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Bad ESN iPhone 4s on Metros BYOD?

S

Shady545

Member
Lets say I got my hands on a AT&T iphone that has a bad esn (no I didnt steal it) would I be able to use it with metros BYOD?

I did have a bad esn verizon DroidX that I connected on Metros network a while back. Thus the reason Im asking
 
Shady545 said:
Lets say I got my hands on a AT&T iphone that has a bad esn (no I didnt steal it) would I be able to use it with metros BYOD?

I did have a bad esn verizon DroidX that I connected on Metros network a while back. Thus the reason Im asking
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nope, already had 3 that failed activation
 
Im well aware of that. But that wasnt really my question. I've taken a blacklisted verizon DroidX to metro without a problem. There is a abundance of them on ebay for a considerably lesser price.

They also get blacklisted if you report them lost... (even if you find it later)
 
Shady545 said:
Im well aware of that. But that wasnt really my question. I've taken a blacklisted verizon DroidX to metro without a problem. There is a abundance of them on ebay for a considerably less price.

They also get blacklisted if you report them lost... (even if you find it later)
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That's because cdma flashing tends to involve changing meid numbers, which is illegal to do unless the donor and main phone are both clean.
 
I thought gsm phones didn't have ESNs but rather have IMEIs. I don't know if this helps, but I'm sure someone here will know if it does or doesn't but my niece bought an iPhone 5 that had a bad IMEI due to non payment. She was able to unlock the phone thru an unlocker service for $20. The service unlocks it in the system and sends you an email with instructions on how to finalize it thru itunes. The problem we had was that it wouldn't download the new firmware without a sim installed and the Metro store around here doesn't sell sims by themselves. So I had to locate someone with a Tmo nano sim to complete it. After it updated her phone she took it to Metro and it was all good. They even gave her a $50 rebate form. She's had service for about 2 weeks so so far so good.
 
anubispax said:
I thought gsm phones didn't have ESNs but rather have IMEIs. I don't know if this helps, but I'm sure someone here will know if it does or doesn't but my niece bought an iPhone 5 that had a bad IMEI due to non payment. She was able to unlock the phone thru an unlocker service for $20. The service unlocks it in the system and sends you an email with instructions on how to finalize it thru itunes. The problem we had was that it wouldn't download the new firmware without a sim installed and the Metro store around here doesn't sell sims by themselves. So I had to locate someone with a Tmo nano sim to complete it. After it updated her phone she took it to Metro and it was all good. They even gave her a $50 rebate form. She's had service for about 2 weeks so so far so good.
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Got be careful, because it sounds like there could have been two laws broken in that process. Unlocking the iPhone without AT&T's consent if the device was bought in 2013 (that would mean that it wasn't grandfathered under the update to the DCMA), and changing the IMEI number so that it wasn't black listed would be a second.
 
jhawkkw said:
Got be careful, because it sounds like there could have been two laws broken in that process. Unlocking the iPhone without AT&T's consent if the device was bought in 2013 (that would mean that it wasn't grandfathered under the update to the DCMA), and changing the IMEI number so that it wasn't black listed would be a second.
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The IMEI wasn't changed it was just unlocked and we don't have any idea when it was originally purchased. Also from what I was led to believe the phone was unlocked by ATT through some undisclosed method;) I don't condone bad behavior but my hatred for ATT outweighs that. And my niece wasn't the one who flaked out on the bill she originally bought it off a friend of hers to use as an iPod touch.
 
anubispax said:
The IMEI wasn't changed it was just unlocked and we don't have any idea when it was originally purchased. Also from what I was led to believe the phone was unlocked by ATT through some undisclosed method;) I don't condone bad behavior but my hatred for ATT outweighs that. And my niece wasn't the one who flaked out on the bill she originally bought it off a friend of hers to use as an iPod touch.
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A Sim unlocked phone that's on the blacklist still will be blocked by the carriers. It sounds more like the IMEI was cleaned if it didn't get changed.
 
jhawkkw said:
A Sim unlocked phone that's on the blacklist still will be blocked by the carriers. It sounds more like the IMEI was cleaned if it didn't get changed.
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Maybe I don't know. The phone never physically left her possession and the only time it was hooked up to a computer was thru itunes. Someone told me that they don't usually blacklist for nonpayment unless it was a new customer and the bill was never paid, not even once. Then it would be considered a "theft". I don't know if it was ever blacklisted I just know it was locked to deathstar.
 
