Database Users

[Q] Xperia Play (Verizon) Bad ESN to metro pcs

Hey guys im a newb and was wondering if i can flash my bad esn x play to metro pcs? I cant afford Verizon anymore so they gave me a bad esn and metro has the 40$ unlimited everything
So if you guys can help me out this is much appreciated i love this phone and don't want to give it away yet.

Just get your sim unlocked and change the APN settings
Edit: unsure if a bad esn can be fixed by unlocking.. You'll have to ask someone who deals with sim unlocks
Sent from my R800

rawrrzombie12 said:
Hey guys im a newb and was wondering if i can flash my bad esn x play to metro pcs? I cant afford Verizon anymore so they gave me a bad esn and metro has the 40$ unlimited everything
So if you guys can help me out this is much appreciated i love this phone and don't want to give it away yet.
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Click to collapse
The only reason your phone will have a bad ESN is if either it's stolen or you haven't paid your bill, either way the phone is not yours. Thats why your carrier has blacklisted the ESN. Basically you are asking people to help you steal the phone.

you would have to change ESN which is... well, quite impossible...
Send frm my Play with coustum kernals

AndroHero said:
The only reason your phone will have a bad ESN is if either it's stolen or you haven't paid your bill, either way the phone is not yours. Thats why your carrier has blacklisted the ESN. Basically you are asking people to help you steal the phone.
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i didn't steal the phone i couldn't afford the plan i was one so they cut my phone off that's what i meant. i guess ill just take it and see if it will work

rawrrzombie12 said:
i didn't steal the phone i couldn't afford the plan i was one so they cut my phone off that's what i meant. i guess ill just take it and see if it will work
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The problem is you said in your post twice, they gave you a bad ESN. Well what did you mean by that, because the only reason they would do that is if you owe them money. Or were you just mistaken? If you go elsewhere with a "bad" or blocked ESN its not going to work.

Rogue Leader said:
The problem is you said in your post twice, they gave you a bad ESN. Well what did you mean by that, because the only reason they would do that is if you owe them money. Or were you just mistaken? If you go elsewhere with a "bad" or blocked ESN its not going to work.
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Doesn't mean he stole it. Could have been locked into a bad contract
Some people like myself buy them off ebay with bad esn
What happens is all these reneged accounts are lying around eligible for upgrades
some one will come in and get all the brand new phones unopened and sell them online for big profit.
It's 100% your property if you buy it from a 3rd party.
The bad ESN part is bad because then all the towers will block your phone
so you cant use 40$ pre-pay service because they are leasing the towers from big company like verizon and such

Rogue Leader said:
The problem is you said in your post twice, they gave you a bad ESN. Well what did you mean by that, because the only reason they would do that is if you owe them money. Or were you just mistaken? If you go elsewhere with a "bad" or blocked ESN its not going to work.
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Click to collapse
You can flash any phone with a bad esn to another provider, if you have the proper software.

captain67 said:
Just get your sim unlocked and change the APN settings
Edit: unsure if a bad esn can be fixed by unlocking.. You'll have to ask someone who deals with sim unlocks
Sent from my R800
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AndroHero said:
The only reason your phone will have a bad ESN is if either it's stolen or you haven't paid your bill, either way the phone is not yours. Thats why your carrier has blacklisted the ESN. Basically you are asking people to help you steal the phone.
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Blagus said:
you would have to change ESN which is... well, quite impossible...
Send frm my Play with coustum kernals
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Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. READ people. SIM card on CDMA? Why list the reason when he told you the reason out-right (can't afford it; obviously under contract)? "Impossible" to do something which is done every day? Jeeze. If you don't know the answer or what you are talking about WHY do you feel compelled to answer the man?

CZroe said:
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. READ people. SIM card on CDMA? Why list the reason when he told you the reason out-right (can't afford it; obviously under contract)? "Impossible" to do something which is done every day? Jeeze. If you don't know the answer or what you are talking about WHY do you feel compelled to answer the man?
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Exactly "can't afford verizon" that means he didnt pay the bill, so the phone was cut off, he does not own the phone because he invalidated his contract, and thus the phone is stolen.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk

AndroHero said:
Exactly "can't afford verizon" that means he didnt pay the bill, so the phone was cut off, he does not own the phone because he invalidated his contract, and thus the phone is stolen.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk
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I don't know how things are done there, but actually that's technically and legally wrong here in the USA. The phone is rebated and paid for at the time the contract is signed. The SERVICE CONTRACT is the only remaining obligation. The contract comes with terms and stipulations stating that they will require payment of an ETF (Early Termination Fee) if he does not carry the contract to full term and that they will ban the ESN if he does not pay that. It does not state that the phone remains or reverts to being their property.
For consumer protections reasons, there are other "outs" in the contract and you are not required to send the phone back because it is YOURS nor are you required to pay ETFs. For example, the FCC does not want local monopolies to keep you living in an area they serve just because you have a contract with a provider there that doesn't exist elsewhere. For example, if I wanted to move to North Dakota and there was no Sprint coverage in the town I was moving to, I can move there and keep my phone and end my contract and legally dodge the ETF. If I ever activate it with that provider again, they can require me to resume my contract.
Simple.

