Database Users

Gumtree Scam..

Hi Guys Need you advice.
I bought new samsung galaxy s3 from Gumtree guy sold it for £350. It was advertised that its unlocked on all networks. When I bought it of him it was working on Vodaphone. I rang orange to get microsim which arrived 3 days ago. I waited for text message for new sim but no message arrived after 24 hours so i rang orange asked why sim isnt active. Orange asked me for phone IMEI number which i provided found out that phone is blacklisted.
when i bought the phone guy said that he has reciept upon receiving the phone he said its at home but will give it tomorrow. So i took his pictures on Galaxy S2, made him sign the agreement and recorded him. I also took picture of gumtree ad and have his IMEI number. I rang the guy yesterday after orange telling me its blacklisted to say why did you sell me lost/stolen phone he said he will speak to vodaphone and see they can unblock it (strange). He rang after couple of minutes later said phone wont work on orange network only on vodaphone and offered me refund straightaway. At this point all i wanted was money back and then report him.
I got the refund now but asked him why he tried selling contract lost phone to me. He said he had previous phone stolen so they sent him new phone which he sold to me at point of sale he did not say he has on contract. I think he tried to scam me but i had all the proof to proof he sold me lost phone which he tried to do insurance scam.
I rang Vodafone to tell them what happened girl said all they can do is blacklist the phone (call center i rang was in Egypt) noting she can do. So i rang sales team who put me through to Customer services in uk i told them the same story but he said call in the morning system is playing up.
I have now bought sim free from carphonewarehouse today for £495
What do u guys suggest about this should i report him again and leave him to scam others (which i do not want) i dont want to go through hassell if its too much.
What would you guys do in this situation,.
Sorry about grammar and English

First of all I would report him to Gumtree to stop him from scamming anyone else on there.
Sent from my SGS3 on Omega v9.0 using XDA Premium

Secondly if you can find the network that blocked the phone it might be worth asking them your options if any to remove block.
Seller has commited fraud unless you where informed phone was blocked.
jje
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

He said he had previous phone stolen so they sent him new phone which he sold to me at point of sale he did not say he has on contract.
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Thats bollocks.
The device IMEI is unique across all devices, including replacements for stolen devices. So if it is blacklisted, that (usually) means it got stolen and has been blocked due to a police-report by the victim.

Punch line: avoid gumtree. I had a similar situation in the past.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

fbloise said:
Punch line: avoid gumtree. I had a similar situation in the past.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
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Could you post details of where you met up or what he looks like? I just had my S3 stolen yesterday and I think I may have a rough idea of several people it could have been who pick pocketed me. It's gutting, but I just want to get to the bottom of it now.
I'm going to have the IMEI blacklisted tomorrow, but ideally I wish I could just get the phone back. I'd even have been happy to buy it back off him but whoever took it has turned it off and I'm stuffed.
Any help would be much appreciated.

The guy offered you a refund and apologies to you. Then he gave you the money and sort the problem! I think its an honest mistake which could happen to anyone (but the phone working on Vodafone does not seems to be blacklisted, otherwise it would not work on vodafone as well.) Just avoid buying these kind of things of gumtree in the future, or ask for a prof of purchase

cyrexking said:
The guy offered you a refund and apologies to you. Then he gave you the money and sort the problem! I think its an honest mistake which could happen to anyone (but the phone working on Vodafone does not seems to be blacklisted, otherwise it would not work on vodafone as well.) Just avoid buying these kind of things of gumtree in the future, or ask for a prof of purchase
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Totally agree, guy would not refund money if it was stolen..
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

Totally agree, guy would not refund money if it was stolen.
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Let's theorize that it was stolen. Two scenarios are possible:
a) he didn't know it was stolen and bought it from someone else too
b) he knew it was stolen but didn't want OP to go to the police so he just refunded the money. OP stated he had his voice and picture on record, so he might have panicked when he was confronted with the fact that the buyer knew it was stolen.

Yeah I have my doubts too of Gumtree... However I did buy this new One X there for a little cheaper than the shops, but it was a sealed one... I don't buy opened phones...
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Even if it was a scam, the intended victim wasn't you, or he wouldn't have refunded the money.
The victim in the this case is probably Vodafone or a third-party insurance company, and if they don't care enough to do anything about it... well then they have no one to blame but themselves.
He wouldn't have let you see his face if he was going to scam you: even someone who doesn't understand what blacklisting is, would just assume the phone was defective and attempt to get a refund anyway.