anubispax said:
Maybe I don't know. The phone never physically left her possession and the only time it was hooked up to a computer was thru itunes. Someone told me that they don't usually blacklist for nonpayment unless it was a new customer and the bill was never paid, not even once. Then it would be considered a "theft". I don't know if it was ever blacklisted I just know it was locked to deathstar.
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It's entirely possible that it wasn't. Generally non-payment blacklisting takes some time, missing one payment would not likely lead to blacklisting. If that wasn't blacklisted, and the phone was bought in 2012, then you're good to go with no issues. :)
 
jhawkkw said:
Got be careful, because it sounds like there could have been two laws broken in that process. Unlocking the iPhone without AT&T's consent if the device was bought in 2013 (that would mean that it wasn't grandfathered under the update to the DCMA), and changing the IMEI number so that it wasn't black listed would be a second.
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technically, after january 26th of 2013, see I listen when you post stuff lol
 
jhawkkw said:
A Sim unlocked phone that's on the blacklist still will be blocked by the carriers. It sounds more like the IMEI was cleaned if it didn't get changed.
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I know we aren't supposed to talk about it, but how would one determine whether or not, or the ability to identify if an IMEI was cleaned?
 
the hulk said:
I know we aren't supposed to talk about it, but how would one determine whether or not, or the ability to identify if an IMEI was cleaned?
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I'm not actually sure, lol. I would imagine the only way would be if the list has a log with dates of when IMEI's or ESN/MEID's get put on/off the list. However, I don't have access to the list to find out or not.
 
jhawkkw said:
I'm not actually sure, lol. I would imagine the only way would be if the list has a log with dates of when IMEI's or ESN/MEID's get put on/off the list. However, I don't have access to the list to find out or not.
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I'm relatively sure if you have access to a list like that, you would probably have more money then you know what to do with lol
 
the hulk said:
I'm relatively sure if you have access to a list like that, you would probably have more money then you know what to do with lol
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I have a strong feeling though that the iphone mentioned earlier wasn't blacklisted after all though.
 
from my understanding imei's dont get cleaned etc, they just never are blacklisted. att and tmobile switched to the global ban list something im sure is far out of both of their hands to go in and say oops we messed up.
 
Shabbypenguin said:
from my understanding imei's dont get cleaned etc, they just never are blacklisted. att and tmobile switched to the global ban list something im sure is far out of both of their hands to go in and say oops we messed up.
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but there are people out there claiming they are able to clean IMEI's on devices, so how they're doing that is something I wouldn't wanna get myself into.
 
One of my employees bought a used iPhone on ebay. The seller had listed it as "bad IMEI" but he bought it anyway because he was just planning to strip it for parts. The phone ended up in a drawer though, and he never disassembled it.

Last week, he called T-Mobile customer service and told them about the phone he'd bought on ebay. He mentioned being a loyal T-Mobile customer for many years and asked whether the IMEI is blocked only in the U.S. and unblocked in Europe (he's from Greece). The rep placed him on hold to wait for a supervisor. A supervisor never did come on the line but, about 20 minutes later, the rep came back on and said to wait a half-hour, then insert his SIM card. Lo and behold, the phone works perfectly! It wasn't his intention to put the phone into service but it goes to show that the carriers can do many things when they're willing to.
 
for2njr said:
One of my employees bought a used iPhone on ebay. The seller had listed it as "bad IMEI" but he bought it anyway because he was just planning to strip it for parts. The phone ended up in a drawer though, and he never disassembled it.

Last week, he called T-Mobile customer service and told them about the phone he'd bought on ebay. He mentioned being a loyal T-Mobile customer for many years and asked whether the IMEI is blocked only in the U.S. and unblocked in Europe (he's from Greece). The rep placed him on hold to wait for a supervisor. A supervisor never did come on the line but, about 20 minutes later, the rep came back on and said to wait a half-hour, then insert his SIM card. Lo and behold, the phone works perfectly! It wasn't his intention to put the phone into service but it goes to show that the carriers can do many things when they're willing to.
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not to mention depending on which genius you get from the company lol
 
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