Bad ESN scam...from a buyer?

[ar15kaizoku]

I sold a phone on eBay about 2 weeks ago.

I had the phone active on my account, and then did an ESN swap to a different phone. I called Sprint before I listed the phone on eBay to make sure the ESN was clear.

Now, two weeks after the sale, with no communication from the buyer, the buyer FINALLY gets back to me and tells me that the ESN is bad.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!

Is this a scam that some people have run into?
Could he have activated the phone or had one of his buddies activate the phone on their account and now they're trying to scam me out of the money they paid for it?

Or, could the ESN have somehow become "stuck" in the Sprint system as being active on my account?

[Genjinaro]

It can vary, its probably a mess up with the numbers in the system.

Simple, just ask Sprint (Account Srvcs) if it is cleared for someone else to use.
Don't ask regular CS a question like this or be prepared to jump through 4 different calls. :p

If Sprint says yeah, then you're set. If possible tell them to email & CC confirmation to you and the buyer.

[ahfrederick]

^^ Agreed! I would def call AS and see what they would say.

[Penny]

It is possible that it may be a scam. If it has been two weeks since the buyer has had the phone and just tried to activate it....that is strange. Not saying they did but they could have activated it then not paid a bill and trying to scam you out of a refund. I would call the above mentioned and ask them if Your line was the last number that that phone was activated on. Don't know if they will say but....It is worth a shot.

[ar15kaizoku]

I thought Account Services was retentions...

[Dead_Rebel]

I think they were meaning Executive Services. ATS would be able to handle this request as well.

[ar15kaizoku]

Well, ES let me know that the phone was still tied to an account, but they wouldn't give me the phone number or even area code so I can't check to see if the buyer has the phone on his account.

Oh well, I offered to refund his money plus shipping costs.

[chilidogtampa]

maybe your buyer swapped your phone on to an account to "free up" his phone to sell then didn't pay the bill and now your phone is bogus? I wouldn't refund any $$$ until you have the unit back (fair is fair) and hopefully you can reactivate it yourself.

[ar15kaizoku]

That's what I think happened.

The buyer swapped the phone onto either his account or his friends, then told me the ESN was already active, knowing that Sprint couldn't tell me what phone number the account was active under.

I told the buyer I'd refund the money once I had the phone back in my possession.

This sucks.

[NoBS4U]

Dam, that sucks!
I've never sold on ebay but now that sellers can not even leave negative feedback is adding salt on the wound...

...ebay needs some competition.

[Dead_Rebel]

There are other questions you can ask to get to the bottom of your issue. Call Tech Support, tell them you sold a phone to a friend and he says the ESN is bogus. Have the rep look it up and ask if the account/phone # the esn is on now is ACTIVE. If its active then they're lying through their teeth and the phone works fine. If it's suspended or something... that's a different story, they scammed you, cold and hard.

You can prove that the phone was yours by it being tied to your account at one point. Tell them to go through the account notes and look for the ESN swap that occured that took the phone off your account and free'd it up to begin with. Tell them to put notes in both your account AND the account the sold phone's ESN currently resides on. Get it escalated to FRAUD if you can.

The douche buyer may leave you negative feedback, but keep notes of everything you do with Sprint and ebay can get it lifted so it doesn't tarnish your record.

[Genjinaro]

^Yes agreed, wit hDead Rebel! DON'T REFUND anything with the guy before you verify everything.

[Dead_Rebel]

I forgot to mention.... BE CALM AND RATIONAL when explaining all of this. If you get someone that's not very cooperative, ask to speak to their manager. Remain CALM. The moment you get an attitude is the moment that they will not help you any further. Niceness goes a looooooong way, and believe me I know how hard it will be to stay nice considering YOUR the one that got scammed, but try your best.

[Genjinaro]

If you get someone that's not very cooperative, ask to speak to their manager

LOL this is why I recommended Account Services to avoid any of that, since its business related anyway, its far more appropriate to start with them. They'll have all the access and ability to adjust whatever issue is happening with the ESN.

CS will 9/10:
*Will either have you brick-walling in the attempt to fix this.
*Flag you, if you reps have dismissed previous claims for the same issue regarding the ESN
*Or bounce your call around to someone who has better network access.

It never gets resolved with the 1st rep (As far as ESN mess-ups go)

[Dead_Rebel]

AS is retentions... They DESPISE to be bothered with these kinds of issues as it's not a matter of 'retaining' the customer to the company.... Stick with Tech Support. If it's not going the way it should/the way you like, then call EXECUTIVE SERVICES. They're the end all be all of account flubups.

[Penny]

Dam, that sucks!
I've never sold on ebay but now that sellers can not even leave negative feedback is adding salt on the wound...

...ebay needs some competition.

Ebay has competition now. This auction site was started by ebay power sellers who were fed up with ebay and their new rules and changes. Check out the difference in fees! Sign up today and receive $35.00 credit to go towards any seller fees!

http://www.neoloch.com/

The people who started this are asking the people what they want and suggestions are welcome. Here is an email that I got from a friend and fellow ebay seller.


