Need help, someone sold me a junk iPhone 4s

[MWagner1085]

I bought an iPhone 4s for sprint off of Craigslist 3 days ago. Before I gave the guy the money I called sprint to make sure the esn was ok (not stolen or lost), came back it was clean. Go home to activate it, comes back as it is already activated. Try to get ahold of the kid and he is starting to throw B.S. excuses. Come to find out, the kid owes money and sprint closed his account and sent it to collections, which means that esn is "bad" until that balance is paid. Kid now knows he pulled a fast one on me and will not respond back (he ran with my 500 bucks). I went to sprint and they told me to resell it to someone other than sprint or Verizon. My problem is, can it be unlocked? How can I tell if its unlocked now or if its locked now? And someone please tell me that I can get some money back for it plllllease!! Without that balance being paid or a different esn is given to the phone I can never use it. Please help!

 

[jkhonea]

You're pretty much stuck now. To my knowledge, the phones still can't be unlocked, so that's not an option. And reselling it is going to put you in the same stead as they kid you bought it from. At this point, looks like you've learned an unfortunate expensive lesson.

 

[MWagner1085]

So when people say they "will buy your iPhone with bad ESN" they are only using it for parts or is there something they are doing that most of us do not know about? Also, i have been reading about how some sprint iPhones have come factory unlocked. Do i need a outside sim to check if this one is unlocked or is there another way to check?

 

[Mr.Mischief]

Check how much is owed on the account. It might be worth it to pay that.

 

[MWagner1085]

I was thinking that before the sprint rep told me that if i buy out my contract out, i can upgrade to a brand new phone at the upgrade price. Wish I knew that before I delt with this kid, could have saved 250 bucks. Ill look into it, but the way this kid took this money, he said he was desperate for money, could only imagine how much he owed if sprint cancelled his account.

 

[wingzfan61]

First, Sprint iPhones are unlocked as far as an international aspect goes. They wont work with any U.S. carriers. Second,people buy bad esn phones so they can go to companies who dont care about esn's like metro pcs. So your best bet is to put it on ebay and state once in the add that it has a bad esn with no returns. I say once because then youve stated the fact so when someone doesnt real the ad and buys a bad esn phone paypal and ebay wont make you return the sale. Third, Sprint will cancel your account for 20 bucks if it delinquent so its worth a shot asking how much it would take to buy it out.

One last thing, if you ever buy a phone off craigslist etc make sure you activate it fully on your account BEFORE handing any money over. clean esn does NOT mean the phone is able to be activated.

 

[Rocko]

Lesson learned. Next time buy phone in Sprint store and have rep pull up the account/phone info. Now you have no recourse.

 

[Kadonny]

You paid $ 500 for a used 4S? Can I ask why?

 

[Rocko]

You paid $ 500 for a used 4S? Can I ask why?

Did you read the whole post? You can deduct why from his current situation.

 

[MWagner1085]

I wanted to thank everyone for the incite. I paid that much because I lost my other phone, needed a phone but my upgrade was not until July and did not want to wait. When I called to buy out my account last night I explained to them what happened with this phone I bought, the rep put me on with a supervisor, and the best news someone in my shoes could get ever was that , even though this person has a balance and it has gone into collections, it is so far into the process that 80% of the time people let their accounts go to default. Then that means that the ESN will be cleared for that carrier and can be reused. Basically, he told me that in-between 1-30 days I will be able to activate this phone in my name if I want. Cant beat it, still think I will sell it to someone and make some money back while I buy a brand new one.