CZroe said:
I don't know how things are done there, but actually that's technically and legally wrong here in the USA. The phone is rebated at the time the contract is signed. The SERVICE CONTRACT is the only remaining obligation. The contract comes with terms and stipulations stating that they will require payment of an ETF (Early Termination Fee) if he does not carry the contract to full term and that they will ban the ESN if he does not pay that. It does not state that the phone remains or reverts to being their property.
For consumer protections reasons, there are other "outs" in the contract and you are not required to send the phone back because it is YOURS. For example, the FCC does not want local monopolies to keep you living in an area they server just because you have a contract with a provider there that doesn't exist elsewhere. For example, if I wanted to move to North Dakota and there was no Sprint coverage in the town I was moving to, I can move there and keep my phone and end my contract and legally dodge the ETF. If I ever activate it with that provider again, they can require me to resume my contract.
Simple.
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Hooray America! (another example of an it is you can suspend/cancel your contact without an ETF if you getting deployed overseas (military))
Sent from my R800x using Tapatalk

Flipping through the thread and damn some people are f ing unbelievable. Your really going to call the guys phone stolen because he couldnt pay the bill? Are you kidding me? Pretty sure the 250 dollar early termination fee that will be tacked on to a final bill will pretty much cover the cost of the phone.. Its amazing how people can be so argumentative for no reason. The guy had a simple question, he didnt ask for a moral judgement. The answer to your question is YES you can have it flashed to metro.

AndroHero said:
Exactly "can't afford verizon" that means he didnt pay the bill, so the phone was cut off, he does not own the phone because he invalidated his contract, and thus the phone is stolen.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk
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Why did you even waste energy and burn a single calorie to type on this thread if you weren't going to contribute to the question asked. I'm sick of arse holes that want to play phone police on an internet forum. You don't know if he paid his termination fee or made conditions with Verizon. Personally I think its none of your business or any body else. So the point of the matter is Metro hooks up a lot of phones from other carriers such as Verizon legally in the US. Trust me America being the forefront of lawsuits would have sued the breaks off of Metro PCS if it wasn't. Do not post if you don't have anything intelectual or contributing please.

R800x Carrier Pigeon - Got any change?
Before I get into the nitty gritty, yes, ive seached the forum. yes ive seached the google. yes, afaik im using the right software (cdma-w, qpst, QXDM, even that dfs cdma tool).
The Xperia Play (R800x - Verizon) is an amazing phone first of all. If only it could make calls...
Here is the problem im having: I can write min, nam, PRL, etc, most NV items to the phone just fine. but when i try to repair the esn/meid i get back an error which, though slightly different depending on the software, amounts to a statement that the value is read-only or failed to write. I have some past success with this sort of thing on other platforms (Moto Razr for ex.)but im at a loss here, and ready to accept any help offered. I read somewhere that an unlocked BL is req. but that doesnt make sense to me.
Also ive noticed that the older version of cdmaw (2.7) doesn't seem to read or write meid values, only esn, from what ive read, its like frank sinatra said, you cant have one without the other.
So my questions: has anyone else run into this problem? Is it related to the bootloader or ROM in any way? Suggestions etc Please and Thank you
Yes im a n00b. yes im ok with that. there is always some1 who knows more about something than I do. Teach me to fish so i can share my fish

freddycheeba said:
Before I get into the nitty gritty, yes, ive seached the forum. yes ive seached the google. (btw, the flash-to-MetroPCS page seems to have vanished from the internets..)yes, afaik im using the right software (cdma-w, qpst, QXDM, even that dfs cdma tool).
The Xperia Play (R800x - V3r1$0N) is an amazing phone first of all. If only it could make calls...
With every intention of avoiding starting a legal debate, here is the problem im having: I can write min, nam, PRL, etc, most NV items to the phone just fine. but when i try to .repair. the 3$n or M31D i get back an error which, though slightly different depending on the software, amounts to a statement that the value is read-only or failed to write. i may have some past success with this sort of thing on other platforms (Moto Razr for ex.)-allegedly, and im by no means stumped or ready to give up, but im ready to accept any help offered. I read somewhere that an unlocked BL is req. but that doesnt make sense to me.
Also ive noticed that the older version of cdmaw (2.7) which may or may not be available from the common sources, doesn't seem to read or write m31d values, only 3$n, from what ive read, its like frank sinatra said, you cant have one without the other.
So my questions: has anyone else run into this problem? Is it related to the bootloader or ROM in any way? Suggestions etc Please and Thank you
Yes im a n00b. yes im ok with that. there is always some1 who knows more about something than I do. Teach me to fish
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Couple things:
1. "hacker speak" like saying 3$n and m31D is tremendously annoying. I have no idea why you felt the need to do that. Actual intelligent humans like you will find here think you sound like an idiot when you type like that. Speak English, its what we speak.
2. I don't believe anyone has successfully done with this phone what you're trying to do AFAIK. There are people who can unlock the bootloader for you, but I agree I doubt that would help, but hey who knows.
3. That said, you threw gas on the fire even mentioning legal issues. I'm not gonna make any assumptions about why you have a bad ESN phone a I don't know where you got it, but as you can see its a touchy subject here. Mainly because carriers don't just blacklist ESNs for no reason or on a whim.
Anyway whatever your reasons, good luck, I don't know that you will find an answer here, but maybe someone who does know can help you.

