Introduction
My mom sent me a FB message the other day and said her iPhone 6S Plus was saying “No Service” on her phone. I thought this was because she was having iCloud password issues, so I helped her reset her iCloud password. She then updated the phone and it still had the same issue. I asked her to reset the phone and same issue. I then told her to take it to a Tmobile store the next day and have them help her. A day later, she told me that the phone had to be returned to T-Mobile and that’s why it didn’t work.
I was at first confused by all this. I had forgotten where I had bought it, and eventually I remembered I had bought it on Ebay back in December 2015. The listing said it had a “clean IMEI” back then and it had been working fine for 8 months. Now I’m not sure if the phone was reported stolen or if the seller stopped paying for the phone; regardless, I now have a bricked phone. If this was a one-time occurrence, I wouldn’t think much of it. However, about 6 months ago, a 2 year old iPhone 5S that I also bought on Ebay was also bricked. Thus, I’m 2 for 2 on bricked iPhones, both bought on Ebay.
What’s the scam here?
Usually, most of the newer phone listings on Ebay are from pawn shops or phone liquidation sellers (who usually have thousands of positive feedback.) You can usually get it for $50-$100 cheaper and of course tax-free on Ebay, and that’s why I bought the iPhone 6S Plus. Like I said, there are 2 reasons why a carrier would brick your phone – 1. if the phone is reported stolen or 2. if the person stops making payments on their account, then your phone could be bricked by the carrier. Since the US carriers have agreements with the other carriers, if one blocks you, it’s usually blocked on ALL US carriers. At that point, your only recourse is to sell it on Ebay as a “bad IMEI” so the buyer can take it overseas to use it there.
It’s usually safer to buy older phones since those have mostly been paid off or less likely to be reported stolen, but I’m not going to take that risk either. I’ve learned a valuable lesson now. From now on, I’m going to buy all phones directly from the carrier or from trusted people (who I know have paid off the phone or won’t report the phone stolen.)
how about buying from some reliable sellers. For example, you may find some sellers had over 10k+ transactions and over 99% rating.
Both of my sellers had thousands of transactions and 99%. They were pawn shops or phone exchange shops, and the phone works for a while… until it stops one day and by then it’s too late. Regular people don’t have 10k+ xactions.
I had to replace my daughter’s bent 6s plus at the apple store. I paid $329 to replace it with a new one. I’m looking to sell it on ebay and the prices are a lot lower than I thought. I’m guessing this is the reason.
Nah Heather, the reason is the iPhone 7 is weeks away.
I use virgin (cheap ass monthly plans) and you have to buy your phone outright with them. So I think their phones would have less risk.
FYI, my phone, and my kids’ phones all did that with one of the last few iPhone updates, and we purchased the phones from Best Buy. We needed to reset network settings, and restart the phone a few times and then it was fine.
I thought that was it, but when the store said the phone had to be returned, then it meant it was a stolen or unpaid phone.