Database Users

Bad ESN, now what?

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
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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)
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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.
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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
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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

new g2 got stolen because of ups's stupidity

I called tmobile a week or so ago and explained my hinge issue. They blew me off so I called corporate. The csr their sent me a new g2. Two days ago ups dropped it infront of my door since I wasn't home. Fast forward to today; I called corp again to ask for a status or at least a tracking number. She told me that it was all ready delivered. And the notes indicate that the dumb ass ups agent just dropped it on my front door n left. She wont be able to send me a new g2 again till some investigation is complete. She mentioned that they will track the serial number of the phone and imei number. If one of my friends or family members have it I will have to pay full price for the device.
Is this true?!?! If some Jack ass I know stole my damn g2 I'm going to have to actually pay for it? What are my rights exactly? Can they really track a phone? If one of my neighbors stole it do I really have to pony up for it?
Thoughts?

first, this incident doesn't surprise me. UPS are worthless scumbags and i personally know many people that have had their **** stolen because of UPS's mess ups like this one. thats why i always have stuff shipped to my work address because there's always someone to take it and sign for it.
second, i don't know about what tmobile said. how would they know if the person that did steal it is your friend? family i can see how that may be possible to determine, but i highly doubt they'll be running background checks and social networking sites on the individual that stole your phone just for the sake of making sure he's not your buddy. i think they said that just to make sure you didn't claim a fake claim just to get another phone out of them, figuring that maybe you'd call later and say oh yeah my buddy picked it up and was holding it for me.

konoplya said:
first, this incident doesn't surprise me. UPS are worthless scumbags and i personally know many people that have had their **** stolen because of UPS's mess ups like this one. thats why i always have stuff shipped to my work address because there's always someone to take it and sign for it.
second, i don't know about what tmobile said. how would they know if the person that did steal it is your friend? family i can see how that may be possible to determine, but i highly doubt they'll be running background checks and social networking sites on the individual that stole your phone just for the sake of making sure he's not your buddy. i think they said that just to make sure you didn't claim a fake claim just to get another phone out of them, figuring that maybe you'd call later and say oh yeah my buddy picked it up and was holding it for me.
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damn... I should have shipped to my work address.
I hope ur right, a part of me wants to know who the bastard is so I can call the cops. But another part of me doesn't want to dish out the 500 dollars for that bit of info.
I figured they were trying to paint me against a wall. To my knowledge tmobile just can't go out and flip a switch that lets them know all the iemi and serial numbers of the phones on their network.

sheek360 said:
Is this true?!?! If some Jack ass I know stole my damn g2 I'm going to have to actually pay for it? What are my rights exactly? Can they really track a phone? If one of my neighbors stole it do I really have to pony up for it?
Thoughts?
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Seems logical. Probably a fraud prevention scheme. It was just a few weeks ago that some idiot suggested in a thread (in this subforum) that he could get two devices by lying to T-mo and claiming his package was never delivered. That's fraud of course, and the thread was locked.
If you think your neighbors or your family members may have taken the package in for you, you better check with them before reporting a missing package.
To my knowledge tmobile just can't go out and flip a switch that lets them know all the iemi and serial numbers of the phones on their network.
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Whenever a phone registers to a cellular network, it has to submit its IMEI and IMSI to the tower. Not only can any cellular carrier know which phones are active on its network at any given time, it can also identify the phone's location at the least to the accuracy of its cell tower density-- even more accurately if using time-delay or signal triangulation.

jashsu said:
Seems logical. Probably a fraud prevention scheme. It was just a few weeks ago that some idiot suggested in a thread (in this subforum) that he could get two devices by lying to T-mo and claiming his package was never delivered. That's fraud of course, and the thread was locked.
If you think your neighbors or your family members may have taken the package in for you, you better check with them before reporting a missing package.
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I spoke to all of them as soon as I hanged up with tmobile. They haven't seen ups nor were they holding my package for me.

I don't understand why you're liable for anything.
The way I understand it, you have a G2 with a loose hinge. You called TMO and they sent you a replacement G2 which was allegedly stolen from your front porch. Soooo you still have your old G2 and you can send that back to TMO to satisfy your $500 debt.
Of course, that leaves you without a phone. Unfortunately, TMO has nothing to do with this. The only recourse you have with UPS is diligently complaining until they give in, or seeing if there was any insurance purchased on the package. If UPS doesn't budge, you're most likely SOL and would have to find out who stole the phone.
Even easier than sending the package to your work is to make sure that whoever sends the package requires a signature on delivery. That way, you know someone in the house receives the package, or if no one's home, they'll leave a tag on your door and you can pick up the package at the distribution center in person.

