Carrier SCAM - READ THIS - AT&T Next Plan

[aneftp]

For all of you who think that programs like Next and Edge are rip offs- this is why they exist. I'd much rather pay a bit more to have a new phone and NOT have to be part of the eBay, CL world and sell my phone. We had a local case not long ago where a guy was buying iPhones on CL and met someone to buy a phone and they pulled a gun and shot him and took his money. Not worth it.

No, usual craiglist robberies happen when idiots meet somewhere not in public place. Like on corner parking lot or inside someone's home.

Meet INSIDE public place like starbucks or target. Pretty simple.

The Next and EDGE programs are really designed not for frequent upgraders but to trick common people into paying full price for phones and reducing their own subsidies.

 

[Applejuiced]

Wow, I am real sorry to hear AppleJuiced. Talked about an ****** up situation

What did you end up doing? Hope you made it out ok and didn't have to pay the $60.

We settled on $50 refund but figured its better than risking him getting a full refund and me receiving an empty box and get shafted completely.
So took the loss and got $250 instead of $300 for a used good condition 16GB i5.
The worst thing is anyone can pull that scam and as soon as they open the case the money is frozen, they have your item and you by the balls and they call the shots.
They can say there's a scuff on the corner, the button feels loose, the power button sticks or whatever bs excuse and exagerate it to get the item way cheaper or send back an old tv remote to the seller and keep your money and the phone.
Bad experience that really makes me not want to sell anything on eBay again. Not sure if its worth the hassle and aggregation.

 

[Jsketch]

I had a similar scare last week.
As soon as the buyer got the phone he opened a case for not as described product and funds froze.
Then he said there was scratches in the back when I posted tons of pics with the normal wear and tear of daily use. In other words he made up some bs in order to get the phone cheaper than the price of the auction. I was afraid he'd send back an empty box so I offered him $20 to close the case but he wanted $60.
eBay is full of a bunch of bs scammer buyers and PayPal and eBay always side with the buyer. So you gotta sit there and take the loss while paying them 12-13% of the value of your item.

You should get back the fees if you issue a refund.

 

[Applejuiced]

You should get back the fees if you issue a refund.

I issued a partial refund so hope they refund me back some of the $48 in fees they charged me.

 

[617aircav]

First of, to get multiple iphones you must have good credit. Now a person with good credit willing to destroy it over a few hundred dollars is strange. Very few people will do this.

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We settled on $50 refund but figured its better than risking him getting a full refund and me receiving an empty box and get shafted completely.
So took the loss and got $250 instead of $300 for a used good condition 16GB i5.
The worst thing is anyone can pull that scam and as soon as they open the case the money is frozen, they have your item and you by the balls and they call the shots.
They can say there's a scuff on the corner, the button feels loose, the power button sticks or whatever bs excuse and exagerate it to get the item way cheaper or send back an old tv remote to the seller and keep your money and the phone.
Bad experience that really makes me not want to sell anything on eBay again. Not sure if its worth the hassle and aggregation.

I sell a lot of phones of ebay and have had one guy say the item was not as described and opened a case. It was a 5 with bad imei. I stated that in the auction. He emailed me that it did not work with his carrier, Telus. I however won the case.

 

[Satnam1989]

IMEI will be your best friend here. Not sure if ATT will release any info, though.

IMEI is not your best friend, because most people do not report IMEI until after the phone has been sold and thanks to OP for sharing,

Its a sad and a growing concern as lots of people put lots of cash down for these phones only to be holding a paper weight after about a month.

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I had a similar scare last week.
As soon as the buyer got the phone he opened a case for not as described product and funds froze.
Then he said there was scratches in the back when I posted tons of pics with the normal wear and tear of daily use. In other words he made up some bs in order to get the phone cheaper than the price of the auction. I was afraid he'd send back an empty box so I offered him $20 to close the case but he wanted $60.
eBay is full of a bunch of bs scammer buyers and PayPal and eBay always side with the buyer. So you gotta sit there and take the loss while paying them 12-13% of the value of your item.

I agree with you, at the end of the day cases especially opened on eBay = Seller's loss, however I have seen some cases on Paypal where seller was able to win without much hassle from Paypal or buyer.

