Help S4 Help!!

[crshelton21]

hello, lets go ahead and get this out of the way.. Ive been a long time faithful to apple for several years now and have finally decided to make the switch. I found a supposable "new" Samsung S4 on ebay.. so what the heck? why not! So i bought it. It arrived yesterday...

I got the phone out and yes, it looked like a brand new phone. no scratches etc. I turned it on and it skipped the setup part. I remembered on the auction the seller stated he had turned the phone on 1 time and that was it. No big deal, right?

I attempted to transfer my verizon service over to the phone and was having some problems in doing so..I tried online first... kept popping up and error..

I then called technical support and talked with a lady there and found out that my SIM card in the phone was tied to another number. ok now im told i just need a new SIM card to attach to my number.... so the wild goose chase continues.......

i go to verizon and they take care of putting the new card in the phone and seem to be having problems with it.. they told me that now the new SIM card wont work!?? so we tried factory resets, turning off, turning on, making sure the new SIM card was in correctly; and every time we turned the phone on it said "No SIM card recognized", or "make sure its inserted correctly" or something like that. Verizon stated there was a possibility that it couldve been rooted and therefore wouldnt accept any other SIM.

So now i have an S4 that works perfectly except that it will not connect to my phone number nor be activated in service.

Does anyone know of anything else i can do?!

 

[Slug]

Hi, and welcome to Android Forums.

Can you go to Settings/About phone and tell us what is listed as the "model number", please?

 

[funkylogik]

Rooting in itself wouldnt cause that but we have to see if its definately an s4 thats compatible with Verizon. There's more than one version of s4 :thumbup:

 

[crshelton21]

Sch-i545

 

[crshelton21]

And yes it seems to be a verizon phone? when the phone turns on it shows it is a verizon phone.

 

[funkylogik]

Anyone know how to tell if a phone has "bad EFS" (the imei has been blocked because its stolen or whatever)?
Maybe theres like a verizon website where you can enter the imei to check

 

[crshelton21]

it seems to be an incredible phone! i just wish i could actually use it... :/

 

[MoodyBlues]

Hi there, crshelton21, and welcome to Android Forums. We're glad you're here.

I found a supposable "new" Samsung S4 on ebay..

What about going through eBay to resolve this? Starting first with the seller. If they don't come up with a reasonable solution, escalate up so eBay gets involved. No reputable seller wants to have negative/bad interactions with buyers.

Moved to Galaxy S4 board.

 

[crshelton21]

I have opened a case with eBay. I was just hoping maybe there was a fix for the phone.

 

[crshelton21]

Does anyone know of anything I could try? iPhone 5 screen I'd busted so I am more than ready to be using the s4 lol.

Another odd thing. I looked up the "secret number" online that gets you to the service mode menu. And either number did not work!??
(I googled how to make the SIM card work and that was the first step in doing it.)


Just an odd observation. I feel like there is a setting I could change and this thing work perfectly. I honestly do not believe verizon "could not do anything about it. "

 

[APBTx2]

A resolution through eBay is your best bet. While its been a long time, the past couple of phones I sold had the payments held for weeks so buyer could ensure it was fully functional- when I looked this up, it is ebay's policy to do this on certain items like mobile phones, probably due to the probability of so many stolen pines out there.

 

[BigRedGonzo]

Could this phone have been rooted and something like Cerberus install so that a factory reset would not remove it? I don't use Cerberus, but understand that is something that can be done. If so, doesn't Cerberus have some sort of SIM Card Watch that keeps you from using the phone if you swap out the SIM Card?

 

[crshelton21]

Called Samsung and it was still under warranty. Said it could possibly be a SIM card reader needs to be replaced. So well see!

 

[Tgaine]

hello, lets go ahead and get this out of the way.. Ive been a long time faithful to apple for several years now and have finally decided to make the switch. I found a supposable "new" Samsung S4 on ebay.. so what the heck? why not! So i bought it. It arrived yesterday...

Yay another convert I moved over in mid August and moved to the Galaxy S4, And I am Loving it,

Surely if you have bought a "new" phone this phone seems to be faulty so Ebay should be able to organise a refund, as normally the first port of call for warranty claims is to go back to the seller. That's what the rules are in the UK, and that applies to anything - items bought in person from shops etc, its our consumer law.

Hope you get it sorted as its a lovely phone :smokingsomb:

 

[Canesfan]

Arrange with eBay to return the phone, get a refund and start over. You no doubt paid a pretty premium for the phone and have invested some time with it which Verizon couldn't even resolve. Therefore, time to throw the towel in on this one.