Touchy subject
My Esn is clear, but i already have service with another cdma provider- one who has very limited choices as far as phones go. I have no intention of trying to rip off my carrier for my data use or anything like that, i just want to make calls on my current network, using my R800x.
I wrote 3$n because some places will delete your post or even ban you just for mentioning the word, which is silly since all we're trying to do is exchange some theoretical knowledge.
Anyway thanks for your response RogueLeader.

freddycheeba said:
My Esn is clear, but i already have service with another cdma provider- one who has very limited choices as far as phones go. I have no intention of trying to rip off my carrier for my data use or anything like that, i just want to make calls on my current network, using my R800x.
I wrote 3$n because some places will delete your post or even ban you just for mentioning the word, which is silly since all we're trying to do is exchange some theoretical knowledge.
Anyway thanks for your response RogueLeader.
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So your carrier just plain won't accept your Xperia Play's ESN, so you're trying to swap on one from another phone? Good plan, but like I said it seems like something thats not likely possible (or hey maybe it is and just no one's done it yet). I'd be interested to hear if this works out. Also pretty ridiculous if its true that they just won't take it, but then again Verizon won't accept non Verizon cdma phones as far as I know, but we expect them to suck.
As for this place its pretty heavily monitored, so if your post goes somewhere they don't want, it doesn't matter what words you use they will delete it for you ..

Waka Flocka FLAME!
Sent from my R800x using xda premium

Bad esn for whatever reason, it's still a bad esn. Metro does have the power and tools to flash SOME phones to their network. BUT a lot of these phones will not be fully functional, whether it's the internet or mms, etc. but here's the thing, we here are not metro pcs, we are consumers, ask metro, if they don't have an answer we will more than likely not have one either.
you will just piss some people off with your poor search and investigative skills.
Sent from my R800x using xda premium

AT&T now blacklisting stolen or inproperly scanned phones.

I didn't see a thread on this so I thought I'd warn anyone who doesn't know.
AT&T now blacklisting stolen phones.
AT&T is now blacklisting all reported stolen phones, or devices they say were "Improperly scanned" out of inventory and major retailers such as Best Buy or Wal-Mart. What this means is that sometime after inserting your SIM card into one of these phones, AT&T will lock your SIM card and you will either get a message stating the device is blocked from the network, or the phone will only call AT&T's security division. Even if you put it back in another phone.
This lock is supposed to occur within minutes according to AT&T, however we have seen it take up to weeks for the lock to occur. This also applies to any pre-paid service such as Straight Talk and Red Pocket who use AT&T phones. If you are on one of these plans, you must call your carrier, not AT&T and request the account be unlocked.
Sounds like a good plan right? The only problem with this is, at this time, unlike Verizon, Sprint, and other carriers, there is no way to call in and check the IMEI before you purchase a used or refurb phone. Thus, if you buy a phone from Craigslist, Ebay, or a local used phone store, its imposable to check the esn like you would a CDMA phone to determine if it has been reported lost or stolen.
The best you can do is put your SIM in the phone and try it out before you buy it and, more importantly, make sure there is a return policy at the store you buy it from. At this time there seems to be no sure fire way to determine if a phone you buy from an individual or online has been reported lost or stolen, and AT&T will not unblock any phone reported stolen except by the person who reported it.
The only exception is if you have purchased a phone from a major retailer. In that case AT&T security division reports that if you take the phone back with the receipt, they will unblock it.

Just reading this reminds me about insurance scams where someone would sell their old phone on some site and then call in the phone as stolen. To me: this is just another risk for buying used phones now. Then again: I recall reading a very recent article about a iphone theft ring in San Francisco. Maybe it's better off this way.

Puts ATT in hard spot. They can either let the thieves sell the units and then the end customer's are unknowingly screwed or let the units work. I suppose their rationale is that if the unit stops working they can report who sold them the phone?

I think they very well should blacklist phones reported as stolen. They've been doing it in Europe for years. My problem is, unlike every other major carrier, you cannot verify if a phone is stolen or not before you buy it. This doesn't punish the thieves so much as the person who unknowingly buys it.

killgorian said:
I think they very well should blacklist phones reported as stolen. They've been doing it in Europe for years. My problem is, unlike every other major carrier, you cannot verify if a phone is stolen or not before you buy it. This doesn't punish the thieves so much as the person who unknowingly buys it.
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If it's reported stolen that's one thing - but what about the phones that somebody hasn't paid their bill to on the major carriers - the money owed goes on that person's SS# anyways for life until they settle up - I see bad esn's being sold on ebay all the time. I don't feel bad flashing a phone to cricket with a bad esn since it's tied to somebody's social. If it's stolen by thieves of course - lock em down. I'm just sayin'

mook_ said:
the money owed goes on that person's SS# anyways for life...
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No. 7 years max.
killgorian said:
My problem is, unlike every other major carrier, you cannot verify if a phone is stolen or not before you buy it.
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Yes. This service should have been offered FIRST and then a couple of years later they should have introduced the banning practice. As it is I can see a lot of people making honest mistakes.

