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EBAY iPhone, UGH

MacKid1983

MacKid1983

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 1, 2011
312
42
I bought an iPhone 64GB on ebay. I received it in the mail, And the box was still sealed and wrapped in the plastic. I hooked it up to itunes and it activated I thought I was all set!

I was texting a friend today and they were like who is this? I said my name and they were like new number? I said what? Apparently the number that i was texting from was some California number. (that is where the ebayer was from)

So I called Verizon and the lady on the phone said they must of purchased the phone as an upgrade on their account, and never activated it then Sold it. Sooooo..... I sent the person who I got it from on Ebay a message saying the phone needs to be taken off your account etc.

I also did a little research and "Googled" the address it was shipped from. A guy answered and I asked if Rene was there and he said "yeah hes one of my drivers but he is out." He wanted to know who I was, I explained I purchased a phone Rene on Ebay. The guy on the phone said Rene has been selling a few phones as well. A little suspicious. lol He had a great Ebay seller rating and no negative feedback and no past phone sales.

So either this guy who I got the phone form on Ebay had an upgrade and is legit. Or its a stolen phone that i activated.
 
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Yeah, he needs to call Verizon and "release" the IMEI from his account. After that, you'll be able to put it on yours. His phone would have been deactivated once you put that one on, so I'm surprised he never contacted you.
 
Gage,
Yeah That is what I am *hoping* Yeah his cell he is using should be deactivated, maybe he has not realized yet?

I just hope that is the case and its not some stolen phone or something? I was a little suspicious with the guy whome I was on the phone with said "he has been selling a few phones". The guy who I bought the phone from is a driver for the person who I was talking with on the phone, I did a reverse address lookup. lol
 
and enjoy some free service while you wait haha. hope you get it figured out! does your old phone still work with your number? not sure how verizon iphones work, but when i had them with the old dumb phones you could sign into your account and activate a different phone by entering the ESN number. probably doesn't work with a currently activated phone, but if you notice it becomes deactivated (ie the guy activates his current phone again) just try it.

i think you can also do it by dialing *228 from the phone you want to activate...
 
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Ktdhc said:
Why..do people still use eBay?
Click to expand...

Because eBay is not as bad as people make it out. Millions of sales a day with no problems. I got over 600 and never had a problem and have done GREAT on eBay.

If you need to sell something, eBay will get you more exposure and money than any other site. I recently sold a Thule bike rack on Craigslist cause it was too bulky to ship and I have never met such ******s!

I will take eBay.
 
Ktdhc said:
Why..do people still use eBay?
Click to expand...

IMO ebay is GREAT for buying! you can find new items often for much less than retail, or buy things used for even cheaper. there is a ton of buyer protection as well. As for selling, most of the time you're probably fine, but there are some horror stories out there and i had one bad experience on a really expensive item which, in the end turned out ok (i lost the ebay case, but the buyer made an unauthorized return somehow so i didn't have to reimburse). So i tend to stick to the philosophy of buy on ebay sell on craigslist (at least for expensive or hard to ship items).
 
ebay has really downturned. The seller attitude is absolutely ridiculous. Everytime you have a problem with a transaction and request a refund. A bunch of sellers gang up on you calling you a seller scammer I wished amazon would expand their cell phone selection so I wouldn't have to be forced to look for no contract phones on ebay.
 
Obscurelight said:
ebay has really downturned. The seller attitude is absolutely ridiculous. Everytime you have a problem with a transaction and request a refund. A bunch of sellers gang up on you calling you a seller scammer I wished amazon would expand their cell phone selection so I wouldn't have to be forced to look for no contract phones on ebay.
Click to expand...

I have found that the buyers attitude is absolutely ridiculous. Some of the newer users still do not understand the rules and many speak so little english that it is impossible to communicate with them. 2 out of 5 of my sales end up with the buyer telling me that they will not post positive feedback unless I upgrade my FREE UPS shipping from ground to 2nd day or even overnight! I still have 100% feedback but it is getting harder to maintain it and sooner or later some d|ck head will ruin it!

I will have to agree that eBay is not what it used to be. It is made up by the people who use it. Used to be that feedback worked very well. Now I sell something and get no feedback at all. The reason I no longer get a lot of feedback is that the USA buyers speak little to no English. They can hardly answer a email, some you have no email contact at all. The just make the payment and I ship via UPS to people I could NEVER pronounce their name.
 
