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Selling an already activated cell phone
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Selling an already activated cell phone

Original Post
l1nk1nl3 (175 ) View Listings
l1nk1nl3
(1 of 4)
Selling an already activated cell phone
May 10, 2011 05:02 PM
My friend bought the phone awhile back from someone but because he didn't have en eBay account, asked me to sell it for him with a Buy It Now option (it was supposedly brand new and was still in box and everything). I recently put up an Optimus S for sale on eBay and then found out about the whole ESN thing (because I had some potential buyers asking if it was clean). Well, I checked up the ESN on the phone I was selling and found out it is still active and was activated Jan 5, 2011. Looking around, I couldn't find a solution so I was going to pull the auction off; however, someone actually bought it.

Anyways, I contacted the buyer (already paid) and told him I just found out about the ESN and will refund him. Before anything else, I want to know, is there a way to unlock the phone or "jailbreak" it? I'm not asking for myself - I'm asking because if that's possible, I can still put the phone up for sale; I just have to lower the price and specify that it's only for people who plan to unlock it or jailbreak it. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
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Selling an already activated cell phone

(3 Replies / 2,021 Views)
l1nk1nl3 (175 ) View Listings
l1nk1nl3
Selling an already activated cell phone
May 10, 2011 05:02 PM
My friend bought the phone awhile back from someone but because he didn't have en eBay account, asked me to sell it for him with a Buy It Now option (it was supposedly brand new and was still in box and everything). I recently put up an Optimus S for sale on eBay and then found out about the whole ESN thing (because I had some potential buyers asking if it was clean). Well, I checked up the ESN on the phone I was selling and found out it is still active and was activated Jan 5, 2011. Looking around, I couldn't find a solution so I was going to pull the auction off; however, someone actually bought it.

Anyways, I contacted the buyer (already paid) and told him I just found out about the ESN and will refund him. Before anything else, I want to know, is there a way to unlock the phone or "jailbreak" it? I'm not asking for myself - I'm asking because if that's possible, I can still put the phone up for sale; I just have to lower the price and specify that it's only for people who plan to unlock it or jailbreak it. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
Last Post
May 14, 2011 01:54 PM
by cristina.avila (1) View Listings
xazilizax (348 ) View Listings
xazilizax
(1 of 3)
Re: Selling an already activated cell phone
May 12, 2011 10:46 AM
l1nk1nl3 wrote:
My friend bought the phone awhile back from someone but because he didn't have en eBay account, asked me to sell it for him with a Buy It Now option (it was supposedly brand new and was still in box and everything). I recently put up an Optimus S for sale on eBay and then found out about the whole ESN thing (because I had some potential buyers asking if it was clean). Well, I checked up the ESN on the phone I was selling and found out it is still active and was activated Jan 5, 2011. Looking around, I couldn't find a solution so I was going to pull the auction off; however, someone actually bought it.

Anyways, I contacted the buyer (already paid) and told him I just found out about the ESN and will refund him. Before anything else, I want to know, is there a way to unlock the phone or "jailbreak" it? I'm not asking for myself - I'm asking because if that's possible, I can still put the phone up for sale; I just have to lower the price and specify that it's only for people who plan to unlock it or jailbreak it. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.



You did not have to give the buyer a refund. If the phone was still activated, that is fine, but you would have to get another phone and activate it on your account, that way, it removes the Optimus S from being linked to your account.
If the ESN is bad, it means that the account is past due and the bill hasn't been paid so Verizon blocks the phone's ESN from being activated. On the otherhand, if you "found" the Optimus S and didn't know who it belonged to for them to remove the phone from the account, then yes, it would be good to give the buyer a refund.
If the phone has a bad ESN, you can flash it to use on a different service or something like that...you can research more about that...

Hope this helps.
l1nk1nl3 (175 ) View Listings
l1nk1nl3
(2 of 3)
Re: Selling an already activated cell phone
May 14, 2011 01:29 PM
Yeah, my friend bought it from a guy off the streets, so basically the only way to use it is to flash it. That's pretty much all I needed to know. Thanks for your help.
cristina.avila (1) View Listings
cristina.avila
(3 of 3)
Re: Selling an already activated cell phone
May 14, 2011 01:54 PM
l1nk1nl3 wrote:
Yeah, my friend bought it from a guy off the streets, so basically the only way to use it is to flash it. That's pretty much all I needed to know. Thanks for your help.



ok well i bought a phone and i wass trying to activate it and they told me that the phone was already activated. i tried to contact the seller and i get no answer from him, what do i do? does it mean that i can not use the phone or what?
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