You can call into att and have them check the numbers on the phone ...I just did this a week ago with my one x after getting.burnt on one
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

Some online stores have a very efficient and reliable pre-purchase customer care.
I bought my AT&T phone from europe from negrielectronics.com and I clearly asked to know the IMEI of the device before placing the ordere since we have some specific IMEI issues here n Europe.
They could immediately email me the code.
So just ask if you want to purchase on the internet; maybe you'll be lucky.

We can actually deactivate stolen / lost phones,
I`m not sure about blacklisting, savedesk knows that,
After we make reports on lost/stolen phones we just send them to savedesk
It has always been a long before practise to ask the customer to rescan again to where you have bought the phone in cases of phones tagged as warehouse are not deactivated
this post is approved by the national potato safety regulation

hey guys - so i just got taken. bought a phone on CL and turns out it's blacklisted. do you know if there's anyway for ATT to check who this phone belonged to based on IMEI? my long shot is maybe contacting original owner (i know ATT doesn't give out information) but could THEY possibly contact original owner and tell him someone found his device?
i figure this is better than me tossing the device?? any thoughts?

piotrus22 said:
hey guys - so i just got taken. bought a phone on CL and turns out it's blacklisted. do you know if there's anyway for ATT to check who this phone belonged to based on IMEI? my long shot is maybe contacting original owner (i know ATT doesn't give out information) but could THEY possibly contact original owner and tell him someone found his device?
i figure this is better than me tossing the device?? any thoughts?
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If you have any of the seller's info you can report it to authorities.

The only info i have is a cell phone number. Which was a pay as you go number. So i dont think they can do anything if sim card has been tossed right?
What will they authorities do? Dont they have more important things? Ill they confiscate the phone? I just realized i could sell it for use in Europe potentially?

piotrus22 said:
The only info i have is a cell phone number. Which was a pay as you go number. So i dont think they can do anything if sim card has been tossed right?
What will they authorities do? Dont they have more important things? Ill they confiscate the phone? I just realized i could sell it for use in Europe potentially?
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it's IMEI programmed.
so no matter what SIM you'll use it will still be blacklisted,
as long as a stolen phone can receive a signal and passes through AT&T's database it will automatically send out a code to lock out the phone,
it is n "as-is" basis though,
depends entirely on the phone

deathnotice01 said:
it's IMEI programmed.
so no matter what SIM you'll use it will still be blacklisted,
as long as a stolen phone can receive a signal and passes through AT&T's database it will automatically send out a code to lock out the phone,
it is n "as-is" basis though,
depends entirely on the phone
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Click to collapse
Hi, my first post here.
I have a customer (I do computer repair, not cell phones) who unknowingly bought a "blacklisted" att phone an HTC one x from craigslist. Is there anything he can do? I told him I would look into it to try and help him out. But I know nothing of cell phones. The guy's like 60 trying to make a few bucks while in retirement buying and selling cell phones.
He used it for a day or so then it just stopped working. when his att sim was deactivated he went to att as he knows the folks who work in the local store. They cleared his sim card, but not the phone. They weren't interested in taking the phone from him either. They said it could be blacklisted for several reasons from non-payment, to stolen or some other reason, but they couldn't tell him the reason. Some advice or a point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Would unlocking the phone make any difference (to use on another carrier) or is he just basically screwed with this one?
Thanks,
Chris

SIM unlock it and have it on T-Mobile.

Lil Chris said:
Hi, my first post here.
I have a customer (I do computer repair, not cell phones) who unknowingly bought a "blacklisted" att phone an HTC one x from craigslist. Is there anything he can do? I told him I would look into it to try and help him out. But I know nothing of cell phones. The guy's like 60 trying to make a few bucks while in retirement buying and selling cell phones.
He used it for a day or so then it just stopped working. when his att sim was deactivated he went to att as he knows the folks who work in the local store. They cleared his sim card, but not the phone. They weren't interested in taking the phone from him either. They said it could be blacklisted for several reasons from non-payment, to stolen or some other reason, but they couldn't tell him the reason. Some advice or a point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Would unlocking the phone make any difference (to use on another carrier) or is he just basically screwed with this one?
Thanks,
Chris
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Click to collapse
AT&T is very strict with matters pertaining to blacklisted phones,
reactivation of a valid sim card is possible but not the phone,
i never had actual experience with AT&T phones since i'm not in the US and we only had experience navigating them during our training at AT&T tech support,
but you can try flashing the stock generic firmware from a AT&T HTC one X and using a T-mo sim instead of a AT&T sim to prevent execution and authentication of IMEI protocols which are nessesarry to deactivate the blacklisted phone,

