Related
hey guys pretty much a noob here. i got an alltel ppc-6800 for a really good deal. reason why i got it for a good deal is that it has a bad esn. what i want to do is reflash the unit and use a verizon rom on it instead and have it on the verizon network. big question is that i've been reading the wiki on how to flash, etc... but should i follow the steps for downgrading to stock verizon rom or what?
I think before you start anything you might wanna think it over. Are you using this phone for yourself because personally I would NOT try to activate a phone with a bad esn, you do realize they will need the esn correct? I would make sure Verizon will let you use the phone on their network.
first off, the ESN is BAD. VZ will not activate it. you would need a clean device (most commonly a broken one where you can still salvage a good ESN)
and take the clean ESN from the broken phone and swap it with the bad ESN on the good one. now, not only is this 100% illegal, and there is a fat fine and possible jail time for changing ESN's, but it is very advanced work. and if you are really a 'noob' as you stated, ESN swapping is reserved for those with technical knowledge far above us, and this process is way over our heads. dont bother with it. sell it on eBay and buy a brand new one.
aguas said:
first off, the ESN is BAD. VZ will not activate it. you would need a clean device (most commonly a broken one where you can still salvage a good ESN)
and take the clean ESN from the broken phone and swap it with the bad ESN on the good one. now, not only is this 100% illegal, and there is a fat fine and possible jail time for changing ESN's, but it is very advanced work. and if you are really a 'noob' as you stated, ESN swapping is reserved for those with technical knowledge far above us, and this process is way over our heads. dont bother with it. sell it on eBay and buy a brand new one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not good advice. Plain an simple
yea i do not plan on cloning a device. way to much work. well i got the phone because the person did not want to pay for the cancellation fee so there is hold on the esn before any activation can occur on their network. It is not on a currently black list for "Lost/Stolen" phones. So really i can activate the phone on alltel i just have to pay the rest of the money, lol which im not doing. And my buddy at verizon said it maybe possible to put it on the network he just wants me to reflash to verizon and he's gonna try to add it to the network.
vlhoang said:
yea i do not plan on cloning a device. way to much work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No that shouldn't even be talked about on this forum thats just asking for trouble. I would NOT condone the replacement or changing of any ESN on any device its illegal period.
KDKobes said:
No that shouldn't even be talked about on this forum thats just asking for trouble. I would NOT condone the replacement or changing of any ESN on any device its illegal period.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as i *clearly* stated. i was informing him of his options.
also, now that he said that the ESN is 'on hold' it's really irrelevant since he first stated it was a bad ESN, which are two totally different things.
So I found a person on Craigslist who had a Droid 2 for sale, good deal. So I met up with him, checked out the phone, everything looked good. I called Verizon before making the exchange for the phone and verified the ESN was clear. I get home and try to activate the phone and can't. I called Verizon back and this time I'm being told the phone is still allocated to an account but not active, probably someone who didn't pay a bill would be my guess. It's still early and I haven't tried contacting the person I purchased it from, but providing that falls through what are my options? Or are there any?
I've had verizon for almost 12 years now, can't say I've had the best experience but this just takes the prize. First guy says yes, second person says no, I'm probably out money. ><
Be careful. It could either be stolen or his and he could be filing a claim that the phone was stolen so document everything from the transaction to ensure you don't end up in the wrong. I'm not sure if anything can be done if you have a linked but not active ESN.
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
newk8600 said:
Be careful. It could either be stolen or his and he could be filing a claim that the phone was stolen so document everything from the transaction to ensure you don't end up in the wrong. I'm not sure if anything can be done if you have a linked but not active ESN.
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I kinda figure that I'm out some cash and got a nifty paperweight now. I'm calling VZW to raise hell since one person told me it was clean, and the other told me the truth about it. Nothing will probably come of it, but at least I get to ***** at them for it. I did manage to get the guy I bought it from to tell me earlier today that it was on his wifes account and that she needed the money from getting rid of the phone to buy another and have it activated. Of course he hasn't returned any of my follow up calls asking when this is going to happen. Unfortunately this isn't someone I know, but do feel like giving him the ass beating of his lifetime.
Oh well, I should have tried to activate it myself on the spot so I guess you live you learn.
