*Just A Heads Up* - Buying Used Phones

[bcrdukes]

Update:

Looks like phones can be bricked even AFTER the fact, whether stolen from retailers or not.

Buyer beware!

[G-spec]

I just got scammed with this shit, posted about it in the Nexus 5 thread... anyway I followed the same procedure I have all the years I've started buying phones off CL since the first iPhone came out. I always buy BNIB sealed phones and then test them out with sim before handing over cash... turns out now with this new blacklist thing, I understand it protects consumers but it really gives scammers an even bigger opportunity to scam away.
Because this is exactly what happened, my phone worked but the guy waited about 2 weeks and THEN reported the phone stolen and now it's blacklisted, so basically he scams his phone company where they cover him insurance wise and send him a brand new phone, and he has my money.

The part about the blacklist that pisses me off is, obviously serious thefts like robbery, etc, thats different..... but I have no sympathy for people who are careless with their devices, and lose them or have them stolen while they're up in the club drunk somewhere, and let's be frank a majority of these types of stolen phones are exactly like that.

I am now in the process of trying to find out which Carrier blacklisted my phone in order to get them to realize, "HEY YOUR CUSTOMER IS SCAMMING YOU" I have Wind on the case right now it's been escalated to the highest tier they have where they will be contacting the carrier on my behalf..
I really don't know how much that is going to accomplish, but I'm trying here as I really don't wanna let this guy get away with scamming me and his phone company

you guys got any other advice for me ?

[sekin67835]

There isn't much you can do. The scammed probably used fake id to open his account. So it's going to be hard to catch him. Best bet to get your money back is to sell it to a foreign country as the phone is only blacklisted in America.
Posted via RS Mobile

[G-spec]

^ yea that's pretty much the plan, my brothers friend runs a cell phone shop in south america and he can easily sell the phone for double what its worth here, I got no problem with that because like I said I know for a fact this is not someone's stolen property I have... so in the end I didn't lose any money really, but just really annoyed I got caught slippin...

I just ordered 2 nexus 5's in white from play store directly, only reason I went to CL in the first place is because I needed one urgently..
I don't mind the wait now knowing there's no way I can get scammed....
and as far as Wind actually doing their job, well there's only so much a call centre on the other end of the world can do for me... nobody really wants to help you when you're in a shitty situation, I mean just yesterday at the Wind store I had to pretty much get really confrontational with the store employee as he refused to call Wind customer service on my behalf (Wind themselves told me to go back to the store and get this done) a lot of these Wind stores are just privately owned and people and owners workin there don't give a flying fck about your problems even if they are Wind related.... dude didn't even care about the fact just months ago I came there and spent hundreds of dollars on another phone...

anyway sour experience all around, be safe bros

[VanCellClinic]

Thank you for this information. We deal with used phone every day and are trying to educate our customers when buying used phone to be carful. (i own a cell phone repair store)

Also, it is a really good idea that when buying a used iPhone or iPad make sure the previous owner removes there iCloud account. If the iCloud account is still on the device the device will be useless to you.

[Cman333]

So by the sounds of it, there's no 100% way to be safe and not get scammed?

I'm about to bite the bullet on a lightly used Iphone 6. Has the box, i've checked the IMEI, seller is willing to wait for me to call in to Rogers to activate.

Can I still get scammed?