When I buy a phone off Gumtree, I test everything before I hand over any money. I always do a IMEI check as well to make sure it is not blacklisted and I find out who's name the phone is registered in. These are the steps everyone should make when buying a pre owned phone.
Sent from my SGS3 on Omega v9.0 using XDA Premium

I agree with others, if he wasintending to scam you, you would never got a refund that's how scammers work. I believe it was either an honest mistake or an insurance scam, not an intention to scam you.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

He clearly tried to scam me but I took his picture, got him recorded, voice recording of him talking to me about the phone. He only refunded me because I had evidence that he sold me the phone.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

I'm surprised by how many S3's are for sale on Gumtree, many state that they are sealed in the box ?
is there another scam or something that they maybe selling stolen from shops warehouses etc that would allow this ?
ie they may work for a while but then are blacklisted and become useless ?

Peeely said:
I'm surprised by how many S3's are for sale on Gumtree, many state that they are sealed in the box ?
is there another scam or something that they maybe selling stolen from shops warehouses etc that would allow this ?
ie they may work for a while but then are blacklisted and become useless ?
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First post in a dead thread ?????WHY ???
jje

Gumtree is fine but you need to do the deal "in prerson" so you can test devices out first etc.

JJEgan said:
First post in a dead thread ?????WHY ???
jje
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Sorry ...........................is there a law against that ? :crying:
I just found the topic when doing a search on Galaxy S3 ads on Gumtree as I am in the process of trying to purchase one and they seem to be a lot cheaper on there than say Ebay, and thought that you guys might have the answers to why ?

JJEgan said:
First post in a dead thread ?????WHY ???
jje
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There's nothing wrong with that.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

Peeely said:
Sorry ...........................is there a law against that ? :crying:
I just found the topic when doing a search on Galaxy S3 ads on Gumtree as I am in the process of trying to purchase one and they seem to be a lot cheaper on there than say Ebay, and thought that you guys might have the answers to why ?
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I would agree with the other person, do the deal in person Then you can test the phone before you buy it.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

Galaxy S3 GT-i9300 International - Has No Warranty In The US!!!

This item doesn't have any kind of warranty. I bought it just 4 months ago and it just died for no apparent reason. I contacted the seller an said it didn't have warranty, I filed a claim with Amazon just to receive that it has been over 30 days of purchase so it doesn't apply. I contacted Samsung USA, Samsung UK and Samsung Mexico just to be said that the item was bought in the US so it isn't covered by UK or Mexico and Samsung US said that as it was an international version not sold in the US it wasn't supported either! I just lost my $700 usd I spent in this item!!!! DO NOT BUY!!! Samsung Galaxy S3 has been having lots of hardware problems, to fix mine will cost $500 usd to replace the motherboard not worth it!!! WARNING!!!
Anyone knows where I can buy the motherboard and how to change it myself?

femmecullen said:
This item doesn't have any kind of warranty. I bought it just 4 months ago and it just died for no apparent reason. I contacted the seller an said it didn't have warranty, I filed a claim with Amazon just to receive that it has been over 30 days of purchase so it doesn't apply. I contacted Samsung USA, Samsung UK and Samsung Mexico just to be said that the item was bought in the US so it isn't covered by UK or Mexico and Samsung US said that as it was an international version not sold in the US it wasn't supported either! I just lost my $700 usd I spent in this item!!!! DO NOT BUY!!! Samsung Galaxy S3 has been having lots of hardware problems, to fix mine will cost $500 usd to replace the motherboard not worth it!!! WARNING!!!§
Anyone knows where I can buy the motherboard and how to change it myself?
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Wait so you're in the US and bought the International version, and you're now mad about getting no warranty?

You should check with the seller on how to claim warranty before you buy any electronic product.
in this case, think you have no choice but bring it to any samsung service center nearby and pay for repair...

I think the only thing left for you now is to check if it's really dead or it's another issue before paying to repair ... I would replace the battery first maybe....
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

Maybe you are one of apple coworkers???
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

Stop calling him idiot! That is what you are thinking he somehow has black market phone. That is not the case. He is only misinformed. None of us in North America can claim warranty in here for I9300 model. The only way to claim it is to ship it in Europe and have someone else claim warranty in Europe for us. That is what he can and should have done, now it is possible the phone is blacklisted if the north American samsung shares data with the rest of the world.
It does not matter if the phone is sold by amazon or local shop or whatever. This model is always gonna be considered grey market phone in North America, meaning its legal to sell but it's frowned upon here and of course warranty can not be claimed here.
There is also a simple fact, that samsung here just does not have parts for this phone since its never officially released here.
Then you have to consider shopping item to Europe and back and having someone you trust claim the warranty. Most often it is cheaper to buy the parts, import them and fix yourself or in local shop you trust.
Enjoying JKay Deluxe on GT-I9300

Title is misleading and untrue.
I still have warranty on my international SGS3 that I purchased in Australia.
Even if I purchased it from the US it would still be covered due to consumer protection laws here in Australia and the fact that Samsung also distributes here.
Your title should read...
Imported goods to the US usually ain't covered by local warranty. In many other countries they would be covered by Samsung. It's just the US has no or very weak consumer protection laws. It ain't Samsung's fault, it's yours for not understanding your rights and local law...

