Bad ESN?

[billchase2]

A friend of mine recently bid on a Sprint phone on eBay, not knowing what "Bad ESN" meant. The phone is apparently brand new... but he is not sure how he can get it activated and working. Unfortunately, he has already bid on it. Any advice on what to do?

Here is a link to the item:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320181943047

[ame]

He needs to retract his bid. If it's got a bad esn and is brand new, its probably stolen.

[billchase2]

The bidding has already ended and he won the product. Any ideas on what to do in this case?

[ame]

Suck it up and realize he's stuck with a phone he cant use?

It says in the auction it's a Bad ESN so Ebay won't find in his favor if he disputes.

FYI--he has NO feedback as a seller, only as a buyer.

[thesonofgray]

I wouldn't pay. The seller shouldn't be selling stolen phones. I would think eBay would have a policy about this.

Your friend will probably lose his eBay account, but I think that's better than buying a stolen phone.

Edit: I'm also suspicious about the seller bidding up his own items. powerseller300 from "bronx, NY" was the seller but powerseller-hot from "BRONX, NY" bid the price from $99 up to $149. And some of the items sold by this powerseller-hot I would consider suspicious.

The whole thing just wreaks of fraud and foul play, and your friend needs a lesson in safe eBaying before bidding on anything else, IMO.

[some18mybrain]

Yep. He's pretty much stuck with it. He can try to resell it to someone for parts. You do get some tech junkies that will buy a bad esn phone so they can use the parts.

[r0fl]

bad esn does not necessarily mean the phone is stolen.there are other reasons as to why sprint has it blacklisted.

[thesonofgray]

bad esn does not necessarily mean the phone is stolen.there are other reasons as to why sprint has it blacklisted.

Which would be?

I would assume it's either stolen or the owner has outstanding bills. If it's the latter, then I guess I can understand someone trying to sell the phone to pay the outstanding bill, but the phone was listed as new condition...so that just seems odd to me.

[powerbookkid]

sometimes, sprint will activate a "bad ESN". it all depends on what rep you talk to, and what its "bad" for. i bought a Q that the rep i talked to SPECIFICALLY told me was NOT supposed to be activated, and they did it anyway because i was buying it online. of course they couldnt tell me why it wasnt supposed to be activated, but who really cares. what i would do is have the seller send the ESN to you, and call sprint and see what they say directly. explain the situation to them. maybe the rep will be able to do something for you like mine was. =)

best of luck. i hate ebay fraud.

[myfrogger]

I wouldn't call this ebay fraud and I hate that so many people are so ignorant to think that it is. The seller in this case but "BAD ESN" in HUGE letters in the auction. If your friend didn't know what that means, then he/she shouldn't have bid. I'm not sure what more you could expect the seller to do.

The only spot that I would have against the seller is that I would highly doubt the phone is new. I would recommend that you go to the call timers and see how much talk time is on the phone. If it isn't set to zero, then the phone is not new.

If I was really trying to get out of the deal, I would pay for it, get the phone, once received file a dispute for the item not being in the new condition advertised, and then pay to return the item to the seller. Paypal will see that you returned the phone (at your own expense) and eventually refund your money. Make sure you ship the phone back with a tracking number and require a signature.

Of course if you receive the phone and it really only has a few minutes of call time (from the test calls when originally activated) then I'd try to resell the phone on ebay and get whatever I can out of it. I would make sure to learn my lesson so I don't make the same buying mistake.

Cheers

[powerbookkid]

you're right, its not fraud for the bad ESN. i ment more on the bidding up your own item bull****. as i said, it might not matter. my Q wasnt supposed to be activated, and they did it anyway. i guess it just depends. however, i will agree that blindly bidding on something that clearly state "Bad xxxx" isnt a good idea. ;)

best of luck though!

p.s. if the OP would like, i can try calling sprint with the ESN and see what they say...if you'd like. =)

[abluesguy1990]

They can reverse phone off account that owes money and put it on yours, it can be done I had it done. Put in bad esn in the sprint users search engine and there is a thread where you can get in touch with a sprint rep who is on this forum and they can help you:headbang2

[StarmanDX]

Or just don't pay for it. One unpaid item hit isn't going to hurt your friend at all.