I'd also like to point out that if UPS stopped dropping packages off and instead required signature for every package, everyone would ***** to high hell about having to be home all the time or having to go to the distribution center.

Ups will trace the package and will locate it. This happens more often than it should. Its often up to the driver if they get a signature or not. The driver will go out there and try to find it with their gps unit before tmobile will act on it. If it was coming from tmo it should be insured and they ought to send you another after its done if they can't find it.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Why haven't you made a police report? I mean, T-Mobile and UPS claim it was delivered. They don't seem to try to help you out. You don't have it. It's apparent someone is lying or someone is depriving you of your tangible property. Sounds like a theft. If the officer doesn't write it up as a theft, at the very least your generating a report. It should state you don't' have it and that you never gave permission for anyone to take it. You have been informed by both T-Mobile and UPS of it being delivered to your door step. Provide both phone numbers to the officer for the report, and also the IMEI number if T-Mobile is willing to give it to you. If not an investigator will be able to get it. It might never turn up and the investigator probably won't look to much into. He'll probably just enter a lost article into the system and attach the IMEI / serial number to it. You just need something for the insurance.
If the supervisors sees the officer turning in a report with all that information on it, it'll be hard for it not to be classified as a theft. The last thing it is lost property. It's not lost, its stolen.
If you do pay insurance on the phone, I can't see why it wouldn't be covered.

I had this same problem years back I was replacing a damaged dash and it was taken off my front porch...i have a ups driver who helped me out. He got me a copy of the record where no one signed for the package and i kept a copy of the sticky saying it was left on my porch....i sent them in to t-mobile and it took a few extra weeks but i did receive that dash i was replacing..

Thanks for the help guys. I called the cops. Since I didn't take delivery it still isn't my property. So they can't write me a report. Tmobile will have to dialled 911 on this one it seems.
Ups customer service was no help either. Supervisor said that it was left on the front door and its not their fault, its tmobiles for not asking for a signature with delivery.
By friday I will know what the end result will be, ill report then with their findings.

sheek360 said:
Ups customer service was no help either. Supervisor said that it was left on the front door and its not their fault, its tmobiles for not asking for a signature with delivery.
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I was actually pretty paranoid about this, so I asked T-mo if they could mark the package as signature required (preordered from corporate). I was surprised that the sales rep actually had to ask a manager if this was possible, only to say it is not possible and that if there were any problems I should call them. Pretty surprising that they have no qualms about letting a $500 package be delivered without signature confirmation.

My brother works for tmo and is getting phones sent to his house all the time. One time my phone broke so the new one was sent to his address because I'm under his employee plan. I went to his house to pick up the phone and there was a guy sitting in his truck in front of the house on the phone. When he saw me walk to my bros house he looked surprised and asked me if joshua lived there. I don't know anyone by that name so I told him and he left. 10 minutes later ups shows up.
Now this would be a coinsidense but the next time I had a phone sent to my brothers house I got there and the same truck was there but as soon as the guy saw me he hung up the phone and took off. Sure enough ups arrived within 15 minutes. It seems some ups drivers will tell there buddies when a phone is being delivered (as the boxes say tmobile or htc on them) so that as soon as they delivered them to the house (which their trucks are tracked by gps so they HAVE to go to the location) their buddy grabs the box and leaves.
The driver gets to say it was delivered and then the problem lies with the person who ordered the phone. Shady stuff man.
Lesson learned always be there when a phone is being shipped.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

phantasybm said:
Now this would be a coinsidense but the next time I had a phone sent to my brothers house I got there and the same truck was there but as soon as the guy saw me he hung up the phone and took off. Sure enough ups arrived within 15 minutes. It seems some ups drivers will tell there buddies when a phone is being delivered (as the boxes say tmobile or htc on them) so that as soon as they delivered them to the house (which their trucks are tracked by gps so they HAVE to go to the location) their buddy grabs the box and leaves.
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Place an order for some gel cases and put some hidden cameras out in front and around your house. Could be fun.

I also like to have stuff delivered to work because I know it will be safe. however, t-mobile said they could only ship it to my home address. when I saw the UPS truck outside, I went out to meet the guy, and he actually asked me for ID. he said, this is a phone so I wanna make sure the right person gets it. I was thankful that he was being conscientious about it. too bad they don't all make that effort.

