Did I just get screwed?

[cabrilo]

I just purchased motrola android on craigslist. Met a guy and his mom at the well lit parking lot, gave him the cash and he gave me the phone. I called Verzion to activate it, and they are telling me they can not activate it until the previous user deactivates it.

I texted him asking him to deactivate but he is not responding (Don't worry I did not send text to the android I got).

I asked Verizon if the phone is stolen. They are saying that it is not registered as stolen. Their suggestion is to get my money back. Hmmmm...

I have all of his contacts, family photos etc in the phone. I don't think it's stolen, but I do suspect that he tough that by selling me the phone he got rid of his contract. He wanted to switch to T-Mobile. He asked me how do we switch phones? This raised a suspicion, so I specifically asked him if he was out of contract, and told him there is nothing to change if he was out of contract. He said, oh ok, no problem then.

Looks like I am out of options here. I tried one 5 second call (free to my Verzion phone) to make sure it works, and sure enough it does.

Any ideas? Am I out of options here? I was thinking about just waiting until they cancel his service for non payment, but I wonder if they would activate it then. I doubt it.

 

[ThreeDog]

sounds like you have bought his contracted phone so when the service gets cancelled and i do believe it's when and not if, they will not re-activate it in your name unless the outstanding bill is paid up amongst other things.

looks to me like this kid fleeced you.

 

[Intervenient]

Exactly why the rules of selling cell phones needs to be better communicated. All these contracts and services and what not get in the way.

 

[cabrilo]

Yup, yup. thanks for the reply...

Anyone wants to buy it for parts? I may just keep it and play with wifi. Got it for good price.

 

[Member138406]

If you have all his contacts you can find out where he lives pretty easy. I would just figure that out and show up at his front door one day.. Or just call his mom if you want to go that route.

This is why when I do phone sales/trades I always meet the person at Verizon and if I am the seller offer to stay till its active and if I am the buyer I show the cash and don't pay till its active. I do hope things work out for ya.

 

[IOWA]

If you have all his contacts you can find out where he lives pretty easy. I would just figure that out and show up at his front door one day.. Or just call his mom if you want to go that route.

This is why when I do phone sales/trades I always meet the person at Verizon and if I am the seller offer to stay till its active and if I am the buyer I show the cash and don't pay till its active. I do hope things work out for ya.

Yeah, call his mom lol. Make sure you jot down the contacts before he changes his google log in >.>

 

[cabrilo]

It's not worth it. I just paid $135 for a great life lesson.
I asked Verizon help desk, what can I do to avoid this from happening in the future. They told me nothing.
I like Vegasonacid answer much better. You should be training them . I will definitely do that next time I get a phone.

Can they completely deactivate the phone, or can I use it for fun as a cheap wi-fi toy. If they don't remotely kill it I could turn off the radio in it, and let my son play with it and watch videos on it.

 

[ThreeDog]

the most they can do is declare the phone lost or stolen so you would not be able to tecx or make calls etc. that would not affect it's ability to use wifi or the camera etc.

 

[chrisinsocalif]

First I would make sure you email him, text and leave VM's stating, if he doesn't refund your money or release the phone, you will have to take matters to a civil court. Document all your calls and emails to him. Claim he breached the contract and have evidence based on his Ad, emails and texts messages and tell me he will surely lose and owe court costs. You can pressure him more saying you may even tack on punitive damages for misrepresentation. Sometimes that gets people a little scared to give back the money without having to go to court.
If it does go to court, just bring all the emails, ebay add, a written response from Verizon saying you cannot activate the phone showing the court he sold a phone that cannot be used. If he loses he will have to pay court costs and have a judgement in your favor.

 

[smacky]

It's not worth it. I just paid $135 for a great life lesson.
I asked Verizon help desk, what can I do to avoid this from happening in the future. They told me nothing.
I like Vegasonacid answer much better. You should be training them . I will definitely do that next time I get a phone.

Can they completely deactivate the phone, or can I use it for fun as a cheap wi-fi toy. If they don't remotely kill it I could turn off the radio in it, and let my son play with it and watch videos on it.

Man, they could have at least taken you to dinner and a movie before they boned you.

