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Did I just get screwed?

First of all thank you for comments and suggestion.

I am not going to mess with him, his facebook account or his contacts.
I have no intentions of going through civil court or any other trouble or headache for $135.

I feel that $135 is a sunk cost, and any other effort to play a joke on him, or try to get my money back will only result in more sunk cost of my time. All of my communication with him, even after realizing what he did has been polite. All of my messages have "please" and "thank you" in them.

Last night his mom has texted me saying that she has deactivated the phone. I called the verizon, and they are telling me that that contract is still effective and I can not activate the phone. The phone no longer works, so she must have suspended the service(?). I emailed her today asking her to let me know one way or the other if she will release the phone, so I know if I should even bother with it. Her answer was that she has to get a cheap phone to replace the current phone in order for me to be able to activate droid. No idea if she will actually do it or not.

I will give them a few weeks to see if they take care of the bill. If not I'll sell it on ebay with zero reserve. (thank you for the bad ESN tip on EBAY sale) I will, of course, be honest about the condition of the phone.

Once again thank you all for your input and I'll update you if there is any other development.

I have been able to play with Android and I am a convert. Blackberry (especially my original Storm) is antique OS compared to Android.

BTW, for $135 I got a 1 month old phone (looks absolutely perfect), 2 invisible screen protectors with application kit, belt holster and 3 covers for the phone, and all of the original boxes, manuals etc.
 
ThreeDog said:
yeah and that still would not make any difference as you would still end up with a doorstop for a phone once they blacklisted the IMEI number for not paying his bills.



erm i already know that.
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They would not be able to block the IMEI (on the national blacklist) as that would be illegal (assuming the phone was not bought on contract or the contract period had ended and thus the phone is owned by the user), they could only block the SIM as that is linked to the contract. IMEI's can only be blocked if the phone is reported lost/stolen to the police.

If the phone was bought on contract and was still inside the contract period then the phone would be owned by the phone company and it would have been illegal to sell it in the first place.
 
hopfully she's a respsonsible parent and will do the right thing and it was all a misunderstanding and just didn't know any better
 
Not sure where everyone is getting their information from, but phones are not tied to contracts... people are. Once you buy a phone, subsidized or not, you own it. PERIOD. I have sold many phones that were "under contract" and purchased with a subsidy discount that work just fine.

To the OP, most likely they suspended service. a cancelled contract would result in the debtor being sent a bill including the EFT and the phone not being active on an account, therefore free to be put on a new account. What they need to do is to activate a different phone on that account, freeing up the droid.
 
Andy in NY said:
Not sure where everyone is getting their information from, but phones are not tied to contracts... people are. Once you buy a phone, subsidized or not, you own it. PERIOD. I have sold many phones that were "under contract" and purchased with a subsidy discount that work just fine.

To the OP, most likely they suspended service. a cancelled contract would result in the debtor being sent a bill including the EFT and the phone not being active on an account, therefore free to be put on a new account. What they need to do is to activate a different phone on that account, freeing up the droid.
Click to expand...

Verizon will blacklist a phone if you purchase it at a reduced price and don't complete your contract (i.e. you don't finish it out for 2 years, and don't pay the early termination fee).
 
bluenova said:
Classic reason why you guys should use SIM cards. In Europe the contract is linked to a SIM card which you can put in any phone.
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Ding. Exactly my thought while reading this. If Americans used SIM cards like normal, sensible people, $135 would have netted you a fully functional Droid. A steal.
 
byteware said:
Verizon will blacklist a phone if you purchase it at a reduced price and don't complete your contract (i.e. you don't finish it out for 2 years, and don't pay the early termination fee).
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I would like to see some physical proof of this.
 
Andy in NY said:
I would like to see some physical proof of this.
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It is well know that Verizon doesn't activate phones that were last linked to accounts with an outstanding balance. I can't provide physical proof as I am with Sprint but this is not the first time I've heard this. If you call Verizon with the ESN they will tell you why the phone is not able to be activated.
 
byteware said:
Verizon will blacklist a phone if you purchase it at a reduced price and don't complete your contract (i.e. you don't finish it out for 2 years, and don't pay the early termination fee).
Click to expand...

Yeah, that sounds like a load of crap. I sold my Storm1 (original phone I bought for $99) to get my Storm2, then sold my Storm2 to get my Droid.

No ETF, still in my contract.
 
GlitchZero said:
Yeah, that sounds like a load of crap. I sold my Storm1 (original phone I bought for $99) to get my Storm2, then sold my Storm2 to get my Droid.

No ETF, still in my contract.
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You are misunderstanding the situation. In your case everything was legit. With this someone bought the phnoe at 2 year pricing, didnt finish the contract AND didn't pay the ETF, and sold the phone. This leaves an outstanding balance on the account and causes the phone to be flagged. If the ETF was paid then there would be no outstanding balance and then the phone would be usable.

Also, in your situation you paid full price for the Storm2 and Droid didn't you? If so this would not extend your contractual obligations.
 
Yeah I bought the phone at 2 year pricing, my contract isn't finished, I didn't pay an ETF, and I sold the phone. No, I bought the Storm2 off eBay, and the Droid full price.
 
ed_mcnasty said:
You are misunderstanding the situation. In your case everything was legit. With this someone bought the phnoe at 2 year pricing, didnt finish the contract AND didn't pay the ETF, and sold the phone. This leaves an outstanding balance on the account and causes the phone to be flagged. If the ETF was paid then there would be no outstanding balance and then the phone would be usable.