That sucks. I feel for you.
I recently added my mother to my account and we got her a free, plain jane flip phone. When we ordered it, it said that someone would need to sign for it. Of course my wife and I work so they left the sticky note and I picked it up at the distribution center. When I got the pre ordered, not even released yet, top of the line G2, they just left it on the porch. I don't know, seemed backwards to me.

Damn, sorry man. That really isn't cool. I recently had USPS "lose" my G2 while trying to have it returned. Still haven't heard anything about where it is. Looks like I'll have to file a claim which a lot of people here say USPS claims can take months. I had $500 in insurance, but it's still a pain in the ass. Now I'm not only weary of USPS, but T-Mobile and UPS. T-Mobile would NOT let me return the phone at a store since I pre-ordered. I will never pre-order anything from T-Mobile again.

funkeee said:
The driver will go out there and try to find it with their gps unit before tmobile will act on it.
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lol what?
stupid 10 char limit

aedv said:
I'd also like to point out that if UPS stopped dropping packages off and instead required signature for every package, everyone would ***** to high hell about having to be home all the time or having to go to the distribution center.
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FYI the shipper decides if signature confirmation is required (and if so, they pay extra.) Your only recourse is if a signature was required, but they dropped it off anyway. If so, UPS has to prove who signed for the package.
T-Mobile always flags *MY* packages as signature required. I don't see how this wouldn't be a company-wide policy.

To answer the question of how they know if your friends have it, when I worked as a csr I saw a few cases like that. Every phone shipped they have the imei for, if it activates on the system they know the phone number it activated on. If the number that activated it is in your call records the conclusion is that you know the person that has it. That kind of fraud came to my attention once or twice a month so pretty regularly. It sucks that a few dishonest people muck up what should be a simple process.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Phone Stolen

Well turns out i was at a club last night. My Fascinate was stolen. We couldn't find the person as it was Halloween. Sucks right =\
Here's a twist to he story though. I call up verizonwireless. They say they cant do much but suspend it. The guy claims i have no insurance on the phone. So im thinking wtf? I've always had insurance on my smart phones. Turns out when i got the fascinate the rep canceled my insurance without asking. So now its 4 am and party bus is ready to depart from Atlantic City. My chance to find the phone or get a new one is gone.
6am came home slept and its 10:20am now. I call up verizon and get a nice rep. I explain to him what happened and he connects with me saying its happened to him before and puts the insurance back on and fixes it and sends me a new phone with a $89 deductible. Well atleast ill get another phone :|
Something i learned. Turns out if you lose your phone or its stolen, verizon can disable it completely. Even wifi wont work and if the person trys to activate it through verizon or sells and someone else does that. Verizon takes the phone and notifies me.
good side is i had most my stuff saved on my laptop. Only a few pictures of random girls who wanted to be in my phone i lost ;D
All in all. It sucks, my first stolen phone.

Sucks that you lost your phone. It's a good example on why you need a program like Lookout which can help track your phone so you can get it back. Lookout also has a feature to make the phone "scream" which could have been interesting for the thief. lol
Verizon is wrong about one thing though. WiFi will still work. Nothing they can do about that. Also, while it is blacklisted with Verizon now it can be ported to another provider like Cricket.
The positive here is that you got a good rep to get another phone for you.

yep, they cant disable wifi and its only disabled on vzn's network. it will end up on CL or ebay as a "bad esn phone" in the next couple of days.

Funny update:
So i get a phone call from the club's security. They found the person who stole my phone passed out with phone next to him but contacted me today. (My phone has a giant android sticker on the case)

ilestdevil said:
Funny update:
So i get a phone call from the club's security. They found the person who stole my phone passed out with phone next to him but contacted me today. (My phone has a giant android sticker on the case)
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Solid twist of events!
Now here's the real question, how wasted at the club were you to lose your Fascinate? I mean we all party, but a $500 retail phone? Must have been wicked drunk!
Cheers on a being able to get it back, must be someone(thing) was looking out for you. What a great Halloween present!

Lol. Now make sure you get mobile defense or something similar on there...
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

If you have Asurion insurance through VZW, you can get and use a free solution they have setup for people that have insurance. https://www.mymobilerecovery.com

Further reinforces Homer's statement.
"To Alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all of life's problems."
Your solution was the thief over consuming. Now that's funny. Glad you got it back!
good day.

ATT just shut down my phone, claiming it was reported stolen (internationally!)