By the way, I've got this new thing called an Android Paperweight that runs OS 2.2 if you're interested in buying it let me know (j/k)
StirCwazy said:
Yea I kinda figure that I'm out some cash and got a nifty paperweight now. I'm calling VZW to raise hell since one person told me it was clean, and the other told me the truth about it. Nothing will probably come of it, but at least I get to ***** at them for it. I did manage to get the guy I bought it from to tell me earlier today that it was on his wifes account and that she needed the money from getting rid of the phone to buy another and have it activated. Of course he hasn't returned any of my follow up calls asking when this is going to happen. Unfortunately this isn't someone I know, but do feel like giving him the ass beating of his lifetime.
Oh well, I should have tried to activate it myself on the spot so I guess you live you learn.
By the way, I've got this new thing called an Android Paperweight that runs OS 2.2 if you're interested in buying it let me know (j/k)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, if it ends up being a bad ESN and you aren't ever able to activate it you could probably sell it to a developer to recuperate some of the cost. You probably wont get it all but I'm sure you could get a nice chunk back.
kwheel596 said:
Honestly, if it ends up being a bad ESN and you aren't ever able to activate it you could probably sell it to a developer to recuperate some of the cost. You probably wont get it all but I'm sure you could get a nice chunk back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't even know where to start, but good suggestion, thanks.
I called VZW a few minutes ago to complain and found out that the person I spoke with last night didn't log anything in our account indicating a call and regarding what. The person I spoke with earlier today did. I just wish everyone knew how to do their job properly to make sure everyone in my situation ends up with the best possible results, and not out some money that could be used elsewhere.
So if life I guess
How much does it take to buy the phone..... paper weight
rdking said:
How much does it take to buy the phone..... paper weight
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At risk of being ridiculed over what I paid for the said item I'll take offers via PM For the time being I'm still holding out on the dream it will one day soon be functional.
put it on ebay you can still get a couple hundred bucks out of a droid 2 with a bad esn
Good luck man, I hope it will be activated soon!
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
First things first, never buy a CL phone unless you activate it on the SPOT. Regardless if the 'account is late on payment' or whatever that doesn't mean they can blacklist the phone from activating on the network.
If it is a insurance claim phone it can never be used and you are SOL, but if it's stolen I'd call Verizon again and have them contact whoever owns that phone to call you. You seem like an intelligent person, not some kid posting on here, and having VZW for 12 years confirms that. Do the right thing and contact the owner should it be stolen. Maybe work something out?
You could always use it with a different carrier or sell it to someone who wants to use it on a different carrier..
They flash over to cricket easily, probly to sprint or u.s. cellular also
Doesnt matter what the esn says in verizons system when going somewhere else
If you complain enough they will *SOMETIMES* allow you to swap it for a replacement with a clean ESN, though not always. You could also try going into a store and telling them you got ripped off and seeing if they have a carrier return laying that they might be willing to replace your bad one with, Verizon themselves doesn't care about blacklisted ESN's once they have them, they just simply remove it from the blacklist and sell it off
Streak 7 bad ESN
May be an stupid coment, but just by curiosity: when you change the ROM for some custom ROM , the STK7 is not by default unlocked?.
Mr. Cell Phone Unlocker
If you are willing to pay $75, I stumbled across this site that will do it.
Reputable company, but I make no guarantees of their effectiveness. Never tried it either.
Might be worth a shot
http://www.mrcellphoneunlocker.com/V2/products.php?product=Verizon_ESN
Hey, I'm in need of some help. On my birthday, I lost my fascinate. I called bdubs multiple times to see if anyone turned it in and of course, no one had turned a phone in. so, I called up asurion and filed a claim. I got my replacement and had it for six days when my landlord calls my home phone.she had found my fascinate. Great news, or so I thought. I call asurion up again and explain what happened. I figured I could get it off the blacklist since I found it. Well, asurion said not only would they not remove it from the list, but that phone was now their property. they wanted me to send in my old phone. Not only that, but they won't give my ninety bucks back.
Anyways, I've decided to give the phone to my mother in law for christmas since she has an eris. I'm assuming I need to change the esn. How would I do this? I'm just going to swap it with my moto droid. I've read that this is illegal, but if I'm swapping the esn with one of my phones, then it's legal? Any clues?
Its not illegal. I've changed esn numbers all over my verizon accounts and never had a problem. You can deactivate your phone and activate another in place of it online through your verizon wireless account.
