what can i do about this phone i purchased from ebay.
I know it was a dumb move to begin with. i bought a phone off ebay for my wife. The guy stated in his auction that the ESN was clean and ready for reactivation on the Cellular South network. They seller had over 3000 feedback at 99.2%. So i felt confident. I recieved the phone a few days later and head to Csouth store. i waited a good 30minutes for my turn at a rep. when i told the dude what i wanted done he scanned the esn under the battery on the just purchased phone and he tells me he cant activate it because the previous owner owes money on his bill. so i left pissed off. I can call 611 from it and it tells me that the service was suspended because a balance of $89 is unpaid on the account. I have emailed the seller but has seem to have ignored me. Is there a way to get service on this phone. can i pay the balance that is left on the account? am i left with a dead worthless phone? what can i do?
There is NO WAY I would pay the balance on the account. Give the guy a chance to respond, if he won't pay the balance or refund you in full (or $89) then get ebay/paypal involved.
3000 feedback and 99.2% doesn't seem like a dumb move, don't be hard on yourself :)
I find it quite strange they will not activate the phone. Seems to me it's like comcast cable not hooking up a tv to their service because the previous tv owner did not pay their cable bill.
this is just my 2 cents, but sounds to me like the phone is still active with the seller's account. Cause if the phone wasnt activated, when you called 611 you should get a different message. But if you try to make a call and get that message about it being suspended, then apparently that person's account is still activated on that phone and the past due balance just needs to be paid. I just dont understand why a person would sell their phone on Ebay without swapping to a different phone first..
The seller pretty much lied to me and said he was the last owner. he was telling me that he was reactivating it over the phone by giving cell south the esn and it was successful. Even though everytime i tried they told me the same thing that money was owed. i then told him to give me my money back. he didnt email me for a about 3 days so i opened up a claim through paypal and he finally emailed me back telling me that the guy he bought it from hadnt paid his bill. I sent it back to him and i got my money back. Thats the last time i do that. It was just too much hassle.
Ah, well, that's a shame. At least you ended up getting your money back, i've had far poorer results from paypal/ebay transactions online.
