Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Christian 5G

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 16, 2010
1,073
740
Orange County, CA
Hello,

I have been looking through some craigslist postings of selling their iPhone 5s and found one pretty interesting and thinking if I should buy it. So here it is

The person selling bought two iPhone 5s's from tmobile and I guess found no use of one of them and selling one, like he said he only opened to remove his sim cardfrom the phone and nothing is wrong with the phone. He said he will provide the receipt of the purchase and can meet at tmobile store.

My question is if I go ahead and meet up with him what questions I should ask and what basically can help me if something is wrong.

And another question does iPhone comes with 1 year apple warranty even if I'm a second hand? how do i make sure that?

its for 620$

Thanks for all the responses! greatly appreciated
 

Ramio

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2011
919
2
Houston, TeXas
I just got home an hour ago from selling an iPhone 5s on craigslist. The first thing I would do is run the imei number on t-mobiles imei checker to make sure it has no balance on it. See if you can meet him at at mobile store to have it checked out. The apple warranty transfers with the phone and not the owner so yes you're covered for the year.
 

ross1998

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2013
961
201
So basically if we meet at tmobile store and they say phone has no problems that means everything is good?

No it doesn't guarantee you that the device will stay clean. The owner can easily report it stolen. If you are buying it for 620 just add 90 dollars and buy a new one from the store and you won't be worried if it will get black listed or not.
 

617aircav

Suspended
Jul 2, 2012
3,975
818
$620 is for a used phone when I can get a new one for $650. No way. How does one end up with two brand new phone when you only need one, why not just return the purchase if its brand new? Like the other poster said, nothing is guaranteed with used phones anymore. They can work for a month and still get blacklisted.
 

rockitdog

macrumors 68030
Mar 25, 2013
2,721
1,238
no it doesn't guarantee you that the device will stay clean. The owner can easily report it stolen. If you are buying it for 620 just add 90 dollars and buy a new one from the store and you won't be worried if it will get black listed or not.

^^^this^^^
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
No it doesn't guarantee you that the device will stay clean. The owner can easily report it stolen. If you are buying it for 620 just add 90 dollars and buy a new one from the store and you won't be worried if it will get black listed or not.
Well, once you activate it on your account that shouldn't really be possible for the owner to do at that point.
 

ross1998

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2013
961
201
Well, once you activate it on your account that shouldn't really be possible for the owner to do at that point.

On tmobile, if owner stops paying it off or reports it stolen then tmobile blacklists it doesn't matter who current owner is.
 

akron0488

macrumors member
Nov 21, 2013
37
0
Tmobile has a huge issue with fraud accounts and blocks devices for this reason. That story doesn't add up. First of all you're paying too much for a used 5s. In my area they're in the 450 range used. Second of all, with that kind of story I can almost guarantee you that there is some kind of fraud.
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
On tmobile, if owner stops paying it off or reports it stolen then tmobile blacklists it doesn't matter who current owner is.
So that owner isn't the owner anymore since there is a new current owner, so how could that person do anything if they no longer own it or have the phone associated to their account in any way?
 

Christian 5G

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 16, 2010
1,073
740
Orange County, CA
Ok, looks like I am going to work for another week or so and get the 5s brand new, with Cal tax its 702$. (this is why I hate living in California)...
 

aznguyen316

macrumors 68010
Oct 1, 2008
2,001
1
Tampa, FL
So that owner isn't the owner anymore since there is a new current owner, so how could that person do anything if they no longer own it or have the phone associated to their account in any way?

Say it's stolen via IMEI or it's on a EIP and they stop paying the bill. It's very common with tmobile unfortunately. What you described happens with real stolen phones but here a person just claims it was stolen and then the phone will be blacklisted and not work later.
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
Say it's stolen via IMEI or it's on a EIP and they stop paying the bill. It's very common with tmobile unfortunately. What you described happens with real stolen phones but here a person just claims it was stolen and then the phone will be blacklisted and not work later.
If the phone is active on someone else's account already I don't see how the carrier can accept a call from someone else who doesn't have that phone associated with their account and change something in relation to it. It's like someone calling the DMV and telling them to suspend the registration of some random car that doesn't belong to them--they wouldn't do that. I guess that's what I'm not getting.
 

Troneas

macrumors 65816
Oct 26, 2011
1,378
58
At the alternatives section.
If the seller hands over the original receipt to the buyer (the OP) upon completing the transaction, isnt that proof enough the phone is not stolen?

The seller can report it stolen after a week but the OP could easily prove otherwise to T-Mobile no? Isnt that how it works?
 

aznguyen316

macrumors 68010
Oct 1, 2008
2,001
1
Tampa, FL
If the phone is active on someone else's account already I don't see how the carrier can accept a call from someone else who doesn't have that phone associated with their account and change something in relation to it. It's like someone calling the DMV and telling them to suspend the registration of some random car that doesn't belong to them--they wouldn't do that. I guess that's what I'm not getting.

