it didn't arrive as advertised. As in not stolen. But still Samsung can and probably will deny you warranty coverage. They clearly say original purchaser only. I doubt having an original receipt would even work. They know who bought it; companies haven't needed receipts in years, they just use it as an excuse to not accept a return or other services.

 

[yahoowizard]

Craigslist...not too safe...I can just see you opening your box and having a hooker pop out.

 

[robphelan]

I've bought and sold thousands of dollars worth of stuff on CL.

The best thing to do get a phone number from them and meet in public. Clarify with them that everything works.. go to a McDonalds or somewhere else with free Wifi to test that out.

 

[Ph8]

It took my lady an hour to confirm that my voicemail did indeed have a problem. Apparently her computer was convinced all was well. VIP premiere service reps must be the cream of the crop.

Not sure all they did as call me back on my home line, he made the switch had me enter a few things and boom it was done. It may show as switched in the computer, but unless the phone is set up as well it wont work.

 

[Con Chuot]

I am also thinking of buying Captivate on Craiglist. Currently, I do not have any data plan. Most of the time I have Wifi access so I do not want to pay $15.00 for data. Do you know if I can use current sim - no data plan? Will ATT know and force me to buy data plan. Thx

 

[yahoowizard]

They will force you. The system will detect that you're using a Captivate, then add a data plan to your package.