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Ktdhc said:
Nah I'll enjoy buying my stuff from actual stores instead of used ****.
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1) Not everyone lives near "actual stores". 2) The phone in this thread was NIB.
But... Nobody forces you to use it. I bought a silicone case for US$1 until the one I wanted was available. I bought three US$1 power cables so I could charge my iPhone anywhere. And I don't remember how much it cost, but I bought a cheap cell phone jammer from China. Loads of fun on the bus.
 
As far as iPhones are concerned, dealing on Craigslist is so much better. You can actually meet the person at an actual store and have your phone activated there before you even give the person the money. There's no way you can be scammed in this scenario. If a person refuses to meet you at a store, you know to just stay away from that transaction.
 
andyx3x said:
As far as iPhones are concerned, dealing on Craigslist is so much better. You can actually meet the person at an actual store and have your phone activated there before you even give the person the money. There's no way you can be scammed in this scenario. If a person refuses to meet you at a store, you know to just stay away from that transaction.
Click to expand...

I will say that I don't use Craigslist. I live in an area no where near anyone who is ever selling anything, so it doesn't really help me.
 
andyx3x said:
As far as iPhones are concerned, dealing on Craigslist is so much better. You can actually meet the person at an actual store and have your phone activated there before you even give the person the money. There's no way you can be scammed in this scenario. If a person refuses to meet you at a store, you know to just stay away from that transaction.
Click to expand...

Minus the whole robbery/kidnap/murder possibility :roll eyes:
Jokes aside though, I do love Craigslist and have had nothing but great experiences with it.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Agreed, Craigslist all the way. U may get a little less, but the amount of hassle is much smaller. Speak to the person usually over the phone, get a feel for them that way, and then make your decision. Not to mention, unless i meet an interesting person the entire transaction never takes more than 15 minutes. I sold 2 phones on eBay, a droid incredible, and a nexus one, and they charged me $84.00 for selling two phones. Never again.
 
Stealthipad said:
I will have to agree that eBay is not what it used to be. It is made up by the people who use it. Used to be that feedback worked very well. Now I sell something and get no feedback at all. The reason I no longer get a lot of feedback is that the USA buyers speak little to no English. They can hardly answer a email, some you have no email contact at all. The just make the payment and I ship via UPS to people I could NEVER pronounce their name.
Click to expand...

Man, you sure go around here posting a lot of xenophobic crap.
 
Yah so as a follow up I get this Ebay message from him...

"THE PHONE IS VERIZON AND IT IS INDEED NOT UNLOCKED!! YOU HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION BEFORE YOU BID ON IT! HOWEVER, YOU CAN USE THE PHONE UNTIL THAT NUMBER GETS DISCONNECTED, THEN AFTER YOU CAN GET IT CONNECTED TO YOUR ESN! IT WILL BE FREE SERVICE FOR YOU FOR A MONTH CALL ANYWHERE YOU PLEASE!!!AT THIS POINT I HAVE TO WAIT FOR A MONTH TO CANCEL THE SERVICE OR SIMPLY NOT PAY FOR IT. OTHERWISE YOU NEED TO GET THE PHONE UNLOCKED!! I DO REALLY APPRECIATE FOR UNDERSTANDING."

THANK YOU"


Haha The auction didn't even mention anything about it being unlocked. That whole answer from him is SKETCHY. I also called Verizon again from the phone I got from him with that CA number, and explained what had happened and I gave them his name and she said on the phone I should return it get my money back. His name didn't match the account and it was a New account and it was purchased online. And I also gave the address it was shipped from on Ebay and that didn't match the Fedex info from the phone being purchased online. She marked the account "Fraud" and VZW may be calling me w more info.

I e-mailed him and I said if you wait 14 day return policy you have to return the phone, or if you cancel after the 14 days you get charged a ETF Fee and by the time you paid for the 64gb phone and etf you'll be loosing money form what I paid for it.

I think it was purchased with a stolen credit information and then re sold on Ebay and when the account gets closed, the phone is useless and I am out $.

Needless to say I have a dispute open with PayPal.
 
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