Can i activate this phone?

[Arameus]

Hey Folks,

First time poster, long time lurker. A couple of weeks ago our little ones got their grubby paws on my wife's thuderbolt. We finally found it buried in the couch and had gotten a little liquid on it. Nothing significant liquid wise. This is of course why we keep insurance on our phones. Anyway, we went thru normal phone recovery procedures, pull out battery, etc. We couldn't get it to come one. So the wife takes it to the verizon store. Verizon guy messes with it for 20-30 mins and can't get it to come on. He's boggled she says. So they give her back the phone and have a new one delivered. All is well. So over christmas holiday the tinker in me decides to play with the and explore its guts. Long story short, I get the thing back together and it works now!! Would it be legit for me to activate this phone on my line? I'm still using a 3g fascinate. I figured since the verizon guy called it a dud and handed it back, it's fair game.

Thanks!

 

[dan330]

the ESN of that thing has been logged by Verizon as BAD.. that is part of the warranty process.. so it SHOULD not be able to activate.

if you try it.. they might have not marked that ESN as bad. and it might activate.
but.....

if the system or insurance company that paid for the new phone... sees the OLD ESN come on.... you might be charged full RETAIL price for the NEW phone ESN. and they might never honor future claims.


the best bet...
just to use it as a small tablet .. off some hotspot/tether/wifi.
or sell, to someone that wants to flash it to a different network (tell them it is a bad ESN and not to use it on verizon)