Hey, sure I'll clarify. It's not a random person calling in to say change something in the account. We are talking about a person (owner of this original contract/phone) who has used T-mobile's EIP (equipment installment plan with good credit) to purchase a phone with $0-$200 down payment and then gets the phone in hand. After that, what often happens is that a person ends up deciding to sell the phone, say a 5S for $500-600 and ends up not wanting to stay with T-mobile so they just stop paying their bill. The EIP is a payment contract that you must pay $20-25 a month or until the phone is paid off or else the phone IMEI will be blacklisted. So someone else can buy this phone not knowing it's still needing payments on it and use their own Tmo sim for a few months but then later find out it gets blacklisted due to some shady stuff by the original owner.

Whatever the case, no matter where the phone is, that phone will always be tied under contract to the original Tmo purchaser until it is fully paid off. So maybe that person bought insurance for a month and claimed it stolen and then IMEI blacklisted. The phone no matter who is using it, will be blacklisted and no longer usable on Tmo or probably AT&T.

The important thing to note here is the use of the EIP. This binds the phone to the person in a contractual agreement of financing. That's why someone else can activate the phone on their account, yet later on get screwed. If Tmo is giving you a phone with a small downpayment, they expect to be paid in full. If you do not, they will seize back their assets and make sure that phone will not work for you any longer. Problem is that person has probably already sold the phone to make back some money on it and usually more.
 
Last edited:

rockitdog

macrumors 68030
Mar 25, 2013
2,721
1,238
Tmobile has a huge issue with fraud accounts and blocks devices for this reason. That story doesn't add up. First of all you're paying too much for a used 5s. In my area they're in the 450 range used. Second of all, with that kind of story I can almost guarantee you that there is some kind of fraud.

T-Mobile's new New Contract policies have mad it super easy for scammers to sell phones and report them stolen and get replacement's for $150. In the course of making it easier for people to upgrade sooner they've made a dream scenario for turn easy profits. I don't buy any used phones from CL these days.
 

ross1998

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2013
961
201
So that owner isn't the owner anymore since there is a new current owner, so how could that person do anything if they no longer own it or have the phone associated to their account in any way?

Compare it to financing a car... Say original owner finances a car for 20000 dollars and still owes the dealer 16000 but sells the car and stops paying for it. You think the dealer is just gonna say "oh we'll happens"?
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
Compare it to financing a car... Say original owner finances a car for 20000 dollars and still owes the dealer 16000 but sells the car and stops paying for it. You think the dealer is just gonna say "oh we'll happens"?
Of course not, the dealer goes after the person that owes the dealer money. What does the other person have to do with it if they were able to legally buy and register the car actually? Now, if they didn't register it and it's not technically legally theirs because of that, that's a different story then.
 

phpmaven

macrumors 68040
Jun 12, 2009
3,465
522
San Clemente, CA USA
Tmobile has a huge issue with fraud accounts and blocks devices for this reason. That story doesn't add up. First of all you're paying too much for a used 5s. In my area they're in the 450 range used. Second of all, with that kind of story I can almost guarantee you that there is some kind of fraud.

450 range? With tax the cheapest model would be almost $700. What nut is going to lose $250 on a just over 2 month old phone? You must be thinking about a 5.
 

aznguyen316

macrumors 68010
Oct 1, 2008
2,001
1
Tampa, FL
Of course not, the dealer goes after the person that owes the dealer money. What does the other person have to do with it if they were able to legally buy and register the car actually? Now, if they didn't register it and it's not technically legally theirs because of that, that's a different story then.

Well I don't believe the car could actually be sold in this case as the person financing the car doesn't have the car Title, the bank does. In T-mobile's case there is no holding title outside of having the power to blacklist an IMEI.

So then if the car was sold, it was sold illegally and then repossed by the bank. Car would not belong to the buyer. Buyer would have been screwed for not doing his due diligence. Hence don't buy used Tmobile phones unless you know for sure it's off EIP and paid off completely.
 
Last edited:

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
Well I don't believe the car could actually be sold in this case as the person financing the car doesn't have the car Title, the bank does. In T-mobile's case there is no holding title outside of having the power to blacklist an IMEI.

So then if the car was sold, it was sold illegally and then repossed by the bank. Car would not belong to the buyer. Buyer would have been screwed for not doing his due diligence. Hence don't buy used Tmobile phones unless you know for sure it's off EIP and paid off completely.
Right in a case like that the new owner wouldn't be able to register the car and would know that something is up. So in case of phones perhaps the carrier shouldn't allow someone else to activate the phone on their account to begin with in cases like that rather than doing something after the fact.
 

aznguyen316

macrumors 68010
Oct 1, 2008
2,001
1
Tampa, FL
Right in a case like that the new owner wouldn't be able to register the car and would know that something is up. So in case of phones perhaps the carrier shouldn't allow someone else to activate the phone on their account to begin with in cases like that rather than doing something after the fact.

You are right the carrier should have some active marker showing a phone's IMEI is under EIP and cannot be registered on another account until it is paid off and then the EIP flag could be taken off. That would be the best thing; however with sim card GSM phones swapping sims has been around for awhile where AT&T or Tmobile can just accept a sim and you're good to go. It's because Tmobile now offers the EIP and month 2 month plans along with cheap down payments are really enticing given how much phones cost nowadays people are willing to pay some money up front, sell/scam and then get their way into a new phone for less than retail.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.