New service, but with someone elses phone / Activation Question

[durkydurr]

Hello everyone,

This week I was very lucky to buy an Evo from a friend who was passing through town. He signed up for Sprint 2 months ago just so he could get the Evo phone and immediately stopped making payments. He knew this would hurt his credit and did so. He was in need of money and sold me his phone which is about to be turned off.

My question is: Will I be able to sign up with sprint using this phone? I just wonder since the phone as of right now is still on and once it goes off, will sprint make a big deal about it?

 

[copestag]

Welcome to the forums

admittedly Im no expert when it comes to things like this....but I would guess the following:

since they cant stop a customer from selling their phone even if they just received it...... then youre perfectly fine to buy it........ however....... since its still active on his account they wont let you activate it on your account..... once his account is closed then its a pretty gray area as to whether or not they will blacklist the phone... they may not allow it to be reactivated until the account has been written off and sent to collections.....

the best thing to do IMO and a surefire way to get around anything that could potentially be a problem...... would be for him to activate a different phone (an old one or something) on his account while the account is still active........ this would free up the phone that you purchased and from there youre fine to activate it on a new account

of course as I said Im certainly no expert on how it all works...... so I could be way off base..... just trying to think it through logically from an outside perspective

 

[durkydurr]

Yeah, this is a pretty big gray zone. I could just call and say a bought it in a pawn shop or something. I mean, they are getting service and money, so why not... I guess there really is only one way to find out and that is try to activate it when his service is off.

Thank you for your input though.

 

[Frisco]

Will I be able to sign up with sprint using this phone? I just wonder since the phone as of right now is still on and once it goes off, will sprint make a big deal about it?

If I were in that situation I'd not hesitate to go directly to a Sprint store and explain the situation. They want paying customers on contract, and if you've acquired a Sprint device from somebody who can't/won't pay, I'd bet my bottom dollar Sprint will simply turn the contract over to you, probably after a bit of rigamaroll, such as contacting the original contractee to be sure the phone was not stolen or otherwise missing/lost.

I've moved your question to the Sprint forum, where perhaps somebody with experience in something like this with that carrier can chime in.

 

[BenChase7]

If I were in that situation I'd not hesitate to go directly to a Sprint store and explain the situation. They want paying customers on contract, and if you've acquired a Sprint device from somebody who can't/won't pay, I'd bet my bottom dollar Sprint will simply turn the contract over to you, probably after a bit of rigamaroll, such as contacting the original contractee to be sure the phone was not stolen or otherwise missing/lost.

I've moved your question to the Sprint forum, where perhaps somebody with experience in something like this with that carrier can chime in.

I would do something like this. I have also heard through the grape vine that carriers can transfer an account to someone elses name (if you have half-way decent credit). This would cover both of you. My only concern is for you, If this is not handled right, Sprint could put an ESN lock on that phone and then its worthless.

If done right, you can should be alright.