Like I did a iPhone 4S unlock for a carrier, and the buyer claimed it didn't work and later said the IMEI they sent me was wrong, however I provided my services, provided proof that the IMEI they sent me, I had it unlocked as I usually do before and after IMEI reports and was able to win the case.

On eBay tho, its a different story as eBay forces sellers to get on their knee's and beg the buyer pretty much - I for that reason prefer to sell my gadgets locally for cash as its not worth paying the 10% to eBay only so they can leave me hanging.


This issue has been causing sellers to loose money ever since eBay took away sellers right to leave negative feedback and hand all the power to buyers only

 

[Applejuiced]

Well said.
I don't know why you cannot leave negative feedback to a buyer any more.
If they're fraudulent or pull scams like that others should know about it.
I usually sell like 3-4 items a year and first time I had to deal with a stressful situation like that. I'll just stick to buying via eBay from now on

 

[bigjim83]

That just goes back to my eBay best practice. Only buy from sellers who are well established and have a good rep. It's not 100% fool proof but there is always a risk in everything.

 

[henryonapple]

First of, to get multiple iphones you must have good credit. Now a person with good credit willing to destroy it over a few hundred dollars is strange. Very few people will do this.

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I sell a lot of phones of ebay and have had one guy say the item was not as described and opened a case. It was a 5 with bad imei. I stated that in the auction. He emailed me that it did not work with his carrier, Telus. I however won the case.

good to hear that you won the case! hate it when ebay/paypal sides with the buyer

 

[JodyK]

If this happens to anyone here I have a friend that runs an unlock / esn cleaning service.

PM me and I can get help save ya from having an iPhone get turned into and iPod touch.

 

[aka777]

There are numerous eBay scams that screw over the seller though

I couldn't handle the thought that I would:
1) mail my iphone to someone
2) get confirmation that it was delivered
3) have that person initiate a return/refund
4) send me back a broken iPhone they already had and were wanting to replace with a new one
5) have paypal take the side of the buyer and give the person who still has my phone his money back

Unfortunately, this is very true.

Ebay is great for a buyer but terrible for a seller.

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That just goes back to my eBay best practice. Only buy from sellers who are well established and have a good rep. It's not 100% fool proof but there is always a risk in everything.

Problem is that ebay does not allow me to leave negative feedback to bad buyers. Ebay does not allow me to reduce my risk and set minimum rating / membership requirements.

Ebay does not allow me to request ID or offer a credit check, like the carriers do on a transaction over $200+ dollars.

 

[aka777]

I had a similar scare last week.
As soon as the buyer got the phone he opened a case for not as described product and funds froze.
Then he said there was scratches in the back when I posted tons of pics with the normal wear and tear of daily use. In other words he made up some bs in order to get the phone cheaper than the price of the auction. I was afraid he'd send back an empty box so I offered him $20 to close the case but he wanted $60.
eBay is full of a bunch of bs scammer buyers and PayPal and eBay always side with the buyer. So you gotta sit there and take the loss while paying them 12-13% of the value of your item.

Similar story happened to me too. To cut a story short, even though they were a new buyer and I am a 10 year user, they sided with the buyer.

Sellers pay all the fees to ebay yet receive ZERO support from them or payal. I paid over $50 in fees for that one transaction, yet received ZERO support from ebay, not even a we'll look into this for you. It was more of a 'thanks for your money, now go away'.

Worse off, there is nothing sellers can do to protect ourselves from such scams. Ebay was so afraid of the very early seller scams, that they went extreme and punished all sellers for them. No other store bears this level of risk, especially not brick and mortar stores, yet the seller (not ebay) is expected to stomach the loss.

 

[bunnicula]

We settled on $50 refund but figured its better than risking him getting a full refund and me receiving an empty box and get shafted completely.
So took the loss and got $250 instead of $300 for a used good condition 16GB i5.
The worst thing is anyone can pull that scam and as soon as they open the case the money is frozen, they have your item and you by the balls and they call the shots.
They can say there's a scuff on the corner, the button feels loose, the power button sticks or whatever bs excuse and exagerate it to get the item way cheaper or send back an old tv remote to the seller and keep your money and the phone.
Bad experience that really makes me not want to sell anything on eBay again. Not sure if its worth the hassle and aggregation.