[penuch]

If a phone has a bad ESN you will never be able to activate it, unless you pay the owed balance on the account, or know someone within sprint. Or like someone suggested just dont pay for the item.

[Dan]

I just looked and see that the seller is no longer a registered user on eBay. If the friend didnt pay, I don't see a big issue with any negative feedback :)

[thesonofgray]

I just looked and see that the seller is no longer a registered user on eBay. If the friend didnt pay, I don't see a big issue with any negative feedback :)

Neither is powerseller-hot (under those who bid on the item). I knew it!!!

I should work for the eBay fraud department. :lol:

[razmitaz]

This fellow probably was a fraud, many are, but everyone always jumps on the seller first. Sometimes sellers actually make honest mistakes and should be sent a question before jumping on then. Maybe they could explain or rectify. I'm a seller and I don't get much crap from people, but there's always a few. As I said, all they had to do was ASK first. And in my opinion "just don't pay" is just as bad as the thiefs. Maybe you could retract the bid, if you ASKED.

P.S. There are ways to activate phones with bad ESN's.

[chilidogtampa]

since that is a combo CDMA/GSM phone can it be used here (US) with a GSM sim? and would the bad ESN preclude its use on a GSM service? just curious... about the original topic, the bidder IMHO would be obligated to buy as the seller did make the bad ESN thing known fairly clearly but there is a time and a place to "not be nice" and/or "polite" and that local bidder thing does look fraudy...

[razmitaz]

It's an International phone so it can be used anywhere. It sounds to me like it was made for Sprint so CDMA would be it's main use, but it is capable of using other networks in different areas of the world. I don't know much about those kind of phones though.
Sometimes new sellers use friends or themselves to bid in hopes that others will then bid. Not legal or ethical on Ebay, but it does happen.
It only says he's "Not A Registered User", not that he's No Longer A Registered User. There's a big difference. I think he was buying cheap in hopes of selling higher to those who will illegaly make them usable. He may not have known they were stolen, just thought of unpaid bills. I'm not saying he's legitimate, just that he should have been contacted before worrying so much. There's plenty of time for worry.
Some one was complaining about an item he hadn't received in five days. Some sellers wait until everything is sold that's listed and then ship all at once. An email should be sent or something written in the auction to let you know, but not everyone does that. Send an email, or two.
As I said, I've been ripped off more than once. I had to contact my credit card company, send back the piece of junk, literally, that I was sent in place of my item, then contact my local police and the police in New Hampshire, but I got my money back. And they were arrested, saw it in their local paper on the internet. It was 300.00 so I did everything I had to do, without any help from PayPal.

[dbldwn02]

What we have here is a clear cut case of "shill bidding" Shill bidding is when someone the seller knows bids on his auction to make it look more appealing to potential buyers. Shill bidding is illegal and half of the people bidding on the auction were suspended along with his own account. First time offenses usually end up in 7 day suspensions. Second time offenses are black listed. Of course he DOESN'T have to pay for it and he probably never did. If he did he gets his money back automatically. The original problem stated in this thread has probably already been taken care of.

[Dunpeal]

Edit: wrong thread

[Dunpeal]

bad esn does not necessarily mean the phone is stolen.there are other reasons as to why sprint has it blacklisted.

Correct. There are many things this can means:

Lost
Stolen
Insurance (fraud)
Delinquency ie an account was closed due to non Sprint payment. If the account is closed owing Sprint money a lean is put on the ESN untill bill is paid.

Delinquency is the more common, cause 90% of people whos accounts get closed due to none payment dont realise their phone also has a lean on it and thus try to sell the phone not realizing the ESN cannot be used.

[haybaibay]

Bad ESN But it did not mention that it could not be activated so I would not pay for it I would bid on another one and pay for it and let them surpend my account for 3 months its going to take at jeart a month for them to do the draud thing but you can leave negative feedback just lick him!

[parrott84]

I would say that he should probably just re-list the item and re-coop as much as he could and chalk it up to a learning expereince.

[TweetyBear]

If i bought a phone through ebay, can i still get insurance from sprint on it?

[missdiva]

once they're not registered you aren't obligated to buy and can just forget about it (but can't leave fb). usually if it's for shilling its permanent, for minor things its a few weeks and if its something like invalid contact info its until they correct it.