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Quad 2.5 G5 =)

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 29, 2009
319
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So, with only 5 days until Christmas...I have a question on a gift for the significant other. She's on Verizon, and I'd like to get her an iPhone 4 for Christmas. However, I don't want her to have to re-do her contract or change her plan or anything too complicated. I found a used one with a good ESN and in great condition.

Question is, could I buy it, ship it to her, then she'd simply take it to the Verizon store and have them activate it on her phone line, deactivating her other one, or is it more complicated than that?

Can someone who's bought a used Verizon iPhone 4 as a gift chip in and tell me how to do this?
 
So, with only 5 days until Christmas...I have a question on a gift for the significant other. She's on Verizon, and I'd like to get her an iPhone 4 for Christmas. However, I don't want her to have to re-do her contract or change her plan or anything too complicated. I found a used one with a good ESN and in great condition.

Question is, could I buy it, ship it to her, then she'd simply take it to the Verizon store and have them activate it on her phone line, deactivating her other one, or is it more complicated than that?

Can someone who's bought a used Verizon iPhone 4 as a gift chip in and tell me how to do this?

Yes, you can do as you stated. You could also do it over the phone; don't even have to go to a Verizon store.

She will have to add a data plan if she does not already have one.
 
So, with only 5 days until Christmas...I have a question on a gift for the significant other. She's on Verizon, and I'd like to get her an iPhone 4 for Christmas. However, I don't want her to have to re-do her contract or change her plan or anything too complicated. I found a used one with a good ESN and in great condition.

Question is, could I buy it, ship it to her, then she'd simply take it to the Verizon store and have them activate it on her phone line, deactivating her other one, or is it more complicated than that?

Can someone who's bought a used Verizon iPhone 4 as a gift chip in and tell me how to do this?

If you got the iPhone from craigslist just make sure that you activate it in a VZW store with the previous owner, just in case.
 
Yes, you can do as you stated. You could also do it over the phone; don't even have to go to a Verizon store.

She will have to add a data plan if she does not already have one.

She's on some form of family plan (not sure what), with unlimited data, although she doesn't have a smartphone, but unlimited everything else. What would she have to change?
 
She's on some form of family plan (not sure what), with unlimited data, although she doesn't have a smartphone, but unlimited everything else. What would she have to change?

smartphone data plan is different from non-smartphone data. It might be worth talking to a CS rep to see if they can grandfather her into unlimited smartphone data since she already has unlimited feature phone data.
 
Call Verizon while you are with the seller-before cash is given- to confirm the ESN is good. Too many horror stories over bad ESN's.
 
Also make sure you pay through something like paypal with a creditcard so you have both paypal and your creditcard you can dispute the transaction with. If the seller says cash/check/money order only, you know something is up.
 
Also make sure you pay through something like paypal with a creditcard so you have both paypal and your creditcard you can dispute the transaction with. If the seller says cash/check/money order only, you know something is up.

I agree with you but only for eBay transactions. Most craigslist sellers will not take Paypal-don't want to pay the fees. Your safest-but not cheapest-best is to buy one on ebay from a seller who has a great feedback rating-99.8% or higher, and offers real pictures of the phone-not stock pictures-and offers a return policy-pay with paypal only. You may pay more, but you are protected.
 
I agree with you but only for eBay transactions. Most craigslist sellers will not take Paypal-don't want to pay the fees. Your safest-but not cheapest-best is to buy one on ebay from a seller who has a great feedback rating-99.8% or higher, and offers real pictures of the phone-not stock pictures-and offers a return policy-pay with paypal only. You may pay more, but you are protected.

Did this exactly with my wife's iphone 4. Great price and works great!
 
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