Welcome to the bad ESN world
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

cell128 said:
Welcome to the bad ESN world
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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And corporate controlled america
--------------------------------------------------------------
By staring at this post you have waived your right to privacy
Complaints will be trolled accordingly

Im a bit confused. Maybe someone could shed some light. Can a at&t iphone that is not in good standing with at&t be used on straight talk. If so must it be a ST Tmobile sim?
Im buying my mom an at&t iphone 4s off CL and want to make sure it can be activated. Thanks!!

themow said:
Im a bit confused. Maybe someone could shed some light. Can a at&t iphone that is not in good standing with at&t be used on straight talk. If so must it be a ST Tmobile sim?
Im buying my mom an at&t iphone 4s off CL and want to make sure it can be activated. Thanks!!
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As long as it is not reported lost or stolen it can. If it has been blacklisted, no it cannot.

Buying a used phone

I am moving over to Straight Talk here in a month from Verizon, and will be using an AT&T SIM for service. I have been reading up on this "Blacklisting" that AT&T is doing with stolen/lost phones, and how some folks are being scammed from Craigslist/eBay.
My question, then, is if I were to meet someone at an AT&T store, have the IMEI checked, and it comes back clean, and make the transaction, with the seller still there, will AT&T be able to put a note on their account that the phone was sold, so the seller cannot go back a week later and claim the phone was lost or stolen (fraud)? By doing that, wouldn't the folks at AT&T who Blacklist, see that on their account, and you, as the buyer, would be in the free and clear?
Anyhow, I am just looking for thoughts and suggestions about this, and anything else someone might provide. Thanks!

You can get it checked but it always can be reported stolen later on. It's just like ESNs on Verizon/Sprint. But as long as you verify it you should be fine.

MrObvious said:
You can get it checked but it always can be reported stolen later on. It's just like ESNs on Verizon/Sprint. But as long as you verify it you should be fine.
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I guess what I am asking, is while I am at the AT&T store, can I have the associate put a note on the seller's account that states the phone is being sold to me, while the seller is there in the store, and consents to this being put on his account? I would think that it would be impossible then to blacklist the phone, as its there.
I guess I am looking for the best way to protect myself from scam, without having to buy a retail phone at full price. Although, honestly my gut feeling is, is that most folks will not scam you... but, I could just see me being one of those unlucky few with a $300 paperweight!

You'd have to ask AT&T unless someone has that experience. Sorry.

We decided that we are going with new Nexus 4 (16gb) phones instead. This way, we can also use a T-Mobile SIM card if we decide AT&T service with Straight Talk isn't doing it for us. Better to have piece of mind!

why not a Xperia X8? haha

SIM unlock: iPhone vs. SG4 - and the winner is...

...iPhone by the 1000 miles.
Well, before the fan boys start throwing feces at me, here is the story.
I know that it is different hardware and OS and all that, but the problem is not in this.
The problem is the way Apple and Samsung approach the demands from the carriers to lock down their devices and how is the unlocking process handled.
So to SIM unlock the iPhone you call Sprint Customer Service (SCC) and after usual crap about 90 days they say, ok we submitted the request to unlock to Apple you should receive an e-mail shortly. In about 30 minutes the e-mail comes where it instructs you to backup-factory-reset-restore your iPhone. You do that, and that's it. It is unlocked for _ALL_ GSM carriers, foreign and domestic alike.
It is that simple.
Now to SIM unlock the SG4 you call SCC and after usual crap about 90 days you are told that your phone is unlocked, and it will magically work when you abroad but there is absolutely no way for you to see if it works with a foreign SIM while you are in the US. Moreover there is absolutely no way you can use it with any of the US GSM carriers. Most likely when you finally get abroad it will still not work.
Pain and disappointment.
So what happened here?
The answer is simple, Apple gives a middle finger to all carriers who ask it to give them control over the device. Have you seen any bloatware from Sprint, Verizon, ATT or TMO on the iPhone? No!
The Samsung, on the other hand, bands over backwards for carriers and it turns everything in to the theater of the absurd.
One would think: "...well if Sprint made Samsung to lock down the device in a certain way they must be able to ask Samsung to do the SIM unlock"; nop, no such luck, the SCC will tell you that Samsung has nothing to do with this and at Samsung they will tell you to go to your carrier.
Ok, fine, then apparently if this is the OS modification made by Sprint, one would try to reason: "...the SCC must have some internal tool to unlock the device and check that it is unlocked"; well this is also not the case.
What Sprint is obviously happy about is that they bravely disallowed you to use local GSM carriers.
So it is an interesting situation, actually Samsung and Sprint are equally to be blamed for our pain with SIM unlock and non will take a blame.
I'm pretty sure the ATT and TMO customers just laughing at us right about now the SG4 on their networks can be unlocked with a simple app from the market or even with some service menu.
There was a guy from SCC here, or so he claimed, it would be nice if he could comment on this, and given something more of an answer than just: "...well those are different devices and different OS". Who's really doing the unlocking? Is it Sprint is it Samsung? Why are there no tools to check this on the phone? Why the phone says "Invalid SIM" when it was "unlocked" while it should just refuse to connect to ATT and TMO while here in the US?
Well, I'm pretty sure those are the questions that we never get answers to...