Rockin' DJ05, Minimal Icognito, being just plain Stupidfast
TheSonicEmerald said:
Its not illegal. I've changed esn numbers all over my verizon accounts and never had a problem. You can deactivate your phone and activate another in place of it online through your verizon wireless account.
Rockin' DJ05, Minimal Icognito, being just plain Stupidfast
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the OP is talking about something different.
The ESN on your old Fascinate is a hard coded serial number. You can't just change the number to make it so you can activate it again. ESNs are loaded into Verizon's system to identify the devices tied to their network so you're pretty much screwed and you need to just send the phone back to Asurion as they requested. As per your policy with them, that device does belong to them.
once the phone is reported lost or stolen the ESN can't be activated on another line, so if i am understanding you correctly, giving it to your mother in-law won't do you any good unless you just want to give her a headache trying to get it activated that can't be done.
it can be done and it isn't illegal as most people think... google is your friend
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Try calling VZW and telling them what happened. They control the database, so if you tell them that you found the device and it is no longer lost, they may be able to de-blacklist the ESN for you.
Check the terms and conditions for your insurance. This is all detailed there.
Vzw can't remove it. Asurion owns it now.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Let me get this straight, Mr. Kuhlman.
You lost your $500+ phone, filed an insurance claim ... Does your insurance cover lost or did you claim it was stolen? ... .... So they send you another $500+ phone after you only pay, I'm assuming shipping + deductible = $90? Now you "found" your phone and plan to keep both $500+ phones? You make out quite well with that deal. How is this fair? What makes you think you are so entitled? And you want the $90 back as well!!!
Mr. Kuhlman, are you familiar with insurance fraud? And you posted this on a public forum...
SupraLance said:
Let me get this straight, Mr. Kuhlman.
You lost your $500+ phone, filed an insurance claim ... Does your insurance cover lost or did you claim it was stolen? ... .... So they send you another $500+ phone after you only pay, I'm assuming shipping + deductible = $90? Now you "found" your phone and plan to keep both $500+ phones? You make out quite well with that deal. How is this fair? What makes you think you are so entitled? And you want the $90 back as well!!!
Mr. Kuhlman, are you familiar with insurance fraud? And you posted this on a public forum...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
couldn't agree more...this is exactly the reason why we have high deductibles...send it to asurion it is their property....
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Some confusion about changing ESN numbers here. There are two types of ESN swaps.
1) Changing your ESN # registered to your account
2) Changing the ESN # of the phone itself
#1 is to get a phone activated on the network. #2 is to get the phone unlocked and activated on *another* network. Neither is illegal.
The only thing illegal related to ESN swaps is if you clone an ESN, so that two phones have the same ESN at the same time. Although it is only illegal if done for purposes of fraud. If you were to buy 2 phones, and for whatever reasons wanted to clone their ESN's and put the other away on a shelf and never use again, then you could do this legally.
For instance someone may want to use a fancy Droid X on their limited verizon plan. Verizon wont sell or activate a droid x if you dont subscribe with a data package. You may decide to activate it yourself by cloning an existing phone's ESN so that your droid x can make voice calls and receive texts, but nothing else.
Thread closed per rule 9.
This is insurance fraud and the recipient of the phone could be charged with handling stolen goods, and more ... you could be charged with fraud and theft.
My room mate just bought a Droid X from a girl on craigslist. She seemed nice enough, but mentioned it had ties to her (ex?)boyfriend and she just wanted to get rid of it. Sold it to my roommate for $175. Me and my room mate went straight to the Verizon store to activate it, and they said it was on the lost and stolen list and they couldn't activate it. Been on the phone with Verizon for a while now, seems like they can't do anything. Any ideas? The girl wont answer her phone now.
Here's the craigslist ad
http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/mob/2299532665.html
jasongthang said:
My room mate just bought a Droid X from a girl on craigslist. She seemed nice enough, but mentioned it had ties to her (ex?)boyfriend and she just wanted to get rid of it. Sold it to my roommate for $175. Me and my room mate went straight to the Verizon store to activate it, and they said it was on the lost and stolen list and they couldn't activate it. Been on the phone with Verizon for a while now, seems like they can't do anything. Any ideas? The girl wont answer her phone now.
Here's the craigslist ad
http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/mob/2299532665.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, not a damn thing you can do. If it's on VZW's black list, that's that. Unless the seller pay's their bill, it's most likely stolen, past due amount on the account or there is an ETF not paid.
