2 iPhones (5s) from ONE Upgrade Eligible Account?

Sport73

Sport73

macrumors member
A friend of mine offered to sell me a new iPhone 5s for a good price, but I'm not sure if I should buy it BECAUSE I'm not sure if I'll be able to activate it...HELP?

Apparently, he ordered an iPhone 5s AT&T (UPGRADE ELLIGIBLE) online the moment they went on sale last Friday, and it's set to arrive today.
However, he also went to the store Friday morning and got a phone there (ALSO PAID JUST the $299 UPGRADE PRICE, I guess because the other phone hadn't shipped?)

In any case, he has the phone he bought in store activated to his account and working great, and the online order shipped (apparently charging only $299) and will arrive this afternoon, so he offered to sell it to me.

Isn't the IMEI on the shipped phone tied to his AT&T account or something so that when I go to activate it will get rejected? Or will he get billed for the difference between subsidized and unlocked if I activate it (and then ask me for the money?%$)?

Any help is appreciated as I need to decide today whether to buy it.
 
Sport73 said:
A friend of mine offered to sell me a new iPhone 5s for a good price, but I'm not sure if I should buy it BECAUSE I'm not sure if I'll be able to activate it...HELP?

Apparently, he ordered an iPhone 5s AT&T (UPGRADE ELLIGIBLE) online the moment they went on sale last Friday, and it's set to arrive today.
However, he also went to the store Friday morning and got a phone there (ALSO PAID JUST the $299 UPGRADE PRICE, I guess because the other phone hadn't shipped?)

In any case, he has the phone he bought in store activated to his account and working great, and the online order shipped (apparently charging only $299) and will arrive this afternoon, so he offered to sell it to me.

Isn't the IMEI on the shipped phone tied to his AT&T account or something so that when I go to activate it will get rejected? Or will he get billed for the difference between subsidized and unlocked if I activate it (and then ask me for the money?%$)?

Any help is appreciated as I need to decide today whether to buy it.
Click to expand...

Take my view with a grain of salt since I don't have AT&T but they don't care whose cell phone you're using. You could grab one off the sidewalk and as long as your SIM card has a voice+data plan on it, they'll be happy.

They could charge your friend for the phone but if they do, you can give it back to him and he should be able to sell it pretty easily for the next few weeks. From my experience if they don't notice right away, they won't notice at all, until you make changes to the account.

You could always tell him to activate it with his own SIM card then give it to you to pop yours in but I doubt that'd make a difference.
 
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Seems like there are a lot of these post's in a PUBLIC forum. AT&T is going to find out, fix the problem and demand the phone back or charge full price. Do the right thing and tell him to return it. Or roll the dice and pay the price :)
 
tharepairguy said:
Seems like there are a lot of these post's in a PUBLIC forum. AT&T is going to find out, fix the problem and demand the phone back or charge full price. Do the right thing and tell him to return it. Or roll the dice and pay the price :)
Click to expand...

Where? I would like to read/understand other's experiences. My friend is saying that if I don't buy it he'll probably just upgrade his wife's iPhone 5 with it by swapping out the SIM. Not sure if any of this is possible, but I don't want to miss out on a good deal
 
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