OK gals & guys, this is the new auction site I will be selling on. NEW..only 2 weeks old.
I set up the clothing categories for David the owner. EASY to list....$35 free credit to
sign up...Join the forum too. WONDERFUL bunch of people...NO fighting etc. Yahoo & Google
search there every day or so. If you want a category added just email David and
he will include it. But make sure you make a pathway from the home page to the end category..
Like Home/Clothing/Vintage/Dresses....you know what I mean. He is working none stop
to get it done before MAY1st! Say Hi, when you join the forum
(it is a banner at the top of the page)...See you there! I will listing this week...
Great being on the ground floor and helping to build an auction site that is going
to be awesome!

[ar15kaizoku]

Got it resolved. It turned out to be Sprint's fault, tech support found the problem and released the ESN so now the buyer is happy and so am I.

[Dead_Rebel]

Sweet!!! That rocks man.

[cmbezln]

sounds like it could be a paypal scammer.....paypal will usually side with the buyer on stuff like that, it seems

[kameron1967]

I sold a phone on eBay about 2 weeks ago.

I had the phone active on my account, and then did an ESN swap to a different phone. I called Sprint before I listed the phone on eBay to make sure the ESN was clear.

Now, two weeks after the sale, with no communication from the buyer, the buyer FINALLY gets back to me and tells me that the ESN is bad.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!

Is this a scam that some people have run into?
Could he have activated the phone or had one of his buddies activate the phone on their account and now they're trying to scam me out of the money they paid for it?

Or, could the ESN have somehow become "stuck" in the Sprint system as being active on my account?
Hi. I wonder if you can tell me how you "swapped" the esn. Does that mean you own - let's say mogul 6800. That one is getting old and you decide to buy a new one. Because you owned the first mogul 6800 - you're guaranteed that the esn is good. You then asked Sprint to swap the esn for you onto the new phone - or did you do that yourself..? Thank you for your time.

[granpa]

Hi. I wonder if you can tell me how you "swapped" the esn. Does that mean you own - let's say mogul 6800. That one is getting old and you decide to buy a new one. Because you owned the first mogul 6800 - you're guaranteed that the esn is good. You then asked Sprint to swap the esn for you onto the new phone - or did you do that yourself..? Thank you for your time.

Each phone has it's own ESN. What is meant by swapping is you remove the ESN of your original phone (removiing it from your account - unactivating it) and adding the new phone's ESN. It clears the ESN of the original so it can be used by anyone else.

[cirruslyloud]

Ebay has competition now. This auction site was started by ebay power sellers who were fed up with ebay and their new rules and changes. Check out the difference in fees! Sign up today and receive $35.00 credit to go towards any seller fees!

http://www.neoloch.com/

The people who started this are asking the people what they want and suggestions are welcome. Here is an email that I got from a friend and fellow ebay seller.


OK gals & guys, this is the new auction site I will be selling on. NEW..only 2 weeks old.
I set up the clothing categories for David the owner. EASY to list....$35 free credit to
sign up...Join the forum too. WONDERFUL bunch of people...NO fighting etc. Yahoo & Google
search there every day or so. If you want a category added just email David and
he will include it. But make sure you make a pathway from the home page to the end category..
Like Home/Clothing/Vintage/Dresses....you know what I mean. He is working none stop
to get it done before MAY1st! Say Hi, when you join the forum
(it is a banner at the top of the page)...See you there! I will listing this week...
Great being on the ground floor and helping to build an auction site that is going
to be awesome!

Hopefully that site continues to grow.

[kameron1967]

Thanks for the explanation. It all makes sense now.

[granpa]

Also if the account on a phone has not been satisfied (money still owed) the ESN is listed as bad in the provider's system.

[firefly8]

I just experienced something similar. I bought a phone from a private seller. Their listing stated the ESN was clear. Their feedback was 100%. The day I received the phone I tried to activate. The ESN started out something like 006006xxxx. I called Sprint, I was reading off the ESN but because it has the same first digits in a row the rep got confused about something. Anyway I was told the phone maybe reported as lost or stolen and I couldn't activate it. I contacted the seller and told them the ESN was not clear. I asked them to clear. Seller contacted quickly and said they would take care of it. I called about 3 hours later to see if it could be activated. The activation went through fine. The next day the seller contacts me and says they had contacted Sprint that morning and my account was active on that phone. So I'm thinking the first rep I spoke with may have gotten the digits wrong because the seller didn't contact Sprint until the next day after I had gotten the phone activated. I emailed the seller again and let them know what happened. Mistakes can and do happen.

[bmxmike]

Also something that may of happend is he may of tried to unlock the phone or flashed it and tried to use it on another network and they might not accept the ESN(MEID or whatever) for that phone and since he can't do anything with it trying to get his money back. Also a new thing popping up is people asking for esn's or getting a phone taking the model information sticker under that battery and using the esn's and either using them on bad phone's or selling them to others.