Still though, a month later? I mean I get what you're saying, but dang.
----------
I've done several phone deals on Criagslist and I've never had this happen to me. Although I screen my potential CL deals very thoroughly.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Scammed on CL - Out a (functional) 5S - where to next?
- Thread starter runningtowin
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Still though, a month later? I mean I get what you're saying, but dang.
----------
I've done several phone deals on Criagslist and I've never had this happen to me. Although I screen my potential CL deals very thoroughly.
Much like selling on eBay, with buying phones on CL it's not a matter of IF just a matter of WHEN that you'll buy a stolen phone or one, as Juiced mentioned, that someone just skips payments on and lets go into carrier blacklist because of it.
It's not worth it. I like a "deal" as much as the next person, but we are talking about something that happens once and can negate all of the value of the "deal" in the first place.
Not even mentioning the hassle... my time is way too valuable.
Buy it new. If you can't afford to buy new, wait until you can, or buy something that costs less. Novel concepts I know.
At least the OP recouped a lot of his costs, but no sense in not waiting for the 6 at this point given the circumstances. Buy a Lumia 520 for $40 or something if you need a phone to "hold you over".
I love CL for selling, but don't think I'd ever buy anything there. At least eBay has some buyer protections. CL, not so much...
Well, like I said I've bought and sold several iPhones on CL and have used them for years without a problem. Sounds like this was just a person with a plan from the beginning.
im a regular buyer of phones on cl. out of about 100 purchases only had one with bad esn. i sell them on on ebay. i only pay bottom prices, and dont touch tmobile phones.
Consider yourself lucky it didn't happen many times before.
Just cause it only happened once it doesn't mean it won't keep happening again.
It's up to you if you want to risk it.
I mean this is great information to know. I always thought they only blacklisted phones that were reported stolen. I ALWAYS verify the IMEI before purchasing and always meet a retail store for the carrier the phone is coming from. After reading all of this though I probably won't ever take the risk again.
Couldnt you just meet the seller at the cellular provider to confirm that no contracts are present?
There could be no contract but it can be on a payment plan to pay off the phone in monthly installments on the phone bill.
And once he stops paying for it or the account is late or closed the phone is shut off.
Or even if there is no contract the seller can report it lost or stolen a few weeks later and get another one with insurance and then yours becomes blacklisted.
There's always many ways you can get screwed over with used phones.
That's one of the crazy parts. All these years later there are still no real proper rules for resale of phones where anyone can get screwed over at any point basically. They figured things out for cars and other devices and appliances, not sure why they can't figure things out for phones.
I'm curious if that is actually Apple selling them.
It is indeed Apple: http://9to5mac.com/2014/07/08/9to5t...uetooth-speakers-50-smarthome-deals-and-more/
That may well be so. Needless to say, I won't be buying iPhones from CL again. I've had great luck with iPads, heck even a $1500 rMBP (albeit from an Apple employee). But after this, I'm certainly wary,
We live in a world where people like to intentionally screw over people. Happens all the time. Happned to me twice, so now i only buy from trusted poeple, or from a store.
Nobody knows if he waited a month. He may have been already owing before he sold the phone.
you have to be dumb to buy an iphone on craigslist
my GN3 broke and i was looking at going back to iphone. looked at craigslist and they are all new, never used. and i bet right out of a retail store where the seller will stop paying on the contract. took me 5 minutes to figure it out. i mean how else will people get their hands on all these new iphones?
----------
phones are cheap and don't kill anyone?
my GN3 broke and i was looking at going back to iphone. looked at craigslist and they are all new, never used. and i bet right out of a retail store where the seller will stop paying on the contract. took me 5 minutes to figure it out. i mean how else will people get their hands on all these new iphones?
----------
phones are cheap and don't kill anyone?
Phones are cheaper than cars and many things, sure, but they are not cheap. Given all the contracts and carrier implications that go along with them, they are certainly not in the same category as other everyday devices like an alarm clock or something like that. There are cheaper TV sets out there that are good, and more expensive ones too, but you don't see someone having theirs stop working down the line after they bought it from someone. Sounds like something can be worked out there, it's just no one seems to care to do it (which doesn't make it right or good).
and everyone is offering trade in of phones for 1/3 of the original retail which is fair. i've traded a few cars to dealers and i always got a smaller amount than what they sell it for.
people think they can magically get the full selling price when they trade it in to an official company that handles these
I am amazed at this as well
Why? There are a lot of people that lose money at casinos yet they keep coming back.
I sell a lot of phones over the years on Craigslist.
I always have original receipt with my phone number on the bill of sale (for phones I am original owner). I tell people they are welcome to go with me to att store and verify mg account. That I have been att/Cingular customer for over 10 years. Also verizon customer for over 3 years as well.
So I give people peace of mind (in my opinion).
Most people are very honest on Craigslist. I have only purchased on "stolen/developer phone" on Craigslist and that was a blackberry 5 years ago. So couldn't activate bis even those everything else worked worked on phone even text and mms. Just couldn't activate blackberry messenger. So it was a minor problem. But still pissed I didn't check.
I always have original receipt with my phone number on the bill of sale (for phones I am original owner). I tell people they are welcome to go with me to att store and verify mg account. That I have been att/Cingular customer for over 10 years. Also verizon customer for over 3 years as well.
So I give people peace of mind (in my opinion).
Most people are very honest on Craigslist. I have only purchased on "stolen/developer phone" on Craigslist and that was a blackberry 5 years ago. So couldn't activate bis even those everything else worked worked on phone even text and mms. Just couldn't activate blackberry messenger. So it was a minor problem. But still pissed I didn't check.