You paid $135? That's actually a really good deal. You got yourself a music player and storage device...essentially an iPod Touch, for a fraction of the cost.

You can't use 3G, and I doubt you can use the Market (maybe you can though) but you certainly have the microSD card to put songs on and a neat device for browsing the web on WiFi.

You can flash it to Cricket's network, but.... I'm assuming you still need a phone and most likely with VZW. Kinda sucks.

I'm still assuming you paid $135...Go on eBay and you should be able to net around $200 for it. Just add "Bad ESN" at the end of it and it should still sell for those that want to flash to another carrier. Which there are a good number of people that will.

 

[J03]

If you have to ask then the answer is yes.

 

[mrqs]

i don't get it, what does this kid have to gain in not deactivating it?

moreover, he sold a device with a ton of his personal information on it - sounds to me like he was the one getting boned?

anyway, if he's not responding to your sms, you should be easily able to track him down by other means with the info he sold you with the phone

and if the thing remains locked from cellular/data usage, you can still use fring or whatever to do calls via wifi, plus gtalk and whatnot for messaging

 

[Roxors]

yeah you can still use the market on wifi, thats what i do. anyways you can f with him and if he has his credit card info saved in the market start buying a lot of pointless apps lol then when he finaily catches on be like oh i thought that was my cc LMAO

but seriously totally go to his mom (how old was this kid?)

 

[gruss]

Is his facebook account still in there? you could have a ton of fun with that until you get your money back!

 

[bluenova]

Classic reason why you guys should use SIM cards. In Europe the contract is linked to a SIM card which you can put in any phone.

 

[Frisco]

Is his facebook account still in there? you could have a ton of fun with that until you get your money back!

You're likely joking, but some who have been victimized by social networking site forgeries would not find it to be a funny joke.

I'm sure the OP is aware of those things and will keep a "hands off" policy with regard to the previous owner's personal information. Ugly things often await, down the line, for those who intrude.

 

[mpw]

Classic reason why you guys should use SIM cards. In Europe the contract is linked to a SIM card which you can put in any phone.

I still find it strange; Is there any advantage to a non-SIM system?

 

[shawn1224]

That's why T-mobile sim card FTW.

 

[byteware]

So, basically, they are paying for phone service, for YOUR phone. Install GV and use it that way. Have people call the Google Voice number and reroute the voicemail to Google Voice, so that anyone calling gets your GV voicemail.

Then use the phone while you can...


but that's just me. I doubt he's got unlimited minutes though...

sounds like you have bought his contracted phone so when the service gets cancelled and i do believe it's when and not if, they will not re-activate it in your name unless the outstanding bill is paid up amongst other things.

looks to me like this kid fleeced you.

When it gets cancelled, they will blacklist that phone because he did not complete his contract.

 

[10splaya22]

I say you just call a sex hotline...it can never get linked to you either!

 

[ballisticn8]

if you manage to get in touch with the guy have him activate some old phone on his line, any old phone working or not. this will release the droid from the line as it will have another phone activated on it and then you will be able to activate the phone on your line. the only reason the droid cant be activated is because its tied to his line, the phone isnt holding the contract open but they cant release it from his line without him putting something else on it.

if he doesnt respond and you have all his info i say screw it, he's open game seeing as how he sold you a phone you wont be able to use...

 

[Anthony1]

I still find it strange; Is there any advantage to a non-SIM system?

To the mobile phone companies maybe. I can't see any to the end user.

Seems like a terrible system.

 

[ThreeDog]

Classic reason why you guys should use SIM cards. In Europe the contract is linked to a SIM card which you can put in any phone.

yeah and that still would not make any difference as you would still end up with a doorstop for a phone once they blacklisted the IMEI number for not paying his bills.

So, basically, they are paying for phone service, for YOUR phone. Install GV and use it that way. Have people call the Google Voice number and reroute the voicemail to Google Voice, so that anyone calling gets your GV voicemail.

Then use the phone while you can...


but that's just me. I doubt he's got unlimited minutes though...




When it gets cancelled, they will blacklist that phone because he did not complete his contract.

erm i already know that.

 

[BiGMERF]

damm that sucks dude

 

[DROIDdidME]

I say you just call a sex hotline...it can never get linked to you either!

haha