Seriously, why would you guys call him an idiot, the chap has just lost 700 us, and he opened the thread to share his experience and try and fix his issues, so I cannot see how he is being an idiot. Can you guys the ones who are not idiots offer him constructive advice rather than this name calling please.

Gotta love the *****ing on xda these days.. I remember when it was a helpful, civil place!
Did you buy on your credit card? Visa and Mastercard in the UK have protection that you would probably be able to claim on. Don't know if that's the case where you are?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

Sorry for your loss. And this is why I always recommend insurance. Saying that though, I would never buy something that wasn't released in my country that costs so much

krs360 said:
Gotta love the *****ing on xda these days.. I remember when it was a helpful, civil place!
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+1

Personally, I'd like to thank the OP.
He confirmed my stipulation that the total amount of intelligence on planet Earth is constant, while the population grows very rapidly.
What the hell forced you to buy something, what is not covered by your LOCAL warranty?
It seems that you have privately imported goods which are not officially sold in US by local distributor, and now you are asking for repair under the warranty.
If Samsung does not selling it there, their service centers will not have:
a) parts;
b) trained personnel
c) equipment (?)
to do a repair of the specific model in US.
I can assume that you can buy Russian vodka from a person who just arrived from Russia to States, and then call Russian Embassy next day that you have the hangover?
Just think before you're buying.

krs360 said:
Gotta love the *****ing on xda these days.. I remember when it was a helpful, civil place!
Did you buy on your credit card? Visa and Mastercard in the UK have protection that you would probably be able to claim on. Don't know if that's the case where you are?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
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Yeah, and I remember these forums being about development, not whining.

I bought mine from Newegg and they posted no manufacturer warranty but a 30 day warranty through them and available for purchase at same time a 3rd party year warranty...
I knew no manufacturer warranty from the start
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

Your silly for buying from a different country. I have 12 month warranty stop trying to mislead xda members
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

OP could change the title so it doesn't cause anymore uproar. Those calling him an idiot, chill out.. OP needs to do a little more research next time but that does not warrant anyone to jump on him and start calling him names.
But as far as North American sales.. I thought warranty was covered through distributer or whatever, i.e. eXpansys USA or Negri Electronics?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Did he really pay 700 dollars?
Heck you could get the Note 2 and some change for that.

Silenus21 said:
Did he really pay 700 dollars?
Heck you could get the Note 2 and some change for that.
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I'm sure, a lot of us who bought at launch or pre-ordered did. Mine cost $694.00
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

I have the sane problem. Bought the phone thru Newegg and they left me in the cold. Look in your box and should give you contact as to where the phone came from. If not give thru Samsung international web site and go to the country that your phone has for country code. You can find out by using Samware web site comparing the firmware as to what country it was set for. I had problem with earphone jack and took 4 months of back and forth threw the mail and going threw importer in Miami
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

These aren't black market phones, but those of us who want international phones have to buy from third parties or purchase them abroad. Otherwise, you're stuck with a network-locked phone.
Since Samsung doesn't sell the i9300 in the US, you have to do a little research to find out the phone's country of origin. I bought mine from newegg and it came with a Brazilian CSC but I eventually confirmed with Samsung UK that it is covered by 2 year warranty...as long as I ship it to the UK for service, of course (they recommended using a British address for a friend or relative to register it). And you can always get a SquareTrade warranty in the US or something similar to provide you with ADH coverage. This is what my wife did for her SGS3 which was bought from a third party on Amazon, though it appears that it's too late for the OP.

All n4 owners plz help me URGENT

I am about to buy a sealed n4 16gb from a guy who won it through a competition.How do I get warranty? as it was the company which sent him this phone as gift.Moreover on the box in description its written (US).does that means its us stock?.and I am in Australia.will my warranty be applicable here.
please help guys very urgent

As mine says UK on the box I'm guessing it is denoting the country of origin so it could be linked to warranty, you'd have to speak to Google to confirm

they are not telling anything.But the person says he received shipment from Sydney.What to do?

on thse sku: its written lg960.ausgbk....whats urs?

au stock here and mine is lge960.aaugbk

nd whats in description is there (US) written? on it

You could airways do a3rd party warranty via a company like squaretrade
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

stop worrying about the warranty. 95% of the time nothings going to happen to your phone in the first year. besides, I think warranties are usually international these days

vickpick said:
stop worrying about the warranty. 95% of the time nothings going to happen to your phone in the first year. besides, I think warranties are usually international these days
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No. N4 does not have international warranty. Only the Nexus 7 has that.