Yea, I agree that it sucks the way things are right now and I wish it wasn't so. Hopefully, Samsung will continuebto be so successful that in the next round (S5), they too can give the middle finger to the carriers and end the unlocking lunacy.

Please explain to me how you got your iphone unlocked for domestic use. I got my old one unlocked by sprint did everything and still had to buy a rsim to use it in the states.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda premium

optimummind said:
Yea, I agree that it sucks the way things are right now and I wish it wasn't so. Hopefully, Samsung will continuebto be so successful that in the next round (S5), they too can give the middle finger to the carriers and end the unlocking lunacy.
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Yeah, I hope so too. For my Samsung Galaxy Discover (s730m) that I got because my Samsung Galaxy Q ( T589r ) has a cracked screen , I tried phoning Telus & Fido to get it unlocked..neither of them would do anything..if Samsung were to do this so that I could just ask Samsung, that'd be very great, and I'd be able to use my new phone. :/

I'll be nice so I won't call troll. TL;DR. If your intention was to run a phone on gsm, why would you buy a CDMA phone? As for bringing up the subject of why a iPhone is better in an android forum, what the hell are you doing here?! We don't care if you think iPhone is better! Go elsewhere and post to people that actually agree with your point of view. Sorry for being so blunt, I've had a few... Still, the few months I had an iPhone, before I had sprint buy it back because I hated the apple experience, I didn't go on apple forums and spout how android was so much better. I may have honestly shared my experience but I didn't do it in a way that rubbed smugness in other people's face. I'm sorry that I'm coming across like I'm flaming you but, in all reasonableness, this isn't the place to do it.

oscarthegrouch said:
I'll be nice so I won't call troll. TL;DR. If your intention was to run a phone on gsm, why would you buy a CDMA phone? As for bringing up the subject of why a iPhone is better in an android forum, what the hell are you doing here?! We don't care if you think iPhone is better! Go elsewhere and post to people that actually agree with your point of view. Sorry for being so blunt, I've had a few... Still, the few months I had an iPhone, before I had sprint buy it back because I hated the apple experience, I didn't go on apple forums and spout how android was so much better. I may have honestly shared my experience but I didn't do it in a way that rubbed smugness in other people's face. I'm sorry that I'm coming across like I'm flaming you but, in all reasonableness, this isn't the place to do it.
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Click to collapse
Prob because he has nothing better to do other than play angry birds on that lil 4 inch screen, isn't that all its capable of?
Sent from my SPH-L720 using xda premium

The title was intentionally provocative, because I'm really pissed with the way things going with sg4 sprint sim unlocking process. I'm not an iPhone user though, I have and use sg4, but I need to be able to use it on my trips overseas, this is why I bought it in the first place, because it is a world phone, or at least it is advertised as such. This was my attempt to analyze why this whole sim unlocking for sg4 is a outright failure.

obender said:
The title was intentionally provocative, because I'm really pissed with the way things going with sg4 sprint sim unlocking process. I'm not an iPhone user though, I have and use sg4, but I need to be able to use it on my trips overseas, this is why I bought it in the first place, because it is a world phone, or at least it is advertised as such. This was my attempt to analyze why this whole sim unlocking for sg4 is a outright failure.
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Click to collapse
Two things then...
If you need it for overseas trips then what's all the hoopla about? Just get it unlocked by Sprint. Yes, at the beginning they had issues with the unlock because it is a brand new process they've never used before (and yes, unfortunately very unprepared for). But now supposedly it's fixed so chill.
It is not true that Sprint's iPhone unlocking process makes it usable on US GSM carriers.
Anyway, I am not sure why you claim that "the iPhone beats the S4 by a 1000 miles". Sprint gives you a method to unlock both phones for international use so that you don't have pay their exorbitant intl roaming rates. That seems fair to me and I don't see what obligation they (or even Samsung) have towards you as a Sprint subscriber beyond that. If you want a device that will work on one of Sprint's domestic competitors, go buy an unlock phone, or one from one of those carriers.

myphone12345 said:
It is not true that Sprint's iPhone unlocking process makes it usable on US GSM carriers.
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You obviously don't know the subject that well, it is true, I've unlocked my wife's iPhone and it works roams to ATT and TMO now with a _foreign_ SIM inserted, but you right, what I care is the outside US use and this is still an issue unfortunately.

obender said:
You obviously don't know the subject that well, it is true, I've unlocked my wife's iPhone and it works roams to ATT and TMO now with a _foreign_ SIM inserted, but you right, what I care is the outside US use and this is still an issue unfortunately.
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I'm in the same boat.
When I get back to the states I will be perma-roaming 24/7 in order to get the service termination letter.

ehaalandtluk said:
I'm in the same boat.
When I get back to the states I will be perma-roaming 24/7 in order to get the service termination letter.
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Are you saying that u unlocked with sprint and traveled overseas to only find your are screwed and can't use your sg4?
That's why I upgraded to be able to use when go to home country. Might look into htc.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

galexandr said:
Are you saying that u unlocked with sprint and traveled overseas to only find your are screwed and can't use your sg4?
That's why I upgraded to be able to use when go to home country. Might look into htc.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2
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Yes, precisely.
Nah, I don't want to buy another HTC phone after what they did with the EVO 3D. Samsung has a great phone, I just don't like sprint at all.