No service, I can't even dial 611. They are not saying it went lost/stolen, they are saying the imei is on some internationally reported list of stolen devices, I suppose straight from the factory; and that seems quite unlikely. I know they have had great difficulty accurately tagging N-7000's correctly in their database, so Im guessing that is the issue at hand. That being said, it is proving quite painful; to convince Att of their own stupidity/ignorance in this matter.
Att says my imei (ending in 40000, which seems generic) was reported stolen months back and during a routine sweep they flagged me and shut me down. After hours of speaking with manager's managers, I finally convinced them I had an original bill of sale from Handcent (note to self, always make sure you go with the big brand name retailer, in case these matters turn up, I emailed Handcent at 7pm est and they got back to me, fully ready to help me by 9pm est, which is 2am in London; that's good service! Handcent you have earned me as a customer for life.
The Att rep said they'd somehow white-list my imei so this never recurs but it would take a few days.Anyone else have this come up? Any good solutions in case Att craps out on me, which I estimate at 50/50 currently? I'm currently back on my hd7 until this ugly matter corrects itself.
Jason

jason370 said:
No service, I can't even dial 611. They are not saying it went lost/stolen, they are saying the imei is on some internationally reported list of stolen devices, I suppose straight from the factory; and that seems quite unlikely. I know they have had great difficulty accurately tagging N-7000's correctly in their database, so Im guessing that is the issue at hand. That being said, it is proving quite painful; to convince Att of their own stupidity/ignorance in this matter.
Att says my imei (ending in 40000, which seems generic) was reported stolen months back and during a routine sweep they flagged me and shut me down. After hours of speaking with manager's managers, I finally convinced them I had an original bill of sale from Handcent (note to self, always make sure you go with the big brand name retailer, in case these matters turn up, I emailed Handcent at 7pm est and they got back to me, fully ready to help me by 9pm est, which is 2am in London; that's good service! Handcent you have earned me as a customer for life.
The Att rep said they'd somehow white-list my imei so this never recurs but it would take a few days.Anyone else have this come up? Any good solutions in case Att craps out on me, which I estimate at 50/50 currently? I'm currently back on my hd7 until this ugly matter corrects itself.
Jason
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Should've backed up your EFS partition. Sounds like it got corrupted and your phone is now reporting Samsung's test IMEI.
That IMEI has been blocked in most countries for many months. I'm surprised it took AT&T this long.

Join the club. just make sure that you're not using the same generic imei number that got you flagged otherwise when you're calling them and reporting the case then they cannot restore service to your phone
If they act as if your the bad guy and actually stole the phone, don't accept that behavior.
Tell them straight out listen, you paid 600 dollars for your international phone from an reputable company , that wasn't subsidized by the clown circus known as att.
You are paying these animals an arm and a leg every month for substandard service.
Don't lash out on them though. This is one scenario that you don't want them writing notes on your account not helping you.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

Mine is not the same issue but thought I'd mention anyway. Wednesday I went to make a call and I got a recording that I was blocked from making calls. I'm on straight talk. Never messed with efs folder and always keep backup. Called them, gave them my phone number and all was fine afterwards.
Don't know what the hell that was about.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

sprintuser1977 said:
Mine is not the same issue but thought I'd mention anyway. Wednesday I went to make a call and I got a recording that I was blocked from making calls. I'm on straight talk. Never messed with efs folder and always keep backup. Called them, gave them my phone number and all was fine afterwards.
Don't know what the hell that was about.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
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Att are run by scumbags.
Sometimes I feel we would get better treatment if we paid for service overseas in Asia and add an international plan for use in the US
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

This same thing happened to me. Yesterday (Sunday) I meet up with a friend who tells me that he's been trying to call me for the past hour. So I try to make an outgoing call, and I hear a message that the device has been blocked. I've had the same phone for 2 years.
So I call ATT and after a half hour of discussion, they unblock it (in the conversation, the agent asked if I had put my SIM card in an iPhone 3gs recently, because the system showed that I tried to use a reported-as-stolen 3gs. Of course I didn't, I said.) A couple test calls/SMS and I'm back online, plus they gave me a $25 statement credit. I asked theym if they know who/when/how it was reported as stolen, because I never did. They said they would investigate, and set up an alert to email me if my service was disconnected again.
Anyway fast forward to 9PM and I realize that I've been blocked again. No e-mail alert. I call ATT again, explain it all again, and they unblock me again, and give me another $25 statement credit. Ok, I thought.. Annoying but whatever.
11PM. No service yet again!! At this time I'm super frustrated, wanting to go to sleep, but worried about missed calls and whatnot (when they disconnect it like this, it doesn't even go to voicemail, and all SMS sent to you are lost forever). So I call again and ask directly to speak to a manager/floor supervisor.
She explains to me that the phone has been blacklisted as a stolen device, and that they are investigating and should come to a conclusion in 24 hours. I ask what I'm supposed to do in the meantime. She says that she can reactivate it, but it will get automatically blocked again, so unless I have another device, she can't do much for me.
Really, ATT? 7 years with these clowns and they come up with this garbage now... 2 years with this phone, no SIM card change, no hardware change ever, and they decide that it was all of a sudden reported stolen, but they can't come up with an explanation as of how.