[Q] Samsung Galaxy Note3 BLOCKED!

this is my first thread on this website so i apologize if its in the wrong section...
Samsung galaxy note 3 which is on meteor network (Ireland) and it was also insured and the lad claimed insurance on it so its blocked now...
so i was wondering is there any way that it can be unblocked and used on a different carrier e.g. Three/vodafone/o2 (Ireland) ??
if there any way please let me know so i can buy it

It was claimed on insurance as..? Stolen? Lost?
In which case the IMEI has been blocked...
Send From My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005 Using Tapatalk

ShadowLea said:
It was claimed on insurance as..? Stolen? Lost?
In which case the IMEI has been blocked...
Send From My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005 Using Tapatalk
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He did not like the phone so he went back to the shop to return it but they would not take it back because there was nothing wrong with the phone so he claimed insurance on it...
he has the box and receipt for it...
so is there any way it can be unblocked?

hananster said:
He did not like the phone so he went back to the shop to return it but they would not take it back because there was nothing wrong with the phone so he claimed insurance on it...
he has the box and receipt for it...
so is there any way it can be unblocked?
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Probably nothing you can do because as far as anything official is concerned it's now a stolen phone especially if the carrier paid out an insurance claim or gave him a replacement phone. Trying to activate it on another carrier might even get you a visit from the police (for having 'stolen' property or for fraud). Probably the best course of action would be to just return the phone to the carrier saying that he 'found' it or that it was returned to him or something and call it a lesson learned...

It's Black listed and therefore it won't work anymore without doing some illegal stuff to it. Don't buy the phone unless you don't want to use it as a phone. .... Just a multimedia device.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

Well that's not good news. Gonna have to move on

looks like i gotta move on... thanks for all the help

hananster said:
looks like i gotta move on... thanks for all the help
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You should report the fraudster too!
It's people like him who are causing rising premiums on insurance - it is not a "victimless" crime!
Regards,
Dave
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

LG's Manufacturer Warranty Clarification

I posted the below in response to another thread but thought I might as well create a thread to get a more definitive answer on the issue of whether or not LG/Verizon/CarrierX will honor its manufactures warranty if you bought your phone 2nd-hand through Ebay/Craigslist/ect.
Here's my OP, did I just get lucky or is this really how the warranty program really works?
If I'm correct, I hope to dispel the misunderstanding many XDA'ers may have about their warranty and have the fully functional phone they deserve. But please correct me if I'm wrong.
topurdue said:
I didn't have a choice about taking it back to Verizon. I bought it off of CL and it was probably one the original owner had replaced. So, returning it isn't an option for everybody. I tried many things that didn't work also, but this app did and it's why I shared.
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incubus2 said:
I bought my Verizon g2 on swappa so I am in the same boat. I don't know what this magic app does but works for me. Thanks for sharing.
Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk
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I used to think the same thing but this is actually FALSE.
I bought my used G2 off of Ebay and was having problems with the speaker port. So I just brought the phone into Verizon, they confirmed the speaker port wasnt working, looked up my account (im sure they can see whether or not I bought it directly from them) and they had a new phone mailed out to me, no questions asked.
I believe its because the phone is still less than a year old which is covered under LG's manufacturers warranty program not Verizons. Therefore its LG's money, not Verizon's. Why wouldnt Verizon go through the trouble of keeping their customers happy when it doesnt even cost them anything.
Now it might be different once the G2 hits the one year mark. And maybe I just got lucky as I didn't volunteer any info about the Ebay purchase, cuz I was already getting what I wanted anyway. Either way, you have nothing to lose and a brand new G2 to gain if you at least try.
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My imported g2 d802, they wouldn't honour the warranty in the uk and couldn't tell me who to contact. Bought off eBay from someone who purchased it and didn't like it.
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk

I have no experience outside of Sprint, but with the way my replacement program works, I pay $11/month on my Sprint bill and no matter WHERE my phone came from, defects are fixed(or the phone is replaced) for free. 1-year manufacturer coverage doesn't matter.
If I didn't pay for Sprint insurance, I'd have to mail the phone to LG's warranty department, and I'd have to be within one year. I was told the exception to this is a "known issue", kind of like a manufacturer recall, where so many people have the same defect that Sprint will perform swaps on behalf of the manufacturer even if you don't have insurance. These are rare, I guess because the mfr has to put out a bulletin or something like that admitting the flaw.
Of course, the insurance also helps if I drop or lose the phone. Which is not manufacturer/warranty-related.
It sounds like you might be enrolled in VZ's insurance?
Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

When you buy phone that have suffix from your country you can make "purchase agreement" and it will be taken into account if you have everything.