[Q] Verizon Galaxy Note 3 - BAD ESN with T-Mobile

I purchased a Verizon Galaxy Note 3 from a guy off Craiglist and checked the ESN, it was clean then and I proceeded to use with T-Mobile. Everything was working fine, HSPA and such. But now, after waking up, the phone has not signal, so I went online to check to see if anything happened to the ESN, and noticed it now has changed from Good to Bad. I've tried to contact the guy but no response.
I tried to remove the sim and inserted it in a different phone and everything was fine.
Is there anyway I can still use the Verizon Galaxy Note 3 with T-Mobile even though the ESN is bad?
I've tried to change the APN settings (epc.tmobile.com) and even (fast.t-mobile.com) on the device but nothing is working for me. It keeps showing No Service - Selected Network (T-Mobile) not available.
The device model is SM-N900V, Android 4.3.
Please help !

Waw I did not think that happened . he called the phone lost stolen after he sold it . sorry this happened to you . did you call up Verizon to explain the situation ?, they are the ones that issued the lock on the ESN They might be able to help . please keep is posted

ttav9216 said:
I purchased a Verizon Galaxy Note 3 from a guy off Craiglist and checked the ESN, it was clean then and I proceeded to use with T-Mobile. Everything was working fine, HSPA and such. But now, after waking up, the phone has not signal, so I went online to check to see if anything happened to the ESN, and noticed it now has changed from Good to Bad. I've tried to contact the guy but no response.
I tried to remove the sim and inserted it in a different phone and everything was fine.
Is there anyway I can still use the Verizon Galaxy Note 3 with T-Mobile even though the ESN is bad?
I've tried to change the APN settings (epc.tmobile.com) and even (fast.t-mobile.com) on the device but nothing is working for me. It keeps showing No Service - Selected Network (T-Mobile) not available.
The device model is SM-N900V, Android 4.3.
Please help !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may also want to try to set your network settings to global rather than to lte. For some reason, if you have it set to global it uses a different radio and will work just fine on tmobile.

jmichaels1982 said:
Waw I did not think that happened . he called the phone lost stolen after he sold it . sorry this happened to you . did you call up Verizon to explain the situation ?, they are the ones that issued the lock on the ESN They might be able to help . please keep is posted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have called both T-Mobile and Verizon.
I called Verizon first to explain the situation and the representative transferred me to Tech Support, and then the Tech Support asked me for the ESN, which I gave him. He then told that indeed the ESN is bad, but he could not find the reason why. He recommended me to call T-Mobile.
I then called T-Mobile and told them about the situation. It's funny because for reasons T-Mobile found out that the reason ESN is bad is because, exactly what you said, the phone has been reported lost/stolen. The phone is now blocked from accessing any US carriers. The representative from T-Mobile told me that Verizon was the one who put the lock on it, so I would need to call Verizon to get the problem fixed.
I called Verizon again, and this time, I spoke with a really friendly representative, she listened to the whole situation, and tried to fix the problem for me. She even tried to look up the phone numbers that I used to contact the guy with. But unfortunately, none would work. I feel really bad because she tried all she could. The conversation went on for almost an hour.
Long story short, the phone is now locked from being able to use with any US carriers. I'm stuck with a very expensive brick. Both T-Mobile and Verizon could not do anything about my situation. Pretty frustrated now.
Learned my lesson, I will never buy any phones from anyone on Craiglist ever again !

Certain people will buy it for parts . dont give up on selling it . try swappa next time . they have PayPal protection . although anyone can do what just happened to you . to protect yourself against this in the future : put the phone under your account either by calling or in a verizon store . I believe that once the ESN is registered under your name they can't report it lost or stolen . popping the Sim in , I think , without calling just puts the phone on your account but doesent register the ESN . these are all.just speculations . I could be way off. There is a verizon rep on these forums . he is very friendly ... Look up his forum and ask away !

It's unfortunate. I had a friend who ran into the same thing about two months ago with a note 2 on verizon. Not to mention I had been scammed on an ATT phone. Unfortunately att phones they dont block the phone for a couple hours, so when I was purchasing the phone I was able to make a test call then I got blocked in the morning. This was few months after tmobile, att and verizon instituted that co-network nationwide ban.
I'm not sure if it would help, but next time it might be a good idea to do a transaction instore. Possibly having one of the employees transfer over the phone and issuing a new sim card, might deter the would be thief from doing an insurance claim. Since you would be able to prove that you did everything in store, hopefully with the aid/witness of the verizon rep that helped you.