wilson735 said:
This same thing happened to me. Yesterday (Sunday) I meet up with a friend who tells me that he's been trying to call me for the past hour. So I try to make an outgoing call, and I hear a message that the device has been blocked. I've had the same phone for 2 years.
So I call ATT and after a half hour of discussion, they unblock it (in the conversation, the agent asked if I had put my SIM card in an iPhone 3gs recently, because the system showed that I tried to use a reported-as-stolen 3gs. Of course I didn't, I said.) A couple test calls/SMS and I'm back online, plus they gave me a $25 statement credit. I asked theym if they know who/when/how it was reported as stolen, because I never did. They said they would investigate, and set up an alert to email me if my service was disconnected again.
Anyway fast forward to 9PM and I realize that I've been blocked again. No e-mail alert. I call ATT again, explain it all again, and they unblock me again, and give me another $25 statement credit. Ok, I thought.. Annoying but whatever.
11PM. No service yet again!! At this time I'm super frustrated, wanting to go to sleep, but worried about missed calls and whatnot (when they disconnect it like this, it doesn't even go to voicemail, and all SMS sent to you are lost forever). So I call again and ask directly to speak to a manager/floor supervisor.
She explains to me that the phone has been blacklisted as a stolen device, and that they are investigating and should come to a conclusion in 24 hours. I ask what I'm supposed to do in the meantime. She says that she can reactivate it, but it will get automatically blocked again, so unless I have another device, she can't do much for me.
Really, ATT? 7 years with these clowns and they come up with this garbage now... 2 years with this phone, no SIM card change, no hardware change ever, and they decide that it was all of a sudden reported stolen, but they can't come up with an explanation as of how.
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Check your IMEI to see if you have EFS corruption. If your EFS is corrupt and your phone is reporting the generic/default IMEI, AT&T will block you.

When I first bought my Note, I didn't know there were two different models because I didn't get on XDA right away and all. So, I bought it and went to ATT and they typed the IMEI number in and could NOT get it to activate. They were very confused and said its weird because the boot logo looks different. Finally, he said that I should contact Samsung and see if they would flash a new firmware to it. Wow, crazy. He went ahead and activated my account for LTE (because of the ATT Note).
So, when I got home I started researching everything and found out about the two models. I messed around and got it working and it has been working great ever since with no problems from ATT.

jason370 said:
No service, I can't even dial 611. They are not saying it went lost/stolen, they are saying the imei is on some internationally reported list of stolen devices, I suppose straight from the factory; and that seems quite unlikely. I know they have had great difficulty accurately tagging N-7000's correctly in their database, so Im guessing that is the issue at hand. That being said, it is proving quite painful; to convince Att of their own stupidity/ignorance in this matter.
Att says my imei (ending in 40000, which seems generic) was reported stolen months back and during a routine sweep they flagged me and shut me down. After hours of speaking with manager's managers, I finally convinced them I had an original bill of sale from Handcent (note to self, always make sure you go with the big brand name retailer, in case these matters turn up, I emailed Handcent at 7pm est and they got back to me, fully ready to help me by 9pm est, which is 2am in London; that's good service! Handcent you have earned me as a customer for life.
The Att rep said they'd somehow white-list my imei so this never recurs but it would take a few days.Anyone else have this come up? Any good solutions in case Att craps out on me, which I estimate at 50/50 currently? I'm currently back on my hd7 until this ugly matter corrects itself.
Jason
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Click to collapse
Same exact thing happened to me. I have been using a generic imei since the Note came out to get around att blocking it when they saw it as a tablet. I have been using it for 18 months no problem then 2 weeks ago I get it blocked. I go in and they say it was reported stolen, which was incorrect and they unblock it. Yesterday I get blocked again , go back in and they fix it. Blocked again this morning. I call in and they say the Imei is blocked( exact words were stolen). Revert back to original IMEI and all is good.

Same here
Got suspended yesterday without any notification. Had a chat with the support to re-activate my account. Roll back to my original EFS folder and seems to be fine for the moment.