You can take it to Cricket and flash it worse case scenario. We don't know if it is indeed stolen or not and if you guys think it is, I would contact the Police and make a report to try to get your money back and press charges.
No phone number, no pictures taken of the phone...man, that's a huge red flag right there for buying a used cell of craigslist. Sorry for your luck.
Make sure to always ask for the MEID number before buying ANY CDMA phone; VZW verifies it for free if it is OK to activate or if it's not clean. This type of thing happens a lot more then you even imagine.
Good luck.
Ben's said:
Nope, not a damn thing you can do. If it's on VZW's black list, that's that. Unless the seller pay's their bill, it's most likely stolen, past due amount on the account or there is an ETF not paid.
You can take it to Cricket and flash it worse case scenario. We don't know if it is indeed stolen or not and if you guys think it is, I would contact the Police and make a report to try to get your money back and press charges.
No phone number, no pictures taken of the phone...man, that's a huge red flag right there for buying a used cell of craigslist. Sorry for your luck.
Make sure to always ask for the MEID number before buying ANY CDMA phone; VZW verifies it for free if it is OK to activate or if it's not clean. This type of thing happens a lot more then you even imagine.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, through email we had a name and she gave us a contact phone number, and we had no problem contacting her up until the sale, after that she didnt answer anymore. Shes not a verizon customer, based on the name associated with the email and the phone number she gave. There were pictures of the phone, but they may have just been pictures from the ads.
One thing I wished we had done was met at a verizon store and got it all checked right then and there.
Verizon gave my room mate the phone number and case number (i think) to take it to the fraud department and try to at least get his money back.
jasongthang said:
Well, through email we had a name and she gave us a contact phone number, and we had no problem contacting her up until the sale, after that she didnt answer anymore. Shes not a verizon customer, based on the name associated with the email and the phone number she gave. There were pictures of the phone, but they may have just been pictures from the ads.
One thing I wished we had done was met at a verizon store and got it all checked right then and there.
Verizon gave my room mate the phone number and case number (i think) to take it to the fraud department and try to at least get his money back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing happened to my best friend, he bought a DX from a girl on CL, she wanted $200 for the device, but took $150 after some haggling (from the way he described her and her outfit she was probable a dancer/escort).
When he tried to set the device up on his VZW account, the CSR informed him that it was on the "Lost or Stolen" list and was given an incident #. He contacted the Dallas PD, turned out the girl was a stripper/escort/dopehead and had been jacking her customers for their wallets or cell phones.
He ending up, having to turn the device over to the PD and was out the $150.
After all of this (and at the time this was probably a [email protected] thing I pointed out to him), but you can pick up a pre-owned DX from VZW for $149 and they come with the full warranty.
Sorry to hear about your friends misfortune,
Hatxtrick
Rule of thumb, never buy a cdma phone (VZW or Sprint) without first checking with C.S if the ESN is clean.
Fuuton: Atsugai
but my xperia has been stolen, most likely by one of two coworkers. i don't have any proof other than i left the phone at work and neither one of them found the phone. i work for a verizon inderect btw.
so i don't know what to do go to the owner and explain and possibly get fired or ostracized, i have no proof, and i'm pretty sure the phone was wiped. though i did call verizon and they told me they can blacklist the esn though i recently filed paperwork for my employee line with that esn so that will be interesting.
any suggestions, i'm really pissed and don't know what to do, i really don't want to think i work with such ****ty people that they would steal from a co-worker, and i really don't want to think i work with people stupid enough to think i won't catch them.
any suggestions?
I don't know if they can but can't they track it? I mean I am almost sure they can use the GPS in it to track it. If you work for verizon shouldn't they understand?
rogeriskira said:
I don't know if they can but can't they track it? I mean I am almost sure they can use the GPS in it to track it. If you work for verizon shouldn't they understand?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah they do, thing is i hadn't activated it yet, had just submitted the paperwork last week, and i am 99.99% sure i left it at work on the fourth, both the employees (one of em my manager) said they hadn't seen the phone.
thing is verizon can't track it if it's not active, and i'm also very sure the phone was wiped, as it's not showing up in the market as far as i can tell.
even if it does get activated by them (i.e. verizon) it has to be *228 option one for the phone to take the activation. but i can't believe that the employees would be that stupid to steal it, what are they gonna do keep it? and me not notice. plus i'm gonna report the esn as lost or stolen so it'll be a bad esn.
i must have just lost it but i have looked everywhere and can't think of where else it could be but one of them having taken it.
just venting more than anything. sorry for cluttering the forum up with my personal **** btw.
