Blacklisted iPhone question

[bigjnyc]

sold for $300 to a foreign exchange student who was going to use it on AT&T for a few months and then move back to Europe... He was fully aware of the issue and we met at an AT&T store to make sure the sim would work.... Then I bought a 7 plus 128gb for $670 (confirmed that it was purchased unlocked from Apple) so net net I upgraded my wife to a 7 plus with more storage for $370

 

[nburwell]

Glad to see this worked out for the OP.

A similar issue happened to me last year. I was with AT&T and purchased a used Verizon iPhone 6 via Swappa. I used the phone on AT&T without any issues for a couple months. I ultimately upgraded to the 6s and sold the 6 on Swappa. A couple months later, the buyer reached out to me on Swappa and let me know that Verizon blacklisted the phone. I thought he was scamming me, but after exchanging back and forth messages, I reached out to Verizon who confirmed the phone was in fact blacklisted on their network.

Anyway, I refunded the buyer his money, got the phone back and opened a case against the person I originally purchased the phone from. Ironically when I got the phone back, I popped my AT&T SIM into the phone and everything worked without a hitch.

I believe several other people mentioned it, but there is always some risk in buying a secondhand phone. Whether it's on Swappa, Craigslist or eBay. Although I'm glad to see the former implemented a policy that restricts sellers from listing financed phones for sale.

 

[zorinlynx]

The whole process of blacklisting phones needs to have a redress procedure in place, I think. If I buy a used phone with a clean IMEI, and it becomes blacklisted many months later, there should be a way to make things right. It's not fair that someone could get screwed over who bought the phone when it worked fine the day it was purchased.

 

[noobinator]

The whole process of blacklisting phones needs to have a redress procedure in place, I think. If I buy a used phone with a clean IMEI, and it becomes blacklisted many months later, there should be a way to make things right. It's not fair that someone could get screwed over who bought the phone when it worked fine the day it was purchased.

I never understood this either. Outside of proven theft it's dumb. The phones should all be sold unlocked. If you purchase from a carrier agreeing to pay monthly and then stop paying then they should try and collect the money from you. If you don't pay send you to collections. Don't try and disable the stupid phone that you know they are selling. The agreement with the carriers should be related to paying a bill or not and the carrier having the ability to collect if you stop paying.

 

[eyoungren]

I never understood this either. Outside of proven theft it's dumb. The phones should all be sold unlocked. If you purchase from a carrier agreeing to pay monthly and then stop paying then they should try and collect the money from you. If you don't pay send you to collections. Don't try and disable the stupid phone that you know they are selling. The agreement with the carriers should be related to paying a bill or not and the carrier having the ability to collect if you stop paying.

Collections are not a magic recovery tool. If they were, business would be much more aggressive with them.

I can understand those with good credit ratings fearing collections. It does ruin credit ratings. But the kind of person who's going to skip on paying off their phone is the same kind of person who has no fear of collections.

It's possible to live cash only. I've done it since 1994 and only got credit cards back two years ago. Collection agencies main tool is harrassing you by phone. It's easy to ignore them if you only answer calls from people you know while blocking their numbers. They cannot come to your place of work, they cannot come to your residence. If they call you and you answer and tell them to f**k off and never call again they have to abide by that. Since they cannot legally garnish wages they eventually go away because they have no legal authority to interfere with any of your finances.

Thus, the debt gets sold back and forth to another collection agency and the process starts anew. But past seven years zombie debt dies off.

A fate worse than death for those with good solid credit scores. Part of the way life works for people who quit paying on their phones.

If you're dealing with collection agencies - they don't scare you.

 

[Applejuiced]

sold for $300 to a foreign exchange student who was going to use it on AT&T for a few months and then move back to Europe... He was fully aware of the issue and we met at an AT&T store to make sure the sim would work.... Then I bought a 7 plus 128gb for $670 (confirmed that it was purchased unlocked from Apple) so net net I upgraded my wife to a 7 plus with more storage for $370

Sounds like a win win situation bro.
Glad it worked out.
[doublepost=1500672526][/doublepost]

The whole process of blacklisting phones needs to have a redress procedure in place, I think. If I buy a used phone with a clean IMEI, and it becomes blacklisted many months later, there should be a way to make things right. It's not fair that someone could get screwed over who bought the phone when it worked fine the day it was purchased.

Same way with a person that ends up buying stolen property.
Even if he didnt know about it the last person holding it ends up taking the loss and the police takes it.
Same way getting stuck with a counterfeit bill. It gets passed around and the last person holding it loses its value once it gets confiscated.
There is no real way to make it right or fair. Its a risk.
[doublepost=1500672729][/doublepost]

Collections are not a magic recovery tool. If they were, business would be much more aggressive with them.

I can understand those with good credit ratings fearing collections. It does ruin credit ratings. But the kind of person who's going to skip on paying off their phone is the same kind of person who has no fear of collections.

It's possible to live cash only. I've done it since 1994 and only got credit cards back two years ago. Collection agencies main tool is harrassing you by phone. It's easy to ignore them if you only answer calls from people you know while blocking their numbers. They cannot come to your place of work, they cannot come to your residence. If they call you and you answer and tell them to f**k off and never call again they have to abide by that. Since they cannot legally garnish wages they eventually go away because they have no legal authority to interfere with any of your finances.

Thus, the debt gets sold to back and forth to another collection agency and the process starts anew. But past seven years zombie debt dies off.

A fate worse than death for those with good solid credit scores. Part of the way of life works for people who quit paying on their phones.

If you're dealing with collection agencies - they don't scare you.

Very wise words.
Its all a game and if you owe lets say $1200 to a company and the debt keeps getting passed around to collection agencies and many years go by.
The end company Verizon for example wont even see a small fraction of that amount coming back to them.

 

[noobinator]

But how much will Verizon see if the person just stops paying and they blacklist the device? Blacklisting isn't getting them extra cash.

 

[Givmeabrek]

But how much will Verizon see if the person just stops paying and they blacklist the device? Blacklisting isn't getting them extra cash.

Sure it is. It's discouraging people from selling iPhones that aren't completely paid for since they are much harder to sell.

 

[C DM]

Sure it is. It's discouraging people from selling iPhones that aren't completely paid for since they are much harder to sell.

Seems like it's more something that ends up penalizing people who buy those phones unknowingly given that most who sell those type of phones don't even know and/or realize (and/or even care) that they are blacklisted or will be blacklisted.