Simcard stopped working - no network (weirdest problem ever)

Out of the blue (I did nothing to the phone) I lost my network connection - no calls, no internet.
My phone is unlocked. I've been using it for months without problem.
The phone is originally from Videotron but I unlocked it and been using it with Bell for months.
Now the weirdest thing: If I put my simcard in other people's phones, it works. If I put other people's simcards in my phone, they also work, but only as long as they're not from Bell. Somehow, Bell simcards don't work on my phone anymore, for no apparent reason.
I went twice to the Bell store, bought a new simcard and no progress. I get the message: Unregistered SIM.
I've never heard this happening to anyone before.

..

That's the thing. I bought the phone a few months ago from someone. But he gave me receipts and everything. He had the phone on videotron. Of course my first thought was that something fishy is going on and that it got blocked. So I asked Bell to check the imei and they said it was clean. Also if it was blacklisted on Bell, it would be across all providers in US/Canada and other people's simcards wouldn't work.
Bell said there's not much they can do. They said that since I didn't buy the unlock code from the original manufacturer (Videotron), it's like I hacked the phone (isn't it the same unlock code though?) so they said that can cause glitches.
I honestly have no idea if that's the case but I have no other explanations, so maybe they are right.
However I had so many phones in the past and unlocked them on the internet and NEVER had a problem. What's also pretty weird is that the phone worked for like 3 months without any issues. And yesterday when it stopped working, I was sleeping, I didn't flash any roms or update the software (it was already the latest version) so I have no clue what could have triggered all this.
Today I tried rooting/unrooting the phone, installing different roms and then going back to the latest version of the stock rom and nothing helped.

..

I'm not sure if you misread what I wrote but the phone is clean. It's not blacklisted etc.

Sometimes it can take ages for the list to be updated (blocked imei numbers)
but if it just happen like u say then its been blocked or network blocked
have a look here or other sites
http://www.imei.info/

..

Wow guys you were right....
The phone is now on Canadian national blacklist and it doesn't work with any other simcard anymore. I guess it took some time for it to go through the system.
I can't believe I got scammed. I was super careful. I verified everything before buying. The transaction was obviously in cash. But it took place in his own apartment and I had a friend with me.
When I bought the phone, I took his entire bill in PDF format. This includes his address, his account number, his full name, all of the numbers who he messaged or called. I went twice to his apartment today but he wasn't there. I talked to the neighbors and gained a lot of info on this guy. Printed his picture from Facebook as well.
I called his company, Videotron, to report his fraud, but they didn't seem interested. They said I can either contact this guy or go to police. I insisted on talking to their security or legal department and they said they're closed today (Sunday). I will call them again tomorrow. I'm pretty sure he reported it stolen and then claimed insurance to get a replacement for $150.
This stuff should get him in big trouble, right?
I found a similar story in the news and it happened in the suburb of the my city, Montreal.
http://westislandgazette.com/news/s...-down-kijiji-scammer-to-his-west-island-home/
I hope I have a chance to get my money back or my phone unblocked.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

He's not going to get in trouble, and your going to be out of money. Tough lesson to learn.

..

How do I sue this guy? I've been at his place 3 times yesterday and for a few hours today since 7 a.m. Still waiting. He won't answer his door. How will he be served with a court notice if he's hiding from people? I will spend the time that's needed to bring him to justice. Not even a matter of money for me.

Got the phone unblocked! Have an appointment with a court clert to go over my lawsuit on Wednesday. Did lots of digging. The guy got all of his lines and services blocked. 20 people with blocked phones are looking for him. I have a suspicion he's involved with credit card fraud.
Sent from my SM-G900W8 using XDA Free mobile app

olegplanets said:
Got the phone unblocked! Have an appointment with a court clert to go over my lawsuit on Wednesday. Did lots of digging. The guy got all of his lines and services blocked. 20 people with blocked phones are looking for him. I have a suspicion he's involved with credit card fraud.
Sent from my SM-G900W8 using XDA Free mobile app
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sounds like a lie to me.

I wanted to give an update to people who tried to help me before the situation is fully resolved and I can release all the details. If you're gonna imply that I'm lying it's better to delete this whole thread altogether.
Sent from my SM-G900W8 using XDA Free mobile app

I don't know if anyone cares at this point but it was a big ordeal for me so I feel like it needs to come to it's conclusion. The phone is permanently unblocked because I was able to provide the phone company with the receipt of the purchase from the individual. I got a mail today and my court date is set for March 24. I sued him for $999