Hey, you gotta release your stress somewhere . I was always under the impression that the carrier can be tracked your phone easily but don't do it because you are on a contract and need to buy something new from them.
Two years ago I bought a phone, used it for 15 minutes and then switched back to old phone so that I can return the new one without going over the 30minutes return policy. The customer service rep can distinguish exactly how many minutes were used on each phone the previous night. This means that they know which phne is using their services at all time. I'm with rogers gsm network
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.
Thanks for the support worst part is all the games in had on there if hada16gb card completely full of games like I had 100mb left....
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
Can't you track the imei? If they wipe that no network will accept the phone?
Sent from my R800i using XDA Premium App
thorpe24 said:
but my xperia has been stolen, most likely by one of two coworkers. i don't have any proof other than i left the phone at work and neither one of them found the phone. i work for a verizon inderect btw.
so i don't know what to do go to the owner and explain and possibly get fired or ostracized, i have no proof, and i'm pretty sure the phone was wiped. though i did call verizon and they told me they can blacklist the esn though i recently filed paperwork for my employee line with that esn so that will be interesting.
any suggestions, i'm really pissed and don't know what to do, i really don't want to think i work with such ****ty people that they would steal from a co-worker, and i really don't want to think i work with people stupid enough to think i won't catch them.
any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I read somewhere in this list of comments that you were sure the phone was wiped. Any chance that it isn't? You could try something like LookOut's "Plan B" from the Android Market web page, and if it is on your account still, you can tell it to install on the phone. When/if it does, it would start tracking it and tell you where it thinks it is.
If the phone has been wiped, then it is pretty much down to the procedures you described. Block the ESN/IMEI, report it as stolen, etc. If you can't prove it was the two other folks, then don't say it was them. Simply state your phone has been lost and/or stolen. Say you already did your due diligence of reporting it gone. I guess this is also the place to make sure that you have backups of your SD cards, as well as always to install some sort of remote-control-and-location service on your phone. If it doesn't get wiped, then you can do so. If it is wiped, then less to worry about other than your loss (and documents on the SD card).
Very good advice dvds I thank you. Unfortunately those methods havent worked. I will try plan b though
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
well the least you could do is put a poster where it was stolen and offer a reward.
Also ask if you can look at the security camera feeds if the location has cameras.
Makes sure you ask to check the camera as soon as possible they are usually deleted after a while.
Good luck
thorpe24 said:
but my xperia has been stolen, most likely by one of two coworkers. i don't have any proof other than i left the phone at work and neither one of them found the phone. i work for a verizon inderect btw.
so i don't know what to do go to the owner and explain and possibly get fired or ostracized, i have no proof, and i'm pretty sure the phone was wiped. though i did call verizon and they told me they can blacklist the esn though i recently filed paperwork for my employee line with that esn so that will be interesting.
any suggestions, i'm really pissed and don't know what to do, i really don't want to think i work with such ****ty people that they would steal from a co-worker, and i really don't want to think i work with people stupid enough to think i won't catch them.
any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep checking Craiglist in your local area? Some stolen merchandise end up there.
Getting the ESN on the lost list is a great step but if they work there too couldn't they take it off the list? Keep that ESN and keep up with ebay and craigslist. Thats mess up, gotta be some kinda low to take from a co worker. They had to know you were gonna report it lost, they stole a paper weight.
thorpe24 said:
but my xperia has been stolen, most likely by one of two coworkers. i don't have any proof other than i left the phone at work and neither one of them found the phone. i work for a verizon inderect btw.
so i don't know what to do go to the owner and explain and possibly get fired or ostracized, i have no proof, and i'm pretty sure the phone was wiped. though i did call verizon and they told me they can blacklist the esn though i recently filed paperwork for my employee line with that esn so that will be interesting.
any suggestions, i'm really pissed and don't know what to do, i really don't want to think i work with such ****ty people that they would steal from a co-worker, and i really don't want to think i work with people stupid enough to think i won't catch them.
any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have the box it has your serial # on it. Verizon has a record of your phones serial number also. They take it down when you activate it.