You can use blacklsted note 3 on att and t-mobile. However, u need to add apn into the phone yourself in order to get data. I don't need you need to root it or not to change it. Go switch to GSM I think there people who able to get lte on T-mobile in band 4 , but i don't know how. I had a blacklisted note 3 currently running on ATT. Only get H+ .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2582747

I wonder what could be the motivation of a seller to report a phone stolen after selling it? Fraudulent insurance claim afterwards? Or maybe it was a stolen phone but the owner was out of town and was unaware of the theft? (Strange scenario.) Or maybe Verizon blacklists phones for non-payment on an account?
Sorry this happened to you, but I am sort of curious if you got a "too good to be true" deal off of CL... do you mind me asking how much you paid for a $700 phone?
Performing the sale right in a carrier's retail store with an immediate account transfer does seem to be a really good idea - if the seller gets cold feet about that, you'll know that things are not on the up and up.

A sure fix is replacing the motherboard with one from a shattered unit.
Check the IMEI number before purchasing.
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

raginmonkey said:
You may also want to try to set your network settings to global rather than to lte. For some reason, if you have it set to global it uses a different radio and will work just fine on tmobile.
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Click to collapse
Did OP try this?

That's very unfortunate. I've dealt many times over craigslist I'm fortunate that the phones I've bought were from good people.
I hope you get something out of it.

I trade phones alot, and thats why I swap sims wherever I meet someone.

brex91 said:
I trade phones alot, and thats why I swap sims wherever I meet someone.
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Can you elaborate?

xdadevnube said:
Can you elaborate?
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i mostly trade even up, went from a note 2 to a s4 to a note 3 and only spent money on gas to meet the person with the phone.
So when we both arrive I look at the phone for physical damage, then power both down, swap sims and power back up. If I get a signal it's activated. (on verizon at least)
(I think theres a limit to how many times you can do this in a certain period of time, but for me it's only every 6 months or so, so no problems)
And of course in my situation I'm doing trades locally off craigslist.

brex91 said:
i mostly trade even up, went from a note 2 to a s4 to a note 3 and only spent money on gas to meet the person with the phone.
So when we both arrive I look at the phone for physical damage, then power both down, swap sims and power back up. If I get a signal it's activated. (on verizon at least)
(I think theres a limit to how many times you can do this in a certain period of time, but for me it's only every 6 months or so, so no problems)
And of course in my situation I'm doing trades locally off craigslist.
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Click to collapse
I suppose after a trade you can call in your old phone lost/stolen if the other guy does it to your "new" phone. If you just buy a phone, then I can see what happened to the OP being much more likely.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk 2

xdadevnube said:
I suppose after a trade you can call in your old phone lost/stolen if the other guy does it to your "new" phone. If you just buy a phone, then I can see what happened to the OP being much more likely.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
possibly, but like i said, that's why I swap sims. After that the phone is activated on my account, they can't report it stolen. I make sure I have a signal before the trade is done.

brex91 said:
possibly, but like i said, that's why I swap sims. After that the phone is activated on my account, they can't report it stolen. I make sure I have a signal before the trade is done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now I'm confused. So in the case of the OP, he should have activated it with Verizon first (Verizon phone)?
He said it was working with T-Mobile, then it stopped working.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk 2

Never heard of a Verizon phone being blocked from the other carriers. I bought a bad esn Verizon note 3 for my girlfriend off eBay and she still using it on AT&T. Please update on the situation if you're able to use with AT&T
Sent from my SM-N900V using xda app-developers app

so OP, did anything work out for you?
This just happend to me too..
I lost my AT&T S4, and since i had over a year left on the contract i sought craigslist for a new phone.
I purchased a used Verizon s4 for $380 from a person claiming to be the original owner, he said he upgraded and was selling the current phone.
I put my AT&T sim in the phone and it was all good.. i had signal and tested it by making a call to the sellers phone.. I did other physical check to make sure no water damage etc.
I purchased the phone and switch the SIM back to my temp dumb phone. when i reach home i was googling APN settings for AT&T when i came accross a link that mentioned bad ESN, so just for the heck of it, i plugged in the ESN of the new phone and turns out it was reported Stolen!!
i am little scared to put in my SIM back into the phone... is it OK to put the SIM back? will it work? is there any other issues i may face?
Ofcourse i tried contacting the seller,, but as exected, he has not responded yet.
I checked ESN on checkesnfree.com, as well as the verizon site and they all report it as stolen.
I checked same ESN on tmobile site and used the ESN # as IMEI, and even tmobile site said it was stolen.
I did the same thing on Swappa.com and they were not able to determine ESN status..
on AT&T, if i go in as a new buyer, add SIM card to my cart, it asks me to enter device IMEI and it accepts it.. the AT&T rep told me that this was a good way to check if IMEI is clean or not.. so i am assuming IMEI is clean on AT&T, but for how long??
Sorry i know i am asking Too many questions.. but this has been so sudden and unexpected.. kind of feeling like a fish out of water!

If a phone is reported stolen, it will not work on T-Mobile or AT&T. If it is bad esn/imei for non payment, then it will only be blocked on Verizon.