Help Bad ESN?

[JustinHEMI]

Friends,

While perusing the fleabay listings for a potential upgrade from my HTC Incredible, I came across this listing and now curiosity has me. It says BAD ESN (there are a couple very similar to this) yet people have bid it up to over 300 dollars. Can you use a phone with a bad ESN??? Thanks!

Droid X BAD ESN NUMBER - eBay (item 330455776250 end time Jul-29-10 07:30:49 PDT)

 

[funkeodor]

Friends,

While perusing the fleabay listings for a potential upgrade from my HTC Incredible, I came across this listing and now curiosity has me. It says BAD ESN (there are a couple very similar to this) yet people have bid it up to over 300 dollars. Can you use a phone with a bad ESN??? Thanks!

Droid X BAD ESN NUMBER - eBay (item 330455776250 end time Jul-29-10 07:30:49 PDT)

The only way to use it is for you to pay off their bill that is charged to the account that the phone is supposed to be used for. So you can pay off their debt and then use their phone. Hope this helps!

 

[JRunSW20]

^Not entirely. If the X was reported as Lost/Stolen it's a big paperweight.

 

[JustinHEMI]

Thanks for the input... not that I had planned on buying anything with a bad ESN, I just found it strange and amazing that people have bid it up to over 300 bucks. I wonder if they even bother to read the auction? Hmm w/e.

 

[carmendiva]

thats just how some people are in these forums

 

[ashykat]

Phone's with bad ESN's can sometimes be flashed to other carriers like Cricket or MetroPCS. Other than that they can still be used wifi only as a gaming/multimedia device.

 

[Vihzel]

I would never buy a cellphone from Craigslist. Way too sketchy.

 

[JustinHEMI]

Yeah I agree. I am even hesitant to even consider an ebay purchase. I think the safe bet is to order from Verizon or Amazon.

 

[Deleted User]

I would never buy a cellphone from Craigslist. Way too sketchy.

I've purchased 3-4 phone on CL without any problems. I always meet the seller at a VZW store to verify the ESN is good (and phone is not currently attached to any other account). The biggest risk I worry about is some hidden defect or mechanical problem that won't show up until a few days later....when the seller is long gone. Fortunately for me that's never happened, though.

 

[Slug]

Either be constructive by answering the OP's question, or move on to another topic. Please remember that "use search" (or similar variants on the theme) are not acceptable responses round these parts.

 

[AJ_EVO]

You can still use it as a WiFi device?

 

[JubbaTheHutt]

You can still use it as a WiFi device?

Not unless its rooted.

 

[JubbaTheHutt]

You can still use it as a WiFi device?

Not unless its rooted.

This is yet another reason I've always been weary of purchasing phones from private sales, especially smartphones.

 

[Hughett]

I really thing this is done by people that dont read the whole listing, or just out of ignorance.

Remember when the Xbox and ps3 came out. People were putting JUST THE CARDBOARD BOX for sale on ebay, and people were buying it for hundreds of dollars. The title read something like " BRAND NEW MICROSOFT XBOX 360 box"

It was a grey area because although the description was accurate, the wording was done to be misleading.