Also, in your situation you paid full price for the Storm2 and Droid didn't you? If so this would not extend your contractual obligations.
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I don't think you are understanding. Even if you don't pay the EFT, you are still liable for it. They will get their money from you, and it DOESN'T involve the device itself. They will send you a bill, when you don't pay that they will send a collection agency after you. The collection agency "buys" the account from VZW, therefore they have their money. Well, some of it.

Granted, VZW will know the IMEI and ESN # of the phone, they won't blacklist it because someone didn't pay their bil. I just read through the terms of service and there was nothing about it in there. Here are a few relevant excerpts from it found HERE

What Happens if My Postpay Service Is Canceled Before the End of My Contract Term?

If you're signing up for Postpay Service, you're agreeing to subscribe to a line of Service either on a month
 
GlitchZero said:
Yeah, that sounds like a load of crap. I sold my Storm1 (original phone I bought for $99) to get my Storm2, then sold my Storm2 to get my Droid.

No ETF, still in my contract.
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Maybe I should have been more clear.


If you are under contract, and they terminate your phone service for non-payment, or you close the account and do not pay the ETF, then for as long as there is a balance on the account, they will blacklist your ESN.

This is a known process. There are plenty of sites that can help you check the ESN of a phone before you purchase it.
 
Ok, that's a COMPLETELY different situation than "You buy a phone for discount price then sell it and keep your contract on a new device." and makes a lot more sense. Of course non-payment or ETF leads to you being hunted down by collections / VZW to get their money. Every carrier does that.
 
@ Andy in NY
Yes, you are liable for the ETF and until the outstanding balance is paid that phone will be blocked from being activated on Verizon. There are numerous cases of this happening and though your sources don't mention it, it still IS a reality of the situation.

I can assure you that you are in the minority. See here for a case i believe is similar to yours.

@ GlitchZero
My point was that you didn't get a discount from Verizon on the Storm2 or Droid, which is the only way I know of to extend your contract. That means you still only had to fulfill the contract that was agreed on with the original storm.
 
Andy in NY said:
Not sure where everyone is getting their information from, but phones are not tied to contracts... people are. Once you buy a phone, subsidized or not, you own it. PERIOD. I have sold many phones that were "under contract" and purchased with a subsidy discount that work just fine.

To the OP, most likely they suspended service. a cancelled contract would result in the debtor being sent a bill including the EFT and the phone not being active on an account, therefore free to be put on a new account. What they need to do is to activate a different phone on that account, freeing up the droid.
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well i get my information from verizon where i work. if you have an account with a past due balance, no, you cannot even do a simple esn change to the line. I had a family come in last month and start an account with 5 new lines. A couple weeks later they decided they wanted to go back to sprint so they returned all the phones. Sprint was charging them a deposit, so they never cancelled the verizon account and it went into hotlined status (suspended due to nonpayment) we now have 5 useless phones, because they CANNOT be activated on another line. I promise you, when you don't pay your bill, your phone is NOT coming off of your account. if you try to put that esn onto another account in eroes (verizon computer system) it will read "this ESN cannot be activated as it is locked or already active on another account" - even when the account is not technically "active", the phones will remain locked onto their phone numbers until the entire balance is up-to-date... not sure who told you otherwise, but you were misinformed
 
tommy_ed said:
well i get my information from verizon where i work. if you have an account with a past due balance, no, you cannot even do a simple esn change to the line. I had a family come in last month and start an account with 5 new lines. A couple weeks later they decided they wanted to go back to sprint so they returned all the phones. Sprint was charging them a deposit, so they never cancelled the verizon account and it went into hotlined status (suspended due to nonpayment) we now have 5 useless phones, because they CANNOT be activated on another line. I promise you, when you don't pay your bill, your phone is NOT coming off of your account. if you try to put that esn onto another account in eroes (verizon computer system) it will read "this ESN cannot be activated as it is locked or already active on another account" - even when the account is not technically "active", the phones will remain locked onto their phone numbers until the entire balance is up-to-date... not sure who told you otherwise, but you were misinformed
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Then why do people buy phones with "bad ESNs" and activate them on Cricket? Does the ESN go bad just because you were late on a payment?
 
Andy in NY said:
Also, further proof: When we first ported to VZW from ATT, it was in my name. 3 lines, 3 phones with 2 year discount pricing. A month later we did a transfer of liability to put it in my wifes name because she got a discount through her work. The origional bill in my name came and got forgotten about and not paid. It wasnt until we got a letter from the collection agency that we realized it. That was a few months after the transfer. All 3 phones still working fine. 2 are still used now. NEVER was there a "flag" out on them for there being an outstanding balance.
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Coming from ATT I can see why you have your opinion, however, with Sprint and Verizon, if you cancel your account and you don't pay the ETF, they will not re-activate the ESN on their network until someone zeroes out the outstanding debt (whether it be paid, or you beg and plead until they allow the ESN on). That ESN is effectively blacklisted. Your example is a fluke, I promise you.

You can easily prove this yourself, cancel one of your lines if they are under the subsidized price, don't pay the ETF, and then try to activate a new line with that phone under your name instead of your wife's. It won't happen.

To the OP, this is also why I insist on meeting at a carrier store when buying a Craigslist Phone. I have to ensure the phone is good and the ESN is clear before I purchase it.
 
smacky said:
Then why do people buy phones with "bad ESNs" and activate them on Cricket? Does the ESN go bad just because you were late on a payment?
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When Verizon or Sprint, or any other CDMA carrier for that matter, Flags an ESN, it just means they won't activate it on their network again until said issue is cleared up.

ESN will get flagged if the account holder was delinquent on payment and service shut off, or ETF not paid.
 
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