You could have traded the phone at Apple, your carrier store, or Best Buy (They give more, believe it or not) and saved yourself a ton of aggravation.

I'm glad you got it sorted out.

 

[Applejuiced]

You could have traded the phone at Apple, your carrier store, or Best Buy (They give more, believe it or not) and saved yourself a ton of aggravation.

I'm glad you got it sorted out.

I hear you.
I'd rather sell it for less next time at apple, gazelle or other place and be stress free.

 

[tdar]

No, usual craiglist robberies happen when idiots meet somewhere not in public place. Like on corner parking lot or inside someone's home.

Meet INSIDE public place like starbucks or target. Pretty simple.

Sure, but that does nothing about being robed on eBay now does it and if you've been following the news lately you know that there are people with guns at Starbucks and at Target. People who are willing to shoot you are not worried about where they are when they do that. Saving $50 on my phone is not worth that risk.

The Next and EDGE programs are really designed not for frequent upgraders but to trick common people into paying full price for phones and reducing their own subsidies.

Sure but that is going to happen anyway, so I might as well get something out of it. No subsidies and limited data=MAX PROFIT. That's the plan.

 

[henryonapple]

If this happens to anyone here I have a friend that runs an unlock / esn cleaning service.

PM me and I can get help save ya from having an iPhone get turned into and iPod touch.

thanks for the info! this can help a lot of us here on MR

 

[fark]

I hear you.
I'd rather sell it for less next time at apple, gazelle or other place and be stress free.

Who was the eBay buyer?

I ask because I listed my i5 32 gig (jailbroken, iOS 6.1) this morning with a $455 buy it now price. Someone bought it within 5 minutes which was a surprise, to say the least. I invoiced them right away and have not heard back yet.

I'd rather not go through what you did, but I guess I am stuck in the eBay process now and can't back out?

 

[henryonapple]

This is also why folks must buy off ebay and never via craigslist. They buyer at least has some protection via ebay.

ebay is notorious for for siding with buyers

 

[Mrg02d]

For all of you who think that programs like Next and Edge are rip offs- this is why they exist. I'd much rather pay a bit more to have a new phone and NOT have to be part of the eBay, CL world and sell my phone. We had a local case not long ago where a guy was buying iPhones on CL and met someone to buy a phone and they pulled a gun and shot him and took his money. Not worth it.

A bit more? For me, it's like $100 more or more...Pretty significant for poor people like me.

 

[lordofthereef]

So...

Correct me if I am wrong, but if you get the phone unlocked (swift unlocks $2), these blacklisted phones can still be used overseas, right?

Seems this is what I would do if I were into scamming. Those people I sent it to in Europe would likely never find out.

Question though, Next does require credit chef, right? The potential profit from a move like this versus the credit hit seems pretty huge to me...

 

[Mrg02d]

You could have traded the phone at Apple, your carrier store, or Best Buy (They give more, believe it or not) and saved yourself a ton of aggravation.

I'm glad you got it sorted out.

eBay refunded me when a buyer did this to me one time...Sent me back my Geiger counter broken... eBay had refunded him, then refunded me and made a note about it.

 

[billycuth]

I didn't read the entire thread, but I think the NEXT plan is going to require a credit check. Wouldn't that preclude scammers from abusing this?

 

[henryonapple]

I didn't read the entire thread, but I think the NEXT plan is going to require a credit check. Wouldn't that preclude scammers from abusing this?

scammers are criminals, criminals don't care for credit because they will eventually end up on the side of the street or in jail anyways.

 

[billycuth]

scammers are criminals, criminals don't care for credit because they will eventually end up on the side of the street or in jail anyways.

they don't care for credit. right, but how do they establish good enough credit to qualify for next? doesn't make sense.

even if they are stealing identities it doesn't make sense. ATT/Verizon don't just hand out phones to anyone.

 

[Mrg02d]

they don't care for credit. right, but how do they establish good enough credit to qualify for next? doesn't make sense.

even if they are stealing identities it doesn't make sense. ATT/Verizon don't just hand out phones to anyone.

Yea..poor credit or no credit usually gets you slapped with a BIG deposit with AT&T and Verizon. I've seen people get slapped with $1000 deposits at Verizon.